-
Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife, were shot by one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins while touring Sarajevo. This is significant because this created a butterfly effect which led WWII. -
Japan makes 21 Demands on China
A list of demands made by Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu sent to the nominal government of China resulting in two treaties with Japan. -
Gallipoli campaign
Allied expedition in World War I for the purpose of gaining control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, capturing Constantinople, and opening a Black Sea supply route to Russia. -
Civil war in Russia
The Russian Civil War was a war in the former Russian Empire fought between the Bolshevik Red Army and the White Army the loosely-allied anti-Bolshevik forces. The lose of the White Army led to Lenin taking power of Russia. -
German resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare
Resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany was the key reason the United States entered the conflict that was WWI -
Bolshevik Revolution
Bolshevik Revolution was a political revolution part of the Russian Revolution of 1917. This is significant because once people heard that Winter Palace had been taken V. I. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, announced his attempt to construct the socialist order in Russia. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers marking Russia's exit from World War I. -
Mussolini launches fascist movement
Made up of fascist combat groups formed by Benito Mussolini. These groups gained support and became a political party. In October 1922, Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister of Italy, and in 1925 announced his dictatorship which continued until his dismissal in July 1943. -
Paris Peace Conference
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of WWI to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. -
First Meeting of the League of Nations
Forty-two nations were present at the first meeting. Some of those who did not attend were Germany, Russia, and the United States. The first meeting was to discuss WWI -
Lenins's Economic Policy
An economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade, and large industries. -
Ataturk proclaims Republic of Turkey
Ataturk retefied the Turk consitiution and made created it to support the people/people had more natural rights. This is significant because it led to a pluralist parliamentary democratic regime that believes in secularism, re-constructed its society, and has developed international relations and ties with related international organizations and institutions. -
First Soviet Five-Year Plan
The First Five-Year Plan was a list of goals, created by Joseph Stalin and was designed to strengthen the country's economy. -
US stock market crash
The most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. The crash signaled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries and did not end in the United States until 1947. -
Civil disobedience movement in India
The Civil Disobedience Movement led by Gandhi, in the year 1930 was an important milestone in the history of Indian Nationalism. This is significant because it led to Indian liberation from Great Britian -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia. This was also one of the causes of World War II. -
Hitler is ruler in Germany
The Nazis began a takeover of the state governments throughout Germany. Armed SA and SS barged into local government offices using the state of emergency to throw out legitimate office holders and replace them with Nazi commissioners. -
Sandino is murdered in Nicaragua
Sandino was a Nicaraguan revolutionary and leader of a rebellion against the U.S. military occupation of Nicaragua between 1927 and 1933. United States troops withdrew from the country after overseeing the inauguration of President Juan Bautista Sacasa. Sandino was then assassinated in 1934. -
Long March by Chinese Communists
A military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. These were a series of marches, as many different Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. -
Stalin's "Great Purge" in USSR
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and murder in the Soviet Union orginized by Joseph Stalin from 1937 to 1938. -
German Aushluss with Austria
Adolf Hitler announces an union between Germany and Austria, annexing the smaller nation into Germany. -
Cardenas nationalizes oil industry in Mexico
President Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized the oil industry, giving the Mexican government a monopoly in the distribution of oil and in the manufacture and sale of basic petrochemicals. This was significant because the oil nationalization deprived Mexico of foreign capital and expertise for some twenty years. -
Invasion of Poland by Germany
When Germany invaded Poland, hundreds of thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish refugees fled the advancing German army into eastern Poland, hoping that the Polish army would halt the German advance in the west. -
German invasion of the USSR
Driven by Adolf Hitler's desire to conquer the Russian territories, marked the beginning of the critical phase in deciding the victors of the war. -
Soviet victory at Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Russia. After the Battle of Stalingrad, German forces never recovered their strength, and attained no further victories in the East. -
D-Day, Allied invasion of Normandy
The Battle of Normandy was fought during World War II, between the Allied nations and German forces occupying Western Europe. Was also the largest seaborn invasion in history. The occupation of Normandy was crucial for the Allies to bring the war to the western border of Germany. -
Capture of Berlin by Soviet forces
In early April, Stalin meets with his commanders to plan the final assault on Berlin. This is significant because this leds to the fall of Hilter and Berlin. -
Division of Berlin and Germany
The allies divided Germany into 4 zones controlled by each country. The Russians made their half communist and prevented any emigration. This led to the cold war. -
Establishment of the United Nations
It was first used officially when 26 states joined in the Declaration by the United Nations, pledging themselves to continue their joint war effort and not to make peace separately. Basically it was formed so that contries can meet to discuss international problems. -
