1. The Congo Crisis
   World War II
2. The Bay of Pigs Invasion
   The Indian Annexation of Goa

The Battle of Stalingrad was a 3-month battle, lasting from November 1942 to January 1943. German forces surrendered to the Red Army, making it Germany's first major surrender in World War II. This was a turning point in both the war and world history.

1. The First Crusade
   The French Revolution
2. The Hundred Years' War
   The Boer Wars

In 1099, Christian crusaders successfully captured Jerusalem. They pillaged, stole and murdered thousands of people in a bloody frenzy. The capture followed a week-long siege and allowed the crusaders to take Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate.

1. The Cuban Revolution
   The Korean War
2. The First Sudanese Civil War
   World War II

1942's Operation Torch marked the first time that American troops would ever cross the Atlantic. This battle was an Allied victory. It was a relatively easy win for the Allies once they landed in Morocco and Algeria.

1. The Civil Wars of the Tetrarchy
   World War II
2. The Gulf War
   The Russo-Persian Wars

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge was fought between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius in A.D. 312. Constantine's victory played a big part in him becoming the ruler of the Roman Empire.

1. World War II
   The American Civil War
2. The French Revolution
   The Palace Rebellion

During the 1942 Battle of Midway, Japan hoped to lure the United States into a destructive naval battle with forces led by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. The American victory at Midway Atoll allowed U.S. forces to have strategic gains in the South Pacific.

1. World War II
   The French-Indian War
2. The Persian Wars
   The War of the Roses

The Battle of Thermopylae is one of the most famous battles of all time. It was fought during The Persian Wars in 480 BC between the Spartans and the Persians. Although they won the battle, the Persians did suffer heavy casualties at Spartan hands.

1. The American Revolution
   World War I
2. The Womens' War
   The Chaco War

The 1915-1916 Gallipoli Campaign was a part of World War I. It was one of the only victories for the Ottoman Empire during the war, which contributed to the decline of their already crumbling empire.

1. The Vietnam War
   World War II
2. The Greek Civil War
   The American Civil War

In 1940, the Germans bombed Royal Air Force bases and London itself, hoping to intimidate the British out of fighting against them in World War II. British morale did not crack, and high German losses caused Hitler to set his sights on invading the USSR instead.

1. World War II
   The Napoleonic Wars
2. The Korean War
   The Bosnian War

The Battle of Trafalgar was fought in 1805 when Napoleon ordered a naval attack on England. Napoleon lost largely thanks to the brilliant strategy used by the English Admiral Horatio Nelson.

1. World War II
   The Christmas Uprising
2. The Crusades
   The Turkish War of Independence

On June 6, 1944, the Allies carried out a wide-scale invasion of the beaches of Normandy, France. This was the largest amphibious invasion in world history, and it remains an iconic battle and major turning point in World War II.

1. The Wars of Alexander The Great
   The French-Indian War
2. The Crusades
   World War II

The 331 B.C. Battle of Gaugamela is also known as the Battle of Arbela. This battle was a major turning point for Alexander's invasion of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, and his victory contributed to its fall.

1. The Crusades
   Caesar's Civil War
2. World War II
   The 100 Years War

This battle is one of the most important battles in all of Western history. This was the battle that propelled Rome from a republic to a true empire. Fought in 48 B.C., Caesar's victory made him Rome's first emperor.

1. The Franco-Prussian War
   Uprising In Serbia
2. World War I
   The Mexican-American War

The 1916 Brusilov Offensive was one of Russia's biggest successes in World War I and one of the most successful maneuvers in the entire war. However, it taxed Russia and its army heavily, which contributed to the country's political and military collapse following World War I.

1. The Madman's War
   The Estonian War of Independence
2. The War of the Roses
   The American Revolutionary War

The 1781 Battle of Yorktown is also known as the Surrender at Yorktown. This was the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, as American and French forces were victorious over the English, causing them to begin to negotiate an end to the war.

1. The People's Crusade
   The Rhodesian Bush War
2. The Korean War
   The Indo-Pakistani Wars

A large army, mostly of untrained religious fanatics and peasants, followed a man named Peter the Hermit into battle. He had promised them divine protection. Many died or became enslaved along the way, and most were killed by Turks at the battle of Civetot in 1066.

1. The American Civil War
   The Norman Conquest of England
2. The Somali Civil War
   The Cold War

The Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. Won by the Norman-French ruler William the Conqueror, it led to the death of the last Anglo-Saxon King of England and a cultural transformation of the country. It was one of the most influential battles in all of Western history.

1. Algerian War
   The French Revolutionary War
2. The War on Terror
   The Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts between the English and French between 1337 and 1453. The Battle of Agincourt was a victory for the English, despite them being outnumbered. Fought in 1415 in northern France, it is considered one of the biggest victories in English military history.

1. The Peloponnesian War
   The American Civil War
2. The Crimean War
   World War I

Fought in 1863, The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most famous and bloody battles of the American Civil War. The 3-day battle fought in Pennsylvania farmland was a Union victory, though more than 50,000 Americans died in it.

