Cold War Timeline

1945 Feb 4
to 1945 Feb 11
 Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of gov...
1945 May Bell Labs Proposes Project Nike to War Department as a Response to Request for New Air Defense System
The concept of the Nike Missile System was first introduced in 1945. Bell Telephone Laboratories which produced the 'Anti-Aircraft Guided Missile Report' mapped out a command guidance sys...
1945 Jul 16
to 1945 Aug 12
 The Potsdam Conference is Held at Cecilienhof
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from July 16 to August 2, 1945. The participants were the Sovi...
1945 Sep 5 Igor Gouzenko Defects from USSR to Canada, Providing Evidence of a Soviet Spy Ring in Western Countries
Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (January 13, 1919, Rogachevo, Soviet Union – June 28, 1982, Mississauga, Canada) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. He defec...
1946 Feb 22 George F. Kennan Writes the Long Telegram
G. F. Kennan had been stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as minister-counselor since 1944. Although highly critical of the Soviet system, the mood within the U.S. State Department wa...
1946 Mar The Greek Civil War Reignites Following Attack on a Police Station in Litohoro
The Greek Civil War (Greek: ο Eμφύλιος [Πόλεμος], "the Civil War") was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by Britain and the USA, and the Democratic Army...
1946 Jun 26 Full-Scale War Resumes Between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang
With the breakdown of talks, an all out war resumed. This stage is referred to in Communist media and historiography as the "War of Liberation" (simplified Chinese: 解放战争; pinyin: Jiěfàng ...
1946 Dec 19 First Indochina War Begins with French Landings in Indochina
The First Indochina War (also known as the French Indochina War, the The Anti-French War, the Franco-Vietnamese War, the Franco-Vietminh War, the Indochina War, the Dirty War in France an...
1947 Mar 12 Harry Truman Creates the Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine is a set of principles of U.S. inland policy created on March 12, 1947 by President Harry S Truman. In this, Truman declared that the United States, as leader of the "...
1948 Feb 26 The Czechoslovakia Coup
During the winter of 1947-48, both in the cabinet and in parliament tension between the Communists and their opponents led to increasingly bitter conflict. In early February 1948, the Com...
1948 Apr 3 Truman Signs the Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (from its enactment, officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger foundation for the c...
1949 Aug 29 The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's second nuclear power.
The RDS-1 (Russian: РДС-1), was the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. It is also known as Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was test-exploded on 29 August 1949, at Semipala...
1949 Oct 7 Establishment of the German Democratic Republic (Commonly Known as East Germany)
At the end of the war, Soviet authorities forcibly unified members of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party in the Socialist Unity Party (SED), which swept to victory...
1950 Mar 1 Chiang Kai-Shek Moves His Capital to Taipei
Chiang moved the government to Taipei, Taiwan, where he formally resumed his duties as president on 1 March 1950.Chiang was reelected by the National Assembly to be the President of the R...
1950 May 9 The Schuman Declaration
"Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity. The coming together of the nat..." —Robert Schuman
1950 Jul 5 Battle of Osan
The Battle of Osan was the first engagement between United States and North Korean forces during the Korean War. U.S. Task Force Smith of 540 men suffered 180 casualties while inflicting ...
1950 Aug
to 1950 Dec
Battle of Pusan Perimeter
The Battle of Pusan Perimeter was fought in August and September 1950 between United Nations Command forces combined with South Korean forces and the forces of North Korea. The Pusan Peri...
1950 Sep 15
to 1950 Sep 19
 Battle of Inchon
The Battle of Inchon (Korean: 인천 상륙 작전, Hanja: 仁川上陸作戰, Incheon Sangnyuk Jakjeon; code name: Operation Arthur) was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a de...
1950 Oct
to 1950 Dec
Chinese forces intervene in Korean War
The United Nations troops drove the North Koreans back past the 38th parallel. Urban combat in Seoul, 1950, as U.S. Marines fight North Koreans holding the city The UN forces cros...
1950 Nov 26
to 1950 Dec 13
 Battle of the Chosin Reservoir
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir, also known as Battle of Changjin Lake (simplified Chinese: 长津湖之战; pinyin: Cháng Jīn Hū Zhī Zhàn), was a battle in the Korean War in which 30,000 United Nat...
1951 Mar 23
to 1951 Mar 28
 Operation Courageous
Operation Courageous was a military operation performed by the United States Army during the Korean War designed to trap large numbers of Chinese and North Korean troops between the Han a...
1951 Sep 8 Japan Signs the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei to Become a Sovereign State
Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty, commonly known as the Treaty of Taipei as it was signed in Taipei, was a peace treaty between Japan and the Republic of China (ROC) concluded on April 28, 1952...
1952 Oct 14
to 1952 Nov 25
 Battle of Triangle Hill
The Battle of Triangle Hill, also known as Operation Showdown or the Shangganling Campaign (simplified Chinese: 上甘岭战役; pinyin: Shànggānlǐng Zhànyì),[nb 2] was a protracted military engage...
1953 Mar
to 1953 Jul
Battle of Pork Chop Hill
The Battle of Pork Chop Hill comprises a pair of related Korean War infantry battles during the spring and summer of 1953. These were fought while the U.S. and the Communist Chinese and K...
1953 Mar 5 Joseph Stalin Dies
At the end of January 1953 Stalin's personal physician Miron Vovsi (cousin of Solomon Mikhoels who was assassinated in 1948 at the orders of Stalin) was arrested within the frame of the s...