Invasion of China by Japan
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought between China and Japan. -
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski
The atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 represents the most important and most sinister development in warfare in the 20th century. The atomic bombings were significant because they caused death on a huge scale from one bomb dropped by one plane -
Partition of India
The partition of India was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj. It resulted in a struggle between the new states of India and Pakistan and displaced up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire. -
Arab-Israeli War
This was a war between the States of Israel and Arab states over the British mandate for Palestine. This was significant because it established Armistice Demarcation Lines between Israeli and Arab military forces, known as the Green Line. -
Apartheid in South Africa
Apartheid referrs to the number of laws created which permited whites to rule. This was significant because it led to segragation of South Africa. -
Creation of Israel
The creation of the State of Israel was preceded by more than 50 years of efforts to establish a sovereign state as a homeland for Jews. This led to the Arab-Israeli War. -
Establishment of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed to creat an alliance with more than eleven countries in Europe, "for the defense of nations from the North Atlantic through the Mediterranean basin." This was to prevent the spread of comunism during the cold war. -
Establishment of People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China was formally established because "The Chinese people have stood up!" - Mao. This was formed to stand up to the Soviet Union. -
Korean War
A war between the Republic of Korea (commonly identified as South Korea) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (commonly identified as North Korea). The Korean War was primarily the result of the political division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. -
French Defeat at Dien Bien Phu
Viet Minh forces decisively defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu, a French stronghold besieged by the Vietnamese communists for 57 days. -
Algerian war of liberation
The Algerian war of liberation was a war between Algeria and France which lasted almost 10 years. It was also a civil war between the loyalist Algerians who wanted to be claimed by the French. This was significant because this is when Algeria gained freedom from France. -
Establishment of Warshaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization, or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact was a mutual defense treaty between eight communist states of Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. Basically formed to act against NATO. -
US troops in Vietnam
Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries. -
Suez crisis
A diplomatic and military confrontation between Egypt on one side, and Britain, France and Israel on the other, with the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Nations playing major roles in forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw. -
Uprising in Hungary
The revolt began as a student demonstration which attracted thousands as it marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building. A student delegation entering the radio building in an attempt to broadcast its demands was detained. When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police from within the building. The news spread quickly and disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital. -
Great leap forward in China
Was a campaign of the Communist Party of China, which aimed to use China's vast population to transform the country into a modern communist society through the process of industrialization and collectivization. -
Castro comes to power in Cuba
Castro came to power as a result of the Cuban revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista. In 1965 he became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist republic. This led to his dictatorship of Cuba for 30+ years. -
Sino-Soviet rift
Was the worsening of political and ideological relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War. -
Construction of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The wall was created to separate West and East Germany so to prevent facism spreading through Germany -
Creation of PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. In 1993, PLO recognized Israel's right to exist in peace, accepted UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and rejected "violence and terrorism"; in response, Israel officially recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. -
Revolution in Iran
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution. -
Iran-Iraq War
The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory following a long history of border disputes. Iraq wanted to replace Iran as the primary Persian Gulf state. -
Uprisings in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan
Participants in the colour revolutions have mostly used nonviolent resistance. Such methods as demonstrations, strikes and interventions have been intended protest against governments seen as corrupt and/or authoritarian, and to advocate democracy; and they have also created strong pressure for change. -
Soviet withdrawl from Afghanistan
Soviet invasion ended the growth in superpower dentents that had characterised the late 1970s, and in the Soviet Union the effects of escalating military costs and over 13,000 young military casualties have been felt at every level of society. -
Reunification of Germany
The process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city, provided by its constitution. -
Persian Gulf War
Commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. -
Collapse of the USSR
The Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was caused by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism. This led to a complete 'reformulation' of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe. -
Transfer of Hong Kong to China
The transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. The event marked the end of British rule, and the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China.
