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The inf gets ratified
The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, commonly referred to as the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty, requires destruction of the Parties' ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers -
U.S. Boycott of 1980 Summer Olympics
President Jimmy Carter decided that the United States would boycott the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. It is a decision that still stings most of the athletes and coaches it impacted. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary
He was the seventh and last undisputed leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the country's head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991 -
Strategic Defense Initiative
proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. -
Carribean Basin Initiative
The trade programs known collectively as the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) remain vital elements in U.S. economic relations with our neighbors in Central America and in the Caribbean. The CBI is intended to facilitate the economic development and export diversification of the Caribbean Basin economies. -
Iran-Contra affair
The scandal began as an operation to free the seven American hostages being held in Lebanon by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. -
Berlin wall collapses
At midnight East Germany's Communist rulers gave permission for gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points -
1st MacDonalds in Moscow
The Soviet Union's first McDonald's fast food restaurant opens in Moscow. Throngs of people line up to pay the equivalent of several days' wages for Big Macs, shakes, and french fries. -
gernmany is reunified
October 3. Cold War. Less than one year after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, East and West Germany come together on what is known as "Unity Day." -
warsaw pact dissolved
In the last year the Warsaw Pact had effectively ceased to function as its Eastern European members -- Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and, until recently, East Germany -- cut themselves loose from Moscow one by one. -
Boris Yeltsin elected President of Russia
Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. On 12 June 1991 he was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic -
end of soviet union
The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to the end of decades-long hostility between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which had been the defining feature of the Cold War.
