-
Yalta Conference (February 4-11)
Held in Crimea between the US president Roosevelt, USSR leader Stalin and British Prime Minister Roosevelt, to define the post. war status of Germany. -
Germany surrenders
General Alfred Jodl signs Germany's surrender to the allies in France. -
Potsdam Conference (July 17-August 2)
The leaders from the USSR (Stalin), the UK (Churchill and then Attlee) and the US (Truman) came together to negotiate the terms for the end of WWII. Here, the allies decided how Europe was going to be divided, and how the defeated Nazi Germany was going to be occupied. The eastern part of Europe came under Soviet control and adopted a communist system, while the west came under the control of the US and the allies, and became capitalist. This division is called the "Iron Curtain". -
Division of Germany into zones of occupation
Under the Potsdam agreement, Germany was divided into zones of occupation, under Soviet, British, French and American control. Berlin, the capital city, was also divided into four zones, even though it was situated on the eastern half of the country, under the control of the USSR. -
Hiroshima Atomic Bomb
The US bombarded the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
The US bombarded the Japanese city of Nagasaki)using an Atomic Bomb. -
Japan surrenders - END OF WWII
Japan signed its surrender to the allies after it was bombed by the US, aboard of the USS Missouri, at Tokyo Bay, ending the hostilities of war. -
Establishment of the Truman Doctrine
On a speech to the Congress, President Truman announced that as of then, the US would provide military, economic, and political assistance to all the democratic nations under Communist threat. The speech caused the UK to withdraw aid towards Greece and Turkey that were being threatened by communist parties, so the United States provided military and economic aids, to prevent the communist to gain more power. This reoriented its foreign policy. -
Blockade of Berlin
The blockade of the Soviets in West Berlin begins on June 24, and to prevent food and energy supplies to the city, Stalin surrounded this half. The United started sending provisions to Berlin by air. In response to the blockade, the US stationed long-range bombers in Britain, in case of the the unleashing of nuclear war. This is the first major crisis in Berlin during the Cold War. -
Stalin re-opens supply lines in Berlin
In spite of this, Berlin remained divided between East and West. -
Establishment of the State of Israel
The "Promised Land" is given to the Jews as an indemnisation for the Holocaust and for being expeled from their homeland for so many centuries. The country is recognised by Truman, the US President. -
Marshall Plan (1948-1951)
The United States secretary of state George C. Marshall announces the huge aid program that will help with the reconstruction of (western) Europe that was torn by WWII, known as “The Marshall Plan”. It gave over $13 billion to help rebuild the countries. -
Development of nuclear weapons by the USSR
By this time, the Soviet Union had developed its own nuclear weapons. -
Signing of the NATO treaty
The NATO Treaty is signed in Washington, and is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European nations allied to the United States. -
Creation of the Federal Republic of Germany
Western Germany is established as a Republic in its own right, calling off any ideas of reunification with the east. -
Detonation of the first Soviet Atomic bomb
The Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb at a remote test site in Kazakhstan. -
Establishment of People's Republic of China
Communist leader Mao Zedong proclaims the creation of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, following the Chinese Civil War. -
Korean War (1950-1953)
After WWII, Korea was divided into a capitalist south and a communist north, supported by the US and the Soviet Union respectively. After the North Korean attack on South Korea, the United Nations sent troops that were lead by The United States, and invaded the country. While this happened, China and the Soviet Union backed up North Korea, and the cease-fire left the two countries with the pre-war status quo. -
Stalin offers to hold negotiations on the reunification of Germany
The Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin makes an offering in order to hold negotiations about the reunification of Germany with the condition that when this happens, a united Germany will stay neutral, but the west allied powers reject this offer. -
Testing of the first hydrogen bomb
The USA tested the first H-bomb, that release a thousand times more energy than the atomic bomb, destroying the Pacific island of Elugelab. -
The Soviet Union develops its own H-bomb
-
Rebellion in East Germany
A workers place that was uprising in East Germany gets crushed by Soviet Union tanks. -
Western Germany joins the NATO
The Federal Republic of Germany joins the NATO, and with this they formed the Bundeswehr, which was the first army that existed after the fall of Hitler. -
Siging of the Warsaw Pact
The USSR and its European satellites igned this pact in Warsaw, Poland, as a collective defence treaty. -
Vietnam war (1955-1975)
South Vietnam faced a communist-led revolt in the hands of Vietcong rebels, supported by the communist North-Vietnamese government. Fearing that the gaining of communist power in Vietnam would lead to their rising in other parts of South-East Asia, the United States started sending advisers to South Vietnam. -
Rebellion in Hungary
The Hungarian uprising takes place but it is quickly shut down by the Soviet Union. -
Suez Canal Crisis
From October 29 to November 6, the crisis of the Suez takes place after Egypt tried to nationalize it (it was run by the UK and France since its construction in 1869), causing Israel, France and Great Britain occupy the canal zone and bomb the Egyptian airfields. -
