Here's How it Happened Trivia Quiz

July of 1940 opened with the Battle of Britain, the first major military offensive to be fought entirely by the air forces of two respective fronts. The Germans, under Adolf Hitler's rule, were seeking to (a) create a sea blockade around Great Britain and (b) incapacitate Britain's RAF (Royal Air Force) Fighter Command to restrict their overall ability to respond to Germany's threat. The ultimate aim for Hitler was to bring Britain to a position where they had little choice but to seek an armistice. This would, most likely, remove them from the war.

After France and the low countries had been overwhelmed by the Germans it opened up the door for them to launch both an air and sea attack, an operation Hitler would call "Sea Lion", on Great Britain and with this came the prospect of that nation's outright surrender. However, the Luftwaffe failed in their bid to outpoint the RAF and the RAF's ability to launch night raids on Germany, severely disrupted Hitler's plans, which led to Germany's first major defeat in the war.

Just before 8:00am on Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. The lead up to this attack had come after months of intense negotiations between Japan and the United States. The Japanese were seeking an end to the sanctions that the US had imposed upon them, further, that the USA stopped their assistance to China while Japan was involved in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and that they (Japan) be allowed access to valuable resources in the Dutch East Indies.

The Us, on the other hand, were insisting that Japan move out of both China and French Indonesia. This did not suit Japan. They were planning a range of actions in South-East Asia, on territories that were parts of the USA, Great Britain and the Netherlands, and the impasse in negotiations would cause significant delays. They chose to take belligerent action. As the Netherlands had been overrun by the Germans and Britain had their hands tied with their conflict with the Germans, the only real stumbling block was the USA's Pacific fleet... hence the attack.

The Manhattan Project was a collaboration between the USA and Great Britain in an effort to produce the world's first nuclear weapon. The project, which ran from 1942 to 1946, was under the guidance of Major General Leslie Groves, with J. Robert Oppenheimer in control of the laboratory at Los Alamos, where the bombs were designed.

The work toward a nuclear weapon had turned into a race with the German army, with each one fearful that the other would gain an advantage. As a consequence, this project, also involved the gathering of intelligence into how the Germans were progressing. The project, which employed some 130,000 workers and cost almost $2 billion, would produce two styles of atomic bomb - a gun type fission weapon and a fission impact weapon.

In the evening of July 24, 1943, and the early hours of the next day, Italy's Grand Council met to discuss the country's fate. The loudest voice at this meeting came from Dino Grandi who argued that Benito Mussolini's leadership (read dictatorship) had brought their country to the brink of disaster and that Il Duce's power needed to be diluted. Significantly, the weakest voice at this meeting was that of a, seemingly, tired Mussolini.

Despite loud protestations from the extremists who were supporting Mussolini, the motion was passed. Il Duce, for his part, merely shrugged and accepted the decision. After that meeting, in the early hours of the following day, Mussolini went to his regular meeting with King Victor Emanuele. The King informed Mussolini that General Pietro Badoglio would be appointed Prime Minister of the country. Mussolini did not object to the decision. He left the meeting and, stepping out of the King's chambers, where he was met by police and duly arrested.

Also known as the Ardennes Offensive, the Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II. Their (the German's) plan was to cut off the Allies' access to the port at Antwerp and to break up their lines. Should they succeed in this they would then be able to circle the four Allied armies, placing them in a position where they'd have little option but to negotiate a treaty that would strongly favour the Axis power. Essentially, this was a last ditch effort by the German army to salvage their position in the war.

History shows that the offensive failed but not before there were significant casualties on both sides. The Germans would suffer up to 100,000 casualties, which their armed forces could not replace. Their Luftwaffe also suffered significant losses and, by the end, they were virtually without men or equipment. The Allies didn't fare so well either, suffering up to an estimated 80,000 casualties. For the USA, it would prove to be the bloodiest single battle they'd be involved in during this war.

Attending this meeting, which took place in the Crimean town between February 4 and 11, 1945, were the US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill and the Soviet Premier, Joseph Stalin.

At the time of the conference, a victory for the Allies in Europe appeared to be inevitable, but it was the War in the Pacific that was still problematic. The US and the UK saw that the involvement of the Soviets was essential to avoid an extended conflict and, to secure their support, the Soviets were to be granted a "sphere of influence" in Manchuria, once the Japanese had surrendered.

Other matters that were discussed involved what to do with Germany after the war and there was an agreement between the governments that those Eastern European nations that bordered the USSR were to be "friendly". Read that as sympathetic to the USSR. The discussions were considered, at the time, to be a great success and the mood amongst the leaders appeared to be celebratory. However, the death of Roosevelt some two months later would see a new administration at the helm of the United States, and they would clash with the Soviets. It provided the detractors of Roosevelt with the opportunity to denounce him and claim that he had "sold them out".

