The Great War (WWI)
This archduke’s 1914 assassination in Sarajevo is widely considered the "spark" that ignited World War I.
Who was Archduke Franz Ferdinand?
This 1919 treaty officially ended WWI but is often blamed for creating the conditions that led to WWII.
What was the Treaty of Versailles?
This "Lightning War" tactic used coordinated air and tank strikes to quickly overwhelm enemy defenses.
What was Blitzkrieg?
This British Prime Minister famously promised "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" during the Battle of Britain. He was also a fan of brandy and cigars.
Who was Winston Churchill?
This 1942 naval battle is considered the most decisive turning point in the Pacific Theater.
What was the Battle of Midway?
Daily Double
This German military strategy involved a quick strike through neutral Belgium to knock France out of the war early.
What was the Schlieffen Plan?
This international organization was created after WWI to prevent future conflicts, though the U.S. famously never joined.
What was the League of Nations?
This Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack on a U.S. naval base brought the United States into World War II.
What was Pearl Harbor?
This Supreme Allied Commander planned Operation Overlord and later became the 34th U.S. President. He also ran the first ever presidential campaign commercial.
Who was Dwight D. Eisenhower?
At this 1945 conference, the "Big Three" met to discuss the post-war reorganization of Germany and Europe.
What was the Yalta Conference?
In 1917, Germany resumed this type of naval warfare, leading the U.S. to sever diplomatic ties and eventually enter the war.
What was Unrestricted Submarine Warfare?
This failed policy, associated with Neville Chamberlain, involved giving in to Hitler’s territorial demands to avoid war.
What was Appeasement?
This massive amphibious invasion on June 6, 1944, opened a second front in Western Europe.
What was D-Day (or Operation Overlord)?
Daily Double
This mathematician and codebreaker led the team at Bletchley Park that cracked the German Enigma code.
Who was Alan Turing?
This policy, used by the U.S. in the Pacific, involved bypassing heavily fortified positions to seize strategic airfields.
What was Island Hopping?
This communication was intercepted by the British and shown to the Americans, which only ratched up tensions between the US and Germany.
What was the Zimmerman Telegram?
This period of extreme global economic downturn in the 1930s helped radical leaders like Hitler rise to power.
What was the Great Depression?
Even though it didn't happen in New York, this top-secret U.S. research project led to the development of the first atomic weapons.
What was the Manhattan Project?
Known as the "Desert Fox," this German field marshal was respected by both sides for his tactical skill in North Africa.
Who was Erwin Rommel?
This German counter-offensive in the Ardennes Forest in late 1944 was Hitler’s last major gamble in the West.
What was the Battle of the Bulge?
This was the largest American-led offensive of the war, involving over 1.2 million U.S. soldiers in late 1918.
What was the Meuse-Argonne Offensive?
In 1931, the League of Nations failed to act when Japan invaded this resource-rich region of Northeast China.
What was Manchuria?
This turning point on the Eastern Front saw the surrender of the German 6th Army and halted Hitler's advance into the USSR.
What was the Battle of Stalingrad?
This scientist, often called the "Father of the Atomic Bomb," famously quoted the Bhagavad Gita after the first successful test. "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"
Who is J. Robert Oppenheimer?
These 1945-1946 trials established the legal principle that "following orders" is not a defense for crimes against humanity.
What were the Nuremberg Trials?