-
House Un-American Activities Committee formed
Created to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees. Also to investigate the organizations of having Communist ties. -
Yalta Conference
The Big Three agreed that Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania would hold free elections. -
United Nations formation
United States had that start in making the United Nations. This is an organization that many hoped would succeed where the League of Nations failed. -
Potsdam Conference
President Truman, Soviet Premier Stalin and British Prime Ministers Churchill and Atlee talked over post-war ideas without agreeing. -
Truman Doctrine
President Truman gave his speech to the congress about the issues with Greece. -
Marshall Plan
In early 1948 the cpngress approved the Marshall Plan. For the next four years the U.S. gave 13 billion dollars in loans and grants to the western nations in Europe. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin airlift was preceded by nearly three years of constant tension the Russians against the Western Allies in an attempt to drive them out of West Berlin and Western Germany in a variety of ways. -
NATO formation
Povided the military alliance to counter
Soviet expansion. Twelve Western Eurpoean and North American nations agreed to fight together in the defense of Western Europe -
Era of McCarthyism begins
Joseph R. McCarthy charged that the State Department was filled with agents that were communists. He was reelected in the 1952 campaign. And for the next four years McCarthy put forward
his own brand of anticommunism. -
North Korean Invasion of South Korea
On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces attacked across the 38th parallel. The
90,000 North Korean troops were armed with powerful tanks and other Soviet weapons. In just a couple of days the North took over the South. -
Rosenberg Execution
The Rosenbergs were executed for believing to persuade Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, to provide them with confidential U.S. military information gained from his involvement in the development of nuclear weapons. -
Armistice Signed Ending Korean War
Whether or not Eisenhower's threats of nuclear attacks helped, by July 1953 all sides involved in the conflict were ready to sign an agreement ending the bloodshed. The armistice signing established a committee of representatives from neutral countries to decide the fate of the thousands of prisoners of war on both sides. -
Warsaw Pact formation
The Soviet Union and its satellite states formed a rival military alliance. -
Sputnik 1 Launched
The Soviet Union launched a 184-pound steel ball containing a small transmitter into an orbit of Earth. In November they launched a larger one. -
First Man in Space
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. Newspapers like The Huntsville Times trumpeted Gagarin's accomplishment. -
First American in Space
Mercury Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. Blasted off in his Freedom 7 capsule atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket. His 15-minute sub-orbital flight made him the first American in space. -
Creation of the Berlin Wall
The wall became a visible symbol of the truth between East Germany and West Germany and the gulf between and the communist East and democratic West. Kennedy responded by sending 1,500 U.S. troops to West Berlin. -
First Man on the Moon
Neil Armstrong was the first man to go to the moon. He was the Apollo 11 Commander.
