1940s
1945 |
February 4-11 |
Yalta conference between US, UK & USSR |
|
March 6 |
USSR installs puppet government in Romania |
|
March 7 |
Josep Broz Tito installed as head of Yugoslavia |
|
March-April |
Stalin turns Poland to a communist puppet government |
|
April 12 |
Roosevelt dies and Harry S Truman becomes President |
|
May 2 |
Italian civil war ends |
|
July 24 |
Potsdam conference |
|
August 6 |
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima |
|
August 8 |
USSR honours agreement to declare war on Japan |
|
August 9 |
Atomic bombing of Nagasaki |
|
August 12 |
Japanese forces in Korea surrender |
|
August 17 |
Proclamation of Indonesian Independence |
|
August 19- September 1 |
Viet Minh seizes control of Hanoi |
|
September 2 |
Surrender of Japan |
|
September 5 |
Revealations of a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada & US |
|
October 25 |
Taiwan transferred to China from Japan |
|
November |
Iran crisis of 1946 begins |
1946 |
January |
Chinese civil war resumed |
|
January 7 |
Republic of Austria reconstituted |
|
January 11 |
Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania |
|
February 9 |
Stalin makes his Election speech, in which he states that capitalism and imperialism make future wars inevitable |
|
February 22 |
George F Kennan writes his Long Telegram |
|
March |
Greek civil war reignites |
|
March 5 |
Churchill warns of the descent of an Iron Curtain across Europe |
|
May 26 |
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia alongside the Communist Party of Slovakia receive 38 percent of the vote in the 1946 parliamentary election |
|
June 2 |
Following a referendum the Italian Republic is born |
|
July 4 |
The Philippines gains independence from US |
|
September 8 |
In a referendum Bulgaria votes for establishment of a People's Republic |
|
September 24 |
Truman presented with the Clifford-Elsey Report which lists Soviet violations of agreements with the US |
|
September 27 |
Nikolai Vasilevich Novikov writes a response to Kennan's Long Telegram known as the Novikov Telegram |
|
December 15 |
USSR withdraws from Iran |
|
December 19 |
French landings in Indochina begon the First Indochina war |
1947 |
January 1 |
American & British zones of Control in Germany are united to form the Bizone |
|
February 10 |
Establishment of the neutral state Free Territory of Trieste |
|
February 25 |
Prussia was de jure abolished |
|
February 28 |
The February 28 incident in Taiwan lasting until mid March |
|
March 7 |
Paraguayan civil war begins |
|
March 12 |
Truman Doctrine announced |
|
April 16 |
Bernard Baruch coins the term Cold War to describes the relations between US & USSR |
|
May 22 |
US extends $400 million of military aid to Greece & Turkey |
|
June 5 |
Marshall Plan is outlined |
|
August 14 |
Partition of India: Pakistan gains independence from UK |
|
August 15 |
Partition of India: India gains independence from UK |
|
September |
USSR forms the Cominform |
|
October 20 |
Legal political opposition to Polish communism is effectively at an end |
|
November 14 |
UN passes a resolution calling for withdrawal of foreign soldiers from Korea |
|
November 29 |
UN partitions Palestine |
|
November 30 |
1947-49 & civil war in Palestine |
|
December 30 |
King Michael I of Romania forced to abdicate and monarchy is abolished leading to the Romanian People's Republic |
1948 |
January 5 |
Burma becomes independent from UK |
|
January 30 |
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated |
|
February 25 |
The Communist party takes control in Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 |
|
March 12 |
Costa Rican civil war begins |
|
April 3 |
Truman signs the Marshall Plan into effect |
|
April 9 |
La Violencia begins in Colombia |
|
May 14 |
The state of Israel is formed |
|
May 15 |
1948 Arab-Israeli war |
|
June 18 |
Communist insurgency in Malaya |
|
June 21 |
British & French zones in Germany launch a common currency the Deutsche Mark |
|
June 24 |
Stalin orders the Berlin Blockade |
|
June 28 |
USSR expels Yugoslavia from the Cominform over the Greek civil war |
|
June 28 |
Berlin airlift begins |
|
August 15 |
US declares the Republic of Korea to be the legitimate government of the Korean peninsula |
|
September 9 |
USSR declares the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to be the legitimate government of the Korean peninsula |
|
September 18 |
The Madiun affair in Indonesia begins |
1949 |
January 5-8 |
Comecon is formed |
|
April 4 |
Nato is founded by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, UK & USin order to resist Communist expansion |
|
May 11 |
Soviet blockade of Berlin ends |
|
May 23 |
Bizone merges with French zone of control in Germany to form the Federal Republic of Germany |
|
August 29 |
USSR tests its first atomic bomb |
|
September 13 |
USSR vetoes the UN membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan & Portugal |
|
September 15 |
Konrad Adenauer becomes the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany |
|
October 1 |
Mao Zedong declares the foundation of the People's Republic of China |
|
October 7 |
USSR declares their zone of Germany to be the German Democratic Republic |
|
October 16 |
Nikos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece declares an end to the armed uprising. Declaration brings to a close the Greek civil war |
|
December 27 |
Sovereignty is handed over to United States of Indonesia from the Netherlands |
1950s (part 1)
1950 |
January 5 |
UK recognises the People's Republic of China |
|
January 19 |
China officially diplomatically recognises Vietnam as independent |
|
January 31 |
Truman announces the beginning of the development of a hydrogen bomb |
|
February 3 |
USSR establishes diplomatic relations with Indonesia |
|
February 9 |
Senator McCarthy claims without evidence that communists have infiltrated the US state department |
|
February 12 |
USSR & People's Republic of China sign pact of mutual defense |
|
April 7 |
NSC 68 is issued, arguing for the adoption of containment as the cornerstone of US foreign policy |
|
May 11 |
Robert Schuman issues Schuman Declaration which marks the beginning of the creation of the European Community |
|
June 25 |
North Korea invades South Korea beginning the Korean War. UN votes to intervene to defend the south |
|
July 4 |
UN forces engage with North Korean forces for first time |
|
September 30 |
UN forces land at Inchon |
|
October 2 |
UN forces cross the 38th parallel into North Korea |
|
October 6 |
Forces from People's Republic of China enter Tibet, with goal of annexing the region into China |
|
October 22 |
Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea falls to UN forces |
|
October 22 |
