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Mao Zedong Leads Long March
Mao Zedong was the leader and creator of the Chinse Communist Party after the fall of the dynastic era. To escape from the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist party, Mao Zedong led Communist troops on an infamous "long march" across China. On this journey, the Communist troops bonded with the peasants and Mao described the journey as "swimming in the peasant sea." The Long March ended when Japan invaded China. -
Germany invades Poland; France and Britain Declare War on Germany
The day Germany, under command of NAZI dictator Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland is often regarded as the official beginning of World War 2. Hitler was looking to conquer lands that his country had lost in the Versailles Treaty of World War I. He invaded Poland with army in tow in order to indoctrinate the Poles and gain more control. His tactic was known as "blitzkrieg" which means "Lightning War". France and Britain, angered by the invasion of neutral Poland, declared war on Germany soon after. -
Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Hawaii's Pearl Harbor, thus opening the Pacific Theater and famously drawing the US into the war, officially deeming it a "world war". President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described it as "a date that will live in infamy." -
Germany Surrenders
In May of 1945, the Nazi leaders of Germany officially surrendered. Although in the beginning of the war, they launched great success, Germany began to crumble under the pressure. They were invaded by the Western Allies through Italy and in Normandy in the west, and by the Soviets in the east. Berlin was going down, and Hitler knew. He committed suicide, leaving the surrender to be carried out by other Nazi leaders. It officially ended the European conflict. -
Allies Atomically Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Although the European Theater was closed, the Pacific Theater was still raging between the Allies and the Japanese throughout the summer of 1945. In August-September of 1945, the US dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Henceforth, they immediately surrendered and the cities were left in ruins, thousands dying on impact and countless others by radioactive poisoning. -
United Nations Formed
On October 24, 1945, the United Nations was officially formed to prevent another conflict like WWII from ever happening again. Clearly, the League of Nations was not successful, and the world needed a system and council they could rely on. The UN tried Nazis for their war crimes, and is still in action today to keep the world at peace.
