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Timeline of the Cold War
| 1940s | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1945: | February 4-11 | Yalta Conference meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin |
| August 8 | Russia enters war against Japan | |
| August 14 | Japanese surrender: End of World War II | |
| 1946: | March | Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" Speech |
| 1947: | March | Truman declares active role in Greek Civil War |
| June | Marshall Plan is announced | |
| 1948: | February | Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia |
| June 24 | Berlin Blockade begins | |
| 1949: | July | NATO ratified |
| May 12 | Berlin Blockade ends | |
| September | Mao Zedong, a Communist, takes control of China | |
| September | Soviets explode first atomic bomb | |
| 1950s | ||
| 1950: | June | Korean War begins |
| 1952: | US explodes first hydrogen bomb | |
| 1953: | June 19 | Rosenberg executions |
| July | Korean War ends | |
| Soviets explodes hydrogen bomb. Stalin died | ||
| 1954: | March | KGB established |
| CIA helps overthrow unfriendly regimes in Iran and Guatemala | ||
| July | Vietnam split at 17th parallel | |
| 1955: | May | Warsaw Pact formed. ‘Peaceful coexistence’ called for. |
| 1956: | October - November | Hungary revolts against Russia |
| Egypt took control of Suez Canal; U.S. refused to help take it back | ||
| 1957: | October 4 | Sputnik launched |
| 1958: | November | Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin |
| 1959: | January | Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro |
| September | Khrushchev visits United States | |
| 1960s | ||
| 1960: | May | Soviet Union reveals that U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory |
| November | John F. Kennedy elected President | |
| 1961: | April | Bay of Pigs invasion |
| July | Kennedy requests 25% spending increase for military | |
| August 13 | Berlin border closed | |
| August 17 | Construction of Berlin Wall begins | |
| 1962: | U.S. involvement in Vietnam increased | |
| October | Cuban Missile Crisis | |
| 1963: | July | Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified |
| November | President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas | |
| 1964: | August | Gulf of Tonkin incident |
| 1965: | July | Announcement of dispatching of 150,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam |
| 1967: | Six-Day War in the Middle East | |
| 1968: | January | North Korea captured U.S.S. Pueblo |
| August | Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt | |
| 1969: | July 20 | Apollo 11 lands on the moon |
| 1970s | ||
| 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 |
| September | United States helps overthrow Chile government | |
| October | Egypt and Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid | |
| 1974: | August | President Nixon resigns |
| 1975: | April 17 | North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam |
| 1979: | July | SALT II signed |
| November | Shah of Iran overthrown; Iranian Hostage Crisis | |
| December | Soviet troops invade Afghanistan | |
| 1980s | ||
| 1983: | President Reagan proposes Strategic Defence Initiative | |
| October | U.S. troops overthrow regime in Grenada | |
| 1985: | Iran-Contra Affair (arms sold to Iran, profits used to support contras in Nicaragua) | |
| Mikhail Gorbachev gains leadership power in Soviet Union and initiates a campaign of openness called “glasnost” and restructuring called “perestroika” | ||
| 1986: | Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites | |
| October | Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe | |
| November | Iran-Contra Affair revealed to public | |
| 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 |
| June | China puts down protests for democracy; Poland becomes independent | |
| September | Hungary becomes independent | |
| November | Berlin Wall falls | |
| December | Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania; Soviet empire ends | |
| 1990s | ||
| 1990: | March | Lithuania becomes independent |
| May 29 | Boris Yeltsin elected to presidency of Russia | |
| October 3 | Germany reunited | |
| 1991: | April | Warsaw Pact ends |
| 1991: | August | End of Soviet Union. Cold War Ends |
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