China intervenes in Korea with 300,000 soldiers but withdraw after initial engagements |
|
November 15 |
UN forces approach the Yalu River, in response China intervenes again with 500,000 strong army |
1951 |
January 4 |
Chinese soldiers capture Seoul |
|
March 14 |
UN forces recapture Seoul, by end of March they have reached the 38th parallel |
|
March 29 |
Julius & Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for role in passing atomic secrets to the USSR during & after WWII, they were executed on June 19, 1953 |
|
April 11 |
Truman fires MacArthur from command of US forces in Korea |
|
April 23 |
US journalist William N Oatis arrested in Czechoslovakia for alleged espionage |
|
May 23 |
The seventeen point agreement is signed between Tibet & People's Republic of China |
|
September 1 |
Australia, New Zealand & UK sign the ANZUS treaty |
|
October 10 |
Truman signs the mutual security act |
|
November 14 |
Truman asks Congress for US military & economic aid for Yugoslavia |
|
December 12 |
The international authority for the Ruhr lifts part of the remaining restrictions on German industrial production |
1952 |
February 6 |
George VI dies & Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen |
|
February 18 |
Greece & Turkey join NATO |
|
April 28 |
Treaty of San Francisco signed by Japan comes into effect |
|
June 14 |
US lays the keel for the world's first nuclear powered submarine, USS Nautilus |
|
June 30 |
The Marshall Plan ends |
|
July 23 |
Gamal Abdel Nasser heads a coup against King Farouk of Egypt |
|
October 2 |
The UK successfully tests its first atomic bomb |
|
November 1 |
US tests their first thermonuclear fusion bomb |
|
November 4 |
Dwight D Eisenhower wins the 1952 presidential election |
1953 |
January 20 |
Eisenhower becomes president |
|
February 3 |
The Batepá massacre occurred in São Tomé & Príncipe |
|
February 28 |
Balkan Pact is signed by Yugoslavia, Greece & Turkey |
|
March 5 |
Stalin dies, setting off a power struggle to succeed him |
|
May 31 - June 2 |
The 1953 Plzeň uprising was violently suppressed by the Czechoslovak governement |
|
June 2 |
Elizabeth II crowned Queen of UK |
|
June 17 |
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany is crushed by Soviet troops |
|
July 26 |
Cuban Revolution begins as the 26th of July Movement led by Fidel Castro |
|
July 27 |
An armistice agreement ends fighting in Korean war after Eisenhower threatened use of nuclear weapons |
|
August 19 |
The CIA & MI6 assists a royalist coup that restores Pahlavi to power as the Shah of Iran |
|
September 7 |
Nikita Khrushchev becomes leader of the USSR |
|
September 23 |
The pact of Madrid if signed by Spain & US |
|
December 4-8 |
Eisenhower meets with Churchill & Laniel of France in Bermuda |
1954 |
January 21 |
US launches world's first nuclear submarine |
|
March 8 |
US & Japan mutual defense assistance agreement is signed |
|
March 13 |
The KGB is created as successor agency of NKVD |
|
April-June |
The Army-McCarthy hearings are broadcast on US TV leading to loss of support for McCarthyism |
|
May 7 |
The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu , France withdraws from Indochina |
|
May 17 |
The Hukbalahap revolt in the Philippines is defeated |
|
June 2 |
McCarthy claims that communists have infiltrated the CIA & atomic weapons industry |
|
June 18 |
The elected leftist Guatemalan government is overthrown in a CIA backed coup |
|
July 22 |
India annexes the Portuguese territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli |
|
August 11 |
The Taiwan Strait Crisis begins |
|
September 8 |
Foundation of the South East Asian Treaty Organisation |
|
October 5 |
The free territory of Trieste is dissolved |
|
October 10 |
The Jebel Akhdar war begins in Oman |
|
November 1 |
The fight for independence in French Algeria begins |
|
December 2 |
Sino-American mutual defense treaty is signed |
|
December 15 |
Suriname becomes a Dutch constituent state |
1950s (part 2)
1955 |
February 24 |
The Baghdad Pact is founded by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey & UK |
|
March |
Soviet aid to Syria begins |
|
April 18 |
The Asia-Africa conference is first held in Bandung, Indonesia |
|
April |
The non aligned movement is pioneered |
|
May 5 |
Allies end the military occupation of West Germany |
|
May 6 |
US begins formal diplomatic relations with West Germany |
|
May 9 |
West Germany joins NATO & begins rearmament |
|
May 14 |
The Warsaw pact is founded in Eastern Europe. It includes East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria & USSR |
|
May 15 |
Austria is neutralised & allied occupation ends |
|
July 18 |
Geneva summit occurs |
|
August 15 |
The first Sudanese civil war begins |
|
November 1 |
Official beginning of Vietnam war |
1956 |
February 25 |
Beginning of de-Stalinisation |
|
March 20 |
Tunisia becomes independent |
|
June 28 |
Anti communist protests in Poznań in Poland |
|
October 23 |
Hungarian revolution of 1956 |
|
October 29 |
Suez Crisis |
|
November 6 |
Eisenhower wins re-election in 1956 presidential election |
|
December |
Viet Cong insurgency begins in South Vietnam supported by north |
1957 |
January 5 |
The Eisenhower doctrine commits the US to defending Iran, Pakistan & Afghanistan |
|
March 6 |
Ghana becomes independent |
|
May 2 |
McCarthy dies |
|
May 15 |
UK detonates its first hydrogen bomb |
|
August 31 |
Malaya gains independence |
|
October 1 |
Strategic air command initiates 24/7 nuclear alert |
|
October 4 |
Sputnik 1 satellite launched, beginning of space race |
|
November 3 |
Sputnik 2 was launched with Laika the dog on board |
|
November 7 |
Eisenhower special committee urges a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect US citizens |
|
November 15 |
Khrushchev claims that the USSR has missile superiority over US |
|
December 16-19 |
NATO holds first summit in Paris |
1958 |
January |
Mao initiates the Great Leap Forward |
|
January 29 |
NASA was founded |
|
January 31 |
US army launches Explorer 1, the first US artificial satellite |
|
February 1 |
United Arab Republic formed |
|
July 14 |
The 14 July revolution in Iraq |
|
July 15 |
Political crisis in Lebanon |
|
August 23 |
Second Taiwan strait crisis begins |
|
September 1 |
Iceland expands its fishing zone which UK opposes leading to the cod wars |
|
October 8 |
Guinea becomes independent |
|
October 11 |
Pioneer 1 was launched |
|
November |
Start of the 1958-59 Berlin crisis |
|
November 8 |
Pioneer 2 was launched |
|
December 6 |
Pioneer 3 was launched |
1959 |
January 1 |
Castro wins the Cuban revolution & becomes dictator |
|
January 2 |
Luna 1 was launched |
|
March 3 |
Pioneer 4 was launched |
|
March 10-23 |
Tibetan uprising occurs |
|
March 24 |
Iraq leaves central treaty organisation |
|
May 23 |
