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Japanese Invasion of China
Known as the Sino-Japanese War, lasted till September 9, 1945. -
Rape of Nanking
In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of carnage would become known as the Rape of Nanking and represented the single worst atrocity during the World War II era in either the European or Pacific theaters of war. -
Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact
Shortly before WWII broke out in Europe-enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
Germany's invasion on Poland
The German-Soviet Pact of August 1939, which stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks fo the invasion. -
Fall of Paris
Parisians awoke to the sound of German accented voices announcing via speakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 pm. as German troops enter and occupy Paris. -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of japanese fighter planes attacked the american naval base at pearl harbor near honolulu. the japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 american vessels over 2,000 americans died in the attack. FDR decarled war on japan the next day -
Bataan Death March
During WWII, the forced march of American and Filipino prisoners of war underbrutal conditions by the Japanese military. -
Battle of Midway
6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor the US got ahold of Japans plan and attacked Japan before they could do anything. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union; three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 dicision, and 3,000 tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
German authorities deported or murdered around 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This battle was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the USSR during WWII. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. -
Allied invasion of Italy
The allied invasion of Italy was the allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place on Sep 3 during the early stages of the Italian Campaign of WWII -
D DAY
The Battle of Normandy ended with allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany's control. The invasion was the largest military assault -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. They entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. On Jan 27, 1945 they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. -
Battle of the Bulge
Hitler attempted to split the allied armies in the Northwest Europe. caught off guard american units desperately fought battles to stem the german -
Battle of Iwo Jima
American soldiers make their first strike on japanese homeland at iwo jima -
VE Day - Victory in Europe
German troups throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. Germans surrendered, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers. It was the end of the war. -
Potsdam Declaration
A statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during WWII. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing
American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Wiping out 90% of the city and immediatley killed 80,000 people. 3 days later a second B-29 bomber dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki killing another 40,000 people. -
VJ Day
Japan surrendered to the allies, officially ending world war 2
