Cold war

• The Soviet Union was the first country to launch an artificial satellite into space, Sputnik.
• In response to the Soviet Union's successes in space, President Kennedy announced that the United States would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
• Defeat of Germany and Japan


  1945
• Yalta Conference meeting of FDR, Churchill, Stalin - the 'Big Three'


  February 4-11, 1945
• Soviet Union has control of Eastern Europe. The Cold War Begins
• VE Day - Victory in Europe. Germany surrenders to the Red Army in Berlin


  May 8, 1945
• Potsdam Conference - Germany was officially partitioned into four zones of occupation


  July 1945
• The United States drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima (20 kiloton bomb 'Little Boy' kills 80,000 people )


  August 6, 1945
• Russia declares war on Japan


  August 8
• The United States drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki (22 kiloton 'Fat Man' kills 70,000)


  August 9, 1945
• Japanese surrender End of World War II


  August 14, 1945
• Emperor surrender broadcast - VJ Day (victory over japan) 


  August 15
• Stalin hostile speech - communism & capitalism were incompatible


  1946 February 9
• "Sinews of Peace" Iron Curtain Speech by Winston Churchill - "an "iron curtain" has descended on Europe"


  1946 March 5
• Truman demands Russia leave Iran

  1946 March 10
• Operation Crossroads with Test Able was the first public demonstration of America's atomic arsenal


  1946 July 1
• America's Test Baker - underwater explosion


  1946 July 25
• Truman Doctrine - Truman declares active role in Greek Civil War

  1947 March 12
• Marshall Plan is announced setting a precedent for helping countries combat poverty, disease and malnutrition (not for soviet countries)


  1947 June
• Rio Pact - U.S. meet 19 Latin American countries and created a security zone around the hemisphere


  1947 September 2
• Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia

  1948 February 25
• Truman's Loyalty Program created to catch Cold War spies

  1948 March 2
• Brussels Pact organized to protect Europe from communism

  1948 March 17
• Berlin Blockade begins lasting 11 months


  1948 June 24
• NATO ratified


  1949 April 4
• Berlin Blockade ends


  1949 May 12
• Russia tested its first atomic bomb

  1949 August 29
• Communist Mao Zedong takes control of China and establishes the People's Republic of China


  1949 October 1
• Chiang Kai-shek moved to Formosa and created Nationalist government


  1949 December 1
• Truman approved H-bomb development

  1950 January 30
• Joe McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt and loyalty tests


  1950 February
• Korean War begins. Stalin supports North Korea who invade South Korea equipped with Soviet weapons


  1950 June 24
• Federal Civil Defense Administration established

  1951 January 12
• Truman fires MacArthur


  1951 April 11
• 1. bombs developed by Britain


  1952
• Nuclear Arms Race atomic test series of 11 explosions at Nevada Test Site


  1953 March 17-June 4
• RAND report on the "Vulnerability of U. S. Strategic Air Power"

  1953 April 15
• Korean War ends


  1953 July
• Ike's Atoms for Peace speech

  1953 December 8
• 1. bomb Castle-Bravo test


  1954 March 1