-
Japan's Invasion of China
Japan claimed that their railroad were destroyed by Chinese troops. Using this as an excuse, the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China and conquered Manchuria. -
Germany invades Poland
Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe. Britain and France had declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
A succesful tactic used to defeat Poland on Sep 1, 1939
1940 in Denmark (April), Norway (April), Belgium (May), the Netherlands (May), Luxembourg (May), France (May ),
1941 Yugoslavia (April), and Greece (April). -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a series of conflicts between Germany and Britain in WWII. Having defeated France, Germany wanted to invade Britain, but in order to do this, Germany had to destroy Britain’s RAF (Royal Air Force). They attempted to do this with bombing raids. -
Tripartite Pact
Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, in which they promised to defend each other against U.S. attacks. -
Lend-Lease Act
The principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during WWII -
Germany takes Leningrad
As part of Operation Barbarossa, German bombers blasted through Leningrad's antiaircraft defenses, killing over 1,000 Russians. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor causing the U.S. to join the war -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe -
Battle of Midway
Effectively destroyed Japan’s naval strength when the Americans destroyed four of its aircraft carriers. -
D-Day
The day in WWII on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy. -
Yalta Conference
Took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, during WWII. At Yalta, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin made important decisions regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world. -
Iwo Jima
U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima. It was conquered after desperate fighting on March 16. -
Okinawa
General Simon Buckner's 10th Army landed along the western coast of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. This Army-Marine force fought for 79 days, during which time they advanced only 14 miles -
Hitler’s suicide
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day
The public holiday celebrated on May 8, 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held from July 16th, 1945 to August 2nd, 1945 to negotiate terms for the end of World War II -
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
First atomic bomb used by the U.S. in WWII to get the japanese to surrender -
Atomic Bombing on Nagasaki
The last major act of WWII and within days the Japanese had surrendered. -
VJ Day
Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event -
Formation of the U.N.
The United Nations was formed in response to WWII and the fact that the League of Nations had failed -
Truman Doctrine
The U.S. policy that guaranteed aid to any nation threatened by communism. -
Marshall Plan
The American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty -
Mao Zedong & People’s Republic of China
Mao was a Chinese communist leader and founder of the People's Republic of China. He was responsible for the disastrous policies of the 'Great Leap Forward' and the 'Cultural Revolution'. -
Korean War
Began when some soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. -
Stalin’s death; Khrushchev
When Stalin died there was no clear successor to him. The Soviet government announces that Nikita Khrushchev has been selected as one of five men named to the new office of Secretariat of the Communist Party -
Vietnam War
The prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States attempting to prevent the spread of communism -
Warsaw Pact
A mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. -
Sputnik
-
Bay of Pigs
Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The U.S. government distrusted Castro and planned to overthrow him and his supporters. -
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict -
Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (born 2 March 1931) is a former Soviet statesman. He was the seventh and last undisputed leader of the Soviet Union -
Soviet Union falls
The Soviet Union shattered into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism.
