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Cold War
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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, during World War Two. At Yalta, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin made important decisions regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world. -
Germany surrenders
Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Reims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II. -
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Potsdam Conference
The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II -
Little Boy
The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima - the first of two atomic bombs dropped in Japan, this bomb was nicknamed “Little Boy,” -
Fat Man
This was the second atomic bomb that was detonated over Japan, however this was dropped over Nagasaki by the United States on 9 August 1945. -
Japan Surrenders
End of the war in the Pacific and end of World War II. -
Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech
The Iron Curtain was the border between the states that were members of the Warsaw Pact (in Eastern Europe), and those that were not (then called The West). This border was between East Germany and West Germany, between Czechoslovakia and Austria, and between Hungary and Austria. -
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Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia
The Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia was an event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, marking the onset of four decades of Communist dictatorship in the country. -
Berlin Blockade by USSR begins
The Berlin Blockade was from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949. It began when the Soviet Union blocked railway and road access by the three Western powers to the Western-occupied sectors of Berlin. The Blockade stopped after the Western powers used aeroplanes to airlift food and other things that people needed. -
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Korean War
The Korean War was a war fought in Korea between armies from North Korea and from South Korea. The war began on 4:30 AM on June 25, 1950 and fighting stopped July 27, 1953. More than two million Koreans died, most of them in the north.
Both sides blame each other for starting the war. The war ended with a truce. The United States aided South Korea, while the USSR aided North Korea. -
KBG is established
During the Cold War, the KGB actively suppressed "ideological subversion"—unorthodox political and religious ideas. It was Cold War policy for the KGB of the Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc. -
Geneva Conference
It established the Vietnam split at 17th parallel, separating North and South Vietnam -
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Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact Was a defense treaty among the eight communist States of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. It was established under the initiative of the Soviet Union. -
USSR launches Sputnik into Earth orbit
Sputnik 1 was the first man-made satellite to go around the Earth. It was made by the Soviet Union and was launched on 4 October 1957 at Baikonur Cosmodrome. It orbited the Earth for three months. It did 1,440 orbits of the Earth during this time. It went down into Earth's atmosphere on 4 January 1958 and burned up. This was a big victory for the USSR during the space race between the US and USSR. -
Fidel Castro takes over Cuba -
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban revolutionary and politician. He was Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976. -
John F. Kennedy elected President
John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, and known for his actions involving in the cold war, such as: the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race—by initiating Project Apollo (which would culminate in the moon landing), the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. -
Bay of Pigs invasion,
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba by the United States. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency intended to overthrow the revolutionary left wing 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 Prime Minister Fidel Castro. -
USSR astronaut Gagarin first to orbit Earth
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (March 9, 1934 – March 27, 1968) was a Russian astronaut. He became the first human in space on April 12, 1961, in a rocket launched by the Soviet Union. -
Construction of Berlin Wall begins
The Berlin Wall separated the city of Berlin in Germany from 1961 to 1989. It separated the eastern half from the western half. Many people thought it was a symbol of the Cold War. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was 13-day period of tension between the Soviet Union, the United States and Cuba during the Cold War. It happened when the Soviet Union began building missile sites in Cuba in 1962, which the United States thought were nuclear. -
Gulf of Tonkin incident
1964: Aug -- Gulf of Tonkin incident -- Start of Vietnam War, A clash between naval forces of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in August 1964 marked a significant turning point in the Cold War struggle for Southeast Asia. -
Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt
In the face of rising anti-Soviet protests in Czechoslovakia, Soviet troops (backed by troops from other Warsaw Pact nations) intervene to crush the protest and restore order. The brutal Soviet action shocked the West and dealt a devastating blow to U.S.-Soviet relations. -
U.S. lands first man on moon
Neil A. Armstrong was an American NASA astronaut and the first man on the moon or, more accurately, the first man to set foot on the moon. -
President Richard Nixon extends Vietnam War to Cambodia
April 30, 1970 marks the date of President Richard Nixon’s address to the United States stating that the Vietnam war would be mobilized to Cambodia, the neighboring country to the west. The invasion of Cambodia was not acted on a whim, but in fact, the United States had been bombing Cambodia for over a year. President Nixon advocated the invasion of Cambodia with Vietnam troops, while the citizens of the country were a -
Ceasefire in Vietnam between North Vietnam & U.S.
Also called The Paris Peace Accords of 1973, this ceasefire intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War, ended direct U.S. military involvement, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. -
Egypt & Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid
Egypt and Syria attacked Israel supported by Jordan, Palestinian, Algeria, Morocco, Cairo and most importantly the Soviet Union. Israel was shelled, outnumbered and blasted for the first few days. The US tried to negotiate with mainly the Soviet Union to immediately stop all firing on Israel but after the Soviet Union and all other nations showed no interest in that proposition, America started its own -
President Nixon resigns
As the 37th president of the US, he became the first president to resign from office. -
Saigon falls to North; the end of South Vietnam
Saigon, capital city of South Vietnam, fell to North Vietnamese forces on April 30th 1975. The fall of Saigon (now Ho Chin Minh City) effectively marked the end of the Vietnam War. After the introduction of Vietnamisation by President Richard Nixon, US forces in South Vietnam had been constantly reduced leaving the military of South Vietnam to defend their country against the North. -
Saigon falls to North; the end of South Vietnam
Saigon, capital city of South Vietnam, fell to North Vietnamese forces on April 30th 1975. The fall of Saigon (now Ho Chin Minh City) effectively marked the end of the Vietnam War. After the introduction of Vietnamisation by President Richard Nixon, US forces in South Vietnam had been constantly reduced leaving the military of South Vietnam to defend their country against the North. -
Shah of Iran overthrown; Iranian Hostage Crisis -
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. The immediate cause of this action was President Jimmy Carter’s decision to allow Iran’s deposed Shah, a pro-Western autocrat who had been expelled from his country some months before, to come to the United States for cancer treatment. -
Ronald Reagan elected President
During his Presidency, Reagan pursued policies that reflected his personal belief in individual freedom, brought changes domestically, both to the U.S. economy and expanded military, and contributed to the end of the Cold War. -
Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in USSR
Soviet official, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 to 1991 and president of the Soviet Union in 1990–91. His efforts to democratize his country’s political system and decentralize its economy led to the downfall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. -
Berlin Wall falls
The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. -
Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia
Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania - Sometimes called the Revolutions of 1989, the events began in Poland and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. One feature common to most of these developments was the extensive use of campaigns of civil resistance demonstrating popular opposition to the continuation of one-party rule and contributing to the pressure for change. -
Boris Yeltsin elected to presidency of Russia
On 13 June 1991, millions of Russians went to the polls for the first time in an open election to choose a president. Emerging as winner was 60-year-old Boris Yeltsin, a man with a reputation for alcohol abuse who had for some time advocated political and economic reforms. -
Iraq invades Kuwait; threatens Saudi Arabia
Sometimes referred to as the Kuwait War or Operation Desert Storm,this was a war waged by coalition forces from 34 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. -
West Germany and East Germany unite
Less than one year after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, East and West Germany come together on what is known as "Unity Day." Since 1945, when Soviet forces occupied eastern Germany, and the United States and other Allied forces occupied the western half of the nation at the close of World War II, divided Germany had come to serve as one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War. -
Cold War Ends
The USSR is dissolved ending the Cold War.