Laotian civil war begins |
|
July 24 |
The kitchen debate between VP Richard Nixon & Khrushchev |
|
July 31 |
Basque conflict officially begins |
|
August 7 |
Explorer 6 was launched |
|
September |
Khrushchev visited US |
|
September 13 |
Luna 2 was launched & becomes first man made object to reach surface of moon |
|
October 4-22 |
Luna 3 was launched & took photos of the far side of the moon but issues with signal strength |
|
November |
Rwandan revolution begins |
|
December |
formation of NLF (Viet Cong) by North Vietnam |
|
|
1960s (part 1)
1960 |
February 16 |
France successfully tests its first atomic bomb |
|
May 1 |
American pilot shot down in U-2 spy plane leading to the U-2 incident |
|
June |
Sino-Soviet split |
|
July 5 |
Congo crisis begins |
|
July 31 |
Communist insurgents in Malaya are defeated |
|
August 3 |
Niger beomes independent |
|
August 9 |
The Pathet Lao revolt in Laos begins |
|
August 11 |
Chad becomes independent |
|
August 17 |
Gabon becomes independent |
|
September 30 |
Sukarno gives speech and criticises the UN for not being neutral & questions location in New York |
|
November 13 |
The Guatemalan civil war begins |
|
November 28 |
Mauritania becomes independent |
1961 |
January 3 |
Eisenhower severs diplomatic relations with Cuba |
|
January 13 |
Patrice Lumumba the elected president of the Republic of the Congo is assassinated |
|
January 20 |
John F Kennedy becomes president of the US |
|
January 31 |
Ham the chimpanzee is launched into space as part of project mercury |
|
February 4 |
Beginning of the Portuguese colonial war |
|
February 12 |
Venera 1 is successfully launched by USSR |
|
April 12 |
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space when USSR launches Vostok 1 |
|
April 17-19 |
Bay of pigs invasion |
|
April 21 |
Sierra Leone becomes independent |
|
May 5 |
Alan Shepard becomes first American to go into space on Freedom 7 |
|
May 19 |
Venera 1 successfully reaches Venus |
|
May 25 |
Start of project mercury, America's first human spaceflight program |
|
June 4 |
Kennedy meets with Khrushchev in Vienna |
|
June |
Jupiter IRBM deployment to Turkey |
|
July 11 |
North Korea & China sign the Sino-North Korean mutual aid & cooperation friendship treaty |
|
July 19 |
The Nicaraguan revolution begins |
|
August 13 |
Berlin Wall is built by USSR |
|
August 17 |
Alliance for progress aid to Latin American from US begins |
|
September 1 |
Eritrean war of independence begins |
|
September 28 |
Syria withdraws from the United Arab Republic |
|
October 17 |
22nd Soviet party congress held in USSR |
|
October 27 |
Beginning of checkpoint charlie standoff between US & Soviet tanks |
|
October 31 |
USSR detonated the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested |
|
December 2 |
Castro openly describes himself as a Marxist-Leninist |
|
December 18 |
Republic of India invades the former Portuguese territory of Goa |
1962 |
January 15 |
Confrontation between Indonesia & the Netherlands over imperialism |
|
February 20 |
John Glenn launched into space aboard Friendship 7 |
|
July 1 |
Rwanda & Burundi become independent |
|
July 20 |
Neutralisation of Laos |
|
August 2 |
Jamaica granted independence |
|
August 27 |
Mariner 2 is launched to make a flyby of Venus |
|
August 31 |
Trinidad & Tobago is granted independence |
|
September 8 |
Himalayan war |
|
September 26 |
North Yemen civil war begins |
|
October 9 |
Uganda becomes independent |
|
October 16 |
Cuban Missle Crisis |
|
October 20 |
The Sino-Indian war begins |
|
November 1 |
The USSR successfully launches Mars 1 |
|
November 20 |
End of Sino-Indian war |
|
December 7 |
The Brunei People's Party launched a rebellion against the British protectorate |
|
December 14 |
Mariner 2 reaches Venus, becoming the first US spacecraft to reach Venus |
1963 |
January 20 |
Indonesia declares it rejects the formation of Malaysia |
|
January 23 |
Kim Philby, leader of the Cambridge Five, defects to USSR from Beirut. The fight for independence in Portuguese Guinea begins |
|
February 10 |
Overthrow of Abd al-Karim Qasim |
|
June 9 |
Dhofar rebellion |
|
June 13 |
Mars 1 likely reaches Mars conducting flyby |
|
June 16 |
Vostok 6 was launched, with Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman in space |
|
June 20 |
The US agrees to set up a hotline with the USSR |
|
June 21 |
France announces that is withdrawing its navy from the North Atlantic fleets of NATO |
|
June 26 |
Kennedy gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech |
|
July 31 |
The Manila accord was signed |
|
August 5 |
The partial test ban treaty is signed by the US, UK & USSR |
|
September 16 |
Malaysia was formed |
|
September 25 |
A border war was fought between Morocco & Algeria |
|
October 14 |
The Aden emergency begins against British rule |
|
November 2 |
South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated in a coup |
|
November 22 |
Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Lyndon B Johnson becomes President |
|
December 12 |
Kenya becomes independent |
1964 |
January 12 |
Government of Zanzibar Sultanate is overthrown |
|
January 27 |
France recognises the People's Republic of China |
|
February 10 |
The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with France |
|
March 31-April 1 |
Military coup d'état overthrows president in Brazil |
|
April 20 |
Johnson & Khrushchev both announce plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons |
|
May 27 |
Colombian conflict begins |
|
July 4 |
Rhodesian Bush war begins |
|
July 4 |
Malawi becomes independent |
|
August 4 |
The Gulf of Tonkin incident |
|
September 21 |
Malta becomes independent |
|
September 24 |
Mozambican war of independence |
|
October 12 |
First spaceflight to carry multiple crewman into orbit on Voskhod 1 |
|
October 14 |
Leonid Brezhnev succeeds Khrushchev as leader of USSR |
|
October 16 |
China tests its first atomic bomb |
|
October 24 |
Zambia becomes independent |
|
November 28 |
Mariner 4 was launched |
1960s (part 2)
1965 |
January 24 |
Churchill dies |
|
February 18 |
The Gambia becomes independent |
|
March 18 |
Alexei Leonov conducts the first extravehicular activity or spacewalk in history from his spacecraft, Voskhod 2 in space |
|
March 23 |
Ranger 9 transmitted live footage of the surface of the Moon before crashing into its surface |
|
April 24 |
Dominican civil war |
|
June 3 |
Ed White conducts the first American spacewalk from his spacecraft, Gemini IV |
|
July 14-15 |
Mariner 4 successfully takes pictures of the surface of Mars |
|
August 5 |
Beginning of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 |
|
August 9 |
Singapore gains independence after being expelled from Malaysia |
|
October 1 |
30 September movement in Indonesia |
|
