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House Un-American Activities Committee formed 07/31/1938
Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, established in 1938 under Martin Dies as chairman, that conducted investigations through the 1940s and '50s into alleged communist activities. -
United Nations formation
An international organization composed of most of the countries of the world. It was founded in 1945 to promote peace, security, and economic development. -
yalta conference
1.A meeting between the Allied leaders Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin in February 1945 at Yalta, a Crimean port on the Black Sea. The leaders planned the final stages of World War II and agreed on the subsequent territorial division of Europe -
Potsdam Conference
1.A meeting held in Potsdam in the summer of 1945 among US, Soviet, and British leaders that established principles for the Allied occupation of Germany following the end of World War II -
Truman Doctrine
1.The principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection. First expressed in 1947 by US President Truman in a speech to Congress seeking aid for Greece and Turkey, the doctrine was seen by the communists as an open declaration of the Cold War -
Marshall Plan
1.A program of financial aid and other initiatives, sponsored by the US, designed to boost the economies of western European countries after World War II. It was originally advocated by Secretary of State George C. Marshall and passed by Congress in 1948 -
Berlin airlift
airlift in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of west Berlin when the Russians closed off land access to Berlin -
NATO formation
an international organization created in 1949 by the North
Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security -
Era of McCarthyism begins
As World War II ended, Americans' fear of Germans and Japanese was transferred onto the communist Soviet Union. Though the Soviets had been their allies during the war, Americans began to see them as a threat. The Soviets had a nuclear bomb and were aggressively expanding their influence into Europe and Africa. China was soon taken over by communists. -
North Korean Invasion of South Korea
A conflict that lasted from 1950 to 1953 between North Korea, aided by China, and South Korea, aided by United Nations forces consisting primarily of U.S. troops -
The Rosenberg Executions
The Rosenbergs were accused of persuading Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, to provide them with confidential U.S. military information gained from his involvement in the development of nuclear weapons. It was believed that Julius, who was an active member of the Communist party, then funneled the top-secret information on to Soviet intelligence. -
Armistice Signed Ending Korean War
conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Korean) and U.S. (South Korean) zones of occupation. In 1948 rival governments were established: The Republic of Korea was proclaimed in the South and the People's Democratic Republic of Korea in the North -
warsaw pact formationMay 1, 1955
The Warsaw Pact, otherwise known as the Warsaw Treaty Organization, was an alliance creating an organised – and Russian dominated - military among central and political ties. -
Sputnik 1 Launched
Any of a series of Soviet satellites sent into Earth orbit, especially the first, launched October 4, 1957 -
First Man in Space
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, Jurij Aleksejevič Gagarin ; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968), Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. ... -
First American in Space
On May 5, 1961, Mercury Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (right, headed to launch) blasted off in his Freedom 7 capsule atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket (left). His 15-minute sub-orbital flight made him the first American in space -
Creation of the Berlin WallAugust 13, 1961
The Berlin Wall was the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany. However, it was also the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. -
First Man on the Moon
The 1st man on the moon was the Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong, who made history on July 20, 1969.
