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The Song Dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝; pinyin: Sòng Cháo; Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao) was the ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as first discernment of true north using a compass.
On 6 August and 9 August, 1945, the USA dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki respectively. More than 200,000 people died as a direct result of these two bombings, during which the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan.<br/><br/> Japan surrendered on 15 August, 1945 and a formal Instrument of Surrender was signed on 2 September, 1945, on the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The surrender was accepted by Gen Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Allied Commander, with representatives of each Allied nation, from a Japanese delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu. A separate surrender ceremony between Japan and China was held in Nanking on 9 September, 1945.<br/><br/> Following this period, MacArthur established bases in Japan to oversee the postwar development of the country. This period in Japanese history is known as the Occupation. US President Harry Truman officially proclaimed an end of hostilities on 31 December, 1946.<br/><br/> After a period of US occupation (1945–1952), Japan regained its independence. Japan was thereafter forbidden to have a standing army or wage war by Article 9 of its Constitution.
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Russian SFSR.<br/><br/> The Tsar was forced to abdicate and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917 (March in the Gregorian calendar; the older Julian calendar was in use in Russia at the time).<br/><br/> In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) government.