1900 C.E.-Present

The first economic Soviet Five-Year Plan was created by the General Secretary at the time, Joseph Stalin. The plan was based on the ideals of socialism where systems such as the collective farming would be implemented. A key point in this plan was that more peasants were used in farms but they would be able to use public machines and tractors to help them do their jobs. As a result of this plan, famine had begun to spread across the USSR. The plan, however, was still a success with its economy growing due to industrialization from agriculture and free labor. With its stable economy, the USSR was able to survive and be successful in World War II.

On October 24, 1929, the United States Stock Market had crashed as investors traded about 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in one day. Billions of dollars were lost and it wouldn't stop for years until a stock value would reach only 20% of its total value. Stock prices were completely worthless after October 24, in which would lead other Westernized economic countries to experience the same crashes and eventually lead up to the Great Depression.

Part of Mohandas Gandhi's peaceful protests against British rule in India, the Indian independence leader had led fellow Indians to march against Britain. On this date, Gandhi began his march in protest of the British monopoly on salt. Salt in India is a crucial ingredient for a majority of Indian dishes. As part of the British Salt Acts, Indians were restricted from collecting or selling salt. In order to get salt in India, Indians were forced to buy British-imported salt which also came with a heavy salt tax. Gandhi started from Sabarmati and walked 241 miles down to the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. There, protesters would make their own salt from the salt water in the Arabian Sea. Continuing his efforts, it would lead to British police arresting more than 60,000 people with Gandhi being thrown into that group.

As part of the events that lead to World War II, the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria was the first early events to happen before the war. Manchuria was specifically targeted by the Japanese there was over 200,000 KM of land available. The Japanese were looking for looking for land to take over in the case where there is ever any over-spilling population. Along with the land, there were plenty of resources that Japan had required to keep its economy stable. Japan would ultimately take over Manchuria until the end of World War II.

Augusto César Sandino, leader of the rebellion against the occupation of Nicaragua by the US military. He was notorious for standing up against United States domination and had drawn the United States Marine Corps to join a guerrilla war between the two. The US would later withdraw from Nicaragua in 1933 after Juan Bautista Sacasa was elected President of Nicaragua. Sandino was assassinated by the National Guard of Nicaragua by Anastasio Somoza Garcia while leaving the Presidental Palace.

Already being Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler is elected President of Germany on this day. Following former presidential struggles to maintain power for President Paul con Hindenburg, Heinrich Bruning, and Franz von Papen. They were all former chancellors and presidents of Germany but struggled to maintain the same popularity as the Hitler-driven Nazi Party was preparing to take over the government. Once he gained the Presidency of Germany, he would quickly eliminate anybody who opposed him and passed bills that would merge the role of President and Chancellor to give Hitler full control of the government, including the commander of the army.

During the Chinese Civil war in 1934, Chinese communist went throuhg Nationalists enemy lines in which they would begin the fight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. The Long March was led by communist, Mao Zedong. Throughout the year, Nationalist forces had kept on starving and bombing Mao's communist forces. The Long March had concluded by reaching northern Shaanxi where Red army troops had been waiting for them.

In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's government had implemnted political repression against anyone that was considered a threat to Stalin's communist government. People that were seen as threats such as wealthy peasants would be targeted and there would be an increase in widespread police. More than 600,000 Soviets died during Stalin's Purge

Also known as the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Empire of japan had entered the Republic of China. Japan's purpose for entering China was to gain more land to govern and more resources to use as its economy was beginning to grow in Japan. The invasion is believed by some scholars that it triggered World War II as China was gaining help from the Soviet Union and the United States. Japan would go on to conquer Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores in China. These lands would not be returned to China until the end the war as part of Japan's surrender plan to the Allied Nations.

On March 18, 1938, President and General of Mexico Lazaro Cardenas declare that any and all oil and mineral reserves that are found in Mexico are the property of the government. Following the declaration of nationalization, President Cardenas establishes Petroleos Mexicanos (Mexican Pretolers) which holds the rights to explore and commercialize any oil found within Mexico. Today Petroleos Mexicanos is known in Mexico as PEMEX.

Adolf Hitler announces on this date that Germany is forming a coalition with Austria making Austria part of Germany. Along with the announcement, German troops also marched into Austria with no vote, only an announcement. A vote would later take place in Austria to see if the country wanted to join Nazi Germany. In fear of Hitler and his determination to take Austria, Austria had voted for unity of Germany and Austria with 99.7% saying yes.

Also known as the September Campaign, Adolf Hitler had order the German army to invade Poland along with the Soviet Union. This invasion would mark the beginning of World War II. Germany and the Soviet Union were successful in annexing Poland and both agreed to split Poland into two lands for both to share control of.

