Cold War Timeline

By Kenneth Kokotkiewicz
  • Berlin Airlift

    Berlin Airlift

    The Berlin Airlift was one of the first international major crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post WWII Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the access into Berlin that the western allies controlled.
  • Creation of the Warsaw Pact

    Creation of the Warsaw Pact

    The Warsaw Pact was a defense treaty signed by the Union and several other soviet nations. The Soviet Union used this to counteract the creation of NATO.
  • Sputnik

    Sputnik

    The soviets launched the earth's first artificial satellite, the Sputnik-1. The satellite orbited for three weeks before its batteries ran out. The satellite orbited for two months after that before falling back into the upper atmosphere.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    Cuban Missile Crisis

    A direct confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union where the two nations came closest to a nuclear war. There was a 13 day standoff between the two nations over missiles being brought into Cuba. This made it clear that the Soviet Union was planning to use military force.
  • Destruction of the Berlin Wall

    Destruction of the Berlin Wall

    Five days after a mass protest of half a million people, the German wall that divided east and west Germany fell. This, in turn, communism began to fall as well because of this.