1. World War I
   The Korean War
2. The American Revolutionary War
   Caesar's Civil War

The Second Battle of Ypres was fought in Ypres, Belgium during World War I. Germany fought against the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Canada. During this 1915 battle, Germans shocked the world by using lethal chlorine gas.

1. The First Indochina War
   WWII
2. The Sioux Wars
   The Mexican Revolution

The Battle of Wounded Knee occurred at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota in 1890. It is also known as the Wounded Knee Massacre, as about 300 Lakota men, women, and children were killed by American soldiers.

1. The French-Indian Wars
   The Vietnam War
2. World War II
   The First Punic War

The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack by Japan on Hawaii, which was still a U.S. territory in 1941. As a result of this bombing, over 2,000 Americans died and the United States officially entered World War II.

1. World War II
   The Corinthian War
2. The Crusades
   The Gulf War

The Battle of the Bulge, which occurred from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. It was an Allied victory, but they suffered heavy casualties.

1. World War II
   The Jeju uprising
2. The Gulf War
   The War on Terror

Hitler's 1941 surprise attack on the USSR was devastating. The Red Army was almost destroyed and was unable to drive the Nazis out of Western Russia until 1944. It was a truly massive battle.

1. The Vietnam War
   The Persian-Uzbek Wars
2. The Inca Civil War
   World War I

The Battle of Verdun was fought in Verdun, France from February 21 to December 18, 1916, during World War One. France and Germany fought in it and France won. It was the longest and largest battle on the Western Front between France and Germany in World War I.

1. The Napoleonic Wars
   The War of 1812
2. The Cold War
   The Greco-Persian Wars

The Battle of Marathon is a famous battle that took place in 490 BC as a part of the Greco-Persian Wars. Despite being outnumbered, it was a Greek victory and huge turning point in their favor, which resulted in Persia being driven out of mainland Greece for over a decade.

1. The Hundred Years' War
   The French Conquest of Algeria
2. The Black Hawk War
   The Mormon War

The Siege of Orleans lasted from October 12, 1428 to May 8, 1429. This major conflict during the Hundred Years' War between the English and French was a major victory for the French. It was also notable due to the presence of Joan of Arc.

1. The Anglo-Spanish War
   The War of 1812
2. The Gulf War
   The Mexican-American War

While this battle is not often called by its name, it is a very famous and often-referenced naval battle. It refers to the defeat of the Spanish Armada by England in 1588. This battle is famous because the defeat of the Spanish Armada stopped them from invading England.

1. The Seventh Xhosa War
   The American Revolutionary War
2. The Great Northern War
   The First Italian War of Independence

The 1709 Battle of Poltava is thought to be a significant turning point in world history. The victory of Russia over Sweden is said to have begun Sweden's decline as a major European power and allowed for Russia to take its place.

1. The Holy Man's Rebellion
   The 1905 Tibetan Revolution
2. The Mexican Revolution
   French Revolutionary Wars

The 1792 Battle of Valmy was an early but important battle in conflicts that followed the French Revolution. The victory emboldened France to abolish the monarchy and establish the First French Republic, which was a major turning point for France and Europe as a whole.

1. World War I
   The Rif War
2. The Adwan Rebellion
   The August Uprising

During World War I, Germany hoped to avoid fighting on multiple fronts by defeating France at the 1914 Battle of the Marne. They were unable to do so, which meant that WWI would go on to become a complex and lengthy multifront war.

1. World War I
   The Second Punic War
2. The Bluff War
   The Manchu Restoration

Hannibal's crossing of the Alps into Italy on elephants is one of the most famous military tactics of all time. In 218 B.C., Hannibal led his Carthaginian troops into Italy using this unheard of method and was able to set up a strategic base during The Second Punic War.

1. World War I
   The Umayyad Invasion of Gaul
2. The American Revolution
   The Russian Civil War

During the Battle of Tours in A.D. 732, Spanish-Moorish General Abd-er Rahman led a Muslim army from Spain into France. Historians think that if the Frankish armies had not won, Islam might have spread to the rest of Europe. This battle also instilled the Carolingian ruling line, which Charlemagne is from.

1. The Anarchist Uprising in Spain
   The Second Italo-Ethiopian War
2. World War I
   The Cold War

The 1916 Battle of Jutland was the largest naval battle of World War I. This chaotic and bloody battle between English and German ships involved about 250 ships and 100,000 men. It secured British naval dominance during the war.

1. The Reconquista
   The War of Attrition
2. The American Civil War
   The Football War

The Reconquista was a series of wars during which Christian Spain drove back the Arab rulers who had been in control for centuries. The Siege of Granada marked the end of the Reconquista and established the Iberian peninsula as Christian.

1. The Soviet-Afghan War
   The Napoleonic Wars
2. The Cold War
   The War of Jenkin's Ear

Fought in 1815, Waterloo was Napoleon's final battle and played a role in the end of his reign as Emperor of France. This is one of the most famous battles the British ever fought, and one of the most famous in all of Western history.