Cold War Timeline

Cold War Timeline

1. Early Events

   • 1945 Yalta Conference
     • -Stalin Churchill Roosevelt - Personal relationship still strong enough to make some significant agreements - Main source of disagreement was over Poland Agreements reached: -Establishing of UN -Division of Germany, Berlin and Austria into zones of occupation - The principle of free elections in East Europe - The setting of the borders of post-war Poland so that substantial areas were given to USSR
     • 1945 Potsdam Conference
       • Stalin Truman Churchill - Truman new anti- comm president -Churchill replaced whilst conference was happening by Attlee Marked severe cooling in relations - no significant agreements made
       • 6 August 1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
         • 5 March 1946 Churchill Iron Curtain Speech at Fulton
           • 1946 Baruch Plan Failed
             • March 1947 Truman Doctrine Launched
               • June 1947 Marshall Plan Established
                 • February 1948 Communist Coup in Czech
                   • June 1948 Berlin Blockade begins
                     • April 1949 NATO set up
                       • August 1949 - USSR tests atomic bom
                         • Feb 1950 Sino-Soviet Alliance signed
                           • 25 June 1950 Korean War Begins
                             • Nov 1952 - US tests Hydrogen bomb
                               • 5 March 1953 Death of Stalin

2. 1953-1960

   • 27 July 1953 End of Korean War
     • July 1954 Geneva Agreement on Indochina
       • September 1954 1st Taiwan Straits Crisis develops
         • 1954 Khrushchev's first visit to China
           • 1955 USA first intercontinental bombers
             • May 1955 Warsaw Pact set up
               • July 1955 - Geneva Summit (Khrushchev and Eisenhower)
                 • Feb 1956 - Khrushchev's secret speech
                   • 1956 USSR first TU20 bear (intercontinental bomber)
                     • November 1956 Soviet troops invade Hungary
                       • Sputnik 1957
                         • Nov 1957 Eisenhower warned of Missile Gap
                           • 1958 Khrushchev criticises Great Leap Forwar
                             • 1958 2nd Berlin Crisis
                               • August 1958 2nd Taiwan Straits Crisis
                                 • June 1959 Sino-Soviet agreement on atomic cooperation cancelled
                                   • May 1960 U2 spy plane incident
                                   • 1959 Cuban Revolution

3. 1960-1970

   • Jan 1961 JFK becomes president
     • 12 April 1961 - Yuri Gugarin first man in space
       • 17-20 April 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion
         • June 1961 Vienna Summit - (Khrushchev and Kennedy)
           • August 1961 Berlin Wall erected
             • October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
               • June 1963 Hot Line telephone link/nuclear test ban treaty
                 • October 1964 - China first nuclear bomb test
                   • August 1968 Soviets invade Czechoslovakia
                     • March 1969 Sino-Soviet Border clashes at Damansky Island

4. 1970 - End of Cold War

   • Nixon visits China 1972
     • May 1972 Salt I agreed
       • July 1975 Apollo Soyuz Link up
         • August 1975 Helsinki Accords Signed
           • 1979 Salt II signed (Not ratified)
             • December 1979 - Soviets Invade Afghanistan
               • December 1980 - Martial Law imposed in Poland in response to Solidarity
                 • 1983 SDI launched
                   • March 1985 - Gorbachev becomes Soviet Leader
                     • December 1987 Washington Summit (Reagan and Gorbachev)
                       • 1989 - Collapse of communist regimes in East Europe
                         • 9 November 1989 - Berlin Wall Opened
                           • October 1990 Reunification of Germany
                             • 25 December 1991 - End of USSR