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Japan's Invasion of China
Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Using this as an excuse, the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China. -
Germany invades Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was the German air force's attempt to gain air superiority over the RAF from July to September 1940. Their ultimate failure was one of the turning points of World War Two and prevented Germany from invading Britain. -
Tripartite Pact
An agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan signed in Berlin. The treaty would call upon all three nations to unite against any aggressor who had violated the sovereignty of any of the three nations, not including nations that were already engaged in war with any of the three nations. -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease act was a policy by which the United States supplied Free France, Great Britain, the Republic of China, and later the USSR and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
A German term for “lightning war,” blitzkrieg is a military tactic where offensive weapons (such as tanks, planes, and artillery) are concentrated along a narrow front. Applied against the Soviet Union, blitzkrieg brought the Wehrmacht to the gates of Moscow in six months. -
Leningard Blockade
The most tragic period in the history of the city, a period full of suffering and heroism. The Red Army was outflanked by the Germans. Hilter wanted to starve the city to surrender.
nearly 1 Millon died, but they did not surrender. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
A surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. -
Wannsee Conference
THe Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to ensure cooperation of all the leaders of various governmental departments to facilitate the deportation of all Jews under Germany to Poland to be murdered. -
Battle of Mid Way
The Battle of Midway was a crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor USA defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. -
D-Day
More than 160,000 Allied troops landed on a 50-mile stretch along beaches of Normandy, France to fight Nazi Germany. -
Yalta Conference
A conference held in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea from February 4th to 11th 1945 which was a meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. -
Iwo Jima/Okinawa
The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between the Japanese army and the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The battle, known to the USMC as "Operation Detachment", started on 19 February 1945 and lasted until 26 March 1945 when the last Japanese soldiers were captured or killed. -
Hilter's Suicide
Adolf Hitler killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. -
VE (Victory-in-Europe) Day
Marks the formal acceptance of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces to the Allies of World War II. -
Postdam Conference
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Harry Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. -
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was done primarily as a retaliation for the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan. -
VJ (Victory-over-Japan) Day
The news of the surrender of Japan was announced to the world. -
Formation of the UN
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established 24 October 1945 to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was created following the Second World War to prevent another such conflict. -
Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations that were under threat from milistaristic forces. -
Marshall Plan
An American effort to aid Europe, in which the United States gave $17 billion in economic support to help rebuild the European economies after the end of World War II. -
Nato
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. Members agree to mutual defence to an attack by an outside party. -
Mao Zedong & People's Republic of china
Mao Zedong
Former Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and the founding father of the People's Republic of China.
Born: December 26, 1893, Shaoshan, China
Died: September 9, 1976, Beijing, China -
Korean War
The Korean War, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953), was a war between North and South Korea, in which a United Nations force led by the United States of America fought for the South, and China fought for the North, which was also assisted by the Soviet Union. The war arose from the division of Korea at the end of World War II and from the global tensions of Communism vs Democracy. -
Stalin's Death (and Khrushchev's rise)
Joseph Stalin, 73 years of age, had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died at 9:50 p.m. on March 5, 1953. By the time Stalin died in, Khrushchev had positioned himself as a possible successor. Six months later, he became head of the Communist Party and one of the most powerful people in the USSR. -
Warsaw Pact
A treaty formed in Warsaw, Poland which called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force and it set up a unified military under the command of the Soviet Union. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.
Fought between North Vietnam (supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies) and the government of South Vietnam (supported by the United States and other anti-communist allies). North Won - Unfication of Vietnam and now fully communuist. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, hence giving rise to the era between them and the US called the "Space Age". -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
An unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government and intended to overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, It wasconstructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. It played out on television worldwide and was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. -
Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a Soviet statesman. He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union.
Born: March 2, 1931 (age 84), Privolnoye, Krasnogvardeysky -
Soviet Union Falls
Conditions in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union changed rapidly, Gorbachev’s decision to loosen the Soviet 'rule' on the countries of Eastern Europe created an independent, democratic momentum that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, and then the overthrow of Communist rule throughout Eastern Europe.
