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Cold War
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Cold War starts
Cold War is an ideological confrontation that took place during the XX century, from 1945 (end of WWII) until the end of the USSR , between the Western-capitalist blocs led by the United States, and Eastern-led communist Soviet Union, taking place at the political, ideological, economic, social, technological, military, informative and even sports. There is some disagreement about exactly when the Cold War began. While most historians contend that began just after World War II -
The United States drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. These two events represent the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare to date. -
Independent nuclear force
With the 1946 passing of the Atomic Energy Act, also known as "The McMahon Act," ties between U.S. and British nuclear programs were severed. As the Cold War began, Great Britain felt it should have an independent nuclear force. In January 1947, plans were formed to develop a British nuclear weapon. -
Bernard Baruch gave to know the war
On April 16, 1947, Baruch gave a speech in which he said "Make no mistake: we are in a cold war '.The term was popularized also by columnist Walter Lippmann in 1947 with the publication of a book called Cold War 3 -
The Soviet Atomic Bomb
After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the program accelerated into high gear. The Soviets began construction of a near copy of the Fat Man bomb, using the detailed design descriptions provided by Fuchs. Its estimated yield was about 22 kilotons. -
Chinese agreement
In 1951, China signed a secret agreement with Moscow through which China provided uranium ores in exchange for Soviet assistance in nuclear technology. China began developing nuclear weapons in the late 1951s with substantial Soviet assistance. -
Britain atomic device
On October 3, 1952, Britain detonated its first atomic device, code-named "Hurricane." It had an explosive yield of about 25 kilotons. -
The Hydrogen Bomb
After the Soviet atomic bomb success, the idea of building a hydrogen bomb received new impetus in the United States. In this type of bomb, deuterium and tritium (hydrogen isotopes) are fused into helium, thereby releasing energy. There is no limit on the yield of this weapon.The scientific community split over the issue of building a hydrogen bomb. Edward Teller, who had explored the idea of a 'super' during the Manhattan Project, supported its development. -
The Mike test
On November 1, 1952, the United States detonated a 10.4-megaton hydrogen device in the Pacific on the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The test, code-named "Mike," was the first successful implementation of Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam's concept for a "Super." -
The Soviet idea
The Soviet Union also pursued the development of a hydrogen bomb. Then Andrei Sakharov suggested a different idea. This design, known as, the "Layer Cake", consisted of alternating layers of hydrogen fuel and uranium. However, this design limited the amount of thermonuclear fuel that could be used and therefore the bomb's explosive force.On August 12, 1953, the Soviet Union tested its first fusion-based device on a tower in central Siberia. The bomb had a yield of 400 kilotons. Though not near -
The Bravo test
On March 1, 1954, a deliverable hydrogen bomb using solid lithium deuteride was tested by the United States on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. By missing an important fusion reaction, the scientists had grossly underestimated the size of the explosion.
The blast gouged a crater more than 1/2 mile wide and several hundred feet deep and ejected several million tons of radioactive debris into the air. Within seconds the fireball was nearly 3 miles in diameter. -
Britain's first bomb
In 1954, Churchill decided that Britain should go ahead with hydrogen bomb development. Britain's first successful hydrogen bomb was detonated on November 8, 1957, over Christmas Island in the Pacific. The test had a yield of 1.8 megatons. -
Test ban treaty
In 1958, as a first step toward a test-ban treaty, both the U.S. and Soviet Union temporarily suspended nuclear testing. This informal moratorium on nuclear testing was ended in September 1961 by the Soviet Union. Two weeks later, the U.S. responded by conducting its own test series. The resumption of nuclear testing produced much radioactive and political fallout. The public concern about the fallout danger finally produced enough political pressure to force negotiati -
France joins the club
The first French nuclear test, "Gerboise Bleue," (Blue Gerbil) was detonated on February 13, 1960 at Reggane in Algeria atop a 345 foot tower. This device used plutonium and had a notably high yield of 60-70 kilotons. No other nuclear power has ever detonated such a powerful device as its first test. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba discovered nuclear missile sites under construction. These missiles would have been capable of quickly reaching the United States. President Kennedy convened a small group of senior officials to debate the crisis. Known as ExComm, they met almost continuously for the next two weeks. -
Cuba missile crisis
Finally on October 14, 1962 Khrushchev announced that they were withdrawing the missiles from Cuba. -
agreement of 113 countries
The Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) was a trilateral agreement between the U.S., U.S.S.R., and U.K., which halted atmospheric, underwater and outer space nuclear tests. Since 1963, an additional 113 countries have signed the treaty. There are two major non-signers, France and China, although they both signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. -
Chinese nuclear test
China made remarkable progress in the 1960s in developing nuclear weapons. The first Chinese nuclear test was conducted at Lop Nur on October 16, 1964. It was a tower shot involving a fission device with a yield of 25 kilotons. Uranium 235 was used as the nuclear fuel. In less than 32 months, China detonated its first hydrogen bomb on June 14, 1967. -
Shock
On the morning of May 18, 1974, a nuclear device was detonated in the Rajasthan desert near Pokhran, India. This event came as a shock to the entire world. Work on a nuclear fission device had been authorized by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on September 7, 1972. -
Salt II treaty
The SALT II treaty was signed by President Carter and Premier Brezhnev in Vienna on June 18, 1979, and was submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification shortly thereafter. But renewed tensions between the superpowers prompted Carter to remove the treaty from consideration in January 1980, after the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The era of détente was over. -
The end
By mid-1990, many of the Soviet republics had declared their independence. Turmoil in the Soviet Union continued, as there were several attempts at overthrowing Gorbachev. On December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.). After 45 years, the Cold War was over. -
End of Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was crumbled by declaration № 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. -
China sign treaty
There is considerable uncertainly in published estimates of the size of the Chinese nuclear-weapons stockpile. Although these weapons are not a direct threat to the United States, they still pose a major threat to world security. China is also suspected in aiding the Pakistani nuclear program.In 1996, China did sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
