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Period: to
cold war
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In discussing the reorganization of Post-War Europe, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet in the Yalta Conference.
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta, -
Harry Truman takes over as president and establishes his position to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov.
Harry S. Truman, the Vice President of the United States, was elevated by the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Presidency of the United States. He lacked a month of being 61 years old, and he had been Vice President for only 83 days when Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone administered the oath in the White House Cabinet Room.
"But now the lightning had struck, and events beyond anyone's control had taken command," Truman wrote later. -
The reconstruction and division of Europe is agreed upon during the Potsdam conference.
The Potsdam Conference, a meeting of the victorious leaders of the Allies in Europe, attempted to confront the delicate balance of power of the opposing governmental structures, democracy and communism. Held in an unbombed suburb of Berlin, it commenced July 17 lasting to August 2. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and President Truman began the conference for their respective countries. On the agenda was the partitioning of the postwar world and resolving t -
The U.S. uses an atomic weapon for the first time against the Japanese on the city of Hiroshima, and later on Nagasaki.
the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefecture health department estimated that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness -
A clerk working for the Soviet Embassy in Canada, Igor Gouzenko, defects and gives vital information to the west regarding the USSR.
On the night of 5 September 1945, Igor Gouzenko had made the decision to defect to Canada while bringing with him more than 100 documents as proof that the Soviets were actively spying on Canadians and Americans. The USSR had been WW-II allies with both these countries. Igor Gouzenko did so with his pregnant wife and 2 year old son in tow. Although initially most of the Canadian authorities he visits turn him down either thinking he is exaggerating, drunk or just trying to stir up trouble. -
Nationalist and Communist China resume the activities of the Civil War.
The Chinese Civil War (1927–1950) was a civil war in China fought between forces loyal to the government of the Republic of China led by the Kuomintang (KMT) and forces of the Communist Party of China (CPC).[6] The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,[7] and essentially ended when major active battles ceased in 1950. The conflict eventually resulted in two de facto states, the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China. -
Stalin gives a speech saying that communism and capitalism cannot co-exist.
they
show the line of the Sixth Congress in action and the
application to the Communist Party of the United
States of the Sixth Congress decisions on the fight
against the Right danger.
The Sixth Congress of the C.I. pointed out the
growth of the Right wing tendencies in the world
Communist movement, the growth caused by new
features in the world situation — further decay of capitalist
stabilization, sharpening of inner and outer contradictions
of capitalism, sharpening of the class
struggle,etc -
Winston Churchill, in a response to Stalin gives his “Sinews of Peace” speech wherein he refers to the Iron Curtain descending upon Europe.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri
I am glad to come to Westminster College this afternoon, and am complimented that you should give me a degree. The name “Westminster” is somehow familiar to me. I seem to have heard of it before. Indeed, it was at Westminster that I received a very large part of my education in politics, dialectic, rhetoric, and one or two other things. In fact we have both been educated at the same, or similar, or, at any rate, kindred establishments. -
President Truman demands Russia/USSR to vacate Iran
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A series of nuclear tests by the USA are conducted at the Bikini Atoll, the activity is known as Operation Crossroads.
Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, and the first detonation of any nuclear device following the Fat Man detonation on August 9, 1945. Its purpose was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval ships. -
The USA organizes with 19 Latin American nations to sign the Rio Pact.
the goal of the member nations in creating the OAS was "to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence." -
USSR takes over Czechoslovakia.
After the 1946 election, the communists began to lose some of their popularity, and, as the 1948 election approached, their public support began to decline. Not leaving anything to chance, the communists staged a coup d'etat in February 1948 rather than wait for the scheduled May election. To ensure passivity among military units that might object to such unconstitutional methods, Svoboda confined all noncommunist commanders to quarters. Various units under communist command were placed on alert -
In order to protect Europe from Communism, the Brussels Pact is signed.
The Treaty of Brussels was signed on 17 March 1948 between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as an expansion to the preceding year's defence pledge, the Dunkirk Treaty signed between Britain and France. As the Treaty of Brussels contained a mutual defence clause, it provided a basis upon which the 1954 Paris Conference established the Western European Union (WEU). It was terminated on 31 March 2010. -
The Berlin Blockade is a crisis that was borne out of the Cold War and lasts for 11 months.
