The Mukden Incident of September 18, 1931, known in Japanese as the Manchurian Incident, occurs in southern Manchuria when a section of railroad, owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway, near Mukden (today's Shenyang) is dynamited.
The Imperial Japanese Army accuses Chinese dissidents of the act, thus providing a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria.
The incident represents an early event in the Second Sino-Japanese War, although full-scale war will not start until 1937.
