Adolf Hitler was gearing up for an invasion of Czechoslovakia. Then Neville Chamberlain intervened.

Hitler's first step on his plan to expand Germany to the east was to annex Austria.

Hitler wanted closer relations with both Britain and Italy. He got half his wish.

Fairy tales date back at least to medieval Europe, and probably further back than that. The 19th century demoted them to children's entertainment, but the twentieth century will find new uses for them.

Chiang Kai-shek has had enough. When the Japanese provoke a confrontation, Chiang and his new Communist allies do not back down, and the result is war.

Dissenting generals kidnap Chiang Kai-shek and force him to negotiate with the Chinese, while in Japan, right-wing radicals in the military consolidate their power.

The generals tried to end the war in a matter of months by moving on the capital. Madrid held, but the Republic couldn't hold its crucial northern enclave.

English language literature of the Jazz Age disdained the old conventions and went off in a new direction, emphasizing the subjectivity of experience and rejecting established authority.

Franklin Roosevelt was very popular in 1936, but he and his campaign had concerns, not only about the Republicans, but about potential challenges from the left.

The Spanish government was aware that a coup was coming and had taken steps against it, though these precautions would prove inadequate. Still, the coup would likely have failed without intervention from Germany and Italy.