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Russia declares war on japan
On this day in 1945, the Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. -
"Sinews of Peace" Iron Curtain Speech by Winston Churchill - "an "iron curtain" has descended on Europe"
Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War. -
Marshall Plan is announced setting a precedent for helping countries combat poverty, disease and malnutrition
On June 4, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech in which he announced that the United States was willing to offer economic assistance to the war-torn nations of Europe to help in their recovery. The Marshall Plan, as this program came to be known, eventually provided billions of dollars to European nations and helped stave off economic disaster in many of them. The Soviet reaction to Marshall’s speech was a stony silence. However, Foreign Minister Molotov agreed to a meeting -
NATO ratified
The United States and 11 other nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe. NATO stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War. -
Berlin Blockade begins lasting 11 months
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. -
Truman approved H-bomb development
U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announces his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. -
Truman fires MacArthur
In April 1951, President Truman fired MacArthur and replaced him with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway -
RAND report on the "Vulnerability of U. S. Strategic Air Power"
The Research Memorandum was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 1973 that represented working papers meant to report current results of RAND research to appropriate audiences. -
H-bomb Castle-Bravo test
Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first United States test of a dry fuel hydrogen bomb, detonated on March 1, 1954, at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as the first test of Operation Castle. -
USSR sent military aid to Afghanistan
The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years from December 1979 to February 1989. -
Suez Crisis began with Israeli attack led by Moshe Dayan against Egyptian forces in the SinaiEgypt took control of Suez Canal
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Sputnik launched into orbit
The Soviet Union inaugurates the “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for “satellite,” was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic -
Explorer I launched
In January 1958, the United States launched its first satellite, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in response to the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite several months earlier. -
Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro
He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008. During that time, Castro’s regime was successful in reducing illiteracy, stamping out racism and improving public health care, but was widely criticized for stifling economic and political freedoms -
Cubia and Soviet Union relations grow
Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their policies. -
Construction of Berlin Wall begins
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Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified
Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, formally Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water, treaty signed in Moscow on Aug. 5, 1963, by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom that banned all tests of nuclear weapons except those conducted underground. -
A-bombs developed by China
When Sino-Soviet relations cooled in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union withheld plans and data for an atomic bomb, abrogated the agreement on transferring defense technology, and began the withdrawal of Soviet advisers in 1960. Despite the termination of Soviet assistance, China committed itself to continue nuclear weapons development to break "the superpowers' monopoly on nuclear weapons," to ensure Chinese security against the Soviet and United States threats, and to increase Ch -
U.S. Marines sent to Dominican Republic to fight Communism
There were 22,000 US troops sent to restore order to the Dominican republic. The conflict started with the eviction of the former leader, and put in a new president. -
North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam which falls to Communist forces
By dawn, communist forces move into Saigon, where they meet only sporadic resistance. The South Vietnamese forces had collapsed under the rapid advancement of the North Vietnamese.