1953 May 28
to 1953 May 29
 Battle of the Hook
The third Battle of the Hook was a battle of the Korean War that took place between a United Nations force, consisting mostly of British troops, supported on their flanks by American and ...
1953 Jul 27 Korean Armistice Agreement
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, with neither side able to claim outright victory. Fifty years on, the truce is still all that technically prevents North Korea and the US ...
1954 May 7 Viet Minh Defeat French at Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (French: Bataille de Diên Biên Phu; Vietnamese: Chiến dịch Điện Biên Phủ) was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's...
1955 May 14 Warsaw Pact is Signed
The Warsaw Pact (see Nomenclature) was a group of Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. It was the military equivalent of CoMEcon (the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance). T...
1956 Oct 29 Operation Kadesh Begins
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, (Arabic: أزمة السويس - العدوان الثلاثي‎ ʾAzmat al-Sūwais/Al-ʿIdwān al-Thalāthī; French: Crise du canal de Suez; Hebrew: מבצ...
1957 Oct 4 Soviet Union Launches Sputnik 1 Satellite
Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a ser...
1960 May 1 American U-2 Spy Plane is Shot Down Over the Soviet Union
On May 1, 1960, thirteen days before the scheduled opening of an East–West summit conference in Paris, a U.S. Lockheed U-2A spy plane, 56-6693, Item 360, left the US base in Badaber on a ...
1961 Apr 15
6:00AM
 United States B-26B Invader Bombers Attack Three Cuban Airfields
At about 06.00 Cuba local time on 15 April 1961, eight Douglas B-26B Invader bombers in three groups, simultaneously attacked three Cuban airfields, at San Antonio de Los Baños and at Ciu...
1961 Apr 15
7:30AM
 United States Flies B-26 Bomber in Deception Flight Near Cuba
About 90 minutes after the eight B-26s had taken off from Puerto Cabezas to attack Cuban airfields, another B-26 departed on a deception flight that took it close to Cuba but headed north...
1961 Apr 16 CIA/Brigade 2506 Invasion Fleet Converges on "Rendezvous Point Zulu" South of Cuba
Following the air strikes on airfields on April 15, 1961, the FAR managed to prepare for armed action at least four T-33s, four Sea Furies and five or six B-26s. All three types could be ...
1961 Apr 17
to 1961 Apr 19
 Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. governm...
1961 Apr 18 Second Day of Bay of Pigs Invasion
By about 10.30 on 18 April, Cuban troops and militia, supported by tanks, took Playa Larga after Brigade forces had fled towards Girón in the early hours. During the day, Brigade forces r...
1961 Apr 19 Third Day of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
The final air attack mission (code-named Mad Dog Flight) comprised five B-26s, four of which were manned by American CIA contract air crews and pilots from the Alabama Air Guard. One FAR ...
1961 Apr 20 Fourth Day of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
From 19 April until about 22 April, sorties were flown by A4D-2Ns to obtain visual intelligence over combat areas. Reconnaissance flights are also reported of Douglas AD-5Ws of VFP-62 and...
1961 Aug 13 Construction Begins on the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a physical barrier completely encircling West Berlin, separating it from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany), including East B...
1961 Nov 30 President Kennedy Authorizes Operation Mongoose
The Cuban Project (also known as Operation Mongoose or the Special Group or the Special Group Augmented) was a program of CIA covert operations developed during the early years of US Pres...
1962 United States Military Plans Operation Ortsac to Disrupt Castro's Rule in Cuba
Operation Ortsac was the project name of a possible invasion of Cuba planned by the United States military in 1962. The codename was derived from former Cuban President Fidel Castro by sp...
1962 Feb United States Economic Blockade Against Cuba Becomes Near-Total Embargo
The United States Embargo against Cuba (described in Cuba as el bloqueo, Spanish for "the blockade") is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo partially imposed on Cuba in October ...
1962 Feb 10 Francis Gary Powers is Secretly Exchanged for Rudolf Ivanovich Abel at the Border of East Germany and West Berlin
When the U.S. government learned of Powers' disappearance over the Soviet Union, it issued a cover statement claiming a "weather plane" had crashed after its pilot had "difficulties with ...
1962 Sep 8 First Nuclear Ballistic Missiles Arrive in Cuba
The first consignment of SS-3 MRBMs (medium range ballistic missiles) arrived on the night of September 8, followed by a second on September 16. The Soviets were building nine sites — six...
1962 Oct Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. In Russia, it is termed the "Caribbean Crisis" (Ru...
1962 Oct 14 United States U-2 Reconnaissance Mission Discovers SS-4 Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) Sites in Varying Stages of Readiness
The first consignment of SS-3 MRBMs (medium range ballistic missiles) arrived on the night of September 8, followed by a second on September 16. The Soviets were building nine sites — six...
1962 Oct 17 U-2 Photograph of First IRBM Site Under Construction is Taken
U-2 flights identify the first of three Soviet SS-5 missile sites. The SS-5s have ranges of up to 2,200 nautical miles. The military estimates that as many as 32 medium range missiles cou...
1962 Oct 18 Kennedy Meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko
On October 18th the President ordered a build up of arms along the southern border of the United States, just in case war breaks out. No one suspected anything because training exercises ...
1962 Oct 21 John F. Kennedy Decides to "Quarantine" Cuba in Response to Nuclear Threat
On October 21st, ExComm, and President Kennedy decided that a quarantine was the best course of action. The administration called it a quarantine, because the term "blockade" would symbol...