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World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. -
First Nuclear Reactor Built
The first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1, during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi. -
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill) is Signed into Law
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (popularly known as the G.I. Bill), passed in 1944, offered low-interest home loans, a stipend to attend college, loans to start a business, and unemployment benefits. -
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Bretton Woods Conference
The Bretton Woods Conference, officially known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was a gathering of delegates from 44 nations that met from July 1 to 22, 1944 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to agree upon a series of new rules for the post-WWII international monetary system. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt Wins the Presidential Election for the Fourth Time
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Franklin D. Roosevelt Dies/ Harry S. Truman is Sworn in as President
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Germany Surrenders
On May 7, 1945, seven days after Hitler committed suicide, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. -
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Potsdam Conference
The Allies debated the fate of Soviet-occupied Poland. Toward the end of the meeting, the American delegation received word that Manhattan Project scientists had successfully tested an atomic bomb. On July 24, when Truman told Stalin about this “new weapon of unusual destructive force,” the Soviet leader simply nodded his acknowledgment and said that he hoped the Americans would make “good use” of it.5 -
World War II Ends With Victory over Japan
On September 2, 1945, formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri, designating the day as the official Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) -
Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is Founded
Read founded FEE in 1946 on the premise that “The American Way of Life” was essentially individualistic and that the best way to protect and promote that individualism was through libertarian economics. Libertarianism took as its core principle the promotion of individual liberty, property rights, and an economy with a minimum of government regulation. -
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The Cold War
The Cold War was a global political and ideological struggle between capitalist and communist countries, particularly between the two surviving superpowers of the postwar world: the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). -
US Embassy in Moscow sends the "Long Telegram" to the State Department
The chargé d’affaires of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, George Kennan sent a famously lengthy telegram—literally referred to as the Long Telegram—to the State Department denouncing the Soviet Union. “World communism is like a malignant parasite which feeds only on diseased tissue,” he wrote, and “the steady advance of uneasy Russian nationalism . . . in [the] new guise of international Marxism . . . is more dangerous and insidious than ever before.” -
Walter Lippman Publishes "The Cold War: A Study in U.S. Foreign Policy
Liberal journalist Walter Lippmann was largely responsible for popularizing the term Cold War in his book The Cold War: A Study in U.S. Foreign Policy, published in 1947. Lippmann envisioned a prolonged stalemate between the United States and the USSR, a war of words and ideas in which direct shots would not necessarily be fired between the two. -
UN Passes Resolution which Creates North and South Korea
UN passed a resolution that a united government in Korea should be created, but the Soviet Union refused to cooperate. Only the south held elections. The Republic of Korea (ROK), South Korea, was created three months after the election. A month later, communists in the north established the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Both claimed to stand for a unified Korean peninsula. The UN recognized the ROK, but incessant armed conflict broke out between North and South. -
Truman Announces $400 Million in Aid to Greece and Turkey to Combat Terrorism by Communism
Truman, on March 12, 1947, announced $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, where “terrorist activities . . . led by Communists” jeopardized “democratic” governance. With Britain “reducing or liquidating its commitments in several parts of the world, including Greece,” it fell on the United States, Truman said, “to support free peoples . . . resisting attempted subjugation by . . . outside pressures.”8 The so-called Truman Doctrine became a cornerstone of the American policy of containment. -
President Truman Signs Executive Order 9835
President Truman, facing growing anticommunist excitement and with a tough election on the horizon, gave in to pressure in March 1947 and issued his “loyalty order,” Executive Order 9835, establishing loyalty reviews for federal employees. -
Congress Passes Smith-Mundt Act
The legislation established cultural exchanges with various nations, including even the USSR, in order to showcase American values through American artists and entertainers. -
The European Recovery Program, Marshall Plan is Enacted
The European Recovery Program (ERP), popularly known as the Marshall Plan, pumped enormous sums of capital into Western Europe. From 1948 to 1952 the United States invested $13 billion toward reconstruction while simultaneously loosening trade barriers. To avoid the postwar chaos of World War I, the Marshall Plan was designed to rebuild Western Europe, open markets, and win European support for capitalist democracies. -
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Berlin Blockade By USSR/ Berlin Airlift By USA
In June 1948, when U.S., British, and French officials introduced a new currency, the Soviet Union initiated a ground blockade, cutting off rail and road access to West Berlin (landlocked within the Soviet occupation zone) to gain control over the entire city. The United States organized and coordinated a massive airlift that flew essential supplies into the beleaguered city for eleven months, until the Soviets lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949 -
Harry S. Truman Wins the Presidential Election
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North Atlantic Treaty Organization
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USSR Successfully Tests Their First Atomic Bomb
Soviet scientists successfully tested an atomic bomb on August 29, 1949, years before American officials had estimated they would. This unexpectedly quick Russian success not only caught the United States off guard but alarmed the Western world and propelled a nuclear arms race between the United States and the USSR. -
Mao Zedong Declares Victory Over Kuomintang Nationalists and Establishes the Peoples Republic of China
A new chapter in the Cold War began on October 1, 1949, when the CCP, led by Mao Zedong, declared victory against Kuomintang nationalists led by the Western-backed Chiang Kai-shek. The Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan and the CCP took over the mainland under the red flag of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). -
Credit Cards are First Developed and Introduced to the American Public
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US Forces Attempt to Retake Seoul but Fail
UN forces under American general Douglas MacArthur landed at Inchon, a port city, 30 miles from Seoul, and took the city on September 28. They moved on North Korea. October 26 they reached the Yalu River, the traditional Korea-China border. They were met by three hundred thousand Chinese troops who broke the advance and rolled up the offensive. On November 30, ROK/UN forces began retreat. They returned across the thirty-eighth parallel and abandoned Seoul on January 4, 1951 -
Fighting Erupts in Korea between Northern Communists and Southern Anti-Communists
On June 25, 1950, as U.S. officials were considering the merits of NSC-68’s proposals, including “the intensification of . . . operations by covert means in the fields of economic . . . political and psychological warfare” designed to foment “unrest and revolt in . . . [Soviet] satellite countries,” fighting erupted in Korea between communists in the north and American-backed anti-communists in the south.18 -
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Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and insurrections in the south. The war ended unofficially in an armistice. -
Seoul, South Korea Falls to a Surprise Attack by North Korea
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McCarran Act is Passed in Congress
The Internal Security Act, or McCarran Act, passed by Congress in September 1950, mandated all “communist organizations” to register with the government, gave the government greater powers to investigate sedition, and made it possible to prevent suspected individuals from gaining or keeping their citizenship. -
Soviet Ambassador to the UN Suggests Cease-Fire, US Accepts
On June 23, 1951, the Soviet ambassador to the UN suggested a cease-fire, which the U.S. immediately accepted. Peace talks continued for two years. -
U.S. Detonates First Thermonuclear, Hydrogen Bomb
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Dwight D. Eisenhower Wins the Presidential Election
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USSR Detonates First Thermonuclear, Hydrogen Bomb
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Arthur Miller Publishes 'The Crucible'
The playwright Arthur Miller’s popular 1953 play The Crucible compared the red scare to the Salem Witch Trials. -
Joseph Stalin Dies
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President Eisenhower Gives "Atoms for Peace" Speech to UN
In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower spoke to the United Nations’ General Assembly about the possibilities of peace in “the atomic age.”
