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Cold War
Cold War begins.The Yalta Conference In February, 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met again. This time the conference was held in Yalta in the Crimea. With Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a strong negotiating position. Roosevelt and Churchill tried hard to restrict post-war influence in this area but the only concession they could obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries. -
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The Cold War
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Atomic Bomb
The United States uses the first atomic bomb in war. They dropped the bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The president at the time was Truman. He was the one that okayed the dropping of this bomb.This atomic bomb 'Little Boy' kills 80,000 people. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade begins, it lasts 11 months. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin's two million citizens. There were three events that led to the Soviet blockades of Berlin: the institution of the Marshall Plan for European Recovery; the London Conferences of winter and spring of 1948; and the resultant London Program which called for a separate West Germany and currency reform as a means to reach this end. -
Korean War begins
Stalin supports North Korea who invade South Korea equipped with Soviet weapons. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly sprang to the defense of South Korea and fought a bloody and frustrating war for the next three years. The Korean War was the first "hot" war of the Cold War. Over 55,000 American troops were killed in the conflict -
Sputnik launched into orbit
The Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite, which weighed only 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off-guard. -
Cuba gets taken over by Fidel Castro
He overthrew the Cuban dictator Flugencio Batista. His efforts to overthrow the government in the early 1950's was to large extent a failure, and led to him being imprisoned. He did not serve his full term in prison. -
Youngest President Elected
John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic to become president. For the first time, presidential candidates engaged in televised debates. -
President John F. Kennedy Was Shot in Dallas, Texas
President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas. On Friday, November 22, 1963, a shockwave ran through the whole nation, followed by grief. President John F. Kennedy was shot as he rode in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas. The 35th president, only 46 years old, had served less than three years in office. -
Apollo 11 lands on the moon
The mission plan of Apollo 11 was to land two men on the lunar surface and return them safely to Earth. The launch took place at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A on July 16, 1969, at 8:32 a.m. The spacecraft carried a crew of three: Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. The mission evaluation concluded that all mission tasks were completed satisfactorily. -
Vietnam War Extends To Cambodia
President Nixon extends Vietnam War to Cambodia. Over 500,000 troops were stationed in Vietnam. Americans killed in action averaged 1200 a month. -
Cease Fire
Fighting in Vietnam between North Vietnam and United States stops. Although attacks against the North have been halted, air assaults are continuing against communist forces in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. But many political issues remain to be resolved. -
President Nixon Resigns
After two years of bitter public debate over the Watergate scandals, President Nixon bowed to pressures from the public and leaders of his party to become the first President in American history to resign. An ongoing investigation resulted in President Nixon being forced to hand over tape recordings made at the White House. The House Judiciary Committee accused Nixon of a Watergate cover-up and of misusing the FBI and the CIA among other government agencies. -
Reagan Proposes Defense Initiative
President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative.The government program responsible for research and development of a space-based system to defend the nation from attack by strategic ballistic missiles.The program is now administered by the Missile Defense Agency a separate agency in the U.S. Dept. of Defense. SDI, popularly referred to as “Star Wars,” was announced by President Ronald Reagan in a speech in Mar. -
Power Accends
Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected Gideral Secretary of the Communist Party on March 11, 1985. Gorbachev introduced certain reformations such as Perestroika and Glasnost. These all led to more freedoms in the Soviet Union. -
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran-Contra Affair involved a secret foreign policy operation directed by White House officials in the NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL under President Ronald Reagan. The operation had two goals: first, to sell arms to Iran in the hope of winning the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and second, to illegally divert profits from these sales to the Contra rebels fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Discovery of the secret operation, in 1986, triggered a legal and political -
Sign Treaty To Remove Missles
Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range nuclear missiles by signing treaty. The Reagan administration proposed a "zero option." If the USSR abolished all its SS-20s, the United States would not build an equivalent. After Moscow refused, the United States deployed in Europe two kinds of INF: cruise missiles that could fly in under Soviet radar, and ballistic missiles with warheads able to reach Kremlin bomb shelters. -
Poland Becomes Independent Nation
Poland was created in 966AD, but it was partitioned in 1795.
Poland became independent again in 1918, after Germany had surrendered. The two decades of Poland's sovereignty between the world wars are known as the Interbellum. -
INF Treaty signed.
The Soviet Union announced that it was prepared to reach a separate INF agreement. The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, commonly referred to as the INF Treaty, requires destruction of the Parties' ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles their launchers and associated support structures and support equipment within three years after the Treaty enters into force. -
Berlin Wall falls
Berlin Wall falls. On the 9th of November, 1989, the Border separating Western from Eastern Germany was effectively opened.They surged through cheering and shouting and were be met by jubilant West Berliners on the other side. -
Communist Government Falls
Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania. Soviet empire ends.The USSR officially ceased to exist on 31 December 1991. -
Cold War Ends
Some consider it to have begun in 1948 with the Berlin Blockade and Airlift since it was the first confrontation of the Cold war. It is also acceptable to think that it began in 1945.
It ended in 1992 with the collapse of the USSR (soviet Union). Since the USSR lost most of its dominance and money.