In Nazi Germany, it was known as Operation Barbarossa, and the plan was to take over the Soviet Union. For Germany, taking over the Soviet Union would mean an increase a number of peasants that they can make work for free and population growth throughout the land. About 4 million soliders were deployed to the invasion for Germany. A turning point in the invasion occured at the Battle of Moscow where a winter storm had hit the war zone. German soldiers were not prepared for a snow battle compared to USSR soldiers. WIth the Soviet Union having the advantage, the Red Army was able to drive Germany back out and eventually hold once again, their ground as the Soviet Union. Germany was forced to retreat but both sides experienced mass losses in both of their armies.

The Battle of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942. It was between the Soviet Union's Red Army and the German Nazi Army. The battle was one of the deadliest battles with over 2 million people dying both civilian and military from both sides. Scholars consider this battle a turning point for the Allied Nations as it turned Hitler's army back to Germany and eventually allowing the Red Army to surround Germany's capital to defeat Hitler.

During World War II, the Allied Nations had conducted a military operation to liberate Western Europe from Nazi Germany control. The operation began in Normandy, France with more than 156,000 soldiers from the United States, Britain, and Canada landing on the shore that stretched 50 miles across. Prior to this invasion, the United States conducted a similar operation but there was no real fighting as it was only to deceit Nazi Germany from the real battle in Normandy. By August, most of Northern France was liberated from German control which would lead into the following year with the Allied Nations winning the war.

On the final days of Adolf HItler, the Red Army had launched an assault on the German capital and headquarters of Hitler, Berlin. The plan by the Red Army was to surround the city and use every resource available until the city had surrendered. Once the Red Army was able to surround Berlin, Germany went on the defense to protect the capital and Hitler. The Red Army had received assistance from the United States Air Force to bomb the city for the month that the Soviet Union had surrounded the capital. The Red Army was able to break through the defensive border of Germany which would cause panic for Hitler and would eventually lead for him to kill himself right before Germany fell to the Allied Nations. This would lead to many German army groups to continue fighting but wanted to surrender to the Western Allies rather than the Soviet Union.

As part of the Manhattan Project, the Bombing of Hiroshima amd Nagasaki was a nuclear weapons plan developed by the United States in 1945. Japan was part of the Axis Powers in World War II and were fighting in the Pacific War between the United States following the incident at Pearl Harbor. Ordered by President Harry S. Truman, the United States Air Force had dropped several nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing over 129,000 people in Japan. Japan would surrender to the Allies six days after the last bomb was dropped.

Towards the end of World War II, many nations across the world that were part of the war felt the need to establish a peace group that would oversee the world. The United States, Britain, and Soviet Union had originally started the process of creating the UN Declaration before 1942, times where the opposition, the Axis Powers, had grown and threatened the peace of the world. After the war, China and France had joined the UN and thus it was born. It's first real tackle at peace was the growing conflict between East and West Germany.

The Partition of India was the separation of Indian land between India and Pakistan. As part of India's independence from Britain, India had separated two provinces, Bengal and the Punjab. The Radcliffe line was the boundary line between Pakistan and India. The British government in India was dissolved, along with the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. The Indian Independence Act of 1947 came into effect at midnight on August 15th.

Apartheid was a racial segregation system used by South Africa. After the National Assembly gained complete government control of the area, their first laws were the installation of Apartheid. This system would segregate anybody that wasn't white in public. The first thing that the system did was separate white neighborhoods from non-white neighborhoods. Other points in the system included creating separate bathrooms for whites that only they could use. This system would continue for 50 years until the Presidency of F.W. de Klerk where he would remove most of the laws in African's constitution that served as the base for Apartheid.

Prior to the independence of Israel from Palestine in 1947, the Palestine-Arab army had attacked the land of the future state of Israel. The Palestine-Arab army had opposed the United Nations resolution to split what was once Great Britain's Palestine. The region was set to split between Arab and Israeli states. Many nations within the UN agreed with the resolution but Palestinian Arabs didn't. They began to attack various places known to be populated with Jews. When Israel gained its independence, the Palestine-Arab army had continued to grow with more Arabs joining them against Israel. An armistice with several Arab countries wouldn't be signed by Israel until 1949.

Upon the conclusion of World War II, many Jews from the Holocaust were sent Palestine as they were known as Jewish refugees. Many were transported to Palestine via British ships. However, Britain had stopped to provide transportation and closed its borders for Jewish immigrants in Britain and Palestine. This inspired the creation of Israel, a Jewish state for displaced Jews from World War II. Facing backlash, Britain decided to call the UN for a plan for the displaced Jews. The UN assembled a special group to make a plan and thus created the Partition Plan. Following the UN's recommendation, Israel was created.

