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The Nuremberg trials were held for people who committed crimes during WWII, such as Nazis and military officials.
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The Marshall Plan, named after U.S. secretary of state George Marshall, provided $13 billion for rebuilding Europe.
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The alliance, called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, was designed to counter Soviet power in Europe. The alliance included the United States, Canada, and most Western European countries.
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Western leaders organized the Berlin airlift, a massive effort to supply West Berlin by air. Western organized the airlift because the Soviets blocked off all land, rail, and water routes into West Berlin, hoping the West would leave Berlin.
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In the fall of 1952 the United States tested the first fusion-powered hydrogen bomb with spectacular results, completely vaporizing the island on which the bomb was tested.
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In 1955, the Soviet Union and the Communist nations of Eastern Europe formed their own alliance, known as the Warsaw Pact.
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In October 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik. Sputnik was history's first artificial satellite.
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The U.S. government was seeking to overthrow Castro, in April 1961 the force the U.S. had trained came ashore at Cuba's Bay of Pigs. They belived the invasion would start a massive Cuban uprising against Castro, instead, the invasion failed.
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The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. After a two-week standoff, Soviet leaders removed the missiles when the United States agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey and promised not to attack Cuba.
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Richard Nixon started negotiations knows as the Strategic Arms Limiations Talks, or SALT I. The talks led to agreements limiting the number of nuclear weapons held by each side. SALT II resulted in an arms control treaty in 1979.
