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Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo. His death is the event that sparks World War I
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Hitler begins his Western offensive with the radio code word “Danzig,” sending his forces into Holland and Belgium. Winston Churchill accedes to the office, becoming defense minister as well.
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The British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland.Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. The attack aroused considerable indignation in the United States, but Germany defended the action, noting that it had issued warnings of its intent to attack all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain.
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British intelligence gives Wilson the so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann proposing that Mexico side with Germany in case of war between Germany and the United States. In return, Germany promises to return to Mexico the "lost provinces" of Texas and much of the rest of the American Southwest. Mexico declines the offer, but the outrage at this interference in the Western Hemisphere pushes American public opinion to support entering the war.
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Some six weeks after the United States formally entered the First World War, the U.S Congress passes the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers. Although criticized for destroying democracy at home while fighting for it abroad, President Wilson claims he sees no other option and signs the bill into law.
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The Battle of Cantigny is the first major American offensive of the war. Though small in scale, the Americans fight bravely and soon go on to larger attacks against German positions
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Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.
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Some 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II
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Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declares that the Polish government has ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercises the “fine print” of the Hitler-Stalin Non-aggression pact; the invasion and occupation of eastern Poland.
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Germany and the Soviet Union agree to divide control of occupied Poland roughly along the Bug River–the Germans taking everything west, the Soviets taking everything east.
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People of Paris were awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening as German troops entered and occupy Paris
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A three-month battle fought in the skies over Britain will include destructive bombing raids on London and other cities, but by the end of October the British will hand Hitler his first defeat
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The Japanese make a sneak attack on the US. Including Kamikazes, the Japanese only lose 30 men during the assault. Thousands of US sailors were left dead or dying President Roosevelt asks the Congress to declare war on Japan December 8th. Three days after that, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.
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The ships never saw one another nor shot at one another. Only aircraft carriers engaged the other nation's aircraft carriers
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The Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million.
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The "big three," Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, convene in Teheran, Iran to discuss the invasion of Italy.
It is the first time all three have met -
The battle over Iwo Jima was considered the most brutal and fiercest battle in the Pacific Theatre, where all but 216 of the Japanese soldiers fought to the death or committed suicide.
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An 82-day-long assault on the Japanese Island of Okinawa, the battle was the largest in the Pacific Theater of war. Japan lost at least 100,000 men and thousands of civilians, and the Americans lost over 50,000 troops.
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Two atomic bombs were dropped by the United States, The Little Boy and the Fat Man were their names. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated with thousands instantly killed and even thousands more left dead from radiation poisoning and cancer caused by the radiation.
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Some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean Army poured across the 38th parallel
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Three days after the United Nations Security Council voted to provide military assistance to South Korea, President Truman ordere U.S. armed forces to assist in defending that nation from invading North Korean armies. It marked the official entry of the U.S. into the Korean War.
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American ground troops go into battle against Northern Korean forces at Osan. The Americans were stunned to discover that the North Korean army was a formidable adversary. The Americans suffered 150 casualties in the battle and failed to halt the North Koreans' southward advance.
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Near Sojong, South Korea, Private Kenneth Shadrick, a 19-year-old from West Virginia, became the first American reported killed in the Korean War.
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Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers into battle in Korea. The massive Chinese intervention into the Korean conflict caught American military leaders completely off guard, leading to a series of crushing defeats.
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The Democratic People's Republic of North Kore, Chinese People's Volunteers, and the UN sign an armistice agreement. Terms of the armistice include the creation of the demilitarized zone(DMZ) which os patrolled at all times by both sides.
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The National Liberation Front is formed by Hanoi to use against South Vietnam. Diem calls this army the Vietcong.
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Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, meets with Diem in Saigon. He agrees to send 20,000 men for army.
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JFK decides to help South Vietnam by sending money, training of troops and weapons.
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Vietcong deafeats South Vietnamese Army at the Battle of Ap Bac.
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JFK is assassinated in Dallas. Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the next president. Unlike Kennedy, Johnson will become much more active in the war with Vietnam.
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The US says North Vietnamese patrol boats fire on two US Navy destroyers. US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorising military action in region.
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A sustained U.S. aerial bombing campaign of North Vietnam begins (Operation Rolling Thunder).
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US troop numbers in Vietnam rise to 400,000, then to 500,000 the following year.
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The North Vietnamese join forces with the Viet Cong to launch the Tet Offensive, attacking approximately one hundred South Vietnamese cities and towns.
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U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai.
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President Nixon orders the first of many U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
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Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79.
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The American public learns of the Mai Lai massacre.
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President Nixon announces that U.S. troops will attack enemy locations in Cambodia. This news sparks nationwide protests, especially on college campuses.
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Ceasefire agreement in Paris, US troop pull-out completed by March.
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Hussein's forces had accumulated around Kuwait's borders.The number of Iraq troops was great enough to attack the Kuwait
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The Iraqi forces crossed into Kuwait. They defeated Kuwait and controlled the country.
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For the first time since the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia both wanted to oppose Iraq's actions against Kuwait and decided to stop the sale of weapons to the country.
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Within the country, a large number of troops were moving dangerously close to the Saudi Arabian border.
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Hussein declared Jihad and United Nations gave them until January 15, 1991 to withdraw and they refused, so then began Operation Desert Shield.
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Iraq withdrew from Kuwait on February 28, 1991—though not before setting fire to more than 500 Kuwaiti oil wells.
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President Bush ordered the Pentagon to begin emergency airlifts of food to Somalia which was suffering from severe famine and factional warfare.
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To protect the US food airlift, the first American forces arrived.
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U.S. Marines landed in Somalia to ensure that food and medicine reach the deprived areas of that country. The US Operations Restore Hope, Continue Hope and others began in Somalia. They cost $1.7 billion and left 43 US casualties with 153 wounded.
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President Bush visited Somalia, where he saw firsthand the famine racking the east African nation. He praised U.S. troops that provided relief to the starving population.
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Three days after he was jeered in Sarajevo, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali took refuge from angry Somalis in Mogadishu.
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Bosnian deputy Prime Minister killed by Serbian forces while in route to the airport.
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In Somalia a mob avenging a deadly United Nations attack on the compound of Mohamed Farrah Aidid killed Dan Eldon, a US photo-journalist working for Reuters, and three colleagues. They were stoned and beaten to death at the scene of a bombing by UN forces of a house believed to be the headquarters of Gen’l. Aidid.
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Sarajevo was attacked killing 68 people and wounding 200 more
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NATO shoots down four Serbian aircraft over Bosnia, intervening for the first time since the war began. In fact, the first use of military power by NATO since it's creation in 1949.
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Serb forces refuse to remove heavy weapons from Sarajevo and as a result NATO launches an aircraft attack on Serb ammunition depot. In retaliation, Serbs begin attacking the Muslim safe zones designated by the UN.
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Serbs sieze Srebrenica , an estimated 8,000 Srebrenican men and boys are killed.
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President Clinton gives the official order to deploy American troops to Bosnia
