The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilians. This represents the most military deaths of any nation by a large margin.
World War II was the biggest and deadliest war in history, involving more than 30 countries. Sparked by the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, the war dragged on for six bloody years until the Allies defeated the Axis powers of Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy in 1945.
Table ranking "History's Most Deadly Events": Influenza pandemic (1918-19) 20-40 million deaths; black death/plague (1348-50), 20-25 million deaths, AIDS pandemic (through 2000) 21.8 million deaths, World War II (1937-45), 15.9 million deaths, and World War I (1914-18) 9.2 million deaths.
World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China.
But both Hitler and Stalin were outdone by Mao Zedong. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million people—easily making it the biggest episode of mass murder ever recorded.
It was over in less than an hour. The Anglo-Zanzibar War is remembered as the shortest war in history, taking place entirely over a period of about 40 minutes on the morning of August 27, 1896.
Nazi Germany, as part of a deliberate program of extermination, systematically killed over 11 million people including 6 million Jews. In addition to Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet gulags (labor camps) led to the deaths of 3.6 million civilians.
On January 23, 1556, more people died than on any day by a wide margin. Although military weaponry has advanced vastly since 1556, including the nuclear bombs' advent, mother nature's wrath has yet to be passed by humanity. The world population in 1556 is estimated to have been less than 500 million people.
With this context and timeframe in mind, the demographers estimate that 109 billion people have lived and died over the course of 192,000 years.
According to historian Niall Ferguson, France is the most successful military power in history.
In antiquity, no one stands taller than Alexander the Great - the young military genius who never once lost a battle and established a vast empire that heralded a new historical era.
The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers.
Though they existed more than eight centuries ago, Genghis Khan and the Mongols are still regarded as the most-feared military of all time. This is due to their reign over an incredible empire that they conquered in a short period of time.
Abstract. At sixty years plus, the civil war in Burma (Myanmar) is currently the longest ongoing civil war in the world. There are approximately 135 recognized ethnic groups which inhabit Burma. These vast cultural differences and identities play an important role in this protracted civil war.
The heaviest loss of life for a single day occurred on July 1, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, when the British Army suffered 57,470 casualties.
World War II ended with Japan's surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. While more than 80 million people lost their lives, the anti-Semitic Nazis massacred nearly 6 million Jews in an act of genocide.
Longstanding research and trends have pinpointed January as the deadliest month of any year.
Military deaths from all causes totaled 21–25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war. More than half of the total number of casualties are accounted for by the dead of the Republic of China and of the Soviet Union.
The 58-year Arab-Israeli conflict is but the latest manifestation of what may be called the world's longest war – a 2,500-year struggle between the world of Europe and the world of Western Asia, the region now called the Middle East.
The Battle of Verdun, 21 February-15 December 1916, became the longest battle in modern history. It was originally planned by the German Chief of General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn to secure victory for Germany on the Western Front.
The little known Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes. The story begins with the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar treaty between Britain and Germany in 1890.