November 1 |
Chadian Civil War was waged between rebels and the Chadian government |
|
November 11 |
Rhodesia declares independence |
|
November |
Venera 3 was launched |
|
December 4 |
The Gemini 7 completes 206 orbits around the Earth, equating to roughly one trip to the Moon |
1966 |
January 31 |
Luna 9 is launched |
|
February 3 |
Luna 9 successfully lands on the Moon becoming the first spacecraft to softly land on another extraterrestrial body |
|
March 1 |
Venera 3 becomes the first man-made object to impact another planet |
|
March 10 |
France withdraws from NATO command structure |
|
May 8 |
China detonates a third nuclear device |
|
May 26 |
Guyana becomes independent |
|
May 30 |
Surveyor 1 is launched |
|
June 2 |
Surveyor 1 becomes the first American spacecraft to softly land on another extraterrestrial body |
|
August 11 |
The Jakarta accord is signed |
|
August 26 |
South African Border War begins |
|
September 30 |
Botswana becomes independent |
|
October 5 |
Beginning of low-level armed clashes in Korean DMZ between North Korea and South Korea backed by the United States |
|
November 30 |
Barbados becomes independent |
1967 |
March 11 |
Cambodian civil war begins |
|
April 25 |
33 Latin American and Caribbean countries sign the Treaty of Tlatelolco |
|
May 18 |
Yuri Andropov becomes chairman of the KGB |
|
May 23 |
Egypt blocks the Straits of Tiran, then expels UN peacekeepers and moves its army into the Sinai Peninsula in preparation for possible attack on Israel |
|
May 25 |
Uprising in Naxalbari, India marking the expansion of Maoism as a violent, anti-US and anti-Soviet, revolutionary movement across a number of developing countries |
|
May 30 |
Nigerian state of Biafra secedes from the rest of Nigeria, declaring itself as the Republic of Biafra. |
|
June 5 |
In response to Egypt's aggression, Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula, beginning the Six-Day War |
|
June 17 |
China detonates its first hydrogen bomb |
|
June 23 |
US President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for a three-day summi |
|
July 1 |
Beginning of the war of attrition |
|
July 6 |
The Nigerian civil war begins |
|
August 8 |
Bangkok Declaration is established to quell the communist threat in Southeast Asia. This creates ASEAN. |
|
October 8 |
Che Guevara is captured in Bolivia by U.S. trained Bolivian rangers |
|
October 9 |
Che Guevara is executed after being captured the day before |
1968 |
January 30 |
Tet Offensive in South Vietnam begins |
|
March 1 |
The years of Lead start in Italy with the Battle of Valle Giulia clash between far-right and far-left militants |
|
March 12 |
Mauritius becomes independent |
|
March 18 |
The Moro conflict begins in Southern Philippines |
|
March 30 |
Johnson suspends bombings over North Vietnam and announces he is not running for reelection |
|
June 8 |
Tet Offensive ends; while an American military victory, it raises questions over America's military chances in Vietnam |
|
June 17 |
Second Malayan Emergency begins |
|
July 1 |
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is opened for signature |
|
July 17 |
Abdul Rahman Arif, the President of Iraq at that time was overthrown by a coup |
|
August 20 |
Prague Spring Reforms in Communist Czechoslovakia result in Warsaw Pact, led by Soviet Red Army, crushing Czechoslovakian revolt |
|
September 6 |
Swaziland becomes independent |
|
October 3 |
Peruvian General Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrows President Fernando Belaunde Terry in a military coup |
|
October 12 |
Equatorial Guinea becomes independent |
|
December 21-27 |
The launch of Apollo 8, the first crewed spaceflight to enter the gravitational influence of another celestial body and to orbit the Moon. The crew would complete ten orbits, then return to Earth without landing on the Moon |
1969 |
January 20 |
Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States |
|
March 2 |
Border clashes between the Soviet Union and China |
|
March 17 |
US begins bombing Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia |
|
July 16 |
Apollo 11 is launched |
|
July 20 |
US accomplishes the first crewed Moon landing, Apollo 11 |
|
July 24 |
Apollo 11 returns to Earth |
|
July 25 |
"Vietnamization" begins with U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam and the burden of combat being placed on the South Vietnamese |
|
September 1 |
Muammar Gaddafi overthrows the Libyan monarchy and expels British and American personnel. Libya aligns itself with the Soviet Union |
|
September 2 |
North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh dies. It was a significant and decisive event for both the Vietnam War and the Sino-Soviet border conflict |
|
October 21 |
Siad Barre overthrows the government of Somalia in a bloodless coup. He declares himself President of Somalia and reorganizes the country into a one-party communist state; the Somali Democratic Republic |
|
November 17 |
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks begin in Helsinki |
|
November 27-December 6 |
The al-Wadiah War was fought between South Yemen and Saudi Arabia |
|
December 12 |
The Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan Italy during the years of lead |
1970s (part 1)
1970s |
January 15 |
Nigerian civil war ends |
|
March 5 |
Treaty on the non proliferation of nuclear weapons enters into force |
|
March 18 |
Lon Nol takes power in Cambodia and establishes the Khmer Republic |
|
August 7 |
War of Attrition ends with a ceasefire |
|
August 12 |
USSR & West Germany sign treaty of Moscow |
|
August 17 |
Venera 7 is launched |
|
September 6 |
Black September begins in Jordan |
|
October 24 |
Salvador Allende becomes president of Chile after being confirmed by the Chilean congress |
|
November 18 |
United States' aid to Cambodia to support the Lon Nol regime begins |
|
December 15 |
Venera 7 lands on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to softly land on another planet |
1971 |
January 25 |
Idi Amin launches a successful coup d'état against Milton Obote in Uganda |
|
February 8 |
South Vietnamese forces enter Laos to briefly cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail |
|
February 11 |
Seabed Arms Control Treaty is signed |
|
March 10 |
Dominion of Ceylon declared under emergency conditions after communist People's Liberation Front attacks the American embassy |
|
March 25 |
Bangladeshi genocide from the West Pakistani Troops until 16 December |
|
March 26 |
Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence And Bangladesh Liberation War Begin |
|
April 19 |
Salyut 1 is launched becoming the first space station |
|
May 15 |
Anwar Sadat's Corrective Revolution purges Nasserist members of the government and security forces, and eventually expels Soviet military from Egypt |
