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Japan's Invasion of China
Chiang Kai-Shek headed the Nationalist government while Mao Zedong headed the Communist Party. Japan, with a greedy eye towards China's wealth, claimed Chinese troops fired upon them at the Marco Polo Bridge. As a result, they invade China and quickly take over important cities and communication sites. The onslaught was mostly focused on Chiang Kai-shek's "visible" Guomintang army while Mao Zedong's guerilla fighters were for the most part ignored. -
Germany invades Poland
Hitler employs the blitzkrieg tactic by extenively bombing Poland's air bases, railroad lines, communication lines, munitions dumps quickly followed by large scale invasions of land troops, tanks, and artillery. Poland surrendered by the end of the month. -
Battle of Britain
German and British air forces fought over the skies of the United Kingdom. the Luftwaffe targeted the Royal Air Force bases, radar installations, military posts, and civilian popularions. As the Luftwaffe attacked air bases and London, the RAF counterattacked by bombing Berlin. Morale plummeted when a host of British fighters appeared over the horizon and shot down many German bombers as they lay helpless in the air. Ultimately, the battle ended on October 31, 1940 in favor of the British. -
Tripartite Pact
A 10-year military and economic pact signed by Japan, Germany, and Italy. A fourth signatory was coercedinto signing the pact by Germany in November of 1940- Hungary. This guaranteed mutual aid in the event of an attack by a foreign nation. -
Lend-Lease Act
The policy in which the United States can provide military aid to the Allies during WWII. This included the cash-and-carry policy where the British paid in cash and brought the munitions to the warfront on their own ships. -
German Blitzkrieg on the Soviet Union
Adolf Hitler launched an invasion into the Soviet Union with over 3 million men, 150 divisions, and 3000 tanks. At first, they won quick victories with their blitzkrieg tactics. However, Soviet counterattacks stalled their advance while "General Winter" killed off thousands of Germans who were inadequately prepared for the harsh season. On the other hand, U.S. factories supplied Russian troops with furlined boots and heavy coats. Soon the Russians pushed the Germans back and into a two front war -
Leningrad Blockade
Leningrad came under siege by German forces for 900 days. Residents of the city only had a food supply that would last for the next 1-2 months, public transportation was down, no water supply, barely any electricity, and very little food. At one point, bread rations went as low as 125 grams per person a day. Nevertheless, the people of Leningrad kept the war machine running- pumping out weapos, etc. At the end, one third of the original 3 million population died; most were buried in mass graves. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
The Japanese hoped to annihilate the American naval force to leave the way open for Japanese expansion in Southeast Asia while creating a defensive perimeter to thwart any Allied counterattack. Six aircraft carriers were used in conjunction with 350+ bombers, fighters, and torpedo planes along with several submarines.. They destroyed more than 200 ships while just disabling 18. Auspiciously, the American aircraft carriers were out of the harbor at the time of the attack. -
Wannsee Conference
15 Nazi bureaucrats met together to discuss the purification process of the Aryan race. All Jews in Europe were to be evacuated to camps in eastern Poland where they would be stamped out by being worked to death or simply killed. Aiding in the process were local authorities who had acquiesced to Nazi demands. The sick and the elderly often times lost their lives while being transported to the concentration camps in the freight cars. -
Battle of Midway
A cryptographer keeping an ear on Japanese radio frequencies uncovered the plan to attack Midway. 36 aircraft-carrier-launched divebombers attacked the Japanese fleet and sank 3 Japanese carriers in a single 5 minute wave and another one later on in the day.From then on, Allies took the offensive and took an island-hopping strategy to capture islands to make direct attacks on Japan. -
D-Day
U.S. and British troops landed on the beach at Normandy, France where they were met with large numbers of German troops. Though both sides suffered heavy losses, the Germans were soon forced back. Now, they had to contend with two fronts- one towards Russia and the other towards France. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Following extensive aerial and naval bombardment, three U.S. marine divisions fought against 23,000 army and navy troops. The invasion was brought about by the desire for additional landing strips for B-29 bomber missions to Japan without returning all the way to the Marianas. The Japanese fought from dugouts, tunnels, caves, and underground housings which were hard to found and destroy. The whole Japanese garrison was wiped out save for 1,083 prisoners with the Americans losing 5,900 men. -
Yalta Conference
Meeting at which Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin discussded the handling of post-war Eastern Europe and Germany. All agreed to the American procedure for the U.N. Security Council in which all five permanent members had veto votes on decisions set before the council. Poland's future national government also included Communists. -
Battle of Okinawa
287,000 American troops battled against 130,000 Japanese troops over the vital air bases built on Okinawa. These landing strips would serve as valuable stations for the invasion of Japan. The environment of Okinawa was very different than conventional battlefields with caves and ancient castles supporting one another. Going on the defensive, Japanese troops used kamizake techniques and isolated defensive positions which gave the Americans a hard time. The battle ended with an American victory. -
Hitler's Suicide
As Russian and German troops fought in the streets of Berlin right outside of his bunker, Hitler committed suicide along with many of his Nazi comrades. As a result, he didn't live long enough to see the iconic hammer and sickle wave over the Reichstag. -
VE Day
The world-wide surrender of Nazi troops. Documents dictating the terms of surrender were signed in Berlin. Immediate cease-fire was implemented with pockets of battle occuring onto the next day. This "holiday" is only celebrated by the United Kingdom and the United States. -
Potsdam Conference
Allied Powers discuss on how to handle Germany after WWII. Finally, they agreed to demilitarize and dearm Germany while splitting it into four occupational zones. The revision of Soviet-Soviet-Polish borders also came under discussion. Poland received a large portion of German territory and began deporting the German minority population. -
