| 1945 |
Germany defeated and occupied by the Allies. Harry Truman US president. Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Japan surrenders after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. United Nations Formed. |
| 1946 |
Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech. |
| 1947 |
Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. |
| 1948 |
Berlin blockade and Allied airlift. |
| 1949 |
Chinese revolution. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) formed. First Soviet atomic bomb tested. Germany and Berlin divided. |
| 1950 |
Korean War. |
| 1951 |
Rosenberg spy case. |
| 1952 |
America detonates first hydrogen bomb. |
| 1953 |
Stalin dies. Korean War ends. Eisenhower is president of the US |
| 1954 |
France defeated in Indochinese war of independence. Vietnam divided. ANZUS and SEATO alliances. |
| 1955 |
Warsaw Pact signed between Eastern European communist states and Russia. |
| 1956 |
Hungarian revolution. Khrushchev's 'Secret Speech'. First Soviet hydrogen bomb. |
| 1957 |
Soviet satellite 'Sputnik' launched. |
| 1958 |
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| 1959 |
Fidel Castro wins Cuban revolution. |
| 1960 |
U2 spy plane incident. John F. Kennedy elected US president. |
| 1961 |
Berlin wall erected. Bay of Pigs incident. Kennedy-Khrushchev talks. |
| 1962 |
Cuban missile crisis |
| 1963 |
Hot line between Washington and Moscow. Nuclear test ban treaty. Kennedy assassinated. Lyndon Johnson becomes president. |
| 1964 |
Increased American involvement in Vietnam. Gulf of Tonkin incident. |
| 1965 |
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| 1966 |
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| 1967 |
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| 1968 |
Prague uprising. Tet offensive in Vietnam. |
| 1969 |
Nixson Doctrine announced. |
| 1970 |
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| 1971 |
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| 1972 |
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| 1973 |
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| 1974 |
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| 1975 |
US withdraws from Vietnam. |
| 1976 |
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| 1977 |
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| 1978 |
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| 1979 |
Soviets invade Afghanistan. |
| 1980 |
President Reagan calls the Soviet Union the 'evil empire'. Us boycotts Moscow Olympics |
| 1981 |
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| 1982 |
START - nuclear arms reduction talks. |
| 1983 |
Reagan's 'Star Wars' plan. US cruise missiles in Britain. Peace movement protests. |
| 1984 |
Soviets boycott Los Angeles Olympics |
| 1985 |
Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika policies. |
| 1986 |
US-Soviet arms talks fail. |
| 1987 |
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| 1988 |
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| 1989 |
Berlin wall comes down. |
| 1990 |
Poland's first free election. East and West Germany reunified. Gulf war erupts. |
| 1991 |
End of Warsaw Pact. Eleven Soviet states break away from the Soviet union. |
| 1992 |
Gorbachev announces end of Cold War. Bill Clinton is voted US president. Nuclear weapons reduced. |
| 1993 |
Clinton promises economic aid to Russia. |