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Gorbachev
Gorbachev was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, but he was also the first President of the Soviets. It is said it was because of his revolutionary ideas that the Cold War ended and that the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991. -
Japan's Invasion of China
In the 1930's, China was divided with Chiang Kai-Shek having formed a Nationalist Governement that was opposed by Mao Tse Tung’s Communists. Taking advantage of this, Japan invaded Manchuria in hopes of getting some of China's vast natural resources. Japan continued its advancement for land, and eventually it found itself in a stalemate with the Nationalist and Socialist parties around 1940. The Japanese could not force victory but the Chinese could not evict the Japanese. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
Blitzkreig is a German term for “lightning war." and it is also a military tactic designed to create disorganization in enemy troops by using mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Blitzkreig was applied in the invasion of the Soviet Union, France, Poland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. When applied in the Soviet Union, German troops reached Moscow in as little as six months. -
Germany Invades Poland
Germany invaded Poland in order to gain back the lost land from WWI on September 1st. After discrediting Germany's reasons of invading Poland for "defensive" reasons, Britian and France declared war on Germany on September 3. On September 17, Germany's and the USSR's secret agreement to invade and devide Poland together ,instead of fighting themselves, came to fruition when the USSR invaded East Poland. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was fought after France had fallen, so Great Britian had to fight the Germans solo. Victory for the German air raiders, or Luftwaffe, would have meant a means for invasion in Great Britian, but Britians Royal Air Force defeated the Germans in the world's first ever completely air fought battle. This not only rallied Britian's people but also opened up the road to the continuation of the war and the allies eventual victory. -
Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact formed the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. The pact called for assistance if one country was attacked by another that was not alread involved in the war. The pact also covered the fact that Italy and Germany would get to dominate Europe while Japan would have influence over Asia if the Axis powers won. -
Lend-Lease Act
U.S. president, franklin D. Roosevelt, signed the first Lend-Lease Act with Great Britain in March of 1941. This act granted Roosevelt the power to aid anyone he deemed beneficial to the United State through the transfering of materials, services, or information. The act also left what the United States would recieve in exchange up to President Roosevelt. Roosevelt ended up making sevrel Lend-Lease Acts with other countires like China and the Soviet Union. -
Leningrad Blockade
German forces began their siege of Leningrad, an industrial center in the USSR. After German troops had besieged the citty, they were held at bay by 200,000 Red Army defenders. In response the German troops cut off all supplies to the city and decided to starve the city out during the coldest winter of the decade. The siege of Leningrad lasted a grueling 872 days and it resulted in the deaths of about one million of the city’s civilians and Red Army defenders. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor from around eight am to ten am. The results were devastating with more than 3,000 American soldiers and sailors dead or wounded. The following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked congress to declare war on Japan; this is how the US got involved fully in World War Two. -
Wannsee Conference
Nazi officials met to discuss the "final solution to the Jewish question" or basically the way to finally kill off an entire race of people. Many methods were discussed, ranging from concentration camps to mass sterilization and even to the emigration of all of Germany's Jews. -
Battle of Midway
Following six months aftter the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in a large naval battle. Due to a break through in code breaking, the US was able to prempt and ambush the Japanese and win the battle. This was a great win for the allies because they were able to take the offensive position instead of the defense now. -
D-Day
On this day , the two month Battle of Normandy began with 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landing on the beachs of France's Normandy region. The battle resulted int he Allied liberation of Western Europe Germany's control. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was a meeting between Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt as WW2 was coming to an end. They discussed things like requiring Germany's unconditional surrender, how to divide Germany up, and set up a meeting to establish the United Nations. Stalin agreed to allow free elections in Eastern Europe and to join the war against Japan in return he would regain the land lost in the Russo-Japanese War. -
Iwo Jima/Okinawa
The United States invaded Iwo Jima because of the need for a base near the Japanese coast, Even though Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese troops, the United States marines wiped out the defending force in about a month, resulting in one of the most iconic pictures in American history. The Battle of Okinawa was the last and biggest battle of the Pacific island battles in WW2. Again, it was fought because the United States needed vital bases in order to later invaded Japan. -
Hitler's Suicide
