Cold War Pictorial Timeline by Rachel Williams By Rachel Williams Feb 1, 1945 Yalta Conference/ temporarily divide Germany Period: Feb 1, 1945 to Aug 31, 1992 Cold War Aug 6, 1945 United States first used atomic bomb in war Aug 14, 1945 Japanese surrender (V-J Day) Mar 1, 1946 Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech Jun 1, 1947 Marshall Plan announced Jun 24, 1948 Berlin Blockade begins Jul 1, 1949 NATO ratified Sep 1, 1949 Communist Mao Zedong takes over 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 Rosenberg executions Jul 1, 1953 Korean War ends Jul 1, 1954 Vietnam 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 Construction 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 Oct 1, 1990 Germany reunited Aug 1, 1992 U.S. and Russia sign formal end to the Cold War
