| The Cold War |
Date |
| United States, France, Britain and the Soviet Union occupy zones of Berlin. |
3rd July, 1945 |
| Potsdam Conference begins in Germany. |
17th July, 1945 |
| United States Army Air Force drops atom bomb on Hiroshima. |
6th August, 1945 |
| United States Army Air Force drops atom bomb on Nagasaki. |
12th August, 1945 |
| Soviet Union and Poland sign treaty accepting Soviet-Polish frontier. |
16th August, 1945 |
| The Vietminh seize power from Japan in French Indochina. |
19th August, 1945 |
| Ho Chi Minh, proclaims the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam |
2nd September, 1945 |
| Communist-influenced nationalists proclaim the Korean People's Republic. |
6th September, 1945 |
| Egypt and Syria warn that the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine will lead to war. |
20th September, 1945 |
| The government of Enver Hoxha in Albania is recognised by the Western powers. |
10th November, 1945 |
| Josip Tito and his National Front wins elections in Yugoslavia. |
11th November, 1945 |
| Polish industrial enterprises employing more than 50 workers are nationalized. |
1st January, 1946 |
| U.S. Military establish government of Syngman Rhee in South Korea. |
2nd February, 1946 |
| Winston Churchill makes Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, Missouri. |
5th March, 1946 |
| Civil War breaks out in Greece between British-backed monarchists and communists. |
5th May, 1946 |
| Communist Party wins a majority in the general election in Czechoslovakia. |
26th May, 1946 |
| Klement Gottwald becomes prime minister of Czechoslovakia. |
3rd July, 1946 |
| Georgi Dimitrov and the Fatherland Front win general election in Bulgaria. |
27th October, 1946 |
| Harry Truman announces Truman Doctrine and the provision of aid to Greece. |
12th March, 1947 |
| General George C. Marshall announces the Marshall Plan. |
5th June, 1947 |
| Government in Hungary announces a three-year plan of nationalization. |
8th August , 1947 |
| United Nations General Assembly call for elections in Korea. |
14th November, 1947 |
| United Nations adopts a plan for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab zones. |
29th November, 1947 |
| Jan Masaryk, foreign minister in Czechoslovakia, found dead, probably murdered. |
10th March, 1948 |
| The start of the Berlin Airlift. |
1st April, 1948 |
| Chaim Weizmann becomes president of Israel. |
16th May, 1948 |
| President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia resigns. |
19th March, 1948 |
| Klement Gottwald becomes President of Czechoslovakia. |
14th June, 1948 |
| The Soviet Union blockades road and rail traffic between Berlin and the West. |
24th June , 1948 |
| Yugoslavia is expelled from the Cominform. |
28th June, 1948 |
| Wladyslaw Gomulka is forced to resign as leader of the Polish Workers' Party. |
3rd September, 1948 |
| Democratic People's Republic established in North Korea. |
9th September, 1948 |
| Folke Bernadotte, United Nations mediator in Israel is assassinated by Jewish terrorists. |
17th September, 1948 |
| In a speech by Bernard Baruch the term Cold War is used for the first time. |
24th October, 1948 |
| Chinese communist forces capture Manchuria. |
11th November, 1948 |
| United Nations recognizes the government of South Korea. |
12th December, 1948 |
| Nokrashy Pasha, the prime minister of Egypt, is assassinated by Muslim terrorists. |
28th December, 1948 |
| Israel agrees an armistice with Egypt. |
24th February, 1949 |
| North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) is founded to provide opposition to the Soviet Union. |
4th April, 1949 |
| Communist forces in China capture Nanjing. |
24th April, 1949 |
| The Berlin Airlift comes to an end. |
12th May, 1949 |
| Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) comes into being. |
23rd May, 1949 |
| Alger Hiss, suspected of being a communist spy, goes on trial. |
7th July, 1949 |
| Pope Pius XIII condemns those who support communism. |
13th July, 1949 |
| Konrad Adenauer becomes Chancellor of Federal Republic of Germany. |
12th September, 1949 |
| Mao Zedong proclaims the establishment of the People's Republic in China. |
