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United States Boycotts Moscow Olympics
After the Soviet Union failed to meet the deadline for withdrawing it's troops from Afghanistan by February 20th, Carter issued a statement saying that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics. Carter also put pressure on the Soviet Union to end their war with Afghanistan by issuing trade embargos concerning the United States and limiting the amount of fishing Soviets could do in United States territory as well as other plans. -
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Reagan Presidency
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Martial Law in Poland
Gen. Jeruzelski introduced martial law in Poland, which tremendously restricts normal life, in an attempt to crush political opposition against communist rule. -
START I
During a summit it Geneva, Reagan proposed the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. This was a treaty on the parts of the US and USSR to reduce and limit strategic and offensive arms. It was later signed on July 31, 1991 and put into force on Dec 5, 1994. -
Nuclear False Alarm
Shortly after midnight, the russian bunker Serpukhov-15 intercepted alarms that signaled that the United States had launched 5 ballistic missiles at Moscow. Lt. Col. Petrov, the active officer at the time of the message percieved this to be a phoney message and responded to his superiors that the soviets should do nothing to intercept the attack. Luckily, this move was the right one, saving both countries from a nuclear war. -
1984 LA Olympics Boycotted
The 1984 LA Olympics were boycotted by 14 Eastern Bloc countries, led by the Soviet Union, in retaliation to the boycott of the 1980 boycott in Moscow. The boycotting countries held another large event, the Friendship Games, in July and August of 1984, as a replacement. -
Soviet Offers Talks with US
Soviet offers to negotiate with the US on the use of nuclear weapons in space. The US wanted to reduce the use of nuclear weapons radically but on a balanced basis. They also wanted to find an agreement on the limitations of anti-satellite weapons. IF any other matters of arms of interest to both sides come up, those will be discussed as well. They planned to start negotiating in September. -
New Soviet Leader
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the first president of USSR. His future efforts to make the USSR into a democracy led to the downfall of communism in his state and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. He partly ended the USSR's post-war domination of eastern Europe. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Peace in 1990. -
Chernobyl Disaster
At the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, a flawed reactor design caused 5% of the radioactive reactor core to be released into the atmosphere, directly killing 2 people and killing 28 in the floowing weeks because of exposure to radiation. -
Reagan delivers Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate
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Reagan and Gorbachev
Summit conference between Reagan and Gorbachev starts. The Immediate Nuclear Forces Treaty was also signed this day. 2611 immediate range nuclear missiles were to be removed from Europe. -
Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Moscow
Although criticizing Reagan on his views and beliefs, Gorbachev states that the summit was a "major event" in regards to the Cold War. According to a New York Times news article from 1988, "the Moscow summit meeting seems to reflect a sense that the two men have all but exhausted the potential for advancing relations in the waning months of the Reagan Administration." -
Soviet leaves Afghanistan
The last of the Soviet troops leave Afghanistan after invading it in 1979 to prop up a communist govt. -
Poland
The newly elected leader of the Polish govt, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, made Poland a democracy. The first eastern bloc country (communist state of eastern Europe) to become a democracy. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
A spokesman for the East Berlin Communist Party announced that, at the stroke of midnight, the wall was officially invalid. Champagne and beer were the drinks of choice as more than 2 million people flooded the wall trying to get to the other side. Some tore down the wall with pitchforks and tools while others just wanted to get to the other side of the wall. -
Velvet Revolution
Nov 17-Dec 29th 1989, also known as the Gentle Revolution. It was a series of peaceful protests in Czechoslovakia which led to an overthrow of the communist govt -
Malta Summit
A meeting between Mikhail Gorbachov and George H W Bush pretty much reversed the Yalta conference in 1945. It's seen as the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
