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Atomic bombings
August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. -
Period: to
A Changing World
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Creation of United Nations
The successor of the failed League of Nations. On January 1, 1942, representatives of 26 nations at war with the Axis powers met in Washington to sign the Declaration of the United Nations endorsing the Atlantic Charter, pledging to use their full resources against the Axis and agreeing not to make a separate peace. -
Cold War
The relationship developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after WWII. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred: the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some.
Capitalism versus Communism. Each held with almost religious conviction, formed the basis of an international power struggle with both sides vying for dominance, exploiting every opportunity for expansion anywhere in the world. -
Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris.
A common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected -
Korean War
Korean War, conflict between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in which at least 2.5 million persons lost their lives. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. -
Moon Landing
Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, 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. East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting “Tor auf!” (“Open the gate!”). At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints. -
Cold War (End)
Gathering at the opening Berlin Wall on November 10, 1989.
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR.
He withdrew from Afghanistan, and realised that the USSR could not afford the arms race, and opened the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks with USA. He signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987. He began to reform the Soviet system by allowing perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). In 1991, Gorbachev fell from power and the Soviet Union was dissolved. -
9/11
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City
