-
The Indian Independence Bill, which carves the independent nations of India and Pakistan. The long-awaited agreement ended 200 years of British rule and was hailed by Indian independence.
-
The Soviet Union blockaded Berlin's railways, roads and canals. The U.S. and Britian airlifted supplies to Berlin for 11 months and an airlift landed every 3 minutes.
-
Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion declares the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years.
-
It was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War.
-
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it.
-
Leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
-
Armed Forces Day, Anwar el-Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists during a military parade commemorating the Yom Kippur War in Cairo, Egypt.
-
Troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters, the brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States.
-
Ayatollah Khomeini became the supreme religious leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
-
The collapse of the Soviet Union was complete when the country broke up into 15 independent states.