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States used a revolutionary weapon of mass destruction called the Atom Bomb. It was designed from the Manhattan Project. To avoid the inevitably immense loss of American lives about to take place from the invasion of Japan, President Truman ordered the bombing of the two cities in order to crush Japanese reolve. -
VJ Day
The formal ending of WWII. This is the day that Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The surrender ceremony was hosted on the USS Missouri. -
Establishment of the United Nations
Representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco to finish the Charter of the United Nations. In addition to the General Assembly of all member states and a Security Council of 5 permanent and 6 non-permanent members, the Charter provided anInternational Court of Justic Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council to oversee various colonial territories, and a Secretariat. After 29 nations approved the chapter, the UN was born. -
Truman Doctrine
This event declared the determination of the American people to do anything in their power to contain communism and any Soviet influence from spreading. This includes economic and military intervention. -
Marshall Plan
U.S, plan that gave financial aid (economic aid in general) to every European state that was affected because of WWII. This courtesy also extended to Soviet-controlled states. -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The United States formed a regional military organization against the Soviet Union. The purpose was to keep peace on postwar Europe through mutual defense. Original members included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium. -
Mao Zedong
Appointed as Chairman of the People's Republic of China. -
People's Republic of China
After beating back the Japanese invasion and did away with the Guomintang, the young republic found itself far behind most of the world's post war powers. In a race to improve itself, Mao Zedong passed land reforms such as The Great Leap Forward and drew plans for mass industrialization. -
Korean War
After Korea and divided into American allied South Korea and Soviet allied North Korea, The Pyeongyang administration (North Korea) ordered more than 100,000 troops to attack S. Korea in a surprise attack. The U.S. suspected the Russians sanctioned the invasion and so convinced UN members to back South Korea up. After UN forces pushed back, N. Korean soldiers, they strived to unify Korea under a single government. China sensed a threat and drove them back to the original 38th parallel. -
Stalin's Death
On the 1st of March, Stalin had a routine nightly bout of heavy drinking until the early hours of the morning. The guards and servants became understandably concerned when he didn't make a sound nor movement the entire day. Late in the evening a maid or guard went in to check and found him lying in his own cesspool for he had wet himself. At 9:50 on the 5th of March, his daughter said he finally opened his eye and pointed a threatening finger towards the heavens... then, Death took hold of him. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union along with Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria signed this military pact as a countermeasure agaisnt the American NATO, a regoinal military alliance against Soviet aggression. -
Vietnam War
Like in N&S Korea, S. Vietnam was aided by the U.S. and N. Korea was aided by the Soviets and Chinese. President Nixon, going by the Truman Doctrine feared Communism would spread like in the Domino Theory. U.S. forces intervened and waged an unsuccessful war against the Viet Cong and the Viet Minh. Under mounting pressures at home, (later) President Ford withdrew American forces. 3 years later, N. Vietnamese forces took over S. Vietnam. -
Sputnik
Soviet scientists displayed their supposed superiority to the world by launching the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. This was quickly followed by sending the first man, Yuri Gagarin, to orbit Earth. -
Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev
The Soviet premier at the time, he had a meeting with President Nixon to open the American National Exhibition. It soon came down to a war of words when he mocked the U.S. model kitchen built exclusively for the ocassion. Topics ranged from captive nations to communism and capitalism and from dishwashers to nukes. I -
Bay of Pigs
The CIA sponored and transported 1,500 Cubans to a location called the Bay of Pigs. This invasion force composed of anti-Castro Cubans who wished to topple his dictatorship by inciting an uprising. Unfortunately, American air support did not come as planned, so all of them were either captured or killed by Castro's military. -
Berlin Wall
The Soviet Union cindirectly ontrolled East Germany which was under the control of the German Democratic Republic. They started to build a barbed wire fence between Eastern and Western Berlin in order to starve the Western allies into submission. Any intermovement between the two parts of the city were strictly prohibited. In response, American and British forces airlifted supplies and aid to their part of the city. Escapees were to be shot on sight. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Fidel Castro, controls the only Communist regime in the Western Hemisphere, embraces Soviet aid. the attempted invasion at the Bay of Pigs prompted Castro to accept Soviet wishes of deploying nuclear missiles as a deterrent for future invasions. President Kennedy found out and negotiated with Khruschev over their disposal. Khrushchev promised to remove them on the condition the U.S. wouldn't invade Cuba and U.S. missiles removed from Turkey. All negotiations were accepted. -
Gorbachev
Gorbachev tried revamping the Soviet political and economical policies. He even got the 19th Conference of the Communist Party to agree to hold protections for the Congres of People's Deputies. Individual enterprises were also supported. In addition,Gorbachev embarked on a journey designed to revamp the Soviet government and economic order. This failed miserably as they became inundated with criticisms. -
Soviet Union Falls
Pieces of the Soviet Union slowly seceded peacefully. Gorbachev's attempts at reformation inspired nationlistic sentiments and hope of self-rule. One after another, the Baltic States broke away and then Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine broke away to form the Commonwealth of Independent States. They were soon followed in suit by 8 of the 9 remaining republics. The Soviet Union dissociated.
