Cold war time line

I found a really interesting simple but explanatory timeline of the cold war which can help all understand it better.

1940s

• 1945: February 4-11-- Yalta Conference Cold War Begins

• 1945: August 6 -- United States first used atomic bomb in war

• 1945: August 8 -- Russia enters war against Japan

• 1945: 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

• 1947: June -- Marshall Plan is announced

• 1948: February -- Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia

• 1948: June 24 -- Berlin Blockade begins

• 1949: July -- 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

1950s

• 1950: February -- Joe McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt

• 1950: June -- Korean War begins

• 1951: January 12 -- Federal Civil Defense Administration established

• 1953: June 19 -- Rosenberg executions

• 1953: July -- Korean War ends

• 1954: March -- KGB established

• 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

• 1959: September -- Khrushchev visits United States; denied access to Disneyland

1960s

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

• 1960: November -- John F. Kennedy elected President

• 1961: April -- Bay of Pigs invasion

• 1961: July -- Kennedy requests 25% spending increase for military

• 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

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

• 1973: September -- United States helps overthrow Chile government

• 1973: 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

• 1979: November -- Shah of Iran overthrown; Iranian Hostage Crisis

1980s

• 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: 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 Rumania; Soviet empire ends

1990s

• 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

  
  

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