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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. -
Truman Doctrine
With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. -
Berlin Blockade
During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control, this was known as the Berlin Blockade. -
Korean War
The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea. The war began when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. -
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was a military and political effort to overthrow the government of Cuba. It began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. -
Space Race
The Space Race was a competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam -
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba by Cuban exiles, covertly financed and directed by the United States. It was aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro's communist government. -
Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Hungarian People's Republic. -
Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union, the DRA and allied paramilitary groups against the Afghan mujahedeen, foreign fighters, and smaller groups of anti-Soviet Maoists -
Chernobyl Disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
The unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev sealed the fate of the Soviet Union. Planned by hard-lined Communists, the coup diminished Gorbachev's power and propelled Yeltsin and the democratic forces to the forefront of Soviet and Russian politics.
