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Berlin Airift
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. -
Soviets donate an atomic bomb
The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, known in the West as Joe-1, at Semipalatinsk Test Site, in Kazakhstan. -
China Falls to the Communist
The creation of the PRC also completed the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The “fall” of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades. Communists entering Beijing in 1949. -
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Korean war
The Korean War was a civil conflict that became a proxy war between superpowers clashing over communism and democracy. Between 2 and 4 million people died, 70 percent of them civilians -
Rosenbergs Executed
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. -
Geneva Accords Signed
In July 1954, the Geneva Agreements were signed. As part of the agreement, the French agreed to withdraw their troops from northern Vietnam. Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections within two years to choose a president and reunite the country. -
Sputniks Orbit
It achieved an Earth orbit with an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 940 km (584 miles) and a perigee (nearest point) of 230 km (143 miles), circling Earth every 96 minutes and remaining in orbit until January 4, 1958, when it fell back and burned in Earth's atmosphere. -
NASA Created
On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). -
Fidel Castro Seizes Power
After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's prime minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic embargo, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961 -
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McCarthy Hearings
The Korean War was a civil conflict that became a proxy war between superpowers clashing over communism and democracy. Between 2 and 4 million people died, 70 percent of them civilians