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The formation of NATO is ratified.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) After World War II the countries of Western Europe found themselves too weak politically and militarily to prevent the spread of the communist "iron curtain" on a national level. The alliance of France and the United Kingdom through the Brussels Treaty was found to be minuscule when compared to the Communist Soviet Union. Very little time passed before this weakness was realized and Western Europe turned to a more inclusive North Atlantic Treaty. -
The Berlin Blockade comes to an end.
On May 12, 1949, an early crisis of the Cold War comes to an end when the Soviet Union lifts its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin's two million citizens -
Communist Mao Tse Tung takes over China and defeats the Nationalists.
On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the birth of the People's Republic of China—with the statement “The central government of the People’s republic of China is established!”—before a crowd of 500,000 to 1 million people at Tiananmen Square. -
The Nationalists in China led by Chiang Kai-Shek moves to the island of Formosa, present day Taiwan.
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A communist witch hunt in the US begins, led by Joe McCarthy.
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion. -
The Korean War begins with Stalin equipping North Korea with Soviet weapons in the invasion against South Korea.
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The Federal Civil Defense Administration is created.
The Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) was organized by Democratic president Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) on December 1, 1950, and became an official government agency on January 12, 1951. The agency distributed posters, programs, and information about communism and the threat of communist attacks. In 1979, President Carter signed Executive Order 12127 merging the successor to the Federal Civil Defense Administration — the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (DCPA) — into today's Federal -
General Douglas MacArthur is relieved from service by President Truman.
On 11 April 1951, US President Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands for making public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. MacArthur was a popular hero of World War II who was then the commander of United Nations forces fighting in the Korean War, and his relief remains a controversial topic in the field of civil-military relations. -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for their involvement as communist spies.
Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg were United States citizens convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war, and executed. Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. -
were United States citizens convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war, and executed. Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
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Operation Ajax is the CIA operation that overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état was the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran, and its head of government Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the United Kingdom and the United States The coup saw the transition of Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi from a constitutional monarch to an authoritarian one who relied heavily on United States support to hold on to power until his own overthrow in February 1979. -
Soviet Communist Party chooses a new leader in Nikita Krushchev.
Six months after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev succeeds him with his election as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Born into a Ukrainian peasant family in 1894, Khrushchev worked as a mine mechanic before joining the Soviet Communist Party in 1918. In 1929, he went to Moscow and steadily rose in the party ranks and in 1938 was made first secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. -
President Dwight Eisenhower gives his Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General Assembly.
"Atoms for Peace" was the title of a speech delivered by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1953.
I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new – one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare. -
Another covert operation by the CIA was the Guatemalan Coup d’etat aimed to depose President Guzman.
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état was the CIA covert operation that deposed President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán , with Operation PBSUCCESS — paramilitary invasion by an anti-Communist “army of liberation”. In the early 1950s, the politically liberal, elected Árbenz Government had effected the socio-economics of Decree 900 the national agrarian-reform expropriation, for peasant use and ownership, of unused prime-farmlands that Guatemalan and multinational corporations had set aside as reserved business -
SEATO is created in order to resist communist expansion in South East Asia which has spread to the Philippines and Indochina.
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The Soviet Union create their own national security agency, the KGB (Committee for State Security).
The Committee for State Security, more commonly known by its transliteration "KGB"was the main security agency for the USSR and Russian SFSR from 1954 until its collapse in 1991. The committee was a direct successor of such preceding agencies as Cheka, NKGB, MGB. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction" in the fields of Internal security, Intelligence, and Secret police. -
The Philippines is infiltrated by communist factions known as the Huk.
The Hukbalahap or Hukbong Laban sa Hapon was an anti-Japanese guerilla movement formed by the peasant farmers of Central Luzon. They are popularly known simply as Huks. They staged a rebellion, known as the Hukbalahap Rebellion against the Philippine Government in 1946. It was finally put down through a series of reforms and military victories by Filipino President Ramon Magsaysay. -
Vietnam is divided to north and south at the 17th parallel.
The 17th parallel division between North and South Vietnam was the result of a Chinese proposal at the Geneva Confernce of 1954 which ended the French war in Vietnam. China did not want a strong, unified Vietnam on its southern border and easily convinced the great powers to go along with their proposal. Ho Chi Minh was dependent on Chinese aid and had to go along. Elections were scheduled for 1956, but South Vietnam, which did not sign the Geneva Accord, refused to participate. -
The Eisenhower Doctrine is a promise of the US to defend Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan against Communist influence
U.S. foreign policy pronouncement by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1957). The Eisenhower Doctrine promised military and economic aid to anticommunist governments, at a time when communist countries were providing arms to Egypt and offering strong support to Arab states. Part of the Cold War policy developed by John Foster Dulles to contain expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence, the doctrine continued pledges made under the Truman Doctrine. -
The first ICBM is launched using a Vostok.