Launching of the first satellite by the USSR
The first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union. This meant that the whole world was brought within a range of nuclear attack. It urged the US to develop its technology further. -
Creation of the NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded, out of a act signed by President Eisenhower. This was a move aimed to better equip the United States to be the leader on the Space Age (against the Soviet Union). -
Cuban Revolution
In the head of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. -
The US positions nuclear missiles in Turkey
These represented a direct threat to the Soviet Union, as no communist countries were located on the west for them to place missiles against the US. -
U-2 Incident
A US soldier (Gary Powers) was shot down while flying on Soviet airspace. The US denied that he was spying on the Soviets, and this caused the postponement of a scheduled summit with the Uk, France and the US. Powers was sentenced to 10 years of prison under soviet law, but after two years was exchanged for a Soviet spy held by the Americans. It was one of the fe times that the Soviets directly damaged and American citizen during the war, and this outraged the United States. -
Cuba becomes Communist
Located only 30 miles away from the United States, it provided the perfect base for Soviet missiles. When Cuba was threatened for invasion by the US, it agreed to host Soviet Missiles. -
Construction of the Berlin Wall
The existence of a western Berlin deep within communist Germany became a shame and problem to the USSR, as by right, any person was allowed to cross the border of the city at any time, and as a result, many skilled workers that lived in east Germany were attarcted by higher wages on the other half. Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, threatened war unless the US gave up western Berlin, but the US refused to. A a result, the war was built and strengthened, becoming almost impenetrable for 28 years. -
Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct 16-28)
After the positioning of Soviet missiles on Cuba, the US demanded their removal. US generals were advising nuclear attack on Cuba, but president Kennedy placed warships around the island. Soviet ships approached the US navy's, and a US spy plane was shot down. Kennedy would not order war, until at the last minute Khrushchev ordered the withdrawal from the ships, stopping the outbreak of a nuclear war. They got to an agreement to prevent war. -
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed
The United States, Russia and the Soviet Union get into an agreement to suspend the surface (including space) and underwater tests with nuclear weapons, except those underground. -
The US starts sending troops to Vietnam
In order to control the Vietcong (endorsed by the USSR and China), the US started sending troops to Vietnam. They made bombing raids on North Vietnam, and came very close to the Chinese border, garnering them a lot of unpopularity. -
Rebellion in Czechoslovakia (January 5-August 21)
Troops from the Warsaw Pact invade Czechoslovakia to crush the reformist rebellion, in what is called the "Prague Spring". -
Non-Proliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons comes into action
With the intent of avoiding the spread of nuclear weapons, developing the use of nuclear power for energy, and achieve disarmament, countries started signing it in 1968, and it came into effect on 1970. So far, 190 nations have joined in. -
The United States withdraws from the Vietnam War
After the deaths of 2 million civilians, 55,000 American soldiers, and spending millions of dollars, the United States withdraws form the war, signifying its first war loss. -
Ending of the Vietnam War
North Vietnamese forces overran South Vietnam, marking the end of the war. -
Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989)
With the claim that they needed to make the southern border secure against Islam's ideals, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. This caused its tribesmen to cease fighting each other and join against the common enemy, and were given weapons by the US to do so. As they knew the country's territory, the tribesmen defeated Soviet troops, that lost vast amounts of soldiers and money with little progress on their side. -
The US boycotts the Moscow Olympics
After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the US imposed sanctions to the Russians and boycotts the Olympics of 1980. -
Strategic Defence Initiative is announced by US President Ronald Reagan
It was a missile defence system intended to protect the US from nuclear attacks by the USSR, by intercepting long-range intercontinental missiles, and was referred to as "Star Wars" as its bases would be located in space to have a world-wide scope. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union
He was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party, and was the 8th and last leader of the Soviet Union. He promoted the democratisation of the USSR through "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness), which swept off communist governments across eastern Europe, setting the stage for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet union. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Following 28 years of complete separation between Eastern and Western Berlin, the Communist Party announced that from midnight that day, Eastern Germany citizens were free to cross to the other side of the city. -
The Soviet Union Collapses - END OF COLD WAR
The USSR dissolved into 15 independent republics, after Gorbachev resigned his post as president of the Soviet Union. Previously, he had worked on decentralising the Soviet Union, giving more personal and media freedoms, and loosened Soviet grip on Satellite States. This caused the end of the Cold War.