Cold War Pictorial Timeline By TaylorHolcomb Period: Feb 1, 1945 to Aug 1, 1990 Cold War Feb 4, 1945 Yalta Conference Aug 6, 1945 U.S. first atomic bomb used in war Aug 14, 1945 Japanese Surrender (V-J Day) Mar 1, 1947 Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech Jun 1, 1947 Marshall Plan is announced Jun 24, 1948 Berlin Blockade begins Jul 1, 1949 NATO ratified Sep 1, 1949 Communist Mao Zedong takes control of China Sep 1, 1949 USSR explodes first atomic bomb Feb 1, 1950 Joseph McCarthy begins communist witch hunt Jun 1, 1950 Korean War Begins Jun 19, 1953 Rosenburg's executions Jul 1, 1953 Korean War ends Jul 1, 1954 Viatnam split at 17th parallel May 1, 1955 Warsaw Pact formed Oct 4, 1957 Sputnik launched Jan 1, 1959 Cuba taken over by communist Fidel Castro May 1, 1960 U-2 spy plane shot down over USSR Nov 1, 1960 John F. Kennedy elected President Apr 1, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion Aug 1, 1961 Constuction of Berlin Wall begins Oct 1, 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis Apr 1, 1975 Saigon, South Vietnam falls to communism Nov 1, 1989 Berlin Wall falls Dec 1, 1989 Soviet Empire falls Aug 1, 1990 U.S. and Russia sign formal end to the Cold War Oct 1, 1990 Germany Reunited
