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Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet to discuss terms of German surrender and the boundries and government in post war Eastern Europe. -
Truman Doctrine
US President Truman's speech to Congress urging the United States of America "To support free peoples wjo are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure."(Truman Doctrine) -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) established
After a joint repudiation of Soviet note the North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. -
Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba
Abortive CIA inspired Bay of Pigs landing by Cuban exiles. Cuban forces defeat the Bay of Pigs invasion. -
Warsaw Pact formed
By way of reply to accession of Federal Republic of Germany to NATO the USSR concludes the Warsaw Pact with its European satellites - Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. -
Soviets launch first man‑made satellite
First Soviet artificial satellite Sputnik launched. -
Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba, installs Communist government
Fidel Castro Ruz becomes premier of Cuba. -
East Germany builds Berlin Wall
Construction work on the Berlin Wall begins. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Senator Kenneth Keating claims Soviets are building missiles on Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis starts. -
China explodes its first atomic bomb.
Communist China explodes its first atomic bomb. -
President Richard Nixon visits China.
U.S. President Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. leader to visit communist China, leading to a thaw in Cold War relations. -
U.S. and China establish diplomatic relations.
United States and China begin diplomatic relations. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union, the following year he declares glasnost and perestroika.
Mikhail Gorbachev is named general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. -
Berlin Wall is demolished.
East Germany begins to take down the Berlin Wall. -
The Soviet Union is abolished. Boris Yeltsin becomes President of Russia.
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia announce that the Soviet Union has ceased to exist. They declare the creation of Commonwealth of Independent States and invite other former soviet republics to join.