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Russian Revolution
In 1917 the Russian Empire fell resulting in a wave of political and social changes leading into the formation of the Soviet Union. Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the newly established Soviet Union. -
Potsdam Conference
A meeting between the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom discussing the defeat of nazi Germany as well as establishing post-war order, peace treaties, and effects of the war. -
Atomic Bomb- Hiroshima/Nagasaki
On August 6th 1945 the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, calling for the unconditional surrender of Japan. Three days later on August 9th 1945 the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki which finally forced Japan into unconditional surrender. There were 90,000–146,000 deaths in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 deaths in Nagasaki within the first two months of the bombing. This was the end of WWII. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas. Lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. -
Truman Doctrine
An American foreign policy, created to counter Soviet geopolitical spread during the Cold War. Announced by Truman on March 12, 1947, further development on July 12, 1948 when he pledge to contain Soviet threats from Greece and Turkey. -
Hollywood 10
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), an investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, during its probe of alleged communist influence in the American motion picture business. These prominent screenwriters and directors, who became known as the Hollywood Ten, received jail sentences and were banned from working for the major Hollywood studios, because they refused to answer the questions they were asked, under the protection of the 1st amendment. -
Molotov Plan
A system created by the Soviet Union in 1948, in order to provide aid and rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. -
Berlin Airlift
The US and Great Britain created the Berlin airlift to resupply Berlin with food, coal, medical supplies and other goods in response to the Berlin blockade. -
Marshall Plan
An American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over 12 million dollars (120 million dollars in U.S dollars as of June 2016) in economic support to help rebuild Western Europe economics after World War Two. -
Berlin Blockade
An attempt by the Soviet Union to limit the availability of France, Great Britain, and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin which lay within Russian occupied East Germany. -
Alger Hiss Case
Alger Hiss, was accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union, the case was going to be dismissed based in lack of evidence, Richard Nixon pushed the issue and Hiss was convicted of prudery and sentenced to 5 years in prison -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty. -
Soviet Bomb Test
First Soviet nuclear test. Code named RDS-1 at the Semipalatinsk test site. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China, and the Soviet Union, came to the aid of North Korea. -
Rosenberg Trial
The Rosenburg's (Julius and Ethel) were convicted for passing U.S bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. They were sentenced to the electric chair. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. -
Geneva Conference
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to settle outstanding issues in the Korean peninsula and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. Investigating accusations between the US army and Joseph McCarthy. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of it's European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. -
Hungarian Revolution
Nationwide revolt in Hungary against the government and it soviet-imposed policies. First major threat to the soviets since the USSR's forces drove out Nazi Germany from its territory at the end of World War II. -
U2 Incident
The U-2 Incident. Shot down by a Soviet surface to air missile on the morning of May 1, 1960, CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers had been on a top secret mission: to over fly and photograph denied territory from his U2 spy plane deep inside Russia. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on April 17, 1961 -
Berlin Wall
A barrier that divided Berlin. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, the wall completely cut off West Berlin from East Germany and East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989 -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. Along with being televised worldwide, it was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war -
Assassination of Diem
The brutal murder of the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, and his powerful brother and adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu, on November 2, 1963, was a major turning point in the war in Vietnam. -
Assassination of JFK
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was shot twice, and an hour after his death Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the US 2nd Air Division, US Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against the Democratic North Vietnam from March 2, 1965 until November 2, 1968, during the Vietnam War. -
Tet offensive
The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, launched on January 30, 1968, by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. -
Assassination of MLK
James Earl Ray, a confirmed racist and small-time criminal, Ray began plotting the assassination of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. He shot and killed King in Memphis on April 4, 1968, confessing to the crime the following March. -
Assassination of RFK
RFK was an American politician from Massachusetts. He served as the United States junior senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination by Shihan in June 1968. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. The invasion was a success and slowed down the pace of reform, but had consequences for the unity of communism. -
Riots of Democratic convention
In 1968, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. -
Election of Nixon
The United States presidential election of 1968 was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, won the election over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. -
Kent State
The Kent State shootings occurred at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, in the United States and involved the shooting of 4 unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday -
Nixon visits China
US President Richard Nixon visited the People's Republic of China in 1972. This was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and China. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
On January 15, 1973, President Richard Nixon of the USA ordered a ceasefire of the aerial bombings in North Vietnam. -
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. -
Reagan elected
Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States, from 1981 to 1989. He was elected in 1980 on November 4th. -
SDI announced
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. Satellites patrolling in space that could take out enemy lazes with missiles. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
A historic breakthrough occurred between the US and the Soviet Union in which the two leaders of the countries had a long, personal talk and seemed to develop a close relationship. -
'Tear down this wall' speech
A speech made by US President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987, calling for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The head of East Germany's communist party granted it's citizens the right to cross the boarder whenever they pleased. That night, a large mass of citizens gathered to either cross the boarder or begin dismantling it with hammers and picks.
