-
Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur WarEgypt and Syria opened a coordinated surprise attack against Israel. The equivalent of the total forces of NATO in Europe were mobilized on Israel's borders. On the Golan Heights, 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks. Along the Suez Canal, 436 Israeli defenders were attacked by 80,000 Egyptians. -
Helsinki Accords
Helsinki AccordsThirty five nations signed the Helsinki Accords. The accords recognized the borders of Europe, as they had been at the end of World War II, thus recognizing Soviet domination of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). -
Camp David Accords
Camp David accords is a popular name for the historic peace accords forged in 1978 between Israel and Egypt at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, Md. The official agreement was signed on Mar. 26, 1979, in Washington, D.C. by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, with U.S. President Jimmy Carter signing as a witness. -
Ayatollah Khomeini comes to power in Iran
Ayatollah Khomeini in IranThe third phase of Khomeini's life began with his return to Iran from exile on February 1, 1979, after Muhammad Reza Shah had been forced to step down two weeks earlier. On February 11 revolutionary forces loyal to Khomeini seized power in Iran, and Khomeini emerged as the founder and the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. -
Iranian Hostage Crisis
Iranian Hostage CrisisOn November 4, 1979, an angry mob of young Islamic revolutionaries overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 Americans hostage. The hostage crisis was the most dramatic in a series of problems facing Americans at home and abroad in the last year of the Carter presidency. -
US Invasion of Lebanon
US Invasion of LebanonThe United States brokered an agreement whereby the PLO would evacuate its fighters and political offices from Beirut to Tunis, 1500 miles to the west. In return, Israel pledged not to overrun the city. The agreement included the deployment of a U.S.-led peacekeeping force to oversee the evacuation of Palestinian fighters. -
Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense InitiativeThe intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. With the tension of the Cold War looming overhead, the Strategic Defense Initiative was the United States’ response to possible nuclear attacks from afar. -
Iran-Contra Affair
Iran-Contra AffairThe Iran-contra affair was a secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. The Iran-contra affair was the product of two separate initiatives during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. It began August 20, 1985 and ended March 4, 1987 -
INF Treaty
INF TreatyThe Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on December 8, 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on May 27, 1988 and came into force on June 1 of that year. -
Fall of the Berline Wall
Fall of the Berline WallThe fall of the Berlin Wall had begun with the building of the Wall in 1961. However it took about three decades until the Wall was torn down. Several times people in the Communist countries rised up against the Communist system but they failed. The victims of the uprisings against the Communist dictatorship in Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956 or Prague 1968 will never been forgotten.
