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The Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria on September 18, 1931, immediately after the 2nd incident (Mukden Incident). The puppet state of Manchukuo was established by the Japanese at the end of the war in February 1932. Their occupation persisted until the Second World War's conclusion, in the middle of August 1945, when the Soviet Union and Mongolia were successful in their Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. -
Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy came to an agreement that allowed for the annexation of the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia by Germany. -
On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland, starting World War II. As a result of German aggression, France and Great Britain declared war on Hitler's Germany. -
While the 4th Infantry Division cleared the eastern half of Paris, the 2nd Armored Division quickly cleared the western half. Paris was set free. -
The Battle of Britain was a Second World War military operation in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy protected the United Kingdom (UK) from widespread attacks by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany. -
Hitler began Operation "Barbarossa," his invasion of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941. It marked the start of the campaign that would ultimately determine the outcome of the Second World War. -
A shocking military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. It happened at the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, in Honolulu Hawaii. -
A naval battle in the Pacific Theater of WWII. Japanese aircraft's attacked and damaged the US base on Midway. -
The Battle of Stalingrad was a significant World War II battle on the Eastern Front where Nazi Germany and its allies battled the Soviet Union in vain to seize control of the southern Russian city of Stalingrad (later renamed Volgograd). The battle exemplified urban warfare because it featured intense close-quarters combat and direct airstrikes against civilians. The Second World War's deadliest battle, the Battle of Stalingrad, took place. -
During the Italian campaign of World War II, the Allied amphibious landing on Italian territory began on September 3, 1943, and was known as the Allied invasion of Italy. Following the successful Allied invasion of Sicily, General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group carried out the operation. -
During World War II's Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy included landing operations and related airborne operations on Tuesday, June 6, 1944. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history, known by the codename Operation Neptune and frequently referred to as D-Day. -
The Liberation of Paris was a World War II military conflict that lasted from August 19, 1944, to August 25, 1944, when the German garrison surrendered the French capital. Since the 22 June 1940 signing of the Armistice, when the Wehrmacht occupied northern and western France, Nazi Germany had been occupying Paris. -
In a significant battle, the United States Marine Corps and Navy landed and captured the Island of Iwo Jima. -
In the last island combat before the projected invasion of mainland Japan, the US Tenth Army's almost 60,000 men and US Marines went ashore at Okinawa on April 1, 1945. -
Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States, on Victory in Europe Day, also known as V-E Day. Victory in Europe Day was observed on May 8, 1945, to commemorate the end of World War II in Europe. -
The first deployed atomic bomb was dropped over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, by an American B-29 bomber. An estimated 140,000 people perished in the explosion directly, while tens of thousands more perished from radioactive exposure. An additional A-bomb was detonated on Nagasaki two days later by a second B-29, killing an estimated 70,000 people. -
Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day), which commemorates the end of World War II, one of the deadliest and most destructive conflicts in history, is observed on this day. On August 14, 1945, war-weary citizens all over the world erupted in joy when President Harry S. Truman declared that Japan had completely surrendered. -
The International Military Tribunal (IMT) was established by the Allies—the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union—after the war. Nazi Germany's top officials were tried between 1945 and 1946 for crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against peace, and conspiring to commit any of the aforementioned crimes.