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The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb killed thousands of people and played a major role in the war ending.
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The Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb. They contructed buildings and structures, and even placed animals in cages to test what sort of impact the bomb would have. The buildings were destroyed and the animals were incineated.
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The Soviets launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, into orbit. It marked the beginning of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. It also showed that if the Soviets were able to launch a satellite into space, then they were also capable of sending missiles containing nuclear weapons from Europe all the way to the United States.
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Castro was sworn in as Cuba's Prime Minister. He made radical changes once he took over and turned Cuba into a communist country.
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JFK was elected to be President, and he will play a vital role in future events related to the Cold War.
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The Cuban-exile invasion force landed on the beaches along the Bay of Pigs, but were immediately greeted with heavy fire and there was bad weather that made all the equipment soggy and the ammunition insufficient. Castro ordered 20,000 troops to advance towards the beach, and all our plans were shot down. Soon the U.S. had to surrender the attack.
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East Gemany wanted to block any refugees attemptimg to leave, so the communist government began to build the Berlin Wall. This wall soon became the symbol of the Cold War.
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The U.S spotted nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba. After many secret meetings with his advisors, President Kennedy decided on placing a naval blockade around Cuba, basically quarantining the island to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. Both leaders of the superpowers eventually realized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publically agreed that the Soviets will dismantle the weapon sites.
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After the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan, the U.S didn't want other countries to continues with nuclear testings. After eight years of negotiations, the U.S., the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union agreed on a treaty that limited the tests that can be done with nuclear weapons.
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President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas while campaigning by Lee Harvey Oswald. His death shocked the world, including the Soviet Union.
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Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the moon. This mission signified the victory of the U.S. in the space race.
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President Nixon is the first President in U.S history to resign from the presidency. He was in the middle of his impeachment trial when he decided he would just resign before he was proven guilty.
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Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Strongly believing that the Soviet Union needed massive liberalization in order to revitalize both the Soviet economy and society, Gorbachev immediately began implementing reforms.
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The Berlin Wall is torn down and the war is considered "finally over". Germany is reunited again.
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Communism fell and the Soviet Empire formally dissolved. The Cold War ended officially.
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Once the Berlin Wall, the communist governments in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania fell.