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In anticipation of a potential soviet ICBM nuclear attack, the Strategic Air Command issues 24/7 alerts which lasted until 1991
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The Soviets successfully launch Sputnik into orbit
was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was a 585 mm (23 in) diameter shiny metal sphere, with four external radio antennae to broadcast radio pulses. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses detectable. The surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis, began the Space Age and triggered the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political,military,etc -
Iraq receives support from the USSR beginning in the 14 July Revolution by overthrowing the Hashemite Monarchy.
The Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown through a coup d'état by the Iraqi Army, known as the 14 July Revolution. King Faisal II of Iraq along with members of the royal family were murdered. The coup brought Abd al-Karim Qasim to power. He withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the Soviet Union. -
Fidel Castro becomes leader of Cuba through the Cuban Revolution in a communist take-over.
On 31 December 1958, the Battle of Santa Clara took place in a scene of great confusion. The city of Santa Clara fell to the combined forces of Che Guevara, Cienfuegos, Revolutionary Directorate (RD) rebels led by Comandantes Rolando Cubela, Juan ("El Mejicano") Abrahantes, and William Alexander Morgan. News of these defeats caused Batista to panic. He fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic just hours later on 1 January 1959. Comandante William Alexander Morgan, leading RD rebel forces, continued -
A communist revolt in Laos, known as Pathet Lao takes place.
On 9 August 1960, Captain Kong Le and his Special Forces-trained Neutralist paratroop battalion were able to seize control of the administrative capital of Vientiane in a virtually bloodless coup,while Prime Minister Tiao Samsanith, government officials, and military leaders met in the royal capital, Luang Prabang. -
In an attempt to invade Cuba by the CIA, the mission fails. This is known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion, known in Hispanic America as La Batalla de Girón, was an unsuccessful military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the revolutionary leftist government of President Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado. -
President Eisenhower severs diplomatic relationship with Cuba and closes the embassy (US) in Havana.
In the climax of deteriorating relations between the United States and Fidel Castro's government in Cuba, President Dwight D. Eisenhower closes the American embassy in Havana and severs diplomatic relations. The action signaled that the United States was prepared to take extreme measures to oppose Castro's regime, which U.S. officials worried was a beachhead of communism in the western hemisphere. -
After failing to decide the future of Germany, the Berlin Wall is erected by the Soviets.
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin.The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. -
Legendary Checkpoint Charlie begins stand off between US & Soviet tanks.
Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.GDR leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission for the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop Eastern Bloc emigration westward through the Soviet border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin to West Berlin. -
Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested is detonated by the Soviet Union.
Tsar Bomba is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Its October 30, 1961 test remains the most powerful artificial explosion in human history. It was also referred to as Kuz'kina Mat' potentially referring to Nikita Khrushchev's promise to show the United States a "Kuz'kina Mat'" at the 1960 United Nations General Assembly. -
China invades India, the Himalayan War, and attempts to claim certain border area.
The Sino-Indian War also known as the Sino-Indian Border Conflict was a war between China and India that occurred in 1962. A disputed Himalayan border was the main pretext for war, but other issues played a role. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when India had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama. India initiated a Forward Policy in which it placed outposts along the border, including several north of the McMahon Line, the eastern portion of a Line -
Soviets covertly install military bases and nuclear weapons on Cuba, the standoff is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Cuban Missile Crisis — known as the October crisis in Cuba and the Caribbean crisis in the USSR — was a 14-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side, and the United States on the other, in October 1962. It was one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict.It is also the first documented instance of the threat of mutual assured destruction (MAD) being discusse -
The UK, US, and USSR sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, limiting the testing of nuclear weapons to nearly any place except underground.
The Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) is a treaty prohibiting all test detonations of nuclear weapons except underground. It was developed both to slow the arms race (nuclear testing was, at the time, necessary for continued nuclear weapon advancements), and to stop the excessive release of nuclear fallout into the planet's atmosphere. It was signed and ratified by the governments of the Soviet Union and United Kingdom and the United States in 1963. -
Chilean Marxist President Salvador Allende is overthrown via a coup d’etat led by Augusto Pinochet who received backing from the US.