1st October, 1949 |
| German Democratic Republic (East Germany) comes into being. |
7th October, 1949 |
| Wilhelm Pieck is elected president of the German Democratic Republic. |
7th October, 1949 |
| Monarchists defeat communists in Civil War in Greece. |
16th October, 1949 |
| The Polish United Workers' Party is purged of supporters of Josip Tito. |
11th November, 1949 |
| Israel ignores the United Nations resolution and moves its capital to Jerusalem. |
14th November, 1949 |
| Mustafa Pasha forms a nationalist government in Egypt. |
12th January, 1950 |
| Alger Hiss is convicted for concealing his membership of the Communist Party. |
25th January, 1950 |
| Harry Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb. |
31st January, 1950 |
| Joseph McCarthy claims that there are 205 communists in the US State Department. |
9th February, 1950 |
| China and the Soviet Union sign a 30-year treaty of friendship. |
14th February, 1950 |
| Klaus Fuchs is sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for spying for the Soviet Union. |
9th February, 1950 |
| Dean Acheson suggests ways that the Soviet Union could end the Cold War. |
16th March, 1950 |
| North Korean forces invade South Korea. |
25th June, 1950 |
| Harry Truman orders US troops to Korea. |
28th June, 1950 |
| United Nations troops arrive in South Korea. |
1st July, 1950 |
| US Army make an amphibious landing at Inchon. |
15th September, 1950 |
| United Nations troops recapture Seoul. |
26th September, 1950 |
| General Douglas MacArthur orders troops into North Korea. |
29th September, 1950 |
| United Nations troops capture Pyongyang. |
20th October, 1950 |
| Chinese troops enter North Korea and United Nations troops begin to retreat. |
26th November, 1950 |
| Chinese troops enter South Korea. |
28th December, 1950 |
| Chinese and North Korean troops capture Seoul. |
1st January, 1951 |
| United Nations troops recapture Seoul. |
14th March, 1951 |
| General Douglas MacArthur advocates the use of atom bombs in Korean War. |
14th March, 1951 |
| Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg found guilty of passing atomic secrets to Soviets. |
30th March, 1951 |
| General Douglas MacArthur is relieved of his command in Korea. |
5th April, 1951 |
| David Ben-Gurion forms a coalition government in Israel. |
9th October, 1951 |
| Winston Churchill announces that Britain has an atom bomb. |
26th February, 1952 |
| Fulgencio Batista overthrows the Cuban government of President Prio Socarras. |
10th March, 1952 |
| Matyas Rakosi become prime minister of Hungary. |
14th August, 1952 |
| Rudolf Slansky is executed in Czechoslovakia for Titoism. |
2nd December, 1952 |
| Josip Tito elected President of Yugoslavia. |
14th January, 1953 |
| Mohammed Neguib dissolves all political parties in Egypt. |
16th January, 1953 |
| Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Israel after bombing of embassy in Tel Aviv. |
12th February, 1953 |
| Joseph Stalin dies. |
5th March, 1953 |
| Soviet troops crush workers rebellion in East Germany. |
15th June, 1953 |
| Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg executed. |
19th June, 1953 |
| Matyas Rakosi is replaced by Imre Nagy as prime minister of Hungary. |
4th July, 1953 |
| Fidel Castro leads an attempt to overthrow Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. |
26th July, 1953 |
| The United Nations, China and North Korea sign an armistice at Panmunjom. |
27th July, 1953 |
| Nikita Khrushchev is appointed first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. |
12th September, 1953 |
| Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski is arrested in Poland. |
26th September, 1953 |
| The dictator Antonio Salazar wins uncontested election in Portugal. |
8th November, 1953 |
| Lavrenti Beria executed in the Soviet Union. |
23rd December, 1953 |
| The United States tests a hydrogen bomb in the Marshall Islands. |
1st March, 1954 |
| Vietminh defeat French forces at Dien Bien Phu. |
7th May, 1954 |
| France agrees to leave North Vietnam. |
20th July, 1954 |
| South-East Asian Defence Treaty signed in Manila. |
8th September, 1954 |
