-
Postwar occupation and division of Germany
Decided, would divide Germany into occupation zones, with the Soviet zone extending to the Elbe and a French zone carved out of the Anglo-American spheres. -
Greek Civil War
It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece. The Kingdom won in the end. -
Enhancement of Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan dedicated an unprecedented amount of foreign aid—$13.2 billion, over $130 billion in today's dollars, or 5.2% of US GDP—to European countries to rebuild their war-shattered economies on a cooperative basis. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
The Party organized among the urban working class and worked for the political radicalization of the Chinese peasantry through land reform. The Communist victory had a major impact on the global balance of power: China became the second major socialist state, and, after the 1956 Sino-Soviet Split, a third force in the Cold War. -
Korean War
Fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. When North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. -
Overthrow of the Guatemalan Government
Was a covert operation carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution -
Formation of the Eastern Bloc
During the opening stages of World War II, the Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc by invading and then annexing several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics by agreement with Nazi Germany in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. -
Cuban Revolution
After deciding that the Cuban regime could not be replaced through legal means, Castro resolved to launch an armed revolution. -
Vietnam War
It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. -
Hungarian Uprising
Was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and the Hungarian domestic policies imposed by the USSR. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Was a 35-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, which escalated into an international crisis when American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba. -
Building the Berlin Wall
The Communist government of the German Democratic Republic began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. -
Rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and statehood over the territory of former Mandatory Palestine. -
Overthrow of the Allende government in Chile
During the air raids and ground attacks that preceded the coup, Allende gave his final speech, vowing to stay in the presidential palace and refusing offers of a safe passage should he choose exile over confrontation. -
Soviet War in Afghanistan
A conflict wherein insurgent groups are known collectively as the Mujahideen, as well as smaller Marxist–Leninist–Maoist groups, fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
Troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. As the protests developed, the authorities responded with both conciliatory and hardline tactics, exposing deep divisions within the party leadership. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
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. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet hammer and sickle flag lowered for the last time over the Kremlin, thereafter replaced by the Russian tricolor. Earlier in the day, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his post as president of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the newly independent Russian state. -
9/11
A series of four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by the militant Islamic extremist network al-Qaeda against the United States.