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Period: to
Cold War
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World War II Ends in Europe
With the Yalta Conference and the dropping of the Atomic Bomb in Japan, World War II comes to an end. The United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the World Superpowers and divide up the German Empire between the two of them, West and East Germany. -
Truman Doctrine Announced
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 Airlift Begins
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. West Berliners could travel to West Germany and all Western and non-aligned states at all times, except during the Berlin Blockade by the Soviet Union (24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949), due to restrictions on passenger flight capacity imposed by the airlift -
Korean War
war between North and South Korea, in which a United Nations force led by the United States of America fought for the South, and China fought for the North, which was also assisted by the Soviet Union. The war arose from the division of Korea at the end of World War II and from the global tensions of the Cold War that developed immediately afterwards. -
Warsaw Pact Formed
The Warsaw Pact (formally, the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance, sometimes, informally WarPac, akin in format to NATO) was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. -
Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba, installs Communist government.
Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba, installing a Communist Government that has ties to the U.S.S.R. Tensions rise as Russia now has a communist outpost just 90 miles from the US Border. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. Intended to overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban armed forces, under the direct command of the Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro. -
Berlin Wall Constructed
Barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis, The Missile Scare, or the Caribbean Crisis , was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. It played out on television worldwide and was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. -
Vietnam War Begins
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam—supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies—and the government of South Vietnam—supported by the United States and other anti-communist allies. The Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF), a South Vietnamese communist common front aided by the North, fought a guerrilla war. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union
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. He served as the country's head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. -
Chinese Revolt in Tiananmen Square
student-led popular demonstrations in Beijing which took place in the spring of 1989 and received broad support from city residents, exposing deep splits within China's political leadership. The protests were forcibly suppressed by hardline leaders who ordered the military to enforce martial law in the country's capital. The crackdown that initiated on June 3–4 became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or the June 4 Massacre as troops with assault rifles and tanks inflicted casualties. -
Berlin Wall Demolished
After various travel changes between surrounding countries, mass amounts of Eastern Germans escaped from East Germany, sparking a demand for the Wall be to removed. After over 1 million demonstrators showed up at Alexanderplatz Square demanding the destruction of the wall, it began being torn down and Berlin was no longer divided. -
The Soviet Union is abolished. Boris Yeltsin becomes President of Russia.
After various power struggles and issues inside the Soviet government, Gorbachev's leadership is challenged and removed from power, with Boris Yeltsin taking his place as President of Russia. The U.S.S.R. collapses.
