Cold War timeline
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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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"... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more
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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... Read more