1. World War II: Fought from 1939 to 1945, the Second World War is the deadliest conflict in history, with over 70 million fatalities.
Here's What You Need To Remember: The most lethal war in human history is almost certainly World War II. Other wars may have been more lethal but lack credible records. Sixty to eighty million people died between 1939 and 1945. Twenty one to twenty five million of the deaths were military, the remainder civilian.
Table ranking "History's Most Deadly Events": Influenza pandemic (1918-19) 20-40 million deaths; black death/plague (1348-50), 20-25 million deaths, AIDS pandemic (through 2000) 21.8 million deaths, World War II (1937-45), 15.9 million deaths, and World War I (1914-18) 9.2 million deaths.
By far the most costly war in terms of human life was World War II (1939–45), in which the total number of fatalities, including battle deaths and civilians of all countries, is estimated to have been 56.4 million, assuming 26.6 million Soviet fatalities and 7.8 million Chinese civilians were killed.
Russia's defeat at the hands of Japan in the Russo-Japanese War marked the first time in the modern era that an Asian power was able to defeat a Western nation.
On April 9, 1942, Major General Edward P. King Jr. surrenders at Bataan, Philippines—against General Douglas MacArthur's orders—and 78,000 troops (66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 Americans), the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to surrender, are taken captive by the Japanese.
marines are the first to fight and determined to succeed.
Since 1775, Marines have valiantly fought and died to protect our nation and advance its ideals. Our long and proud heritage of faithful service is fueled by an uncommon fighting spirit and the grit to continue on when others quit.
False surrender
It is a war crime under Protocol I of the Geneva Convention.
Japan won a convincing victory over Russia, becoming the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a European power.
Flanked by Europe and Asia, Russia has experienced three major invasions in its history: by the Mongols in the 13th century, Napoleon in 1812, and Hitler in 1941. “In Russia, survival of the state itself has been a primary concern historically,” Carleton says.
Battle of the Somme, 1916
They were so confident that they told their troops to simply walk across no man's land instead of dashing from cover to cover. The British lost around 20,000 soldiers on the first day of the battle. Over the next three months, both the Brits and the Germans lost around half a million men each.
United States. The United States of America is a North American nation that is the world's most dominant economic and military power. Likewise, its cultural imprint spans the world, led in large part by its popular culture expressed in music, movies and television.
Sweden and Switzerland are independently of each other famed for their armed neutralities, which they maintained throughout both World War I and World War II. The Swiss and the Swedes each have a long history of neutrality: they have not been in a state of war internationally since 1815 and 1814, respectively.
Napoleon benefited from the large number of battles in which he led forces. Among his 43 listed battles, he won 38 and lost only 5. Napoleon overcame difficult odds in 17 of his victories, and commanded at a disadvantage in all 5 of his losses. No other general came close to Napoleon in total battles.
by Ben Johnson. The little known Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes. The story begins with the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar treaty between Britain and Germany in 1890.
Four thousand Americans died at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. The battle is remembered as the single bloodiest day in U.S. history.
The heaviest loss of life for a single day occurred on July 1, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, when the British Army suffered 57,470 casualties.
Your heart stops beating. Your brain stops. Other vital organs, including your kidneys and liver, stop. All your body systems powered by these organs shut down, too, so that they're no longer capable of carrying on the ongoing processes understood as, simply, living.
Already, drug-resistant diseases cause at least 700,000 deaths worldwide each year, but “if no action is taken,” that figure could increase to 10 million globally per year by 2050, overtaking diabetes, heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of death in humans, the report states.
by Ben Johnson. The little known Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes. The story begins with the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar treaty between Britain and Germany in 1890.
The Scandalous Love Affair That Started World War I.