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a watershed event of the Cold War and the history of Chile. Following an extended period of social and political unrest between the conservative-dominated Congress of Chile and the elected socialist President Salvador Allende, Allende was overthrown in a coup d’état. -
The CIA is suspected in the assassination coup of Ngo Dinh Diem, president of South Vietnam.
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963. On 2 November 1963, Diệm and his adviser, his younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu, were arrested after the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) had been successful in a bloody overnight siege on Gia Long Palace in Saigon. The coup was the culmination of nine years of autocratic and nepotistic family rule in South V -
JFK is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas.Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, in a presidential motorcade. -
The US involvement in the Vietnam War is precipitated by the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident is the name given to two separate confrontations, one actual and one false, involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron.A sea battle resulted, in which the Maddox expended over two hundred and eighty 3-inch and 5-inch shells, etc.. -
Leonid Brezhnev takes over as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in length. During Brezhnev's rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time, but his tenure as leader has often been criticised -
American forces are sent to invade the Dominican Republic to prevent a communist takeover.
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Indonesian generals attempting a coup are killed in the 30 September Movement.
The Thirtieth of September Movement was a self-proclaimed organization of Indonesian National Armed Forces members who, in the early hours of 1 October 1965, assassinated six Indonesian Army generals in an abortive coup d'état.Later that morning, the organization declared that it was in control of media and communication outlets and had taken President Sukarno under its protection. By the end of the day, the coup attempt had failed in Jakarta at least. -
The Battle La Drang signals the first incursion between US and Vietnam forces.
The 1st Cavalry Division is one of the most decorated combat divisions of the United States Army.It is based at Fort Hood, Texas. It was formed in 1921 and served during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, with the Stabilization Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the Iraq War, and in the War in Afghanistan (2001-present). As of 2013, the 1st Cavalry Division is subordinate to III Corps and is commanded by Major General Anthony R. Ierardi. -
President Sukarno of Indonesia is overthrown by General Suharto.
Indonesia's transition to the "New Order" in the mid-1960s, ousted the country's first president, Sukarno after 22 years in the position. One of the most tumultuous periods in the country's modern history, it was the commencement of Suharto's 32-year presidency. -
The Treaty of Tlatelolco is signed by thrity-three Latin American and Caribbean countries that prohibit nuclear weapons in those areas.
The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (also known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco) obligates Latin American parties not to acquire or possess nuclear weapons, nor to permit the storage or deployment of nuclear weapons on their territories by other countries. Besides the agreement among the Latin American countries themselves, there are two Additional Protocols dealing with matters that concern non-Latin American countries. Protocol I involves an undertaking by non-Latin. -
The Six Day War is Israel’s invasion of the Sinai Peninsula in response to Egyptian aggression.
The Six-Day War also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. -
To prevent further communist threat in Southeast Asia, the Bangkok Declaration is established.
The South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, signed in September 1954 in Manila, Philippines. The formal institution of SEATO was established on 19 February 1955 at a meeting of treaty partners in Bangkok, Thailand. The organization's headquarters were also in Bangkok. Eight members joined the organization. -
North Korea boards and captures the USS Pueblo, later known as the Pueblo Incident.
USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is an American ELINT and SIGINTBanner-class technical research ship (Navy intelligence) which was boarded and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or the Pueblo affair. The capture, less than a week after President Lyndon B. Johnson's State of the Union Address and only a week before the start of the Tet Offensive, and subsequent 11-month prisoner drama were major incidents in the ... -
As the war in Vietnam intensifies, one of the major events take place known as the Tet Offensive.
The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks that were launched against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam, during a period when no attacks were supposed to take place.[ -
The Nuclear Proliferation Treaty is made available for signature.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. -
Richard Nixon is elected President of the USA.
Richard Milhous Nixonwas the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a Republican U.S. representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. -
China and the Soviet Union continue to have border clashes, known as the Sino-Soviet Conflict.
The Sino-Soviet border conflict was a seven-month military conflict between the Soviet Union and China at the height of the Sino-Soviet split in 1969. The most serious of these border clashes occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao Island on the Ussuri River, also known as Damanskii Island in Russia. Chinese historians most commonly refer to the conflict by the Zhenbao Island incident The conflict was finally resolved with future border demarcations. -
The USA becomes the first to land on the moon with Apollo 11.
