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Japan Invades China
Japanese troops invade Manchuria after Mukden Incident. -
Germany Invades Poland
Hitler mobilizes troops and invades Poland. -
Battle of Britain
Air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom. -
Tripartite Pact
A pact signed in Berlin, Germany which established the Axis Powers of World War II. -
Lend-Lease Act
A program under which the United States supplied Great Britain, the USSR, Free France, the Republic of China, and other Allied nations with materiel. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
Germany uses their Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union -
Germany takes Leningrad
Germany surrounds and lays siege to Leningrad. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia. -
Formation of the U.N.
Intergovernmental organization established to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations. -
Wannsee Conference
A meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. The purpose of the conference was to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the final solution to the Jewish question. -
Battle of Midway
One of the most important naval battles of World War II. The Americans inflicted irreparable damage on the Japananese naval fleet. -
D-Day
The Allies storm Omaha beach to start to get a foothold in Northwestern Europe. -
Yalta Conference
Intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
A major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. -
Battle of Okinawa
A battle that was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. -
Hitler’s Suicide
Adolf Hitler commits suicide with a gunshot wound to the head. -
VE Day
The European Axis powers surrender and the war ends in the European theater. -
Potsdam Conference
The goals of the conference included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaties issues, and countering the effects of the war. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
The first of it's kind, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki
Another Atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. -
VJ Day
Japan surrenders and the war is ended in the Pacific theater. -
Truman Doctrine
An international relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman in a speech which stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from joining the Soviet sphere. -
Marshall Plan
The American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization is formed to establish a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. -
Mao Zedong &People’s Republic of China
Mao Zedong declares China now as The People's Republic of China. -
Korean War
A war between the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), at one time supported by China and the Soviet Union. -
Stalin’s death
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, dies. -
Warsaw Pact
A collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. -
Vietnam War
A Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from December 1956 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. -
Sputnik
The first artificial Earth satellite is launched into space by the Soviet Union. -
Khrushchev Takes Power
This is the day Khrushchev rises to power in the Soviet Union. -
Bay of Pigs
An American CIA-sponsored attempt to overthrow the new government of Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro. -
Berlin Wall
A barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other side. -
Gorbachev
Gorbachev takes power in the Soviet Union. -
Soviet Union falls
The Soviet Union falls and splits into many seperate countries.