|
May 28 |
Mars 3 is launched |
|
May 30 |
Mariner 9 is launched |
|
July 19-22 |
A communist-backed coup attempted unsuccessfully against Jaafar Nimeiry in Sudan |
|
September |
105 Soviet officials expelled from Great Britain by Prime Minister Edward Heath in Operation FOOT |
|
September 3 |
Four-Power Agreement on Berlin is signed by the UK, USSR, France, and US |
|
September 11 |
Khrushchev dies |
|
October 11 |
Salyut 1 burns up in the atmosphere |
|
October 25 |
United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 2758, recognizing the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China, causing Taiwan to lose its membership |
|
October 26 |
Mathieu Kérékou takes control of the Republic of Dahomey, renaming it Benin and declaring it a Marxist–Leninist state |
|
November 14 |
Mariner 9 arrives at Mars orbit becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet |
|
December 2 |
Mars 3 arrives in Mars orbit and deploys its lander. The lander is successful in becoming the first spacecraft to softly land on Mars but transmits for 20 seconds before losing contact |
|
December 3 |
India enters the Bangladesh Liberation War after Pakistan launches preemptive air strikes on Indian airfields |
1972 |
February 21 |
Nixon visits China, the first visit by a U.S. president since the establishment of the People's Republic of China |
|
March 30 |
Viet Cong oes to the offensive in South Vietnam, only to be repulsed by the South Vietnamese regime with major American air support |
|
April |
Mass killings known as the Ikiza occurred in Burundi committed by the Tutsi-dominated army against the Hutus |
|
April 10 |
Biological Weapons Convention is signed banning the production, development and stockpiling of biological weapons |
|
May 26 |
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) agreement signals the beginning of détente between the U.S. and USSR |
|
September 1 |
Bobby Fischer defeats Russian Boris Spassky in a chess match in Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first official American chess champion |
|
September 2-28 |
Summit Series, an ice hockey tournament between Canada and Soviet Union. |
|
September 21 |
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law, officially in response to the growing communist threat in the Philippines |
|
September 26 |
Short border war occurred between the Yemen Arab Republic and South Yemen |
|
December 18 |
Richard Nixon announces the beginning of a massive bombing campaign in North Vietnam |
1973 |
January 27 |
Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War |
|
February |
Balochi separatists launched a five-year long guerilla war against the Pakistani government in order to create a separate Balochistan nation |
|
February 21 |
Vientiane Treaty is signed as a cease-fire agreement for the Laotian Civil War. |
|
June 21 |
West Germany and East Germany are each admitted to the United Nations |
|
July 10 |
The Bahamas becomes independent |
|
September 11 |
Chilean coup d'état |
|
October 6 |
Yom Kippur War — Israel is attacked by Egypt and Syria, the war ends with a ceasefire |
|
October 14 |
Uprising in Thailand |
|
October 22 |
Egypt defects to the American camp by accepting a U.S. cease-fire proposal during the October 1973 war |
|
November 11 |
Soviet Union announces that, because of its opposition to the recent overthrow of the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende, it will not play a World Cup Soccer match against the Chilean team if the match is held in Santiago |
1974 |
February 7 |
Grenada becomes independent |
|
April 25 |
Portuguese Armed Forces revolt against the authoritarian regime of Estado Novo |
|
June |
SEATO formally ends after France leaves the organization |
|
June 26 |
NATO holds a summit in Brussels, the first one since 1957 to be held |
|
June 28 |
Moscow summit begins |
|
July 20 |
Turkey invaded Cyprus after the coup d'état conducted by the Greek junta |
|
August 9 |
Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States upon the resignation of Nixon |
|
September 4 |
United States and East Germany begin diplomatic relations |
|
September 12 |
Pro-Western monarch of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, is ousted by a Marxist military junta known as the Derg |
|
November 24 |
SALT II Agreement is drafted at the Vladivostok Summit Meeting on Arms Control |
1970s (part 2)
1975 |
January 3 |
The trade act of 1974 is signed into law in US |
|
April 13 |
Lebanese civil war begins |
|
April 18 |
Beginning of the Cambodian genocide |
|
April 30 |
North Vietnam wins the Vietnam War. The South Vietnam regime falls with the surrender of Saigon and the two countries are united under a Communist government |
|
May 12 |
The Mayagüez incident |
|
June 8 |
Venera 9, a Soviet uncrewed space mission to Venus, is launched |
|
June 25 |
Portugal withdraws from Angola and Mozambique, where Marxist governments are installed, the former with backing from Cuban troops. Civil war engulfs both nations |
|
July 5 |
Cape Verde becomes independent |
|
July 6 |
Comoros becomes independent |
|
July 12 |
São Tomé & Príncipe becomes independent |
|
July 15 |
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project takes place. It is the first joint flight of the US and Soviet space programs. The mission is seen as a symbol of détente and an end to the "space race" |
|
August 1 |
Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe signed by the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and Europe |
|
October 9 |
Andrei Sakharov is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize |
|
October 30 |
Western Sahara War begins between Morocco, Mauritania and Polisario Front |
|
November |
Beginning of Operation Condor in South America |
|
November 11 |
Angolan Civil War begins immediately after Angola achieved independence from Portugal |
|
November 20 |
Francisco Franco dies |
|
November 25 |
Suriname officially gains independence |
|
November 28 |
After a small-scale civil war, Timor-Leste underthe Fretilin declares its independence |
|
November 29 |
Pathet Lao takes power in Laos |
|
December 7 |
Operation Seroja, the Indonesian National Armed Forces invades East Timor |
1976 |
January 8 |
Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai dies of cancer |
|
February |
Soviet and Cuban forces install a communist government in Angola |
|
March 24 |
National Reorganization Process takes power in Argentina following a successful military coup |
|
May 4 |
Corsican conflict begins, with the aim of an independent Corsican state against the French government by Corsican nationalists |
|
June 29 |
Seychelles becomes independent |
|
July 2 |
Vietnam was reunited |
|
