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WWII End
In 1945 The United States dropped bombs on Japan, resulting in Japan surrendering and ending the war. -
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations -
Churchhill's Iron Curtain Speech
In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union's policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” -http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/churchill-delivers-iron-curtain-speech -
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Chinese Civil War
Because of a difference in thinking between the Communist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT), there was a fight for legitimacy as the government of China. -https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical hegemony during the Cold War. It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 and further developed on July 12, 1948 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Doctrine -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave $13 billion in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan -
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Berlin Airlift
Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The US and UK responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin. -history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/berlin-airlift -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO -
USSR's first Atomic Bomb Test
At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb. In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb. They also placed animals in cages nearby so that they could test the effects of nuclear radiation on human-like mammals. -http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-explode-atomic-bomb -
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Korean War
North Korea invaded South Korea. The UN, with US as the principal force, came to aid of South Korea. China, along with assistance from Soviet Union, came to aid of North Korea. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War -
H-Bomb
Popularly known as the hydrogen bomb, this new weapon was approximately 1,000 times more powerful than conventional nuclear devices. Opponents of development of the hydrogen bomb included J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. -http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-tests-first-hydrogen-bomb -
MAD Plan
Mutual assured destruction, or MAD, is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction -
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Dwight D Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was an American politician and general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower -
Stalin's Death
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin -
SEATO
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, signed in September 1954 in Manila, Philippines. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact is the name commonly given to the treaty between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union, which was signed in Poland in 1955 and was officially called 'The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance'. -http://www.local-life.com/warsaw/articles/warsaw-pact -
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to the fall of Saigon. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War -
Francis Gary Powers
The U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War, during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower and the premiership of Nikita Khrushchev, when a US U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. The aircraft, flown by Central Intelligence Agency pilot Francis Gary Powers, was performing photographic aerial reconnaissance when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed in Sverdlovsk. Powers parachuted safely and was captured. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident -
Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower Doctrine in the Cold War period after World War II, U.S. foreign-policy pronouncement by President Dwight D. Eisenhower promising military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression. -http://www.britannica.com/event/Eisenhower-Doctrine -
Sputnik
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennae to broadcast radio pulses. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1 -
Fidel Castro Takes Over Cuba
Cuban leader Fidel Castro established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. -http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fidel-castro -
JFK
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States until his assassination in 1963. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion -
Berlin Wall Raised
The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, the Wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis -
JFK Assassination
Shortly after noon on November 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/November-22-1963-Death-of-the-President.aspx -
Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969, assuming the office after serving as the 37th Vice President of the United States under President John F. Kennedy. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson -
Richard Nixon-Watergate
Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal -
NASA's First Moon Landing
Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC; Aldrin joined him about 20 minutes later. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11 -
SALT
The US learned that the SU had embarked upon a massive Intercontinental Ballistic Missile buildup designed to reach parity with the US. President Lyndon Johnson announced that the SU had begun to construct a limited Anti-Ballistic Missile defense system around Moscow. The development of an ABM system could allow one side to launch a first strike and then prevent the other from retaliating by shooting down incoming missiles. -https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/salt -
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Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th President of the United States from 1974 to 1977. -
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Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter, Jr. is an American politician and author who served as the 39th President of the U S from 1977 to 1981. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
At the end of December 1979, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan and immediately assumed complete military and political control of Kabul and large portions of the country. This event began a brutal, decade-long attempt by Moscow to subdue the Afghan civil war and maintain a friendly and socialist government on its border. -https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/soviet-invasion-afghanistan -
Miracle on Ice
The "Miracle on Ice" is the name in American popular culture for a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York. The United States national team defeated the Soviet Union national team, which had won the gold medal in six of the seven previous Olympic games. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_Ice -
US Boycott of Summer Olympics
President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. will boycott the Olympic Games scheduled to take place in Moscow. The announcement came after the Soviet Union failed to comply with Carter’s February 20, 1980, deadline to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. -http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/carter-announces-olympic-boycott -
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Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who was 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan -
STAR WARS
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. -http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/SDI-StarWars.asp -
Soviets Withdraw from Afghanistan
The withdrawal of Soviet combatant forces from Afghanistan began on 15 May 1988 and successfully executed on 15 February 1989 under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov who also was the last Soviet general officer to walk from Afghanistan back into Soviet territory through the Afghan-Uzbek Bridge. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_withdrawal_from_Afghanistan -
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George Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush -
Tiananmen Square
Outside China, the square is best known in recent memory as the focal point of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, a pro-democracy movement which ended on 4 June 1989 with the declaration of martial law in Beijing by the government and the shooting of several hundred, or possibly thousands, of civilians by soldiers. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square -
Berlin Wall Falls
The fall of the Berlin Wall began the evening of 9 November 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks, with people nicknamed Mauerspechte (wall woodpeckers) using various tools to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts in the process, and creating several unofficial border crossings. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall#Fall_of_the_Wall -
Gorbachev Comes to Power
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman. He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 when the party was dissolved. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev -
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26, 1991 as a result of the declaration no. 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The declaration acknowledged the independence of the former Soviet republics and created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), although five of the signatories ratified it much later or not at all. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
