Oklahoma City bombing

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl Harbor[nb 4] was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. Background to conflict Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941, looking southwest Diplomatic background The attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to neutralize the U.S. Early in 1941, President Franklin D.

NKVD prisoner massacres Process[edit] With the invasion of Russia by German forces, the NKVD was responsible for evacuating prisons in the occupied regions. More than 140,000 prisoners were successfully evacuated by the NKVD. More than 9,800 were reportedly executed in the prisons, 1,443 were executed in the process of evacuation, 59 were killed for attempting to escape, 23 were killed by German bombs, and 1057 died from other causes.[6] The massacres[edit] The NKVD and the Red Army killed prisoners in many places from Poland (e.g. Entrance to memorial in Piatykhatky Katyn-Kharkiv memorial Belarus[edit] Hrodna (Grodno): on June 22, the NKVD executed several dozen people at the local prison. Estonia[edit] Tartu: on July 9, 1941, almost 250 detainees were shot in Tartu prison and the Gray House courtyard; their bodies were dumped in makeshift graves and in the prison well.[17]Kautla massacre: on July 24, 1941 the Red Army killed more than 20 civilians and burnt their farms. Latvia[edit] Lithuania[edit] Poland[edit]

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki In August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in human history. Background Pacific War Main article: Pacific War As the Allied advance moved inexorably towards Japan, conditions became steadily worse for the Japanese people. Preparations to invade Japan Even before the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945, plans were underway for the largest operation of the Pacific War, Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan. U.S. Japan's geography made this invasion plan obvious to the Japanese; they were able to predict the Allied invasion plans accurately and thus adjust their defensive plan, Operation Ketsugō, accordingly. The Americans were alarmed by the Japanese buildup, which was accurately tracked through Ultra intelligence. Air raids on Japan A B-29 over Osaka on June 1, 1945

Jonestown Coordinates: Jonestown Georgetown Kaituma Peoples Temple Agricultural Project ("Jonestown", Guyana) "Jonestown" was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project formed by the Peoples Temple, an American religious organization under the leadership of Jim Jones, in northwestern Guyana. A total of 909 Americans[1] died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones and some members on an audio tape of the event and in prior discussions. The actions in Jonestown have been commonly viewed as mass suicide, although some sources, including Jonestown survivors, regard them as mass murder instead.[2][3] It was the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until September 11, 2001.[4] In recent years, the Jonestown massacre has been the subject of several conspiracy theories. Origins[edit] Some of the Peoples Temple California locations

Korean War POWs detained in North Korea "Korean War POWs (Prisoners of War) Detained in North Korea" (Korean: 국군포로) refer to the tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers who were captured by the North Korean and Chinese forces during the Korean War (1950–53) but were not returned during the prisoner exchanges under the 1953 Armistice Agreement. Most are presumed dead but the South Korean government estimates some 560 South Korean POWs still survive in North Korea.[1][2] The unaccounted South Korean POW issue has been in dispute since the Armistice in 1953. North Korea continues to deny it holds these South Korean POWs.[3] Interest in this issue has been renewed since 1994, when Lt. Cho Chang-ho, a former South Korean soldier presumed to have been killed in the war, escaped from North Korea. There have also been reports that several hundred American POWs may not have been returned by North Korea.[4][5] But the vast majority of unaccounted POWs are South Koreans. Origins[edit] Number of POWs held in North Korea[edit]

Nanking Massacre An accurate estimation of the death toll in the massacre has not been achieved because most of the Japanese military records on the killings were deliberately destroyed or kept secret shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945. The International Military Tribunal of the Far East estimated in 1948 over 200,000 Chinese killed in the incident.[5] China's official estimate is more than 300,000 dead based on the evaluation of the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal in 1947. The death toll has been actively contested among scholars since the 1980s, with typical estimates ranging from 40,000 to over 300,000.[6][7] Military situation Relocation of the capital After losing the Battle of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek knew that the fall of Nanking would simply be a matter of time. Leaving General Tang Shengzhi in charge of the city for the Battle of Nanking, Chiang and many of his advisors flew to Wuhan, where they stayed until it was attacked in 1938. Strategy for the defense of Nanking Battle of Nanking

The Holocaust The Holocaust (from the Greek ὁλόκαυστος holókaustos: hólos, "whole" and kaustós, "burnt")[2] also known as Shoah (Hebrew: השואה, HaShoah, "the catastrophe"; Yiddish: חורבן, Churben or Hurban, from the Hebrew for "destruction"), was the mass murder or genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, throughout the German Reich and German-occupied territories.[3] Of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately two-thirds were killed.[4] Over one million Jewish children were killed in the Holocaust, as were approximately two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men.[5] A network of over 40,000 facilities in Germany and German-occupied territory were used to concentrate, hold, and kill Jews and other victims.[6] The persecution and genocide were carried out in stages. Etymology and use of the term Distinctive features Origins

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba ( i/ˈkjuːbə/; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( )), is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba comprises the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the capital of Cuba and its largest city. The island of Cuba was inhabited by numerous Mesoamerican tribes prior to the landing of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492, who claimed it for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, and with over 11 million inhabitants, is the second-most populous after Hispaniola, albeit with a much lower population density than most nations in the region. Cuba ranks high in metrics of health and education, with a high Human Development Index of 0.780 as of 2013. Etymology[edit] History[edit] Prehistory[edit] Sketch of a Taíno woman, also known as the Arawak by the Spanish. Spanish colonization and rule (1492-1898)[edit] On September 1, 1548, Dr.

Black Holocaust in America