The Philippines became a Spanish colony back in 1565 and, though there were numerous revolts against this rule, they tended to fail due to a lack of unity. This changed with the dawn of nationalism in the 19th century. The anti-colonial movement organized another revolt in 1896. However, this only resulted in a stalemate that wasn't broken until the outbreak of the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Part of the US strategy in this battle involved their arrival in the Philippines with the goal of destroying the Spanish's Asiatic fleet. The Treaty of Paris of 1898, which ended this hostility, effectively granted possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. The only hiccup here was that the Filipinos had not been consulted, they weren't impressed and so the war for their independence resumed, this time against the United States.

Political negotiations over the years led to the establishment of a number of Acts that would, presumably, lead to the Philippines establishing autonomy, however, these plans were continually being interrupted. Initially it was World War I that got in the way and then came the Great Depression. World War II would surface a short while later, with the eventual occupation of the country by Japan.

The Filipinos had continually worked with the USA and provided them with support during the wars. They had demonstrated that they were able to operate independently and, as a result, on the 4th of July, 1946, the USA officially recognized the Philippines as an independent sovereign nation.

Charles "Chuck" Yeager was a World War II ace with eleven victories to his name as well as being one of the US Air Force's most respected pilots. Whilst these assisted his selection as the first test pilot for supersonic flight, what sealed the deal for him was his innate ability to understand the machine he was flying and then relay the information as to how the plane was handling, back to those monitoring on the ground.

On October 14, 1947 a Boeing B29 bomber lifted to 20,000 feet above Rogers Dry Lake in California where it released Yeager's Bell X-1 from its bomb bay doors. Yeager then took the Bell to 42,000 feet and commenced a series of test runs. Fourteen minutes after its release from the Boeing's bomb bay, the Bell X-1 made a rather anti-climactic landing in the desert, after having powered to Mach 1.06 and breaking through the sound barrier.

The results of these experiments were immediately applied to the United State's new generation of fighter planes and signaled the dawn of a new age of security during a touchy period that was to become known as the Cold War. However, whilst the advantages of supersonic flight had great military advantages it would prove too costly at the time for other commercial applications.

After World War II Germany was divided up between the forces of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. These areas were also divided into occupation zones. Berlin, was divided into four occupation zones between the abovenamed three nations and France. The main issue for France, the US and Britain was that Berlin resided deep into the Soviet occupied eastern part of the country and this was a dormant powder-keg waiting for its fuse to be lit.

Into this volatile arena came the growing hostilities that were festering between Soviets and the western nations, the inability of the Potsdam Conference to adequately address the issue of what needed to be done with Germany and the Marshall Plan which, while administering the European programme of recovery, was also advocating that a bulwark against communism be created across Europe. Needless to say, the Soviets were not impressed.

Tensions took a turn for the worst when USA and Great Britain merged their two Berlin zones and then launched a new Deutschmark, which was aimed at wresting economic control of Berlin from the Soviets. On the 24th of June, 1948, the Soviet forces, which far outnumbered their western counterparts, responded by establishing a blockade around the city. All roads, rail, ports and canal entries into Berlin were blocked off, effectively strangling the supply of electricity and vital foodstuffs to the city. The USA attacked the problem via the air, using planes to deliver food supplies and fuel to the besieged city until the Soviets lifted their blockade, some eleven months later.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed in 1921 as an attached body to the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang. A large number of Chinese communists would combine with the Nationalists in 1926 in the war against the warlords in the land, who were proving to be a major stumbling block in the road toward a strong central government. This partnership worked well until 1927 when the Nationalists turned on the communists, killing many and purging them from the party.

Further complications arose for the Nationalists in 1931 when Japan decided to invade Manchuria. The Nationalists now found themselves being attacked on three fronts; the communists, the warlords and the Japanese. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek chose to ignore the Japanese, fearing that the CCP was a greater threat to its rule. The CCP then tried to force a co-operative by kidnapping the Nationalist leader and, for a brief period, there was a union but it died as quickly as it was created. The CCP then decided that its future lay in strengthening its base and set about building support in the rural sector.

World War II arrived and the support for the communists grew. The eventual surrender of the Japanese, however, would see tensions between the parties resurface. The USA stepped in and tried to broker a peace deal between the Nationalists and the CCP leader Mao Zedong. These talks collapsed and the country was plunged into all out civil war by 1946. Despite not having control of any of the major cities, the strong support that the CCP had cultivated and a large stock of weapons that they'd seized after Japan had been evicted from Manchuria, gave them a decisive advantage. In 1949 Chiang Kai-Shek saw the writing on the wall and fled to Taiwan while, in October that year, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China.