The Cold War

  • The Iron Curtain Speech

    WInston Churchill gave his Iron Curtain Speech which was about the seperation between the capitalist east and the communist west. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." -WInston Churchill
  • Containment policy

    The US created the Containment policy to stop the spread of communism in response to the Soviet Union's attempts to influence it in Eastern Europe.
  • NATO is formed

    The US, Canada, and ten Western European nations join to make the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which was an anti-Soviet military alliance that extends the US's threat of covering Western Europe with nuclear weapons.
  • German border closed

    The Soviet Union closes the bordr between East and West Germany, but not Berlin. So Berlin becomes a gateway for citizens wishing to cross between the two Germanys, choosing the capitalist east or the communist west.
  • Stalin dies

    Stalin had a stroke but treatment was delayed from reaching him as a result of his actions over the years. He died a couple days later
  • Sputnik launches

    The Soviet Union launches Sputnik into space which is the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, leaving America in fear of the Soviet's technological success and starts the Space Race.
  • U-2 incident

    A US spy plane called the U-2 was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union. The US government denied the plane's mission until they were forced to admit its role as a surveillance aircraft when the Soviet Union produced its remains and caught the surviving pilot.
  • The Bay of Pigs

    The Bay of Pigs invasion involves the CIA sponsered American attack of the Cuban government to overthrow th Fidel Castro.
  • Berlin Wall created

    The Berlin was constructed in the night and kept East Germans from fleeing to the West for 28 years.
  • Cuban Missle Crisis

    The Cuban Missle Crisis was the closest the world came to a nuclear war. The US and and Cuba were both very prepared to use neclear weapons and go to war but it was avoided because of John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meeting and discussing the situation.
  • Kennedy assassinated

    Kennedy got shot during a presidential parade by a sniper at 12:30 pm.
  • First man on the moon

    Neil Armstong lands on the moon which gives the US reassurance regarding the Space Race against the Soviets.
  • SALT is formed

    SALT stand for Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and was designed to contain the arms race between the US and the Soviet Union and to suppress weapon use.
  • Chernobyl disaster

    The Chernobyl power plant exploded at 1:23 am and the repercussions are still active today.
  • Destruction of the Berlin Wall

    On the evening of Nov. 9, citziens came to the wall with sledgehammers and started to create unofficial border crossings.