THE COLD WAR TIMELINE
FARRELL PLAVIN
1946
IRON CURTAIN SPEECH
1947
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE
1948 - 1949
THE BERLIN BLOCKADE AND THE BERLIN AIRLIFT
The Berlin Blockade in 1948 Stalin tried to starve the people of West Britain into submission. He failed. The Western allies kept West Berlin suppled through a massive airlift.
NATO RATIFIED
NATO was officially established on April 4, 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty. The Western European powers relied on the massive nuclear arsenal of the United States to deter a Soviet ground invasion.
1958
FIDEL CASTRO
1962
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted.
1963
John F. Kennedy Assassinated
Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza.
Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy.
1989
Berlin Wall Falls
November 1989 , People who heard the broadcast were shocked. They went to the border to see if it was true. The border guards, who had no explicit instructions as to what to do, let them through. As the news spread on both sides of the Wall, huge numbers of people flocked to the Berlin Wall and celebrated.
1990
GERMANY REUNITED
October 3rd the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city.
1991
COLD WAR ENDS
The fall of the Berlin Wall. The shredding of the Iron Curtain. The end of the Cold War.