July 20 |
Military personnel withdraw from Thailand |
|
September 1 |
Inception of Safari Club |
|
September 9 |
Death of Mao Zedong |
|
December 4 |
Insurgency in Aceh begins |
1977 |
January 1 |
Charter 77 is signed by Czechoslovakian intellectuals |
|
January 20 |
Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States |
|
March 8 |
A rebellion occurred in the Shaba Province, Zaire |
|
May 30 |
Mozambican Civil War begins |
|
June 6 |
US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance assures skeptics that the Carter administration will hold the Soviet Union accountable for its recent crackdowns on human rights activists |
|
June 27 |
Djibouti becomes independent |
|
June 30 |
The Carter administration cancels the planned Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber |
|
July 21-24 |
Egypt and Libya fought a war at the Egyptian-Libyan border |
|
July 23 |
Ogaden War begins when Somalia attacks Ethiopia |
1978 |
January 29 |
Chadian–Libyan conflict begins over the Aouzou Strip |
|
March 15 |
Ogaden War ends with a cease-fire |
|
March 16 |
Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped in Rome by a far-left extremist terrorist group called the Red Brigades. His body would be found on the 9th of May after 55 days of captivity |
|
April 27 |
President of Afghanistan Sardar Mohammed Daoud's government is overthrown when he is murdered in a coup led by pro-communist rebels. |
|
May 11 |
The second rebellion in the Shaba Province, Zaire occurred |
|
October 1 |
Tuvalu becomes independent |
|
November 3 |
Dominica becomes independent |
|
December 18 |
Deng Xiaoping announces the reform and opening up of China. |
|
December 25 |
Communist regime is installed in Afghanistan. Vietnam invades Cambodia |
1979 |
January 1 |
United States and China normalize diplomatic relations |
|
January 7 |
Vietnam deposes the Khmer Rouge and installs a pro-Vietnam, pro-Soviet government known as the People's Republic of Kampuchea |
|
January 16 |
Iranian Revolution ousts the pro-Western Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and installs a theocracy under Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Central Treaty Organization dissolves as a result |
|
February 17 |
Sino-Vietnamese War, China launches a punitive attack on Vietnam to punish it for invading Cambodia |
|
February 22 |
Saint Lucia becomes independent |
|
February 24 |
A war broke out between Yemen Arab Republic and South Yemen |
|
May 4 |
Margaret Thatcher is elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, becoming the first female to lead a major Western democracy |
|
May 9 |
Civil war breaks out in El Salvador between Marxist-led insurgents and the U.S.-backed government. |
|
June 2 |
Pope John Paul II begins his first pastoral visit to his native Poland |
|
June 18 |
President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement |
|
July 3 |
President Carter signs the first directive for financial aid to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, Afghanistan |
|
July 16 |
Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq after Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr steps down |
|
July 17 |
Marxist-led Sandinista revolutionaries overthrow the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Contra insurgency begins shortly thereafter |
|
August 3 |
Francisco Macias Nguema was deposed by a coup led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo |
|
September |
Nur Mohammed Taraki, The Marxist president of Afghanistan, is deposed and murdered. The post of president is taken up by Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin |
|
November 4 |
Islamist Iranian students take over the American embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution. The Iran hostage crisis lasts until January 20, 1981 |
|
November 20-December 4 |
Juhayman al-Otaybi and his followers seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia |
|
December 12 |
NATO Double-Track Decision – NATO offers mutual limitation of ballistic missiles combined with the threat that in case of disagreement NATO would deploy more middle-range nuclear weapons in Western Europe |
|
December 21 |
Rhodesian Bush War ends with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement. Zimbabwe is granted independence |
|
December 24 |
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to oust Hafizullah Amin, beginning the Soviet–Afghan War and resulting in the end of Détente |
|
|
1980s (part 1)
1980s |
January 3-4 |
Carter withdraws the SALT II treaty from Senate confirmation |
|
January 27 |
The Carter doctrine commits the US to defending the Gulf States |
|
February 13 |
Britain's MI6 commences its indirect and direct covert operations in Afghanistan, to support the Afghan mujahideen against Soviet intervention |
|
February 25 |
A military coup occurred in Suriname eventually lead to the establishment of a military regime in the country |
|
March 21 |
United States and its allies boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics (July 15 – August 3) in Moscow |
|
April 17 |
Robert Mugabe becomes Prime Minister of Zimbabwe |
|
April 30 |
Iranian Embassy in London is taken over by DRFLA militants starting a 6-day-long hostage situation |
|
May 4 |
Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of Yugoslavia since 1945, dies at the age of 87 in Ljubljana |
|
May 17 |
Peru begins experiences a civil conflict between the government and the Marxist–Leninist guerilla groups, most notably the Shining Path |
|
May 18-27 |
An anti-government uprising occurred in Gwangju, South Korea |
|
July 3 |
CIA begins Operation Cyclone - a program to arm and finance the Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan |
|
August 31 |
In Poland, the Gdańsk Agreement is signed after a wave of strikes which began at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdańsk. The agreement allows greater civil rights, such as the establishment of a trade union, known as Solidarity, independent of communist control |
|
September 22 |
Saddam's Iraq started to invade Iran, which ignites the Iran–Iraq War |
|
October 23 |
Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin resigns due to ill-health; he dies on December 18 |
1981 |
January 17 |
Martial law was lifted by Ferdinand Marcos in preparation for the visit of Pope John Paul II. |
|
January 20 |
Ronald Reagan inaugurated 40th President of the United States. Reagan is elected on a platform opposed to the concessions of détente. Also that day the Iran hostage crisis ends |
|
April 1 |
United States suspends economic aid to Nicaragua |
|
April 6 |
Somaliland War of Independence was waged by the Somali National Movement in northern Somalia |
|
August 19 |
