American History

WW1

Aug 4, 1914

The United States declares neutrality.

WW1

Jan 16, 1917

The German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends a telegram to his ambassador in Mexico, instructing him to propose to the Mexican government an alliance against the United States.

WW1

Apr 6, 1917

The United States declares war on Germany.

WW1

Dec 7, 1917

The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.

WW2

Aug 23, 1939

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

WW2

Sep 3, 1939

Honoring their guarantee of Poland’s borders, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.

WW2

Apr 9, 1940

Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrenders on the day of the attack but Norway holds out until June 9.

WW2

Jun 10, 1940

Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21.

WW2

Dec 8, 1941

The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II. Japanese troops land in the Philippines, French Indochina, and British Singapore. By April 1942, the Philippines, Indochina, and Singapore are under Japanese occupation.

WW2

Dec 11, 1941

Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States.

WW2

Aug 6, 1945

The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

WW2

Aug 9, 1945

The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

Korea

Jun 25, 1950

North Korea invades South Korea. With permission from Russia, North Korea invades South Korea and continues on to the capital of Seoul. South Korea does not have a strong enough army to stop it.

Korea

Jun 25, 1950

South Korean President Syngman Rhee executes 100,000 people. Worried that South Koreans will join the communists, President Syngman Rhee starts the Summer of Terror and orders over 100,000 people killed.

Korea

Jun 27, 1950

The United States joins the Korean War. President Harry Truman sends U.S. troops to Korea. The U.S. and other countries in the United Nations join the war because they want to stop communism from spreading to South Korea.

Korea

Jul 4, 1950

The United States is defeated at Osan. American troops fight North Korean troops in Osan. The Americans expected an easy victory, but are surprised to find out that they are no match for the North Korean army.

Korea

Sep 15, 1950

The United States gets a victory at Inchon. General Douglas MacArthur leads an invasion into South Korea at the city of Inchon. From there, the United Nations troops go to Seoul and take it back from North Korea.

Korea

Oct 20, 1950

United States troops reach the capital of North Korea. U.S. troops push their way into Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Soldiers believe that the war will be over soon and start to take bets on what day the war will officially end.

Vietnam

May 4, 1961

President Kennedy sends 400 American Green Beret Special Advisors to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese to fight against Viet Cong guerrillas.

Vietnam

Feb 27, 1962

The presidential palace in Saigon is bombed by two renegade South Vietnamese pilots flying American-made World War II era fighter planes. President Diem and his brother Nhu escape unharmed.

Vietnam

Jun 17, 1962

Operation Chopper: America's first combat missions against the Vietcong. Operation Ranchhand: Objective to clear vegetation making it difficult for the Vietcong to ambush. US Military then Employs Agent Orange to expose roads and trails used by Vietcong forces.

Vietnam

Jan 3, 1963

A Viet Cong victory in the Battle of Ap Bac makes front page news in America as 350 Viet Cong fighters defeat a large force of American-equipped South Vietnamese troops attempting to seize a radio transmitter. Three American helicopter crew members are killed.

Vietnam

Nov 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th U.S. President. He is the fourth President coping with Vietnam and will oversee massive escalation of the war while utilizing many of the same policy advisors who served Kennedy.

Vietnam

Aug 2, 1964

Three North Vietnamese patrol boats attack the American destroyer U.S.S. Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin ten miles off the coast of North Vietnam. They fire three torpedoes and machine-guns, but only a single machine-gun round actually strikes the Maddox with no causalities. U.S. Navy fighters from the carrier Ticonderoga, led by Commander James Stockdale, attack the patrol boats, sinking one and damaging the other two.

Vietnam

Oct 16, 1964

China tests its first Atomic Bomb. China, by this time, has also massed troops along its border with Vietnam, responding to U.S. escalation

Vietnam

Nov 1, 1964

The first attack by Viet Cong against Americans in Vietnam occurs at Bien Hoa air base, 12 miles north of Saigon. A pre-dawn mortar assault kills five Americans, two South Vietnamese, and wounds nearly a hundred others.

Vietnam

Dec 24, 1964

Viet Cong terrorists set off a car bomb explosion at the Brinks Hotel, an American officers' residence in downtown Saigon. The bomb is timed to detonate at 5:45 p.m., during 'happy hour' in the bar. Two Americans are killed and 58 wounded.

Vietnam

Apr 15, 1969

The Battle of Hamburger Hill was fought by the United States and South Vietnam against North Vietnamese forces.

Rwanda

Jun 13, 1989

World coffee prices plummet. This significantly affects Rwanda's economy because coffee was one of its major cash crops.

Persian Gulf

Jul 15, 1990

Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing oil from the Rumaylah, Iraq's oil field near the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border and warns of military action.

Persian Gulf

Aug 7, 1990

The United States launched Operation Desert Shield. First U.S. troops arrived in Saudi Arabia.

Persian Gulf

Jan 18, 1991

Iraq launched SCUD missiles on Israel. The U.S. deploys Patriot missiles to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Persian Gulf

Jan 29, 1991

Iraqi forces invaded the town of Khafji in Saudi Arabia. Iraqi forces were soon engaged by Saudi Arabian and Qatari troops with help from U.S. Marines.

Persian Gulf

Jan 30, 1991

11 U.S. Marines in LAV's were killed in friendly fire incident by Air Force A-10 aircraft near town of Al Khafji while they were attacking a company of Iraqi tanks.

Somalia

Jan 10, 1992

An estimated 350,000 Somalis die of disease, starvation, or civil war. Images of famine and war are shown on American news networks. George H.W. Bush then ordered emergency airlifts of food and supplies to Somalia.

Somalia

Apr 15, 1993

Somali rebels shoot down two U.S. helicopters, resulting in the death of 18 U.S. Army Rangers and one Malaysian man. A heated battle ensues and hundreds of Somali civilians are killed..

Somalia

Mar 17, 1994

The U.S. formally ends the mission to Somalia, which has cost $1.7 billion dollars and left 43 U.S. soldiers dead and another 153 wounded.

Rwanda

Jul 11, 1994

Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana is killed when his plane is shot out of the sky.

Rwanda

Jul 17, 1994

Massacre at Gikondo - hundreds of Tutsis are killed in the Pallottine Missionary Catholic Church.

Rwanda

Jul 21, 1994

Massacre at the Nyarubuye Roman Catholic Church - thousands of Tutsi are killed, first by grenades and guns and then by machetes and clubs.

Bosnia

May 15, 1995

Safe haven of Srebrenica is overrun by Bosnian Serb forces under General Ratko Mladic. Thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys are separated from their families and massacred, despite the presence of Dutch UN troops. Nato air strikes against Serb positions help Muslim and Croat forces make big territorial gains, expelling thousands of Serb civilians on the way.

Somalia

Jun 17, 2001

The United Nations declares that it will be pulling its international staff and aid workers from Somalia because of the dangerous fighting conditions and attempts at kidnapping.

Bosnia

Apr 15, 2003

A mass grave is discovered near Zvornik in eastern Bosnia, close to the Serbian border. More than 600 bodies thought to be those of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre are eventually excavated from the grave.