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Yalta Conference
The Big Three-Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin's plans were drawn up for final defeat and disarmament of Nazi Germany, and the foundation of United Nations. -
Potsdam Conference
Clarifying and implement agreements previously during the Yalta Conference. The foreign ministers,(President Truman, Premier Stalin, Prime Mnister Churchill {already defeated in British elections} and Prime Minister Atlee), were transferred in Germany to the Americans, British, French, and Russian military -
United Nations Formation
The United Nations was created October 24, 1945 shortly after WWII. They planned to create a international organization that focused on world peace. The plan was described in the Charter of the United Nations. In June of 1945 fifty nations signed this charter. They were the first UN members. -
Truman Doctrine
Message interrogating the Congress for Financial Aid of $400 million for military and economic assistance for Turkey and Greece -
Marshall Plan
Instituted at the Paris Economic Conference to foster economic recovery in certain European countries after World War II. The Marshall Plan took form when U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall urged (June 5, 1947) that European countries decide on their economic needs so that material and financial aid from the United States could be integrated on a broad scale. -
House Un-American Committee formed
The House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed ten filmmakers to testify about their alleged subversive political beliefs. After these "Hollywood Ten" refused to testify, exercising their First Amendment privileges, they were cited for contempt of Congress, for which they were ultimately imprisoned and blacklisted - prevented from gainful employment - by the Hollywood studios and broadcast networks. -
Berlin Airlift
supply of vital necessitities West Berlin by air transport primarily under U.S. auspices.It was initiated in response to a land and water blockade of the city that had been instituted by the Soviet Union in the hope that the Allies would be forced to abandon West Berlin. -
NATO Formation
In April 1949 12 Western nations formed NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation). They agreed to consider an attack on one member of the organisation as being an attack upon all of these nations. They included Allied servicement in occupied Europe and Western colonies in Africa. -
North Korea Invasion of South Korea
On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea. The United Nations quickly condemned the invasion as an act of aggression, demanded the withdrawal of North Korean troops from the South, and called upon its members to aid South Korea. -
Rosenburg Execution
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
The United States, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, bringing the Korean War to an end. The armistice ended America's first experiment with the Cold War concept of "limited war." -
Era of McCarthyism Begins
Period of political persecution during the 1950s, led by US senator Joe McCarthy, during which many public officials and private citizens were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers. Although McCarthy was officially censured by the Senate for misconduct in 1954, his claims induced an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia that destroyed many careers. The term has come to signify any type of reckless political persecution or witch-hunt. -
Warsaw Pact Formation
The Warsaw pact (a communist group) was formed in response to the Western Germany's application to join NATO. -
Sputnik 1 Launched
The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. -
First Man in Space
In 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (left, on the way to the launch pad) became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. -
First American in Space
On May 5, 1961, Mercury Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. blasted off in his Freedom 7 capsule atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket. His 15-minute sub-orbital flight made him the first American in space. -
Creation of the Berlin Wall
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
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. He and Aldrin walked around for three hours. They did experiments. They picked up bits of moon dirt and rocks. They put a U.S. flag on the moon. They also left a sign on the moon.
