The Mukden incident was a staged event in which Japanese army officers blew up a short section of the South Manchuria Railway, which Japan controlled, close to the city of Mukden, today's Shenyang. The Japanese Kwantung Army blamed Chinese saboteurs and used the explosion as a pretext to occupy the whole of Manchuria within months, acting largely without the approval of the government in Tokyo. In 1932 Japan set up the puppet state of Manchukuo, with the last Qing emperor, Puyi, as its head. The League of Nations sent the Lytton Commission, which rejected the Japanese version, and Japan left the League in 1933. The incident is often seen as the start of Japan's wars in China.
Before and after
- 10 July 1931Birth of Alice Munro
- 11 July 1931Construction of Ernst-Happel-Stadion
- 8 August 1931Birth of Roger Penrose
- from 18 September 1931 to 27 February 1932Japanese invasion of Manchuria
- 18 September 1931Mukden incident
- 6 October 1931Birth of Riccardo Giacconi
- 7 October 1931Birth of Desmond Tutu
- 15 October 1931Birth of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
- 18 October 1931Death of Thomas Edison
More in Wars, politics & history
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- from 25 October 1917 to 26 October 1917October Revolution
- 28 June 1919Treaty of Versailles
- from 1933 to 1945The Holocaust
- 30 January 1933Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
- from 18 July 1936 to 1 April 1939Spanish Civil War
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.