| Mao Zedong becomes chairman and Zhou Enlai becomes prime minister of China. |
27th September, 1954 |
| It is agreed that West Germany should join NATO. |
3rd October, 1954 |
| Gamal Abdel Nasser warns Britain that its troops must leave Egypt on 6th December. |
19th October, 1954 |
| Front for National Liberation mounts an insurrection in Algeria. |
30th October, 1954 |
| The dictator Fulgencio Batista wins uncontested election in Cuba. |
2nd November, 1954 |
| Mohammed Neguib is deposed and Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes head of state. |
14th November, 1954 |
| The Senate votes by 67 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy. |
2nd December, 1954 |
| France sends 20,000 troops to Algeria. |
12th December, 1954 |
| Gregory Malenkov is replaced by Nikolai Bulganin as prime minister of the Soviet Union. |
8th February, 1954 |
| Imre Nagy forced to resign as prime minister. |
18th April, 1955 |
| Civil War breaks out in South Vietnam between supporters of Ngo Dinh Diem and Bo Dai. |
28th April, 1955 |
| China agrees to provide North Vietnam with economic aid. |
7th July, 1955 |
| Conscription is introduced in China. |
30th July, 1955 |
| Front for National Liberation attack French troops at Philippeville, Algeria. |
20th August, 1955 |
| Diplomatic relations restored between West Germany and the Soviet Union. |
13th September, 1955 |
| Ngo Dinh Diem replaces Bo Dai as leader of South Vietnam. |
23rd October, 1955 |
| Nikita Khrushchev denounces former leader Joseph Stalin. |
25th February, 1956 |
| The Soviet Union abolishes the Cominform. |
17th April, 1956 |
| Dag Hammarskjold obtains cease-fire between Israel and Jordan. |
29th April, 1956 |
| Vyacheslav Molotov is dismissed as Soviet foreign minister. |
1st June, 1956 |
| President Josip Tito visits the Soviet Union. |
2nd June, 1956 |
| 74 people are killed during political protests in Poland. |
28th June, 1956 |
| Gamal Abdel Nasser announces the nationalization of the Suez Canal. |
26th July, 1956 |
| Britain and France refer the Suez Canal dispute to the United Nations. |
23rd September, 1956 |
| Guy Mollet meets Anthony Eden to discuss the Suez Canal dispute. |
16th October, 1956 |
| Wladyslaw Gomulka returns to power in Poland. |
21st October, 1956 |
| Guy Mollet, Anthony Eden and David Ben-Gurion meet in secret to discuss the Suez Canal. |
21st October, 1956 |
| Demonstrators in Hungary call for democratic government. |
23rd October, 1956 |
| Imre Nagy is appointed prime minister of Hungary. |
24th October, 1956 |
| Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski is released from prison in Poland. |
28th October, 1956 |
| Israeli troops invade Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. |
29th October, 1956 |
| Janos Kadar becomes leader of Hungarian Workers' Party. |
29th October, 1956 |
| Imre Nagy promises free elections in Hungary. |
30th October, 1956 |
| British and French planes bomb Egyptian airfields. |
31st October, 1956 |
| President Dwight Eisenhower suspends aid to Israel in protest at its invasion of Egypt. |
31st October, 1956 |
| Imre Nagy renounces the Warsaw Treaty and asks Soviet troops to leave Hungary. |
2nd November, 1956 |
| British and French paratroopers land at Port Said in Egypt. |
5th November, 1956 |
| The Soviet Union threatens to intervene in the war over the Suez Canal. |
6th November, 1956 |
| Under pressure from the United Nations Britain and France accept a cease-fire in Egypt. |
7th November, 1956 |
| The United Nations demand the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. |
8th November, 1956 |
| UN forces arrives in Egypt to deal with the Suez Crisis. |
15th November, 1956 |
| Fidel Castro and a small group of armed soldiers land in Cuba. |
2nd December, 1956 |
| The last of the British and French forces leave Egypt. |
22nd December, 1956 |
| Zhou Enlai, prime minister of China, visits the Soviet Union. |
7th January, 1957 |
| Anthony Eden resigns as prime minister of Britain as a result of the Suez Crisis. |
9th January, 1957 |
| Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. |
22nd January, 1957 |
| Andrei Gromyko becomes foreign minister of the Soviet Union. |
15th February, 1957 |
