The Cold War By facebooker_1756558547 Feb 4, 1945 Yalta Conference Period: Feb 15, 1945 to Aug 15, 1991 Cold War Aug 6, 1945 Atomic bombs dropped Aug 14, 1945 Japan surrenders Mar 12, 1947 Truman Doctrine is made Jun 5, 1947 Marshall Plan is developed Jun 24, 1948 Berlin blockade is up Jun 27, 1948 Berlin airlift May 12, 1949 Berlin blockade is over Aug 29, 1949 Soviets test atomic bomb Sep 4, 1949 Mao Zedong takes China Jun 25, 1950 Korean war begins Oct 4, 1957 Sputnik is launched into orbit Jan 2, 1960 Kennedy is elected Apr 17, 1961 Bay of pigs invasion Aug 15, 1961 Berlin Wall is built Oct 18, 1962 Cuban missle crisis Aug 2, 1964 The Gulf of Tokin incident Jul 16, 1969 Apollo 11 lands on moon Jan 1, 1973 Vietnam war ends Nov 4, 1979 U.s. Hostage Crisis Dec 24, 1979 Soviets invade Afghanistan Mar 11, 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union Nov 9, 1989 The Berlin Wall falls Oct 3, 1990 Germany is reunited Aug 24, 1991 Soviet Union dissolved. Cold War is over