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Korea is divided on the 38th parallel (boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south).
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The first US Atomic Bomb is detonated.
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75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army invade South Korea with the permission from Russia and continues on to the capital of Seoul.
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The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 83, authorizing UN member states to provide military assistance to South Korea.
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American troops enter the war on South Korea’s behalf, American officials thought it was a war against the forces of international communism itself.
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North Korean troops reach their farthest point of advance. Although thousands of UN troops have arrived to reinforce South Korea, months of fighting have reduced the area under their control to a 5,000-square-mile rectangle centered on the critical southeastern port of Pusan. By the time the North Korean invasion force reaches the “Pusan Perimeter,” its strength has been nearly cut in half and it is almost entirely lacking in armor.
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Chinese People’s Volunteers Force (CPVF) troops under veteran commander Gen Peng Dehuai cross into North Korea and inflict serious losses on the lead units of the UN advance. The sudden appearance of Chinese forces sends the main body of UN forces reeling back to the south bank of the Ch’ŏngch’ŏn River.
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The U.S. Marines at the Chosin Reservoir begin their “attack in a different direction”, they fight and retreat to the port of Hŭngnam. Two entire Chinese armies have been tasked with the destruction of the 1st Marine Division. They succeed in driving the American force from North Korean territory but pay an enormous price: as many as 80,000 Chinese troops are killed or wounded, and the CPVF Ninth Army Group is rendered combat-ineffective for months.
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Chinese and North Korean forces recapture Seoul.
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Seoul changes hands for the fourth time when UN forces once again liberate the South Korean capital. The city has been devastated by fighting, and its population has been reduced to a fraction of its prewar size.
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Truce talks between the UN and the communists begin at Kaesŏng. The negotiations do not mark an end to the war.
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Mark W. Clark for the UN Command, Peng Dehuai for the Chinese, and Kim Il-Sung for North Korea conclude an armistice ending hostilities. A demilitarized zone is created that roughly follows the prewar border along the 38th parallel. South Korean Pres. Syngman Rhee announces his acceptance of the agreement, but no representative of South Korea ever signs the document.
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Catholic nationalist Ngo Dinh Diem emerges as the leader of South Vietnam, with U.S. backing, while Ho Chi Minh leads the communist state to the north.
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First polish strike against communism.
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Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit.
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US launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army and Eisenhower signed a public order creating the NASA.
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US develop ICBM technology.
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Ho Chi Minh is replaced by Le Duan.
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Walter Ulbricht orders the construction of the Berlin Wall.
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Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit Earth, traveling in the capsule-like spacecraft Vostok 1.
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John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.
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American U-2 spy plane photographed a Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic missile being assembled for installation.
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Kennedy was notified about the situation and called the ExCom to wrest the diplomatic crisis.
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Kennedy notified the Americans in a television broadcast about the missiles and explained his decision to enact the blockade and made it clear that the US was prepared to use the military force for the national security.
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Soviet ships bound for Cuba neared the line of US vessels enforcing the blockade, but the Soviet ships stopped short of the blockade.
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Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed that the US would not invade Cuba and the USSR would remove the Cuban missiles. However, a second condition was proposed by Khrushchev, the US would have to remove their missile installations in Turkey, which was ignored by Kennedy but done by American officials.
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American reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba (sole US combat casualty of the crisis).
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The crisis ended.
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After more than two years West Berliner citizen may visit East Berlin.
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The United States backs a South Vietnam military coup against the unpopular Diem.
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President Johnson launches a three-year campaign of sustained bombing of targets in North Vietnam.
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US develop MIRV systems.
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Dubcek’s government announced an Action Plan for a new model of socialism (allowed freedom of speech and removed state controls over industry).
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The Tet offensive begins, encompassing a combined assault of Viet Minh and North Vietnamese armies.
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Alexander Dubcek took over as the leader of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia.
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Brezhnev announced the Brezhnev Doctrine “the USSR would not allow any Eastern European country to reject communism”.
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500,000 Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia, but the people did not fight the troops. Dubcek and other leaders were arrested and sent to Moscow.
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US astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins set off on the Apollo 11 space mission, the first lunar landing attempt.
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Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon’s surface, “winning” the space race.
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First rise in food price.
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US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger begins secret peace negotiations with Hanoi politburo member Le Duc Tho in Paris.
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North Vietnam returns 591 American prisoners of war in what is known as Operation Homecoming.
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Nixon resigns in the face of likely impeachment after the Watergate Scandal is revealed. General R. Ford becomes president.
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North and South Vietnam are formally unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under hardline communist rule.
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The USSR begins massive military aid to the DRA, Afghan soldiers mutiny in Herat, massacring Soviet citizens before their rebellion is crushed.
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Hafizullah Amin emerges as DRA leader from a bout of bloodletting in the government during which President Nur Mohammad Taraki is killed. Requests for large numbers of Soviet forces to combat the growing insurgency continue under Amin's administration.
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Afghanistan's communist People's Democratic Party seized power in a coup but is split along ethnic lines and in-fighting begins.
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The Soviet defence ministry reveals orders to senior staff to send troops into Afghanistan.
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After a week of heavy fighting during which Soviet commandos kill Amin and tens of thousands of troops invade by ground and air, Babrak Karmal is installed as the DRA's new Soviet-backed leader.
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Solidarity forms by a group of workers striking.
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Martial law declared.
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The United Nations General Assembly calls for Soviet withdrawal.
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Martial law lifted.
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Strategic Defense Initiative
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Mikhail Gorbachev is elected general secretary of the Soviet Union.
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Suspension of the deployment of SS-20s.
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The US begins supplying mujahideen with Stinger missiles, enabling them to shoot down Soviet helicopter gunships. Karmal is replaced by Mohammed Najibullah.
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Gorbachev introduces his policy of Perestroika.
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Withdrawal of Soviet forces from the Afghanistan War.
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Ronald Reagan visits Berlin and urges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
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Slogan introduced by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, calling for the infusion of "democratic" elements into the Soviet Union's single-party government. He meant the introduction of multi-candidate -though not multiparty- elections for local Communist Party officials and Soviets and hoped to rejuvenate the party with progressive personnel who would carry out his institutional and policy reforms.
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Feb 5th 1988: Soviet abandonment of Brezhnev Doctrine, Gasnot is introduced to the people.
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Mikhail Gorbachev is elected chairman of the Presidium of the supreme Soviet.
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The round table agreement.
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Berlin Wall and Brandenburg Gate is opened.
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The USSR announces the departure of the last Soviet troops. More than one million Afghans and 13 thousand Soviet troops have been killed.
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Germany is reunited.
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August Coop.
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The mujahideen push to overthrow Najibullah, who is eventually toppled.