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Berlin Airlift
The Berlin airlift was a 1940s military operation that supplied West Berlin with food and other vital goods by air after the Soviet Union blockaded the city. The operation lasted from June 1948 until September 1949. The Berlin Airlift was a tremendous Cold War victory for the United States. Without firing a shot, the Americans foiled the Soviet plan to hold West Berlin hostage. The Berlin Airlift occurred from June 24, 1948 – May 12, 1949. -
Soviets detonate an atomic bomb
The Soviet atomic bomb project was the classified research and development program that was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II. It was named Joe-1 by the West, was detonated at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan on August 29, 1949. Its estimated yield was about 22 kilotons. -
China Falls to Communism
The “fall” of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades. The Communist victory had a major impact on the global balance of power: China became the largest socialist state by population, and, after the 1956 Sino-Soviet split, a third force in the Cold War. -
Korean War
The Korean War was an important development in the Cold War because it was the first time that the two superpowers , the United States and the Soviet Union, had fought a 'proxy war ' in a third country. killed more than two million Koreans, separated thousands of families, and created the world's most heavily fortified border. It also drew the alliances that exist today. The armistice agreement that ended the war is a truce, rather than a peace treaty. -
Rosenbergs Executed
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917. Members of the communist party, the Rosenbergs were convicted of passing secret information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union in 1945. -
McCarthy Hearings
McCarthyism is false accusations of being a communist &
being “unAmerican” towards political adversaries. McCarthyism caused the U.S. involvement in the Korean War. McCarthyism encouraged honesty and openness in government. McCarthyism increased unemployment rates due to false accusations. -
Geneva Accords Signed
The Geneva Accords stated that Vietnam was to become an independent nation. This final agreement of the Geneva Accords establishes a ceasefire in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, officially ending the First Indochina War. -
Sputnik Orbit
Launched by the USSR, Sputnik was a basketball-sized satellite that became the first manmade object to orbit the Earth. The launch of Sputnik served to intensify the arms race and raise Cold War tensions. The fact that the Soviets were successful fed fears that the U.S. military had generally fallen behind in developing new technology. -
NASA Created
NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union's October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The Department of Defense began a serious research push into the fields of rocketry and upper atmosphere sciences to ensure American leadership in technology. -
Fidel Castro Seizes Power
Castro seized power over Cuba. Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the Cold War – in 1962. The Cuban missile crisis was when the Soviet Union began to secretly install missiles in Cuba to launch attacks on U.S. cities.