-
Joseph Stalin
He was the Russian leader who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist party and created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition. -
Benito Mussolini
He was a Fasicst dictaor of Italy. He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia and joined Germany in the Axis Pact. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy. -
Emperor Hirohito
He was emperor of Japan during World War II. He forced the Japanese governement to surrender which ended World War II. -
FDR
He began the New Deal programs to help the nation out of the Great Depression, and he was the nation's leader during most of WWII. -
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany on January 30th, 1933 until 1945 when WWII came to an end. He was the leader of the NAZI party and he was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jewish people. -
The Holocasut
The Holocasut was the mass murder of approximately 6 million Jews (as well as some other persectued groups like the Gypsies and homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime during WWII. -
Chamberlain
He served as prime minister from 1937-1940. He is best known for his "appeasement" toward Adolf Hitler's Germany and for signing the Muncih Agreement which relinquished part of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis. Later in 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. -
The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a US government research project that produced the first atomic bomb. Albert Einstien and who fled Nazi persecution, and Enrico FErmi who escaped Fascist Italy, agreed to help the President with the project. -
Blitzkrieg
The term Blizkrieg literally means "lighting war". It was invented by German Field Marshal Hienz Guderian. The plan was to move as quickly as possible before the ememy can get organized and launch a counter attack. -
Winston Churchill
He was a soldier, polititain, and then finally the prime minsiter of Britain. He was one of Britian's greatest 20th chentury heroes. He is particularly remembered for his indomitable spirtit while leading Great Britain to victory in Worl War II. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Befor 8 a,m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. It lasted approximately 2 hours but it managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessel,s, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 20 airplanes. More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died and 1,000 were wounded. -
Japanese-American Interment Camps
120,000 Japanese-Americans were forced into 1 of 10 camps all over the US causing the loss of homes and businesses. 600,000 mor renounced their citizenship. -
Battle of Midway
It was considered the turning point in the Pacific Theater. In this battle, the Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers which they never fully recovered from. The Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned to lure the US fleet into a trap, but the Americans were able to break the Japanese code allowing them to pull off a stunning victory. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad is considered to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union. It was also one of the bloodiest battles in history, with 2 million soldier and civilian deaths. -
Island Hopping
During WWII, an Allied s trategy of capturing Japanese-held islands to gains control of the Pacific Ocean. Ameican ships whould shell an island, while tropps waded ahsore. The hadn-to-hand combat would last until the island was captured. -
Hideki Tojo
He was the Prime Minister of Japan when Pearl Harbor took place plunging the Far East into a war which was to end with the destruction of Hiroshima in August 1945. For leading Japan into WWII, he was executed as a war criminal. He was accuesed of instigating Japan's agressive forgein policy in the early 1940s and permitting the abuse of prisoners-of-war for which he was found guilty and hanged. -
Normandy Invasion
The Normandy Invasion began in 1944, also known as D-Day, with 156,000 American, British and Canadien forces who landed on five beaches along a 50 mile stretch in the coast of France. By late August, all of northern France was liberated, and by the following spring the Allies defeated the Germans. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major Nazi offensive between December 1944 and January 1945. It was an attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in to two in their drive towards Germany by eliminating their ability to supply each other. -
Harry Truman
He led the country through the last few months of WWII. He is best known for making the controversial decision to use two atomic bombs against Japan. After the war, Trumna was crucial in the implementation of the Marshall Plan, which greatly accelerated Western Europe's economic recovery. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American forces invaded the island of Iwo Jima to secure airstrips for american B-29 flyers. On March 26, 1945 when the battle ended, 7,000 Americans had died and 24,000 were wounded which a majority were Marines. This island became a safe haven for those who had to make a 3,000 mile bombing runs to Japon. -
Battle of Okinawa
This battle featured massive casualties among both combatants and civilians. The Japanese launched over 1,500 kamikaze attacks against the US fleet. The battle also saw large numbers of Japanese troops surrender, although many were native Okinawans forced into fighting. -
Dropping the Bomb
For President Truman dropping the bomb on Japan was the hardest decision during his presidency. Regardless on August 6, 1945 a plane called the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Instantly 70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized. In the months and years that followed, an additional 80,000 died from radiation and burns.