Gulf of Sidra Incident: Libyan planes attack U.S. jets in the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya has illegally annexed. Two Libyan jets are shot down; no American losses are suffered |
|
September 21 |
Belize becomes independent from the UK. 1,500 British soldiers remain to deter Guatemala from attacking the country over territorial disputes |
|
October 6 |
President Anwar Sadat of Egypt is shot and killed in Cairo during the annual victory parade |
|
October 27 |
A Soviet submarine, the U137, runs aground not far from the Swedish naval base at Karlskrona. |
|
November 23 |
US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) begins to support anti-Sandinista Contras |
|
December 13 |
Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, having been appointed First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, introduces martial law, which drastically restricts normal life, in an attempt to crush the Solidarity trade union and the political opposition against communist rule |
1982 |
February 24 |
President Ronald Reagan announces the "Caribbean Basin Initiative" to prevent the overthrow of governments in the region by the forces of communism |
|
March 22 |
President Ronald Reagan signs P.L. 97-157 denouncing the government of the Soviet Union that it should cease its abuses of the basic human rights of its citizens. |
|
April 2 |
Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, starting the Falklands War |
|
May 30 |
Spain joins NATO |
|
June 6 |
Israel invades Lebanon to end raids and clashes with Syrian troops based there |
|
June 14 |
Falkland Islands liberated by British task force. End of the Falklands War |
|
November 10 |
Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev |
|
November 14 |
Yuri Andropov becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Union |
1983 |
January |
Soviet spy Dieter Gerhardt is arrested in New York |
|
March 8 |
In speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan labels the Soviet Union an "evil empire" |
|
March 23 |
Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or "Star Wars") |
|
June 5 |
Second Sudanese Civil War begins |
|
July 7 |
Ten-year-old American child Samantha Smith accepts the invitation of Soviet leader Yuri Andropov and visits the Soviet Union with her parents. Smith had written to Andropov to ask if he would "vote to have a war or not?". Smith's letter, published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda, prompted Andropov to reply and invite the girl to the USSR. The widely publicized event leads to other Soviet–American cultural exchanges |
|
July 22 |
Martial law in Poland is lifted |
|
July 23 |
Sri Lankan Civil War begins between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government |
|
July 30 |
Sri Lankan government bans all its major communist parties claiming they were involved in ethnic riots, Soviet Union intervenes to unban the parties |
|
August 4 |
Thomas Sankara overthrows Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and becomes president. He also renamed the country of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso a year later |
|
August 21 |
Former senator Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino was assassinated at Manila International Airport |
|
September 1 |
Cvilian Korean Air Lines Flight 007, with 269 passengers, including U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald, is shot down by Soviet interceptor aircraft |
|
September 26 |
The 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident occurs |
|
October 25 |
US forces invade the Caribbean island of Grenada in an attempt to overthrow the Communist government, expel Cuban troops, and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip |
|
November 2 |
Exercise Able Archer 83 – Soviet anti-aircraft misinterpret a test of NATO's nuclear warfare procedures as a fake cover for an actual NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces are put on high alert |
|
December 10 |
National Reorganization Process military junta of Argentina is dissolved by democratically elected president Raúl Alfonsín |
1984 |
January |
Reagan outlines foreign policy which reinforces his previous statements |
|
January 1 |
Brunei gains independence |
|
February 13 |
Konstantin Chernenko is named General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. |
|
May 24 |
Congress ratifies the Boland Amendment banning U.S. aid to the contras |
|
June 1-10 |
Operation Blue Star begins |
|
July 28 |
Various allies of the Soviet Union boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics (July 28 – August 12) in Los Angeles |
|
August 11 |
During a microphone sound check for his weekly radio address, President Ronald Reagan jokes about bombing the Soviet Union. "My fellow Americans", Reagan says. "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." The quip is not aired but is leaked to the press. The Soviet Union temporarily puts its defense forces on high alert |
|
October 31 |
Indira Gandhi assassinated |
|
December 16 |
Margaret Thatcher and the UK government, in a plan to open new channels of dialog with Soviet leadership candidates, meet with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers. |
1980s (part 2)
1985 |
February 6 |
Reagan Doctrine commits the United States of America to supporting anti-Communist insurgencies in the Third World |
|
March 10 |
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Konstantin Chernenko dies |
|
March 11 |
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union |
|
March 15 |
Military rule ends in Brazil |
|
March 24 |
Major Arthur D. Nicholson, a US Army Military Intelligence officer is shot to death by a Soviet sentry in East Germany. He is listed as the last US casualty in the Cold War |
|
April 11 |
Enver Hoxha dies. Ramiz Alia takes over as First Secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania, becoming the de facto leader of Albania |
|
April 22 |
Trial of the Juntas convenes to prosecute the members of the National Reorganization Process (the military junta that governed Argentina from 1976 to 1983) for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during its existence |
|
May 20 |
John Anthony Walker is arrested by the FBI |
|
August 6 |
Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union begins what it has announced is a 5-month unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. The Reagan administration dismisses the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda and refuses to follow suit. Gorbachev declares several extensions, but the United States fails to reciprocate, and the moratorium comes to an end on February 5, 1987 |
|
November 21 |
