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When Japan invaded China
when shots were exchanged between Chinese and Japanese troops on the outskirts of Peking. Open fighting broke out in that area, and in late July the Japanese captured the Peking-Tientsin area. -
The Anschluss
On the morning of 12 March 1938, the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers. For the Wehrmacht, the invasion was the first big test of its machinery -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
On March 15, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in the rump Czecho-Slovak state, in flagrant violation of the Munich Pact. -
Invasion of Poland
War of Poland of 1939, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union; which marked the beginning of World War II -
The Neutrality Act of 1939
final Neutrality Act passed. This Act lifted the arms embargo and put all trade with belligerent nations under the terms of “cash-and-carry.” The ban on loans remained in effect, and American ships were barred from transporting goods to belligerent ports. -
The Fall of France
a remarkable German assault on north-west Europe, known as the Battle of France, resulted in the capture and subjugation of not only France but three other countries – Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium -
The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was fought above the skies of Britain, between the RAF and the German Luftwaffe. -
US Oil Embargo on Japan
The US announces a ban on oil exports to “aggressor countries,” including Japan. This was just as acting Secretary of State Wells had warned Ambassador to the United States Kichisaburo Nomura -
The attack on Pearl Harbor
the Japanese military launched a surprise attack on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Since early 1941 the U.S. had been supplying Great Britain in its fight against the Nazis. It had also been pressuring Japan to halt its military expansion in Asia and the Pacific. -
The Bataan Death March
Bataan Death March began, forcing 60,000-80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war to march through the Philippines. The route was about 65 miles long and stretched from the peninsula to the rail head inland -
Battle of Midway Island
US and Japanese naval forces engaged in a five-day battle in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that changed the course of the war in the Pacific. Top Image: Last minutes on damaged USS Yorktown (CV-5). Midway Islands, June 1942. -
Battle of Stalingrad
was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later renamed Volgograd) in Southern Russia. -
D-Day
It led to the liberation of France, denying Germany any further exploitation of that country's economic and manpower resources -
The Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimean Conference, was held from February 4-11, 1945, in a Russian resort town. Attending the conference were U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin -
V-E Day
celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
The bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki with the Fat Man plutonium bomb device on August 9, 1945, caused terrible human devastation and helped end World War II