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Beginning of McCarthyism
For many Americans, the most enduring symbol of this “Red Scare” was Republican Senator Joseph P. McCarthy of Wisconsin. Senator McCarthy spent almost five years trying in vain to expose communists and other left-wing “loyalty risks” in the U.S. government. In the hyper-suspicious atmosphere of the Cold War, insinuations of disloyalty were enough to convince many Americans that their government was packed with traitors and spies. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin made important decisions regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world. -
Potsdam Conference
Stalin, Churchill, and Truman the big three as well as Attlee, who participated alongside Churchill while awaiting the outcome of the 1945 general election, and then replaced Churchill as Prime Minister after the Labour Party's defeat of the Conservatives. They gathered to decide how to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier. -
First A-bomb dropped on Japan
Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber loaded with an atomic bomb, took off from the US air base on Tinian Island in the western Pacific. Bombed the city of Hiroshima Japan. The death count reached an estimated 140,000 people by the end of December 1945 -
V-J Day
Also known as Victory over Japan day. Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. -
“Iron Curtain Speech”
After failing to be reelected as Britain's prime minister, Churchill traveled with President Truman to make a speech. At the request of Westminster College in the small Missouri town of Fulton Sir Winston Churchill gave his now famous "Iron Curtain" speech to a crowd of 40,000. one of his kost famous post war speeches. -
Truman Doctrine announced
Known as the official declaration of the Cold War. Truman's Doctrine outlined outlined the broad parameters of U.S. Cold War foreign policy: the Soviet Union was the center of all communist activity and movements throughout the world; communism could attack through outside invasion or internal subversion; and the United States needed to provide military and economic assistance to protect nations from communist aggression. -
Marshall Plan Announced
Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced a plan to provide economic assistance to the devastated nations of Europe after World War II.Became known as the Marshall Plan and the administation of the President hoped the plan would encourage both political and economic stability in Europe and help reduce the attraction of Communism to Europe's suffering populations. -
Berlin Airlift Begins
The American commander in Germany, General Lucius Clay ordered an airlift of some supplies flown into the city as a temporary solution. When Truman met with his advisors on he affirmed the airlift plan so that the United States “..might feed Berlin" until a diplomatic resolution could be reached. -
NATO Treaty Ratified
The United States and 11 other nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe. Stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War. -
End of Berlin Blockade
The Soviet Union lifts it's 11-month blockade against West Berlin. Which had been brioken by the US- British airlift carrying essential supplies to many people in West Berlin. -
Soviets explode A-bomb
At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb. It's code name was "First Lightning." The atomic explosion, which at 20 kilotons was roughly equal to "Trinity," the first U.S. atomic explosion, destroyed those structures and incinerated the animals. -
Communist takeover in China
Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party. The “fall” of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades. -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951, are put to death in the electric chair. The execution marked the dramatic finale of the most controversial espionage case of the Cold War. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states.The Warsaw Pact remained intact until 1991. Albania was expelled in 1962 because, believing that Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev was deviating too much from strict Marxist orthodoxy, the country turned to communist China for aid and trade -
Geneva Summit
A meeting of "The Big Four": President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of Britain, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France.The purpose was to bring together world leaders to begin discussions on peace. -
Suez War
Also known as Second Arab-Israeli War.he attack followed the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal, after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam, which was in response to Egypt's new ties with the Soviet Union and recognizing the People's Republic of China during the height of tensions between China and Taiwan. -
Hungarian Uprising
This was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies, It was the first major threat to Soviet control since the USSR's forces drove out the Nazis at the end of World War II and occupied Eastern Europe. Despite the failure of the uprising, it was highly influential, and came to play a role in the downfall of the Soviet Union decades later. -
Launching of Sputnik
Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. -
U.S. U-2 plan shot down
An American U-2 spy plane is shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet Union. With no small degree of pleasure, Khrushchev pulled off one of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War by producing not only the mostly-intact wreckage of the U-2, but also the captured pilot-very much alive. A chagrined Eisenhower had to publicly admit that it was indeed a U.S. spy plane.
