Cold War By naminescry Feb 7, 1945 Yalta Conference Agreement to temporarily divide Germany Period: Feb 7, 1945 to Aug 8, 1992 COLD WAR Aug 6, 1945 U.S. first used atomic bomb Aug 14, 1945 V-J Day Japanese surrender Mar 8, 1946 Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech Jun 8, 1947 Marshall Plan Jun 24, 1948 Berlin Blockade begins Jul 21, 1949 NATO ratified Sep 3, 1949 USSR explodes atomic bomb first Sep 8, 1949 Mao Zedong takes over China Feb 8, 1950 Joseph McCarthy begins Communist witch-hunt in government Jun 19, 1950 Korean War begins Jun 6, 1953 Rosenberg executions Jul 8, 1953 Korean War ends Jul 21, 1954 Vietnam splits at 17th parallel Oct 4, 1957 Sputnik launched Jan 1, 1959 Cuba taken over by Communist Fidel Castro May 8, 1960 U-2 spy plane shot down over USSR Nov 8, 1960 John F. Kennedy elected president Apr 8, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion Aug 8, 1961 Construction of Berlin Wall begins Oct 8, 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis Apr 8, 1975 south Vietnam falls to communism Apr 8, 1975 Berlin Wall falls Dec 8, 1989 Soviet empire falls Oct 8, 1990 Germany reunited Aug 8, 1992 U.S and Russia sign formal end to the Cold War May 14, 1995 Warsaw Pact formed