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface 6 hours later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less; and together they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth. A third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft. -
The US begin withdrawal from Vietnam to allow “Vietnamization” to take place. This puts the burden of combat on the South Vietnamese.
Severe communist losses during the Tet Offensive allowed U.S. President Richard Nixon to begin troop withdrawals. His plan, called the Nixon Doctrine, was to build up the ARVN, so that they could take over the defense of South Vietnam. The policy became known as "Vietnamization". Vietnamization had much in common with the policies of the Kennedy administration. One important difference, however, remained. While Kennedy insisted that the South Vietnamese fight the war themselves, he attempted to -
Libya allies itself with the Soviet Union with the expulsion of the US and UK along with the overthrow of the Libyan monarchy led by Moammar al-Gaddafi.
The history of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi spanned a period of over four decades from 1969 to 2011. Gaddafi became the de facto leader of the country on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan military officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution and proclaimed the new Libyan African Republic, with the motto "freedom... -
The UK, US, and the Soviet Union enter into an agreement known as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Other countries also signed the treaty.
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Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia are bombed by the United States.
While visiting Beijing in 1970 Sihanouk was ousted by a military coup led by Prime Minister General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak. There is no evidence of any US role in the coup. However, once the coup was completed, the new regime, which immediately demanded that the Vietnamese communists leave Cambodia, gained the political support of the United States. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, desperate to retain their sanctuaries and supply lines from North Vietnam, immediately.. -
The Bangladesh Liberation War breaks out. The war results in the creation of the independent country of Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Liberation War was a war of independence in South Asia during 1971, which resulted in the secession of East Pakistan from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and established the sovereign nation of Bangladesh. The war pitted East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan, and lasted over a duration of nine months. One of the most violent wars of the 20th century, it witnessed large-scale atrocities, the exodus of 10 million refugees and the displacement of 30 million people. -
Nikita Khrushchev dies.
Some of Khrushchev's policies were seen as erratic, particularly by his emerging rivals, who quietly rose in strength and deposed him in October 1964. He did not suffer the deadly fate of some previous losers of Soviet power struggles, but was pensioned off with an apartment in Moscow and a dacha in the countryside. His lengthy memoirs were smuggled to the West and published in part in 1970. Khrushchev died in 1971 of heart disease. -
The People’s Republic of China is recognized by the UN General Assembly by passing Resolution 2758.
The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 was passed in response to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1668 that required any change in China's representation in the UN be determined by a two-thirds majority vote. The resolution, passed in October 25, 1971, recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" and expelled "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupy ... -
For the first time, a US president, Nixon, visits the People’s Republic of China.
U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, which at that time considered the U.S. one of its staunchestfoes, and the visit ended 25 years of separation between the two sides. -
The beginning of Detente between the US and USSR results in the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I).
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union—the Cold War superpowers—on the issue of armament control. The two rounds of talks and agreements were SALT I and SALT II. -
Egypt and Syria attack Israel in what was known as the Yom Kippur War.
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War and the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was a war of aggression fought by the coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel from October 6 to 25, 1973. -
America’s involvement in the Vietnam War ends by the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.
The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War, ended direct U.S. military involvement, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending... -
Richard Nixon resigns and is replaced by Gerald Ford as President of the U.S.
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and prior to this, was the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974. He was the first person appointed to the Vice Presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, after Spiro Agnew had resigned. When he became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974, he became the first and to date only person to have served as both Vice President and President -
South Vietnam falls and surrender’s Saigon. North and South Vietnam are united ruled by a Communist Government.
Following American withdrawal from the war in 1973, the South Vietnamese government continued fighting the North Vietnamese, until, overwhelmed by a conventional invasion by the North, it finally unconditionally surrendered on 30 April 1975, the day of the surrender of Saigon. North Vietnam controlled South Vietnam under military occupation, while the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, which had been proclaimed in June 1969 by the NLF, became the nominal .... -
US backed Somalia attacks Soviet supported Ethiopia which gives rise to the Ogaden War.
Somalia officially the Federal Republic of Somalia -
After the overthrow of Afghani President Sardar Mohammed Dauod, resulting in his murder, a Communist regime takes over in Afghanistan.
