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Indian Independence
On August 15, 1947, the Indian Independence Bill took effect, inaugurating a period of religious turmoil in India and Pakistan that would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, including Gandhi, who was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in January 1948 during a prayer vigil to an area of Muslim-Hindu violence. -
Berlin Airlift
On June 28, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked all road and rail travel to and from Berlin. The Soviets did this because the American and Brittish officials refused to allow Russia more say in the economic future of Germany. -
Formation of the Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a treaty that included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. The treaty called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
After an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba President Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. -
Arab-Israeli Conflicts 1967
On the Sinai penninsula mobilization of Egyptian forces cause Israel to launch a series of air strikes on Egyptian air fields. Then Israel ordereda ground offensive into the Gaza strip causing the Egyptians to retreat after six days. -
Ayatollah Khomeini Supreme Leader of Iran
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini living in exile, leads oppositions. riots occur in every city, Shah flees in 1979 so Khomeiini returns and establishes an islamic state. He hates the U.S for supporting the Shah. -
Assassination of Egyptian President Sadat
On October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat was shot by Muslim extremists during a military parade commemorating the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Israel. -
SDI
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. The ipurpose 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. -
Tiananmen Square Protest
In May 1989, millions of Chinese students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders.The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
