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  • Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
    Wednesday Dec 1, 1937
    Second Sino-Japanese War

    The Battle of Nanjing

    Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
    Wednesday Dec 1, 1937

    Building on the hard-won victory in Shanghai, the IJA captured the KMT capital city of Nanjing (December 1937) and Northern Shanxi (September–November 1937). These campaigns involved approximately 350,000 Japanese soldiers, and considerably more Chinese.




  • Belgrade, Serbia
    Dec, 1937
    Josip Broz Tito

    Tito arranged for a demonstration to greet the French foreign minister

    Belgrade, Serbia
    Dec, 1937

    In December 1937, Tito arranged for a demonstration to greet the French foreign minister when he visited Belgrade, expressing solidarity with the French against Nazi Germany.




  • Dachau, Bavaria, Germany
    Dec, 1937
    Heinrich Himmler

    The Development of The Camps

    Dachau, Bavaria, Germany
    Dec, 1937

    A Hitler decree issued in December 1937 allowed for the incarceration of anyone deemed by the regime to be an undesirable member of society. This included Jews, Gypsies, communists, and those persons of any other cultural, racial, political, or religious affiliation deemed by the Nazis to be Untermensch (sub-human). Thus, the camps became a mechanism for social and racial engineering. By the outbreak of World War II in autumn 1939, there were six camps housing some 27,000 inmates. Death tolls were high.




  • Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
    Monday Dec 13, 1937
    Second Sino-Japanese War

    Nanjing Massacre

    Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
    Monday Dec 13, 1937

    Historians estimate that between December 13, 1937, and late January 1938, Japanese forces killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese (mostly civilians) in the "Nanjing Massacre" (also known as the "Rape of Nanjing"), after its fall but the numbers are uncertain and possibly inflated coupled with the fact that the government of the People's Republic of China has never undertaken a full accounting of the Massacre.




  • Nanjing, China
    Dec, 1937
    World War II

    Japanese captured Nanjing

    Nanjing, China
    Dec, 1937

    The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December 1937.




  • Teruel, Aragon, Spain
    Wednesday Dec 15, 1937
    Spanish Civil War

    Battle of Teruel

    Teruel, Aragon, Spain
    Wednesday Dec 15, 1937

    The Battle of Teruel was an important confrontation. The city, which had formerly belonged to the Nationalists, was conquered by Republicans in January. The Francoist troops launched an offensive and recovered the city by 22 February, but Franco was forced to rely heavily on German and Italian air support. The Battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel during the Spanish Civil War. The combatants fought the battle between December 1937 and February 1938, during the worst Spanish winter in twenty years. The battle was one of the bloodier actions of the war with the city changing hands several times, first falling to the Republicans and eventually being re-taken by the Nationalists. In the course of the fighting, Teruel was subjected to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. The two sides suffered over 140,000 casualties between them in the two-month battle. It was a decisive battle of the war, as Francisco Franco's use of his superiority in men and material in regaining Teruel made it the military turning point of the war.




  • Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
    Tuesday Dec 21, 1937
    Walt Disney

    Releasing Snow White

    Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
    Tuesday Dec 21, 1937

    By 1934, Disney had become dissatisfied with producing formulaic cartoon shorts, and believed a feature-length cartoon would be more profitable. The studio began the four-year production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on the fairy tale. Snow White premiered in December 1937 to high praise from critics and audiences. The film became the most successful motion picture of 1938 and by May 1939 its total gross of $6.5 million made it the most successful sound film made to that date. Disney won another Honorary Academy Award, which consisted of one full-sized and seven miniature Oscar statuettes. The success of Snow White heralded one of the most productive eras for the studio; the Walt Disney Family Museum calls the following years "the 'Golden Age of Animation' ".


  • China
    Saturday Dec 25, 1937
    Mao Zedong

    The Formation of a United Front

    China
    Saturday Dec 25, 1937

    Although Chiang intended to ignore Mao's message and continue the civil war, he was arrested by one of his own generals, Zhang Xueliang, in Xi'an, leading to the Xi'an Incident; Zhang forced Chiang to discuss the issue with the Communists, resulting in the formation of a United Front with concessions on both sides on December 25, 1937.


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