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Mao Zedong heads Long March
As the Communists and Nationalists were fighting in the civil war, Jiang gathered his army of 700,000 men. The Communists fled and walked for 6,000 miles. They were led by Mao Zedong. Thosands died from hunger, cold, exposure, and battle wounds. -
Germany invades Poland; France and Great Britain declare war on Germany
Hitler surprise attacked Poland to conquer it. They bombed Poland's capital, Warsaw. Afterwards, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. Hitler annexed the western half of Poland. It had a large German population. Hitler's military strategy was called the Blitzkrieg (lightning war). -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
Isoroku Yamamoto was Japan’s greatest naval strategist who called for an attack on US fleet in Hawaii that had to be destroyed. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sunk and damaged 19 ships. 2300 Americans were killed, and 1100 were wounded. The US military leaders didn’t know when or where attack would occur. -
United Nations formed
The United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union began the original U.N. Declaration after World War II. It was signed by 26 nations, as a formal act of opposition to Germany, Italy, and Japan, the Axis Powers in 1945. -
Germany surrenders
During the Battle of the Bulge, German tanks broke through American defenses along a 75 mile front in Ardennes. The Allies pushed Germans back and the Germans retreated because there were no reinforcements available. The war in Europe drew to a close when General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of Third Reich from the German military. -
Allies use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
President Truman’s advisers informed him that an invasion of Japanese homeland might cost Allies half a million lives.
The atomic bomb would bring the war to end. It was developed by the Manhattan Project, headed by General Leslie Groves and J Robert Oppenheimer. President Truman warned the Japanese that unless they surrendered, they would drop the A-bomb. The US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 70,000 people died from each bomb. The radiation fallout killed many more.