| President Dwight Eisenhower resumes aid to Israel. |
20th April, 1957 |
| The Soviet Union appeals to the United States and Britain to cease nuclear testing. |
10th May, 1957 |
| Britain carries out its first hydrogen bomb test over Christmas Island. |
15th May, 1957 |
| General Francisco Franco announces that the monarchy will be restored on his death. |
15th July, 1957 |
| Milovan Djilas is imprisoned in Yugoslavia for spreading hostile propaganda. |
4th October, 1957 |
| Nikita Khrushchev replaces Nikolai Bulganin as prime minister of the Soviet Union. |
27th March, 1958 |
| Imre Nagy, former prime minister of Hungary, is executed after a secret trial. |
17th June, 1958 |
| Nikita Khrushchev meets Mao Zedong in China and call for an end of all nuclear testing. |
31st August, 1958 |
| The Soviet Union demands that all foreign troops should be withdrawn from Berlin. |
27th November, 1958 |
| Fidel Castro and his victorious troops enter Havana. |
9th January, 1959 |
| Member states vote again against the admission of China to the United Nations. |
22nd September, 1959 |
| The United Nations decide not to intervene in the independence struggle in Algeria. |
13th December, 1959 |
| French settlers in Algeria riot in Algiers. |
24th January, 1960 |
| Demonstrations follow the election of Syngman Rhee as president. |
15th March, 1960 |
| American U-2 spy plane shot over the Soviet Union. |
1st May, 1960 |
| Leonid Brezhnev becomes president of the Soviet Union. |
7th May, 1960 |
| Nikita Khrushchev walks out of summit meeting in Paris because of the U-2 incident. |
19th May, 1960 |
| United States ends all aid to Cuba. |
27th May, 1960 |
| Soviet forces shoot down a US RB-47 survey aircraft. |
1st July, 1960 |
| The Soviet Communist Party condemn the teachings of Mao Zedong in China. |
25th August, 1960 |
| East Germany imposes blockade of West Berlin. |
30th August, 1960 |
| Soviet Union provides help to Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the Congo Republic. |
2nd September, 1960 |
| NATO introduces a unified air defence command. |
28th September, 1960 |
| National Liberation Army (Vietcong) is established in Vietnam. |
12th December, 1960 |
| Patrice Lumumba is murdered in Katanga, Congo. |
17th January, 1961 |
| Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. |
17th April, 1961 |
| Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy hold summit meeting in Vienna. |
4th June, 1961 |
| Dag Hammarskjold is killed in an airplane crash in the Congo Republic. |
18th September, 1961 |
| United States promises to support South Vietnam against communist aggression. |
11th October, 1961 |
| The first American troops arrive in South Vietnam. |
11th December, 1961 |
| The United Nations rejects a proposal by the Soviet Union to admit China. |
15th December, 1961 |
| John F. Kennedy orders an end to all trade with Cuba. |
7th February, 1962 |
| Soviet Union agrees to send arms to Cuba. |
2nd September, 1962 |
| Ben Bella is elected prime minister of Algeria. |
26th September, 1962 |
| John F. Kennedy announces that the Soviet Union has installed a missile base on Cuba. |
22nd October, 1962 |
| John F. Kennedy announces that the Cuban Missile Crisis is over. |
8th November, 1962 |
| Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union. |
28th April, 1963 |
| Nikita Khrushchev and John Kennedy agree to establish a hot line to use in a Cold War crisis. |
20th June, 1963 |
| John F. Kennedy visits West Berlin. |
26th June, 1963 |
| Soviet Union, United States and Britain sign a nuclear test-ban treaty. |
5th August, 1963 |
| President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam is assassinated. |
1st November, 1963 |
| John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. |
22nd November, 1963 |
| The Palestine Liberation Organization is founded in Jordan. |
5th May, 1964 |
| Alexsei Kosygin becomes prime minister of the Soviet Union. |
15th October, 1964 |
| China explodes its first atomic bomb. |
16th October, 1964 |
| Zhou Enlai visits the Soviet Union. |
5th November, 1964 |
| United States aircraft bomb North Vietnam for the first time. |
8th February, 1964 |
