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After a joint repudiation of Soviet note the North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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The Berlin Wall was built to seperate Berlin.
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US Ambassador to the UN, Adlai Stevenson, shows aerial reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missiles on Cuba during Security Council debate.
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Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.
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President Reagan visits CIA headquarters to sign the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
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In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Raegan labels the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
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Civilian Koran Air Lines Flight 007, with 269 passengers, is shot down by Soviet interceptor aircraft.
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Mikhail Gorbachev becomes new leader of the USSR. He was the only general secretary in the history of the Soviet Union to be born under Communist rule.
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Mikhail Gorbachev is named general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
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Chernobyl disaster: A soviet nuclear plant in Ukraine explodes, resulting in the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.
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During a visit to Berlin, Germany, president Reagan famously challenges Soviet leader Gorbachev in a speech to "tear down this wall".
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The Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by President Raegan and Soviet leader Gorbachev.
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The Soviets begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.
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The Berlin Wall is breached when a Politburo spokesman mistakenly announces at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders have been opened.
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East Germany begins to take down the Berlin Wall.
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Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union. The red flag over the Kremlin is replaced by the Russian flag.
