Unit 1 International Relations The Era of the Cold War 1943-91-Chronological Timeline

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Key Topic 1: How did the Cold War Develop?

  • 1941-Grand Alliance formed
  • 28th November-1st December 1943-Tehran Conference
  • 1944-Communists take control in Bulgaria
  • 1945-Left wing coalition (including communists) takes control in Romania
  • February 1945-Romanian king forced to take a communist prime minister
  • 4th-11th February 1945-Yalta Conference
  • April 1945-Roosevelt dies and Truman becomes President
  • 25th April 1945-UN meets for the first time
  • 8th May 1945-VE Day
  • June 1945-Communists in control of Romanian government
  • July-August 1945-Potsdam Conference
  • November 1945-Communists win ‘free’ elections in Bulgaria
  • 1945-Communists take control in Albania
  • 1945-Communists (led by Tito) take control in Yugoslavia
  • 1945-Communists win some seats in free elections in Hungary
  • 1945-Left wing coalition (including communists) comes to power in Poland
  • 1945-Left wing coalition (including communists) comes to power in Czechoslovakia in free elections
  • 1945-U.S.A develops and uses atomic bomb
  • 1946-Long Telegram
  • 1946-Novikov Telegram
  • 1946-Czech communists dominate government but start losing support
  • 1947-Truman Doctrine
  • 1947-Marshall Plan
  • 1947-Cominform established
  • 1947-Bizonia formed
  • 1947-Communists elected to power in ‘free’ elections in Hungary
  • 1947-Communists elected to power in ‘free’ elections in Romania
  • 1947-Communist-sympathising workers strike in France
  • 1st April 1948-Stalin begins the Berlin Blockade
  • 26th June 1948-Truman begins the Berlin Airlift
  • 1948-Paris Conference
  • 1948-German assembly and constitution set up in Trizonia
  • 1948-Deutschmark set up in Trizonia
  • 1948-Tito splits from the USSR
  • 1948-Czech government uses army to take control in Czechoslovakia
  • May 1949-Stalin ends the Berlin Blockade
  • September 1949-West Germany is created as an independent state (FRG)
  • October 1949-East Germany is created as an independent state (GDR)
  • April 1949-Formation of NATO
  • 1949-U.S.S.R develops and tests its own atomic bomb
  • 1949-Comecon established
  • 1949-Rakosi becomes dictator of Hungary
  • March 1952-U.S.A develops H-bomb small enough to be dropped from a bomber
  •  September 1952-U.S.S.R drops test H-bomb from a bomber
  • November 1952-U.S.A detonates first hydrogen bomb
  • March 1953-Stalin dies
  • June 1953-Soviet tanks crush anti-communist protests in East Germany
  • August 1953-U.S.S.R detonates its own hydrogen bomb
  • 1955-Warsaw Pact formed
  • 1955-U.S.S.R tests a bomb to match American H-bomb power (Sakharov’s Third Idea)
  • 1955-U.S.A. develops B52 Stratofortress capable of bombing the Soviet Union
  • 1955-U.S.S.R developing TU20 Bear aircraft
  • 1956-Khrushchev gives de-Stalinisation ‘Secret Speech’
  • July 1956-U.S.A develops U2 Spy plane
  • July 1956-Rakosi is removed from Hungarian leadership
  • 23rd October 1956-Budapest riots
  • 31st October 1956-Nagy announces proposed Hungarian reforms
  • 4th November 1956-Soviet troops and tanks enter Hungary
  • 1956-Spain, Netherlands and Sweden boycott 1956 Olympic Games in protest for Hungary
  • May 1957-U.S.S.R develops the first ICBM
  • October 1957-U.S.S.R launches Sputnik I
  • January 1958-U.S.A launches their own satellite
  • 1959-U.S.A develops sophisticated Atlas and Minutemen ICBMs
  • 1959-U.S.A develops Polaris missiles (fired from submarines)
  • April 1961-Yuri Gagarin in space
  • October 1961-USSR detonates largest ever H-bomb
  • August 1963-Superpowers sign Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in Moscow
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Key Topic 2: Three Cold War crises: Berlin, Cuba a