The Human Rights Declaration was a list of articles within a Declaration that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in the aftermath of World War II. The declaration was not legal binding meaning UN members were not required to follow the rights, rather make their own laws and treaties based on the Human Rights Declaration.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is a military group composed of 26 nations today. When first established, there were only 12 Western states that joined. NATO's purpose was to combine the member nations and their armies and be joined into one single coalition. This means that NATO will use its resources if any of the member nations are attacked. NATO was made in response to the growing Soviet Union and its communism ideals that posed a threat to many nations around the world, including the United States.

After the Chinese Civil War, with the fleeing of General Chiang Kai-shek, the communist leader, Mao Zedong had declared the creation of the People's Republic of China in Beijing. Mao would go on to implement his communist ideals such as putting peasants to work on the farm fields. Other significant achievements were that he was able to abolish drug trafficking and kill mercilessly powerful land owners.

Mostly known in both North and South Korea, the Korean War was more of a civil war between the communist side, North, and democratic South, each with backup from different nations. The war started with North Korea invading the southern side of Korea by passing the 38th Parallel, the set boundary line between North and South. North Korea was backed up by the Soviet Union and China as they both shared similar communist interests. South Korea had the full support for South Korea as both nations shared the same principle of a democratic government. The Korean War may have ended in 1953, but no real peace treaty was ever signed by both sides. Only an armistice was signed but the only purpose of that was a cease-fire and to return the border to the original location prior to the war. To this day, there has not been a peace treaty signed and tensions are still high between North and South Korea, especially at the 38th Parallel.

During World War II, the Algerian movement for independence from France had started to rise and would gain more momentum in World War Ii as France had promised to set Algeria free from France. France never delivered on their promise to Algeria. This caused for Algerians to rebel in both France and Algeria. The National Liberation Front in France had established its view that Algeria deserves to be independent. The Liberation Front had begun a guerrlla war against the National Assembly in France. From there, years of war and violence in populated and urban cities were war torn and would eventually break the National Assembly. Charles de Gaulle had declared that Algeria should gain their independence in 1959. In 1962, after a military coup and many French protests, de Gaulle had signed an agreement that officially made Algeria independent.

Upon the conclusion of World War II, Vietnam's communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, had declared that Vietnam would separate itself from France. In response, France had proposed that Vietnam could exist as an autonomous state within the French Union in 1946. Minh had accepted the proposal but France would soon regain colonial control of Vietnam. With support from the United States, France had declared war against Ho Chi Minh. Minh had received support from Communist China in the war. In Dien Bein Phu, Vietnamese soldiers had ambushed the French-established colony which would force France to step away from Vietnam and forfeit their colonial control.

Established by the Soviet Union in response to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Warsaw Pact was signed by 8 European nations in Warsaw. Its members included Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. The pact established that the member's armies would be in control of the Soviet Union in the case where any of them would be attacked by anyone outside the pact. The armies would come together to defend the attacked nation from any opponent.

Beginning as a student uprising, a student protest had gone through central Budapest and into the Parliment building. In the student protest, one student was shot dead by the State Security Police. This is what sparked for the uprising across Hungary. Students were protesting the Soviet-implemented policies and as soon as people heard the death of the student, a revolution against the Soviet Union was imminent. At first, the USSR was willing to negotiate an exit deal, the Soviets changed their mind and instead went to crush the revolution. A large Soviet army group had entered Hungary and were ordered to kill or arrest anybody in resistance to their rule. Over 2,500 Hungarians were killed in the retaliation and more than 200,000 Hungarians fled the country as refugees/

The Suez Crisis was an attempt invasion of Egypt by Israel. The United Kingdom and France had followed Israel in the invasion despite at first, both nations had given Israel an ultimatum to withdraw. The Israel-led coalition defeated Egyptian forces but by the time it was over, the Suez Canal had been no longer meaningful and both the US and USSR pressured the coalition to withdraw from the war. As a result, UK Prime Minister Anthony Eden had resigned and the UN had established the UNEF Peacekeepers.

An economic plan established by Mao Zedong, President of China, to modernize its economy and be stable enough to be compared to the United States's economy. The plan was to shift focus of economic growth to agriculture and industry. Mao's hope was for the economy to be stable by 1988.

Fidel Castro had come to power in Cuba after being exiled in Mexico where he would form the 26th of July Movement with his brother, Raul and Che Guevara. Once returning to Cuba, he led the Cuban Revolution through a guerrilla war eventually facing Fulgencio Batista's army. Castro would be successful in the fight in which they overthrew Batista and made Fidel Castro Prime Minister and President of Cuba for more than 30 years.