Reagan and Gorbachev meet for the first time at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland, where they agree to two (later three) more summits |
1986 |
January 13 |
South Yemen civil war begins |
|
February 13 |
France launches Operation Epervier in an effort to repulse the Libyan invasion of Chad |
|
February 25 |
People Power Revolution takes place in the Philippines, overthrowing President Ferdinand Marcos. The Philippines' first female president, Corazon Aquino, was installed as president |
|
April 15 |
US planes bomb Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon |
|
April 26 |
Chernobyl disaster: a Soviet nuclear power plant in the Ukraine explodes, resulting in the worst nuclear power plant accident in history |
|
July 22 |
Surinamese Interior War occurs. |
|
October 11-12 |
Reykjavik Summit: a breakthrough in nuclear arms control |
|
October 19 |
The pro-Marxist interim President of Mozambique, Samora Machel, is killed when the aircraft he is travelling in crashes in South Africa |
|
November 3 |
Iran–Contra affair: the Reagan administration publicly announces that it has been selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages and illegally transferring the profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua |
1987 |
January 16 |
Natives within the Party who oppose his policies of economic redevelopment (Perestroika). It is Gorbachev's hope that through initiatives of openness, debate and participation, that the Soviet people will support Perestroika |
|
February 25 |
Phosphorite War breaks out in Estonia |
|
April 15 |
An insurrection occurred in Sri Lanka by the Marxist–Leninist group, JVP. |
|
June 12 |
During a visit to West Berlin, U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in a speech: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (The Berlin Wall) |
|
June 15 |
Famous Italian Singer and Songwriter Adriano Celentano lands in Moscow to present his movie Joan Lui in Soviet theaters, another step that opens the Soviet world to the Western one |
|
September 10 |
Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola begins and further intensifies the South African Border War |
|
September 30 |
Mohammad Najibullah becomes President of Afghanistan and implements a policy of National Reconciliation as a means of putting an end to the Soviet–Afghan War as well as beginning an end to Soviet influence in the country |
|
December |
A short war was fought between Thailand and Laos |
|
December 8 |
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Some later claim this was the unofficial beginning of the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev agrees to START I treaty |
|
December 9 |
First Intifada was waged by Palestinians against the Israeli government |
1988 |
February 20 |
First Nagorno-Karabakh War was fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan. |
|
February 22 |
USS Yorktown and USS Caron are rammed off the Crimean Peninsula after entering Soviet territorial waters |
|
May 11 |
Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby), the high-ranking UK intelligence officer who defected to the Soviet Union, dies in Moscow |
|
May 15 |
Soviets begin withdrawing from Afghanistan |
|
May 29-June 1 |
Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Moscow. INF Treaty ratified. When asked if he still believes that the Soviet Union is still an evil empire, Reagan replies he was talking about "another time, another era" |
|
October 5 |
Chile's Augusto Pinochet loses a national plebiscite on his rule |
|
November 3 |
A coup attempt occurred in the Maldives |
|
November 6 |
Soviet scientist and well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov begins a two-week visit to the United States |
|
November 15 |
State of Palestine was formally established through the Palestinian Declaration of Independence |
|
December 7 |
Gorbachev announces in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that the Soviet Union will no longer militarily interfere with Eastern Europe |
|
December 22 |
South Africa withdraws from South West Africa (Namibia) |
1989 |
January 4 |
Gulf of Sidra incident between America and Libya, similar to the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident |
|
January 7 |
Emperor Hirohito dies, marking the end of the Showa era in Japan |
|
January 11 |
Communist Hungary introduces political reforms |
|
January 19 |
The trade union Solidarity is legalized by the Polish government |
|
January 20 |
George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as 41st President of the United States |
|
February 2 |
Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan |
|
February 3 |
Alfredo Stroessner was deposed in a coup led by Andrés Rodríguez |
|
February 14 |
Contra war effectively ends with the Tesoro Beach Accords happening in El Salvador with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua participating |
|
February 15 |
Afghan Civil War begins after Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan |
|
February 19-21 |
Jakarta Informal Meeting II was held in Jakarta |
|
March 26 |
Soviet Union holds the first round of legislative elections to the Congress of People's Deputies |
|
June 3 |
Ayatollah Khomeini dies |
|
June 4 |
Tiananmen Square Massacre: Beijing protests are crushed by the communist Chinese government, resulting in an unknown number of deaths |
|
June 4 |
Elections in Poland show complete lack of backing for the Communist Party; Solidarity trade union wins all available seats in the Parliament and 99% in the Senate |
|
August 19 |
Opening of the border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic set in motion a chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated |
|
August 23 |
Baltic Way: independence protesters in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania set up a human chain across the three Baltic states, from Tallinn to Vilnius via Riga |
|
August |
Parliament in Poland elects Tadeusz Mazowiecki as leader of the first non-communist government in the Eastern Bloc |
|
October 7 |
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, the ruling party of Hungary, is dissolved |
|
October 18 |
Hungarian constitution is amended to allow a multi-party political system and elections. In East Germany, the nearly 20-year term of communist leader Erich Honecker comes to an end. |
|
November 7 |
Civil unrest occurred in Moldova |
|
November 9 |
Revolutions of Eastern Europe: Soviet reforms have allowed Eastern Europe to change the Communist governments there. The Berlin Wall is breached when Politburo spokesman, Günter Schabowski, not fully informed of the technicalities or procedures of the newly agreed lifting of travel restrictions, mistakenly announces at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders have been opened |
| |