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Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution in 1917 was the overthrow of the Tsarist Autocracy which was replaced by a provisional government and then overthrown to create a communist state led by Lenin. -
Potsdam Conference
Meeting of Stalin, Churchill, and Truman to discuss postwar issues and how to rebuild Germany. -
Atomic Bomb
On August 6th and 9th, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs were respectively dropped. -
Iron Curtain
Figurative curtain that separated Eastern communist nations from western democratic European nations that eventually became a literal wall. -
Truman Doctrine
Truman declares that the U.S. will provide political, military and economic assistance to all countries resisting communism. -
Molotov Plan
A system in which the Soviet Union provided aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe, that was ultimately rejected. -
Marshall Plan
The marshall plan was an American initiative created by the secretary of state George C. Marshall that channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951, which also helped stop the spread of communism in Western Europe. -
Berlin Blockade
When the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
NATO
NATO is an Alliance that consists of 28 independent member countries across North America and Europe. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." -
Berlin Airlift
After The Soviets blockaded the section of Berlin under allied access from supplies coming in over land, the allies dropped supplies from planes into the free section of Berlin. The crisis ended on May 12, 1949, when Soviet forces lifted the blockade on land access to western Berlin. -
The Alger Hiss Case
Alger Hiss was an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948[1] and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former U.S. Communist Party member, testified under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that Hiss had secretly been a Communist, though not a spy, while in federal service. -
Hollywood 10
The Hollywood Ten is a 1950 American 16mm short documentary film. In the film, each member of the Hollywood Ten made a short speech denouncing McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklisting. The film was directed by John Berry. -
Korean War
A war in which China and the Soviet Union aided North Korea, while the U.S. and the United Nations gave military aid Southern Korea. -
Soviet bomb test
The USSR sets off the first atomic bomb, code-named “First Lightning”, at a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. -
Rosenburg trial
The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic battle between Vietnamese forces and French forces that convinced France to abandon their war effort. -
Army-McCarthy hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954 about communists within the American military that McCarthy claims to have information on. -
Geneva Conference
A gathering of nations to settle issues from the Korean War and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Vietnam. -
Warsaw pact
The warsaw pact was a defensive treaty between eastern communist countries in response to the formation of NATO. -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian revolution was a nationwide revolt against the oppression of the Soviet rule it lived under. The Soviets crushed the revolution. -
U2 incident
The U2 incident occurred during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency when an American spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
Berlin wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over a dispute about wether or not there would be nuclear missiles in Cuba. -
Assassination of Diem
The arrest and assassination of Diem was the result of a successful coup d'etat led by General Dương Văn Minh. -
Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in Dallas, Texas while riding in a motorcade in Dallas' Dealey Plaza. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a document passed by congress that allowed President LBJ to go ahead with his war on Vietnam. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation rolling thunder was the name of the U.S. tactic of continued and relentless bombing of North Vietnam. -
Tet Offensive
Massive offensive executed by the North Vietnamese on the Tet holiday that destroyed political support for the war in the U.S. -
Assassination of MLK
MLK was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Assassination of RFK
Shortly after winning the 1968 presidential election, Robert F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and died the next day while hospitalized. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
The invasion of Czechoslovakia was a joint invasion of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland into Czechoslovakia to prevent liberalization reforms. -
Riots of Democratic Convention
After the assassination of MLK, there were numerous violent riots at the democratic convention of 1968. -
Election of Nixon
Despite losing the election several years earlier, Nixon saw his opportunity over a divided democratic party and their nominee, Hubert Humphrey. -
Kent State
Members of the Ohio national guard shot 4 students at an antiwar protest at Kent State. -
Nixon visits 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 China. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
An agreement is finally reached between the U.S. and North Vietnam on an end to the fighting, none of which favors the U.S. -
Fall of Saigon
The capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam occurred while the U.S. was leaving and bringing South Vietnamese refugees with them. -
Reagan elected
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States and was elected -
SDI announced
SDI was a defense system proposed by Ronald Reagan in which nuclear weapons are shot down by lasers on satellites in the atmosphere before they made it to the U.S. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
The Geneva Summit of 1985 was a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was a meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. -
'Tear down this wall' speech
"Tear down this wall" is a line in a speech made by president Reagan at the Berlin wall asking Gorbachev to, of course, tear down the Berlin wall. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
This was the day in which the wall dividing East and West Berlin fell.
