WWII

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    neutrality act of 1935

    prohibited the shipping of arms to nations at war, including the victims of aggressions. This would reduce the possibility of maritime attacks on American vessels.
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    neutrality act of 1936

    renewed the law of the previous year with the additional restrictions — no loans could be made to belligerent nations. Nor were any Americans permitted to travel on the ships of nations at war. There would be no more LUSITANIA incidents.
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    neutrality act of 1937

    limited the trade of even non-munitions to belligerent nations to a "CASH AND CARRY BASIS." This meant that the nation in question would have to use its ships to transport goods to avoid American entanglements on the high seas.
  • Marco Polo Bridge Invasion

    Marco Polo Bridge Invasion
    a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops broke out at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. The cause of the fracas is unknown, but the Japanese government used it as a pretext to launch a full-scale invasion of China
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    world war II begins

    Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany
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    quarantine speech

    he delivered his famous QUARANTINE SPEECH in Chicago. For the first time, Roosevelt advocated collective action to stop the epidemic aggression. But his hopes of igniting American sensibilities failed
  • Bombing of the USS Panay

    Bombing of the USS Panay
    USS Panay (PR-5) was evacuating American citizens when it came under attack from Japanese aircraft, killing three men and wounding 43 sailors and five civilians. The Japanese claimed the attack was unintentional.
  • Germany invades Poland

    Germany invades Poland
    The 1939 invasion of Poland by both Germany from the west and the Soviet Union from the east led to the beginning of World War II.
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    Nazi troops cross into Poland

    Hitler was now free to seize the territory Germany had lost to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops crossed into Poland from the west.
  • Pearl Harbor

    Pearl Harbor
    the site of the unprovoked aerial attack on the United States by Japan on December 7, 1941.