Curated category
Proxy wars
- Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels, and it ended with a dictatorship that ruled Spain…
- Cuban RevolutionThe Cuban Revolution began not with a gunshot but with a lawsuit. In the months following the 10th of March 1952 coup, Fidel Castro, then a young lawyer…
- Iraq WarAt 5:34 in the morning on the 20th of March 2003, Baghdad time, the United States began bombing Iraq. There was no declaration of war.
- First Indochina WarThe First Indochina War began on the 19th of December 1946, when fighting erupted across Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh's government fled the capital for the forested…
- Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War began on the 1st of November 1955 and did not end until the 30th of April 1975 - nearly two decades of armed conflict across Vietnam, Laos…
- Cambodian–Vietnamese WarThe Cambodian-Vietnamese War began on the 25th of December 1978, when 150,000 Vietnamese troops crossed into Cambodia and dismantled a government in just two…
- Gulf WarThe Gulf War pitted Iraq against a coalition of 42 countries led by the United States. On the 2nd of August 1990, Iraq invaded its small neighbor Kuwait and…
- Bay of Pigs InvasionThe Bay of Pigs Invasion ended in total defeat within three days. On the 20th of April 1961, the invading force of Cuban exiles surrendered to the Cuban…
- Congo CrisisThe Congo Crisis began on the 30th of June 1960, the very day the Republic of the Congo celebrated its independence from Belgium.
- United States invasion of GrenadaAt dawn on the 25th of October 1983, the United States invaded Grenada, a small Caribbean island nation, in an operation codenamed Urgent Fury.
- Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War began on the 1st of August 1927 with a Communist uprising in the city of Nanchang and did not end until the 10th of December 1949, when…
- Korean WarAt 4:40 in the morning on the 25th of June 1950, the Korean People's Army crossed the 38th parallel behind a wall of artillery fire.
- Second French intervention in MexicoOn the 19th of June 1867, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria stood on the Cerro de las Campanas outside Querétaro and faced a firing squad alongside…
- Greek Civil WarThe Greek Civil War began not with a declaration or a battle line, but with a demonstration. On the 3rd of December 1944, at least 200,000 people marched…
- Guatemalan Civil WarThe Guatemalan Civil War began not with an ideological declaration but with a mutiny. On the 13th of November 1960, a group of junior military officers at…
- Nicaraguan RevolutionThe Nicaraguan Revolution lasted nearly three decades, from 1961 to 1990, and cost tens of thousands of lives before it was over.
- Soviet–Afghan WarThe Soviet-Afghan War began on the 25th of December 1979, when the Soviet 40th Army crossed into Afghanistan under the pretext of extending 'international…
- Warsaw Pact invasion of CzechoslovakiaThe Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia began at approximately 11 pm on the 20th of August 1968, when columns of tanks rolled silently toward Prague under…
- Yugoslav WarsThe Yugoslav Wars began on the 26th of June 1991, when the Yugoslav People's Army moved against Slovenia just one day after that republic declared its…
- Sino-Vietnamese WarThe Sino-Vietnamese War lasted roughly a month, yet its consequences shaped East Asia for the next decade. On the 17th of February 1979, roughly 200,000…
- Syrian civil warThe Syrian civil war began in March 2011, when crowds gathered across Syria to demand democratic change from a government that had ruled by fear for decades.
- Lebanese Civil WarThe Lebanese Civil War lasted fifteen years, from 1975 to 1990, and killed an estimated 150,000 people. Nearly one million more fled the country entirely.