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Period: to
Years
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Begnning of Yalta Conference
The "big three" Franklin Roosevelt, Josef Stalin, and Minister Winston Churchill met at the Yalta conference. The leaders agreed to require Germany’s unconditional surrender and to set up in the conquered nation four zones of occupation to be run by their three countries and France. -
Bombing of Hiroshima
"Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The instant devastation unleashed on Hiroshima shocks the world and ushers in the nuclear age. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people -
"Iron Curtain"
A physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas (Warsaw Pact countries from the NATO countries) at the end of World War II -
Berlin Blockade
Russia's response to the merger of the French, USA and UK partitions of Berlin was to cut all road and rail links to that sector. This meant that those living in Western Berlin had no access to food supplies and faced starvation. Food was brought to Western Berliners by US and UK airplanes, an exercise known as the Berlin Airlift -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formed with member states Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States -
Korean War
North Korea invaded South Korea. The war began when the Soviet-backed North Korean People’s Army moved south in June 1950 to occupy territory below the 38th parallel, designated as part of U.S.-backed South Korea. The United Nations voted to act and sent troops from 15 countries, including the United States, to resist the offensive. China became involved on the North Korean -
Warsaw Pact
A defense treaty signed among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. This organization sought to put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. The Warsaw Pact, so named because the treaty was signed in Warsaw, included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. -
Suez Crisis
Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal after Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal in July of that same year, initiating the Suez Crisis. The Israelis soon were joined by French and British forces, which nearly brought the Soviet Union into the conflict, and damaged their relationships with the United States. -
Sputnik
It was a key Cold War event that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. The fact that the Soviets were successful fed fears that the U.S. military had generally fallen behind in developing new technology. As a result, the launch of Sputnik served to intensify the arms race and raise Cold War tensions. -
Space Race
The US and Soviets had an intense rivalry about space and who can get the farthest first. Soviets started with the lead with Sputnik 1 -
Bay of the Pigs Invasion
A force of Cuban exiles, trained by the CIA, aided by the US government attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. The attempt failed. -
U-2 Reconnaissance Plane
The United States CIA had a plane trying to spy on the Soviets and the Soviets shot it down and this lead to an embarrassing conference between U.S. and Soviets. The United States tried to deny what the purpose of the plane was but later admitted that it was there to spy. Big embarrasement for the U.S. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built to kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet installed missiles on Cuba, just miles from U.S. shores. U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. This was the closest the U.S. came to a nuclear war. However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall served as a barrier bewteen the east and the west people of Berlin. After decades of partition, East Berliners surged through cheering and shouting and were greeted by West Berliners on the other side. In celebration crowds immediately began to climb on top of the Wall and destroy segments of the concrete fort. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
Representatives from 11 Soviet republics met in the Kazakh city of Alma-Ata and announced that they would no longer be part of the Soviet Union. They declared they would establish a Commonwealth of Independent States. Because the three Baltic republics had already declared their independence from the USSR, only one of only one of its 15 republics. The once-mighty Soviet Union had fallen, largely due to the great number of radical reforms that Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had implemented