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A pro-Vietnam/pro-Soviet government is installed in Cambodia after Vietnam deposes the Khmer Rouge.
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea. The war began with isolated clashes along the land and maritime boundaries of Vietnam and Kampuchea between 1975 and 1977, occasionally involving division-sized military formations. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea and subsequently occupied the country and removed the Khmer Rouge from power. -
China attacks North Vietnam for invading Cambodia, this is part of the Sino-Vietnamese War.
The Sino–Vietnamese War , also known as the Third Indochina War, was a brief border war fought between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in early 1979. China launched the offensive in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978 which Chinese Vice-premier Deng Xiaoping saw as a Soviet attempt "to extend its evil tentacles to Southeast Asia and...carry out expansion there." -
In South America, Marxists in El Salvador engage in a war against the government which was being supported by the US.
In April 1978, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan in the Saur Revolution. Within months, opponents of the communist government launched an uprising in eastern Afghanistan that quickly expanded into a civil war waged by guerrilla mujahideen against government forces countrywide. The Pakistani government provided these rebels with covert training centers, while the Soviet Union sent thousands of military advisers to support the PDPA government -
Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement.
SALT II was a series of talks between United States and Soviet negotiators from 1972 to 1979 which sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons. It was a continuation of the SALT I talks and was led by representatives from both countries. SALT II was the first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2,250 of all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides. -
The Somoza dictatorship of Nicaragua is overthrown by Sandinista revolutionaries.
The Nicaraguan Revolution encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Frontwhich led to the violent ousting of that dictatorship in 1979, and the subsequent efforts of the FSLN, which governed from 1979 until 1990, to reform the society and economy of the country along socialist lines.The revolution played a substantial role in foreign policy for Nicaragua, Central America and the Americas... -
Hardline Islamist students in Iran overwhelm the American Embassy. This is the beginning of the Iran Hostage Crisis.
One of the most dramatic changes in government in Iran's history was seen with the 1979 Iranian Revolution where Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Autocratic monarchy was replaced by an Islamic Republic based on the principle of rule by Islamic jurists, where clerics serve as head of state and in many powerful governmental roles. A pro-Western, pro-American foreign policy was exchanged for one of "neither east nor west", said to rest on the... -
Poland workers wanting more civil rights signed the Gdansk Agreement in the Communist controlled country.
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on 31 August 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non–communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 Congress that constituted 1/3 of the total working age population of Poland. -
One of the reasons Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as President of the US is his opposition to the “concessions” of Détente.
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Martial law is declared in Poland by communist General Jaruzelski. The declaration was an attempt to stop the Polish Trade Union from gaining power.
On 13 December 1981, claiming that the country was on the verge of economic and civil breakdown, and alleging a danger of Soviet intervention (whether this danger was real, at that particular moment, is disputed by historians, see Soviet reaction to the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981 Wojciech Jaruzelski, who had become the Party's national secretary and prime minister that year, began a crack-down on Solidarity; declaring martial law, suspending the Union, and temporarily imprisoning most of its ... -
President Reagan calls the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” during a speech given to the National Association of Evangelicals.
The phrase evil empire was applied to the Soviet Union notably by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities, in calling for a rollback strategy that would, in his words, write the final pages of the history of the Soviet Union. The characterization demeaned the Soviet Union and angered Soviet leaders; it represented the rhetorical side of the escalation of the Cold War. -
In a move to protect the United States from nuclear threats, specially against the Soviets, President Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983,to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the ... -
A Soviet interceptor aircraft shoots down a Korean Air Lines plane killing 269 passengers. The US condemns this act and put the Soviets on alert.
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was a scheduled Korean Air Lines airliner that was shot down by a Soviet interceptor Su-15 near Moneron Island, west of Sakhalin Island, in the Sea of Japan on Thursday, September 1, 1983. The interceptor's pilot was Major Gennadi Osipovich. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including Lawrence McDonald, a sitting member of the United States Congress. -
The United States have a new President in George H.W. Bush.
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. The eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush, he was born in New Haven, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush worked in oil businesses. -
The Soviet Union official dissolves after Gorbachev resigns as its president
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991 by declaration № 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.This declaration acknowledged the independence of the twelve republics of the Soviet Union that subsequently created the Commonwealth of Independent States. On the previous day, 25 December 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, declaring his office extinct, and handed over the Soviet nuclear...