| Australia decides to send troops to South Vietnam. |
29th April, 1965 |
| Ben Bella is deposed by Houari Boumedienne in Algeria. |
19th June, 1965 |
| The Soviet Union admits to supplying arms to North Vietnam. |
29th September, 1965 |
| Ho Chi Minh rejects peace talks on the Vietnam War offered by Lyndon B. Johnson. |
29th December, 1965 |
| Charles De Gaulle calls for United States forces to leave Vietnam. |
21st February, 1966 |
| France withdraws its troops from NATO. |
10th March, 1966 |
| Harold Wilson criticizes the United States for bombing populated areas in North Vietnam. |
29th June, 1966 |
| United States government admit to using chemical weapons in North Vietnam. |
23rd September, 1966 |
| United States air raid on Hanoi kills over 100 North Vietnamese civilians. |
13th December, 1966 |
| Milovan Djilas is released from prison in Yugoslavia. |
31st December, 1966 |
| Alexsei Kosygin visits London to discuss the Vietnam War with Harold Wilson. |
6th February, 1967 |
| Start of the Six Day War between Israel and the Arab states. |
5th June, 1967 |
| Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel. |
10th June, 1967 |
| End of the Six Day War. |
10th June, 1967 |
| Red Guards set fire to the British embassy in Beijing. |
22nd August, 1967 |
| Demonstrations against the Vietnam War takes place all over the world. |
21st October, 1967 |
| The Soviet Union celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. |
7th November, 1967 |
| Alexander Dubcek became first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. |
5th January, 1968 |
| Vietcong launch the Tet Offensive against South Vietnamese cities. |
30th January, 1968 |
| US soldiers massacre 450 men, women and children at My Lai. |
16th March, 1968 |
| Alexsei Kosygin visits Czechoslovakia to meet Alexander Dubcek. |
17th May, 1968 |
| Robert Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, California. |
6th June, 1968 |
| Lyndon B. Johnson removes William Westmoreland as commander of US forces in Vietnam. |
3rd July, 1968 |
| Alexander Dubcek refuses to halt reform programme in Czechoslovakia. |
14th July, 1968 |
| Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia and arrest Alexander Dubcek. |
20th August, 1968 |
| Ludvik Svoboda flies to Moscow to meet Soviet leaders. |
23rd August, 1968 |
| Josip Tito condemns Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. |
24th August, 1968 |
| France becomes the world's fifth nuclear power when it tested a hydrogen bomb. |
25th August, 1968 |
| Lyndon B. Johnson orders a complete halt to the bombing of North Vietnam. |
31st October, 1968 |
| Sweden become the first non-communist country to recognize North Vietnam. |
10th January, 1969 |
| Gustav Husak succeeds Alexander Dubcek as leader of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. |
17th April, 1969 |
| Richard Nixon suggests mutual withdrawal of all foreign troops from South Vietnam. |
14th May, 1969 |
| Richard Nixon announces he plans to withdraw 25,000 US troops from South Vietnam. |
8th June, 1969 |
| President Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam dies. |
3rd September, 1969 |
| Richard Nixon promises to remove all US troops from South Vietnam. |
3rd November, 1969 |
| 250,000 people demonstrate against Vietnam War in Washington. |
14th November, 1969 |
| Richard Nixon announces withdrawal of a further 150,000 US troops from South Vietnam. |
20th April, 1970 |
| Alexander Dubcek expelled from the Czechoslovak Communist Party. |
26th June, 1970 |
| Gamal Abdel Nasser dies and is replaced by Anwar Sadat as president of Egypt. |
28th September, 1970 |
| Lieutenant William Calley is sentenced to life imprisonment for the My Lai Massacre. |
31st March, 1971 |
| Richard Nixon announces he plans to withdraw 100,000 US troops from South Vietnam. |
7th April, 1971 |
| Erich Honecker replace Walter Ulbricht as head of the Socialist Unity Party in East Germany. |
3rd May, 1971 |
| Egypt signs a 15-year peace treaty with the Soviet Union. |
27th May, 1971 |
| United Nations General Assembly votes to admit communist China. |
25th October, 1971 |
| Fidel Castro meets Salvador Allende in Chile. |
10th November, 1971 |
