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What event is conventionally regarded as the start of World War II in Europe?
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939; France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany two days later. Pearl Harbor (December 1941) brought the United States in; Operation Barbarossa (June 1941) opened the Eastern Front; Munich (1938) was the failed appeasement agreement that preceded the war. The Asian theatre had begun earlier, with Japan's invasion of China in July 1937.
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World War II World War II was a global war fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, Italy, and others) and the Allied powers (the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and others). It killed 70–85 million people and is the deadliest conflict in human history.
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