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United Nations formation
The name "United Nations", coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used in the "Declaration by United Nations" of 1 January 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers. -
yalta Conference
Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met again. This time the conference was held in Yalta in the Crimea. With Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a strong negotiating position. Roosevelt and Churchill tried hard to restrict post-war influence in this area but the only concession they could obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries. -
Potsdam Conference
On May 8, 1945, the Allies accepted German surrender terms at the conclusion of the European conflict of World War II. A new job to Harry Truman, the presidency had been one long struggle after another and he quickly nicknamed the White House the "Great White Jail." The focus of the United States was now on the Pacific as Americans were storming the beaches of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. -
Truman Doctrine
On March 12, 1947, the Truman Doctrine was proclaimed in the U.S. The author was in Paris, France at that time. Officials there were deeply perplexed: the declaration might have made sense fifteen days earlier or later, but they could not understand what had prompted American diplomacy to explode it right in the middle of the Foreign Ministers' Conference then in session at Moscow, Soviet Union. -
NATO formation
In 1949, the prospect of further Communist expansion prompted the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations in Eastern Europe founded a rival alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. The alignment of nearly every European nation into one of the two opposing camps formalized the political division of the European continent that had taken place since World War II -
Marshall Plan
As the war-torn nations of Europe faced famine and economic crisis in the wake of World War II, the United States proposed to rebuild the continent in the interest of political stability and a healthy world economy. On June 5, 1947, in a commencement address at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall first called for American assistance in restoring the economic infrastructure of Europe -
Berlin Airlift
supply of vital necessities to West Berlin by air transport primarily under U.S. auspices. It was initiated in response to a land and water blockade of the city that had been instituted by the Soviet Union in the hope that the Allies would be forced to abandon West Berlin. The massive effort to supply the 2 million West Berliners with food and fuel for heating began in June, 1948, and lasted until Sept., 1949, although the Russians lifted the blockade in May of that year. During the around-the- -
NATO formation
In 1949, the prospect of further Communist expansion prompted the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations in Eastern Europe founded a rival alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. The alignment of nearly every European nation into one of the two opposing camps formalized the political division of the European continent that had taken place since World War II (1939-45). -
North Korean Invasion of South Korea
North Korea has invaded South Korea at several points along the two countries' joint border. -
Era of McCarthyism begins
The term McCarthyism is based on the actions of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1940s and 1950s. McCarthyism signifies the extreme anti-Communist movement that occurred in the United States. -
Armistice Signed Ending Korean War
A ceasefire stopped the fighting on July 27, 1953. There was an armistice signed by North Korea, China and the UN but not South Korea. Korea is still split into North Korea, which is communist, and South Korea which is non-communist. -
Sputnik 1 Launched
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite in space. It stunned the world and as a result the space age began. It was the first victory for the Space Race by the Soviet Union. -
House Un-American Activities Committee formed
This report discusses the consequences for student political activity at the University of California, Berkeley, of the hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in San Francisco May 12-14, 1960. -
First Man in Space
April 12 was already a huge day in space history twenty years before the launch of the first shuttle mission. On that day in 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (left, on the way to the launch pad) became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. -
First American in Space
first amrican on the moon -
Creation of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany. However, it was also the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. -
First Man on the Moon
Neil Armstrong, who made history on July 20, 1969. with tha apollo 11. -
Warsaw Pact formation
IN APRIL 1985, the general secretaries of the communist and workers' parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, and Romania gathered in Warsaw to sign a protocol extending the effective term of the 1955 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, which originally established the Soviet-led political-military alliance in Eastern Europe. -
Rosenberg Execution
June 19 marks the anniversary of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's historic execution in 1953. Found guilty of relaying U.S. military secrets to the Soviets, the Rosenbergs were the first U.S. civilians to be sentenced to death for espionage.
