Cold War Events By adasam Jun 26, 1945 United Nations Created Mar 5, 1946 Iron Curtain Speech Mar 12, 1947 Truman Doctrine Apr 1, 1948 Marshall Plan Jun 24, 1948 Berlin Blockade Apr 4, 1949 NATO Pact signed May 31, 1949 Alger Hiss Trial Aug 29, 1949 First Soviet Atomic Weapon Dec 10, 1949 China falls to communists Period: Jan 1, 1950 to Jan 1, 1956 McCarthyism Mar 6, 1951 Rosenberg Trial May 14, 1955 Warsaw Pact Oct 23, 1956 Hungarian Revolt Oct 29, 1956 Suez Canal Crisis Oct 4, 1957 Sputnik May 1, 1960 U2 Incident Apr 17, 1961 Bay of Pigs Aug 13, 1961 Berlin Wall constructed Oct 14, 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis Jul 26, 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Aug 20, 1968 Soviets invade Czechoslovakia Feb 21, 1972 President Nixon visits China Nov 23, 1974 SALT talks Dec 24, 1979 USSR invades Afghanistan Mar 23, 1983 SDI (Star Wars) Aug 20, 1985 Iran-Contra Affair Jun 12, 1987 Berlin Wall torn down Dec 23, 1991 Soviet Union ceases to exist