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Second Sino-Japanese War

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident

Wednesday Jul 7, 1937
Beijing, China

On the night of July 7, 1937, Chinese and Japanese troops exchanged fire in the vicinity of the Marco Polo (or Lugou) Bridge, a crucial access-route to Beijing. What began as confused, sporadic skirmishing soon escalated into a full-scale battle in which Beijing and its port city of Tianjin fell to Japanese forces (July–August 1937).


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