World History

1945

Yalta Conference divides Europe into spheres of influence. WWII ends.

UN Founded

1946

Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, MO

1947

Truman Doctrine (for Greece and Turkey) affirms US support against Communist-sponsored subversion, “Containment”

Marshall Plan announced; USSR, fearing loss of control, keeps Czech, Fin, Polish and Hungarian governments from participating.

1948

Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia

Berlin blockade begins, reaction to Western revival of German currency and industry.

US House Un-American Activities Committee opens hearings.

1949

USSR explodes a-bomb

Communist forces unite Mainland China, establish People’s Republic of China; Guomindang Nationalists establish Republic of China on Taiwan.

COMECON begins coordination of Communist economies.

April

NATO founded. Members: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemborg, France, UK, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Iceland, Canada, US.

May

Berlin blockade ends after months of airlifted supplies

Sept

West German state (German Federal Republic, FRG) declared

Oct

East German state (German Democratic Republic, GDR) declared

1950

North Korea invades South Korea, prompting US/UN intervention

1953

USSR develops thermonuclear weapons

Korean War ends with 38th parallel armistice.

Joseph McCarthy chairs US Senate committee hearings targeting Soviet agents in Departments of State and Army

Stalin dies

1954

Eisenhower accepts “domino theory”: intervention to prevent new communist regimes.

France withdraws from Vietnam; US begins support of non-Communist South Vietnam

1955

NATO admits West Germany as member.

Warsaw Pact defense bloc founded. Members: USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania

Austria established, after USSR withdrawal, as independent, neutral state

Geneva Summit (US, USSR, France, UK) produces good feelings, but no agreements

1956

Khrushchev’s Secret Speech denouncing Stalin, signals slight opening of intellectual and political rigidity; removal of Stalin’s supporters.

Polish Crisis: disagreement between Polish and Soviet CP over PM; compromise inspires Hungary.

Suez Crisis: After Nasser’s nationalization in July, war breaks out between Egypt and Israel; UK, France intervene to protect Canal and access to Persian Gulf; US and USSR fail to support action and Egypt regains control.

Hungarian Uprising: Hungarian CP selects Nagy, who favors USSR withdrawal; USSR invades Hungary, executes Nagy, installs Janos Kadar.

1957

Sputnik I launched by USSR, Earth’s first artificial satellite.

1958

Dr. Zhivago author Boris Pasternak wins Literature Nobel; not permitted to accept

1959

Nixon visits USSR (Kitchen talks); Krushchev visits US

1959

Cuban Revolution installs Fidel Castro

U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia

1960

Paris Summit cancelled in retaliation for U-2.

1961

Berlin Wall rises to stop flow of Eastern refugees. Failure of US to force removal raises concerns about committment and influence.

Bay of Pigs invasion fails to topple Castro’s Cuban regime.

1962

Cuban Missle Crisis ends “in a triumph of common sense” (Khruschev)

1963

US-USSR Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

1963

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn permitted to publish One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

1964

Krushchev falls from power; replaced by Leonid Brezhnev

Sino-Soviet rift

Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove released.

1965

US ground troops sent to Vietnam, and US begins bombing raids.

1968

Prague Spring led by Alexander Dubcek; USSR invades Czechoslovakia.

Brezhnev’s “Doctrine of Limited Sovereignty” claims Soviet right to interfere in the affairs of other Communist countries

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed

1969

Apollo XI spacecraft successfully visits Earth’s moon, returns.

1972

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

Nixon visits Beijing

1973

US withdraws from Vietnam

CIA aids overthrow of Chilean socialist Salvadore Allende

1974

Solzhenitsyn expelled from USSR; harassment of Soviet Jewry begins in earnest

1975

Helsinki accords “recognize the Soviet sphere of influence in eastern Europe and the obligation of both nations to safeguard human rights.

Vietnam united by North Vietnamese (Communist) forces

Jiang Jieshi dies, succeeded by his son.

1976

Mao Zedong dies, succeeded eventually by Deng Xiaoping

1979

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

1980

Moscow Olympics boycott by US; US grain shipments to Russia suspended

1981

Poland suppresses Solidarity movement with Martial Law

1982

Brezhnev dies. Reagan deploys new missiles in Europe, proposes missile defense system.

1985

Mikhail Gorbachev takes control in USSR; initiates perestroika (“restructuring”) and glasnost (“openness”) reforms

1989

Gorbachev repudiates Brezhnev Doctrine, initiating collapse of Second World, withdraws from Afghanistan

Romanian demonstrations remove Ceauşescu from power;

Bulgarian communist leadership falls.

Berlin Wall falls

China’s Tiananmen Square protests result in crackdown, massacre.

1990

Germany reunites

Free elections in Poland, Hungary; Czechoslovakian “Velvet Revolution”

Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize

1991

Soviet Union dissolves; Boris Yeltsin president of Russian Republic

1993

Czech Republic and Slovakia separate.