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U.S. Drops Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki, Japan
US President Truman gives permission for the world's second and last military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Nagasaki in order to try to secure a swift Japanese unconditional surrender in the end of the Second World War. -
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THE COLD WAR
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Chinese Civil War resumed between Communist and Nationalist forces.
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US extends $400 million of military aid to Greece and Turkey, signalling its intent to contain communism in the Mediterranean.
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A communist insurgency in Malaya begins against British and Commonwealth forces
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Sovereignty is handed over to United States of Indonesia from the Netherlands through the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference with Sukarno as the first president of the newly formed federation
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North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War.
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A coup in Iraq, the 14 July Revolution, removes the pro-British monarch. Iraq begins to receive support from the Soviets. Iraq will maintain close ties with the Soviets throughout the Cold War
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American pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down in his U-2 spy plane while flying at high altitude over the Soviet Union, resulting in the U-2 Incident, an embarrassment for President Eisenhower.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower closes the U.S. embassy in Havana and severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
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Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviets have secretly been installing military bases, including nuclear weapons, on Cuba, some 90 miles from the US mainland. Kennedy orders a "quarantine" (a naval blockade) of the island that intensifies the crisis and brings t
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US military build up to defend South Vietnam. North Vietnam has also committed its forces in the war. US begins sustained bombing of North Vietnam.
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The Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for the continued bombing of Indochina.
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North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam
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Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe
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Boris Yeltsin elected as president of Russia.
