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The Soviets were concerned about West Berlin, which was in the center of the occupation zone and was likely against the Soviets. They made a blockade on the Autobahn, claiming it was closed indefinitely for repairs while blocking traffic from west to east to prevent supplies from reaching Berlin while discouraging the unification of it and west Germany. This led to over 300,000 flights between west Berlin and supply caches, with planes taking off from or landing in west Berlin every 30 seconds. -
The first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into low orbit as a part of a Soviet space program. It orbited for 3 weeks before its batteries ran out, then burned up while reentering the atmosphere after drifting for 3 months on January 4, 1958. -
The Cuban Missle Crisis was a state of national alarm, where everyone was panicking because Major Richard Heyser photographed a ballistic missle being assembled while flying over Cuba. This was so alarming because the site was only 90 miles away from Florida. Russia and the U.S. enter a standoff just off the coast of Cuba, where they made a deal to destroy the missles and go back to Russia in exchange for the U.S. letting them go, not invading Cuba, and removing their nuclear arsenal in Turkey.