-
Throughout the early 1800s boats on canals and rivers provided the best means for long-distance travel. Then, with the development of efficient steam engines, trains began to replace boats. Trains could carry heavy loads, did not require water-ways, and traveledfaster than watercraft.
-
Michael Faraday discovered the connection between magnetism and electricity. His discovery led to the dynamo, a machine that generated electricity by moving a magnet through a coil of copper wire.
-
The Boxer rebellion began in 1899 when the Boxers started attacking missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity.
-
In the early 1900s, Japan was building an empire in the east and viewed Russia as a threat to its plans. As a result, in 1904 Japanese forces attacked and eventually defeted Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.
-
On June 28, 1914, as Franz Ferdinand 's car drove through the Sarajevostreets, a young Serbian man, Gavrilo Princip, opened fire with his pistol, killing the archduke and the archduke's wife, Sophie.
-
The United States entered the war on the side of Allied Powers.
-
The signing took place in the French Palace of Versailles.
-
He worked to turn the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state.
-
German forces used a new tactic in their assault on Poland. Known as blitzkrieg, German for "lightning war," it emphasized speed and close coordination between planes in the air and fast-moving forces on the ground.
-
For months, Japanese military leaders under General Hideki Tojo had been developing plans for a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
-
As the Soviets forced the Axis armies back toward Germany, the other allies were finalizing their plans for a massive invasion of Western Europe.
-
In 1945, more than 70,000 people were killled instantly, and thousands of buildings were destroyed.
-
In 1948 racial discrimination heightened when the Afrikaner-dominated National Party came to run the South African government.
-
In June 1950 the North Koreans attacked South Korea.
-
The fighting with France had ended, but the conflict in Vietnam was far from over. Ho Chi Minh's dream of a united, independent Vietnam would only be achieved after years of war.