Cold War Timeline & Summary – 1945-1991

Cold War Timeline & Summary – 1945-1991

Major Historical Events for Cold War:

1945: February 4-11 – Yalta Conference with Roosevelt – Cold War Begins

1946: March – Winston Churchill delivers “Iron Curtain” Speech

1947: March – Truman declares active role in Greek Civil War

1947: June – Marshall Plan is announced (European Recovery Program was the primary program, 1947–51, of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Western Europe)

1948: February – Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia

1948: June 24 – Berlin Blockade begins

1949: July – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ratified

1949: May 12 – Berlin Blockade ends

1949: September – Mao Zedong, a Communist, takes control of China

1949: September – Soviets explode first atomic bomb

1950: June – Korean War begins

1953: July – Korean War ends

1954 – CIA helps overthrow unfriendly regimes in Iran and Guatemala

1954: July – Vietnam split at 17th parallel

1955: May – Warsaw Pact formed

1956: October – November – Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary. Egypt took control of Suez Canal; U.S. refused to help take it back

1957: October 4 – Sputnik launched into orbit

1958: November – Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin

1959: January – Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro

1960: May – Soviet Union reveals that U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory

1961: April – Bay of Pigs invasion

1961: August 13 – Berlin border closed

1961: August 17 – Construction of Berlin Wall begins

1962: – U.S. involvement in Vietnam increased

1962: October – Cuban Missile Crisis

1963: July – Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified

1963: November – President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas

1964: August – Gulf of Tonkin incident

1965: April – U.S. Marines sent to Dominican Republic to fight Communism

1965: July – Announcement of dispatching of 150,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam

1968: January – North Korea captured U.S.S. Pueblo

1968: August – Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt

1969: July 20 – Apollo 11 lands on the moon

1970: April – President Nixon extends Vietnam War to Cambodia

1972: July – SALT I signed

1973: January – Cease fire in Vietnam between North Vietnam and United States

1973: September – United States helps overthrow Chile government

1973: October – Egypt and Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid

1975: April 17 – North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam

1979: July – SALT II signed

1979: November – Shah of Iran overthrown; Iranian Hostage Crisis

1980: February – US Men’s Olympic Hockey team defeats Soviet Union at Lake Placid, NY

1983: – President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative

1983: October – U.S. troops overthrow regime in Grenada

1985: – Iran-Contra Affair (arms sold to Iran, profits used to support contras in Nicaragua)

1985: – Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in Soviet Union

1986: – Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites

1986: October – Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe

1986: November – Iran-Contra Affair revealed to public

1987: June – Reagan does “Tear Down This Wall” speech in Berlin

1987: October – Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range nuclear missiles by signing treaty

1989: January – Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan

1989: June – China puts down protests for democracy; Poland becomes independent

1989: September – Hungary becomes independent

1989: November – Berlin Wall falls

1989: December – Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania; Soviet empire ends

1990: March – Lithuania becomes independent

1990: May 29 – Boris Yeltsin elected to presidency of Russia

1990: October 3 – Germany reunited

1991: April – Warsaw Pact ends

1991: August – End of Soviet Union – Cold War Ends

Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/10826/timeline.htm