[bryanlarsen]

If so, we haven't hit the equivalent of Sept 1 1939 yet. That's when WW2 is generally considered to have started, but residents of Manchuria, Austria and the Sudetenland probably consider it to have started earlier.

[soperj]

It's only considered to have started then because that's when France and Britain declared war on Germany, and that's who wrote the history books.

[bryanlarsen]

Sep 1 1939 is when it escalated from a small number of 2-party wars to a massive multi-party war. It's not the day the war started, it's the day it became a "World War".