  • November 1958-Khrushchev declares control over all of Berlin
  • November 1958-Khrushchev’s 6 month ultimatum
  • 1958-America places nuclear weapons at UK bases
  • January 1st 1959-Conclusion of the Cuban Revolution
  • January 1959-Castro visits the USA
  • May 1959-Castro’s Land Reform Act
  • May 1959-Geneva Summit
  • September 1959-Camp David Summit
  • January 1960-Castro takes formerly USA owned Cuban land
  • February 1960-Castro agrees to sell sugar to and buy oil from the USSR
  • March 1960-American refinery refusal to accept Soviet oil-Castro nationalises the refineries
  • May 1st 1960-USSR shoots down an American U2 spy plane
  • May 1960-Paris Summit
  • 1960-Soviet robotic spacecraft landed on the Moon
  • January 1961-Kennedy becomes President
  • 15th April 1961-Failed first US airstrike on Cuba
  • 17th April 1961-Bay of Pigs invasion
  • June 1961-Vienna Conference
  • 12th August 1961-Berlin Wall erected around West Berlin
  • August 1961-Khrushchev decides to place nuclear weapons on Cuba
  • 27th October 1961-Berlin tank stand off
  • 1961-America places nuclear weapons at Italian and Turkish bases
  • 1961-Largest nuclear bomb ever tested (Tsar Bomba) is detonated
  • 25th September 1962-114 Soviet ships with secret nuclear cargo sent to Cuba
  • 16th October 1962­-Kennedy informed of missiles on Cuba plan
  • 24th October 1962-Soviet ships approach American blockade but pull back
  • 28th October 1962-Khrushchev accepts secret deal for weapons removal
  • June 20th 1963-Moscow-Washington hotline set up
  • June 26th 1963-Kennedy’s speech to West Berlin
  • August 1963-Limited Test Ban Treaty
  • 1964-Khrushchev falls from power
  • 1965-Superpowers’ nuclear power equal
  • 1966-France leaves NATO
  • 5th January 1968-Alexander Dubcek becomes Czech leader
  • April 1968-Prague Spring
  • 20th August 1968-Soviet tanks roll into Czechoslovakia (after Brezhnev Doctrine-early Aug)
  • After 1968-Yugoslavia and Romania form alliance with China
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Key Topic 3: Why did the Cold War End?

  • 1967-Outer Space Treaty
  • 1968-Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
  • 1969-Apollo 11 lands on the Moon
  • 1972-SALT 1
  • 1975-Apollo-Soyuz Mission
  • 1975-Helsinki Agreements
  • April 1978-Kabul Revolution
  • June 1979-SALT 2
  • October 1979-Assassination of President Mohammed Taraki
  • October 1979-Hafizullah Amin claims Afghan presidency
  • December 1979-Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
  • 1979-‘Second Cold War’ begins
  • 1980-American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games
  • 1980-Olympic Boycott Games held in Philadelphia
  • 1981-Ronald Reagan becomes President
  • 1981-America develops the Space Shuttle
  • March 1983-Reagan’s ‘Evil Empire’ speech
  • March 1983-Strategic Defence Initiative proposed by Reagan
  • 1984-Soviet-led boycott of 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games
  • 1984-USSR Friendship Games organised
  • 1985-Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader
  • November 1985-Geneva Summit of 1985
  • 1985-End of the ‘Second Cold War’
  • April 1986-Chernobyl disaster
  • October 1986-Rejkjavik meeting
  • December 1987-Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty
  • December 1988-Gorbachev says ideology should play a smaller role in Soviet foreign affairs
  • January 1989-George Bush Sr. becomes President
  • February 1989-Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan
  • June 1989-Polish communists defeated in free elections
  • 9th November 1989-Berlin Wall falls
  • November 1989-‘Velvet Revolution’ in Czechoslovakia
  • December 1989-Malta Summit
  • 1990-The CFE Agreement
  • 1990-End of military co-operation in the Eastern Bloc
  • 1990-Baltic states declare independence from Soviet Union
  • June 1991-START 1
  • July 1991-Warsaw Pact formally dissolved
  • 19th August 1991-Soviet ‘Gang of Eight’ coup
  • 21st August 1991-Gorbachev returns to Moscow-coup fails
  • November 1991-New constitution introduced to give new republics more independence
  • 25th December 1991-Gorbachev resigns-Dissolution of the Soviet Union
  • 25th December 1991-Boris Yeltsin becomes new leader of the Russian Federation
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