On April 29,1945 Hitler married is girlfriend, Eva Braun. Soon after, Hitler learned his allie and dicator of Italy, Mussolini, had been assassinated. On April 30, 1945, Hitler and his new bride comitted suicide in fear of enemy troops. Berline fell on May 2, 1945. Following five days after, Germany surrendered to the allies. -
VE Day
On this day, Great Britain and the United States, as weell as other German occupied cities, celebrated when the German troops finally stopped fighting and laid down their arms. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was the last War World Two meetings held by "Big Three" heads of states. The "Big Three" were Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and President Truman. Some of the biggest issues concluded at the meeting were about the German economy, postwar Europe, and even the demand for a unconditional surrender from Japan. -
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On this day, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion killed about 90 percent of the city. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This bomb killed about 40,000 people. This led to Japan’s unconditional surrender in World War II. -
VJ Day
On August 14, 1945 news of Japan's unconditonal surrender to the Allies had made its way around the world, so the fourtheen and fifteenth of august became known as Victory Over Japan Day as the globe celebrated. President also declared September 2 VJ Day after Japan's formal surrender took place. -
United Nations
The United Nations was the second international multipurpose organization that was established in the twentieth century after the League of Nations.The purpose of the organization is to create " a wider and permanent system of general security". It came about at the end of World War Two from leaders like Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. -
Truman Doctrine
Under the Truman Doctrine that President Truman established, the United States was allowed to provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations that were under threat either by internal or external authoritarian forces. -
Marshall Plan
President Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3, 1948. The Marshall Plan was an American plan to aid Europe, where the United States gave $17 billion in order to support Europe economically so they could rebuild European economies after the end of World War II. -
NATO
As a way to prevent the spread of communism, the United States and eleven other Westernized nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Membership of NATO increased as the Cold War went on, but basically it served as the main force against the USSR if a conflict had occurred. -
Mao Zedong Proclaims People's Republic Of China
Mao Zedong, communist revolutionary, finally acknowledges the existence of the People's Republic of China while also placing himself as the head of state. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North and South Korea. China and the Soviet Union helped the North while the United Nations and United States helped South Korea.The conflict arised after the Soviet Union helped establish a communist style governement in the North while the United States aided the South after Japan lost control over the peninsula in World War Two. Even though the split was supposed to be temporary, the contrasting governements became permanent and eventually it caused issues. -
Stalin's Death\ Khrushchev's Death
In March 1953, Soviet Union leader since 1924, Joseph Stalin, dies of a Cerebral hemorrhage in Moscow after killing eight to ten million of his own people. On September 11, 1971 the Fomer First Secretary of the Central Communist Party of the Soviet Union and also leader of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, died of a heart attack. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven other European communist countries aisgned a treaty that puts the Soviets in control of the other countries armed forces as a mutual defense. The Warsaw Pact is seen as a direct response to West Germany becoming a member of the NATO pact. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, expensive conflict between communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam and its ally, the United States. During the war, there was much conflict between Americans as they debated about their involvement being necessary in the war. After the U.S. wiithdrew iits troops in 1973 and communist forces seized Saigon, the Vietnam War ended in 1975, with the Socialist Repuclib of Vietnam being created the following year. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, called the Sputnik, into space in October 1957. -
Bay of Pigs
In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew the American-backed President, General Fulgencio Batista. For the next two years, United States officials tried to push Castro from power. Finally, in April 1961, the CIA launched a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans.The invasion failed when after 24 hours of fighting, the invaders surrendered due to the fact they were severely outnumbered. While the invasion was meant to spark protests against Castro, he ended up ruling for fifty years. -
Berlin Wall
On August 13, 1961, communist East Berlin began to build a concrete wall with barbed wires between it and facists West Berlin. The Berlin Wall stood until 1989 when people could finally move over into each side of the city. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The crisis was a tense thirteen day standoff between the United States Government and the Soviet Union after the Soviet Union installed nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba which is only ninety miles from the US. The standoff ended when the US agreed not to invade Cuba in exchange that the Soviets remove the missiles. -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
After its start in December 1922, Lenin's Soviet Union finally collapsed after almost seventy years after a serious of radical reforms in the eighties.