The Sino-Soviet Rift was the end of a relationship between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The reason for the split was different national interests such as the USSR being more communist and China being more Nationalist. The end of economic and political relations between China and the USSR opened the doors for the United States to start friendly relations with China under President Richard Nixon.

The communist government of East Germany had feared that many refugees had wanted to leave East Berlin. With this, East Germany had built the Berlin Wall to separate itself from West Germany in the hopes to prevent refugees from leaving. The Berlin Wall would be used as a border and as a symbol of conflict during the Cold War. The Wall would be opened and demolished in 1989 with East Germany beginning to fail as the rest of communist countries followed throughout Europe.

United States involvment in the Vietnam War included over 2 million troops participating in the war. 500,000 of those troops saw actual combat and 47,244 Americans were killed in action. Many people in the States saw that participation in a stalemate war was not worth the amount of people that were already killed. During President Richard Nixon's first term, he, along with North and South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong, agree to the Paris Peace Accords. The Vietnam War would mark the first defeat of the United States military ever.

The Revolution in Iran was influenced mostly on the disapprove of Shah's rule in Iran. The disapproval turned into civil resistance which would eventually force the Shah to leave Iran for exile on January 16. This marked the last of the Persian monarch but some forces were still loyal to the monarch even after a new Prime Minister was appointed. The loyal forces were defeated and Ayatollah Khomeini was officially inducted as the Prime Minister of Iran.

The war started with Iraq invading Iran and their leader, Saddam Hussain, launching ballistic missiles onto the Persian Gulf. This would be known as the second Persian Gulf War. The reason for the war was that Saddam Hussain wanted to a reason to invade Iran and that Iran was given an unfair amount of land after annexing Khuzestan. Iraq had support from many nations such as the United States, Soviet Union, and France. Meanwhile, Iran had no major support however the war ended in a stalemate with neither army being able to gain any land nor lose any.

On this date, the Soviet Union had begun to withdraw from Afghanistan after supply aid to the country in order to influence communism within its government. Many locals in Afghanistan did not support the communist government nor the military presence of the Soviet Union in the state. A frustrating military conflict ensued between the Russian army and the Afghan Muslim rebels. Neither side won any battles and eventually, Soviet's economy was starting to fail due to the cost of the war in Afghanistan so they withdrew from the land.

The Gulf War was led by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, had ordered the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Saudi Arabia and Egypt had informed the United States and other Western nations to help and intervene. The United Nations Security Council had issues demands for Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait but decided to ignore them and thus the Persian Gulf War started. The United States helped in Operation Desert Storm by flying over and helping the allied coalition while troops were on the ground. Until February 1991, President George H.W. Bush had declared a cease-fire in Kuwait and most of the Iraqi forces had surrendered.

In the final years of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the USSR, had met with the newly elected US President, George H.W. Bush, to discuss plans to turn the USSR into a democratic government in the following years. This led to Gorbachev to implement new reforms that would get rid of communism in the state. On the last day of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev had stated that he was not satisfied with the transition to a democratic government. The day after, he would resign as President of the USSR at the same time the Soviet flag was lowered one last time at the Kremlin in Moscow.

Prior to 1997, China had surrendered Hong Kong to Great Britain with the Convention of Chuenpi and Hong Kong would go on to stand out as a commercial gateway and trade center for Southern China in 1839. At the Second Convention of Peking, Great Britain was guarenteed control of Hong Kong for another 99 years until 1984 where both Britain and China had been negotiating over rule of Hong Kong. In 1997, witnessed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Britain transferred power of Hong Kong to China.

A United States Military prison located in Cuba, this prison was established to hold the most extremely dangerous criminals known to the world. The prison had originally held 779 men and under the Bush Administration, the Geneva Conventions protections would not apply to men in the prison. The camp wasn't made public until the Associated Press had requested for a public record of the camp based on the Freedom of Information Act. The camp is controversial due to their torture methods while interrogating prisoners.

Known as Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an airborne deadly disease that first originated in China in 2003. The disease quickly spread worldwide within a few months but was quickly contained by the World Health Organization. There has been no known occurrence of transmission of SARS, since 2004. There is no treatment for the disease and no one has survived the disease since being discovered in China

A Terrorism event in the United Kingdom, the 2005 London bombings were coordinated attacks by Islamic extremists across the city. Three of the four attacks occured under ground while the fourth one occured in the public street. The three attacks occured within the subway transportation system in London while the other attack had impacted a double-decker bus on a public street. A total of 52 people died from the attacks, most were locals while 3 were from Poland.