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Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born on this day, and he was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, who served from 1985 to 1991. -
Japanese invasion of China
The Japanese invaded the Chinese the second time in 1937. China fought Japan hard, with economic help from other countries. -
Stalin's death; Khrushchev
Stalin died of a massive heart attack on this date, and Khrushchev took over; he was a Russian politician who led the Soviet Union during some of the Cold War. -
Germany invades Poland
Hitler decided to invade Poland during his campaign, and the German forces invaded Poland on this date, and started the war by doing so. -
Battle of Britain
The Germans held a long series of bombing runs against Great Britain. It lasted up to almost 4 months. -
Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact was an agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan signed in Berlin. The pact said that their should be mutual assistance should any of these countries suffer attack by any nation not already involved in the war. -
Lend Lease Act
The Lend-Lease act was a program under which the United States supplied France, Great Britain, the Republic of China, and later the USSR and other Allied nations between 1941 and August 1945. -
Leningaurd blockade
The Siege of Leningrad was a military operation undertaken by the Nazis to seige Saint Petersburg, and it was the one of the longest and most destructives seiges of all time. -
German blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
Hitler realized the war was lost when the Russians counterattcked Germany. He then decided to invade Russia, causing them to loose many soldiers. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike caused by the Japanese Navy on the US military base in Hawaii. -
Wannasee Conference
This conference was a meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in Wannsee. They discussed how they should handle the Jews after what happened to them during the war. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a naval battle in the Pacific during WWII between the US and Japan. -
D-Day
This is when the Allies invaded Normandy, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history, and it led to the liberation of France to the Nazi party. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was the meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Europe's post-war reorganization. -
Battle of Iwo JIma/ Okinawa
This was a major battle in which the United States captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. -
Hitler's suicide
During a raid in Germany, Hitler took a bullet to the head because he didn't want to be taken prisoner by the Allies, so he took his own life instead. -
VE day
Victory in Europe Day was the day when the Allies of WWII accepted Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Postdam Conference
The Big Three (Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and US president Harry Truman) met in Potsdam, Germany for negotiations for the end of WWII. -
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the last part of the WWII, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -
VJ Day
On this day, Japan made their initial surrender to the US, ending WWll as well. -
Formation of UN
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization that idealizes international co-operation. When it was found, the UN had 51 member statesn now there are 193. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an international relations policy set by the Harry Truman in a speech, in which he stated that the U.S. would help Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the American aid to Europe and Asia in which the United States gave $13 billion to economically support these countries. -
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and the founding father of the People's Republic of China. He was born in 1893, and governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance that was based off a treaty called the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on this date. -
Korean war
This war was between North and South Korea, in which the US came to help because they wanted to prevent communism from spreading. If eventually ended as a draw. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization was a political and military alliance established between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries. -
Vietnam War
This was a cold war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, in which escalated into a war when the US joined to prevent the spread of communism. -
Sputnik
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite launched by the Soviet Union. It started the space race between the US and the Soviet Union. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba by the CIA. It was intended to overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. -
Berlin wall
This wall cut the East and West off of Germany in Berlin due to the Cold war. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The missile scare between the US and the Carribean over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba, and whether they would be launched. -
Soviet Union Falls
The Soviets fell after the Cold War. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his post as president of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the new Russian state.
