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Warsaw Pact is dissolved
The Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1955. The Warsaw Treaty Organization (also known as the Warsaw Pact) was a political and military alliance established on May 14, 1955 between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries. -
Berlin Wall collapses
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961. It completely cut off West Berlin by land from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. -
U.S. boycott of 1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott of the Moscow Olympics was a part of a package of actions initiated by the United States to protest against the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. It preceded the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott carried out by the Soviet Union and other Communist-friendly countries. -
“Caribbean Basin Initiative”
The Caribbean Basin Initiative was a unilateral and temporary United States program initiated by the 1983 "Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act." The CBI came into effect on January 1, 1984 and aimed to provide several tariff and trade benefits to many Central American and Caribbean countries. -
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman. He was the seventh and last undisputed leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. -
Iran-Contra Affair
During the Reagan administration, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo. Some U.S. officials also hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of several hostages and allow U.S. intelligence agencies to fund the Nicaraguan Contras. -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty ratified
The Treaty between the United States and Soviet Union on the Elimination of their Intermediate-range and Shorter-range Missiles (INF Treaty) was signed by President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev at a Washington Summit. -
1st McDonalds opens in Moscow
In 1988, the Communist party granted McDonald's permission to start trading in the Soviet Union. On 31 January 1990, the first McDonald's opened in Moscow. People queued for more than six hours and the restaurant served more than 30,000 people on its opening day. -
Germany is reunified
The German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany to form the reunited nation of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. -
Boris Yelstin elected President of Russia
On 13 June 1991, millions of Russians went to the polls for the first time in an open election to choose a president. Emerging as winner was 60-year-old Boris Yeltsin, a maverick with a reputation for alcohol abuse who had for some time advocated political and economic reforms. -
End of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was finalized by declaration no. 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, Acknowledging the independence of the twelve republics of the Soviet Union, and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States.