| Richard Nixon arrives in China. |
21st February, 1972 |
| Richard Nixon orders the blockade and mining of North Vietnamese ports. |
8th May, 1972 |
| Richard Nixon becomes the first US president to visit the Soviet Union. |
22nd May, 1972 |
| Anwar Sadat expels 20,000 Soviet advisers from Egypt. |
18th July, 1972 |
| United States and the Soviet Union sign agreement at the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. |
3rd October, 1972 |
| Richard Nixon orders an end to all military action against North Vietnam. |
15th January, 1973 |
| The last of the US troops leave Vietnam. |
29th March, 1973 |
| Leonid Brezhnev visits West Germany. |
24th June, 1973 |
| Augusto Pinochet seizes power in Chile and Salvador Allende is killed. |
11th September, 1973 |
| Egypt and Syria attack Israel during Yom Kippur. |
6th October, 1973 |
| Israel invades Syria. |
11th October, 1973 |
| Israel invades Egypt. |
16th October, 1973 |
| Israel and Egypt accept the United States plan for cease-fire. |
11th November, 1973 |
| Egypt and Israel agree to disengagement of forces along the Suez Canal. |
18th January, 1974 |
| The Soviet Union expels the dissident author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. |
13th February, 1974 |
| Willy Brandt resigns after a close aid admits to spying for East Germany. |
6th May, 1974 |
| India becomes the world's sixth nuclear power. |
18th May, 1974 |
| Richard Nixon resigns in order to avoid impeachment and is replaced by Gerald Ford. |
9th August, 1974 |
| The United States and East Germany establish diplomatic relations. |
4th September, 1974 |
| Helmut Schmidt of West Germany holds talks with Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow. |
28th October, 1974 |
| 20 Arab nations recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization. |
28th October, 1974 |
| Leonid Brezhnev meets Gerald Ford to discuss arms control. |
23rd November, 1974 |
| North Vietnamese forces capture Da Nang, South Vietnam's second largest city. |
30th March, 1975 |
| Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) is captured by North Vietnamese forces. |
30th April, 1975 |
| Egypt and Israel agree to an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula. |
23rd September, 1975 |
| Jimmy Carter defeats Gerald Ford in presidential elections. |
2nd November, 1976 |
| The United States and Cuba agree that they will exchange diplomats. |
30th May, 1977 |
| The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization is dissolved. |
30th June, 1977 |
| President Anwar Sadat makes peace overtures to Israel. |
9th November, 1977 |
| Menachem Begin has a meeting with Anwar Sadat in Egypt. |
24th December, 1977 |
| China and the European Economic Community conclude its first trade agreement. |
3rd February, 1978 |
| Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat and Jimmy Carter meet at Camp David. |
5th September, 1978 |
| Vietnam begins a full-scale invasion of Cambodia. |
25th December, 1978 |
| Maurice Bishop and his New Jewel Movement seizes power from Eric Gairy in Grenada. |
12th March, 1979 |
| Left-wing Sandinista rebels gain control of Nicaragua. |
19th July, 1979 |
| Vaclav Havel is convicted of subversion in Czechoslovakia. |
23rd October, 1979 |
| Soviet troops invade Afghanistan. |
25th December, 1979 |
| The dissent physicist Andrey Sakharov is sent into exile. |
22nd January, 1980 |
| Valery Giscard d'Estaing discloses France's capability to produce the neutron bomb. |
26th June, 1980 |
| Lech Walesa signs an agreement with the Polish government for free trade unions. |
31st August, 1980 |
| Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter in a presidential election. |
4th November, 1980 |
| European Economic Community warns the Soviet Union about invading Poland. |
2nd December, 1980 |
| General Wojciech Jaruzelski becomes prime minister of Poland. |
11th February, 1981 |
| The Soviet Union accuses Solidarnosc of being counter-revolutionary. |
27th March, 1981 |
| Ronald Reagan lifts the embargo of grain sales to the Soviet Union imposed by Jimmy Carter. |
24th April, 1981 |
| Anwar Sadat is assassinated by Muslim extremists. |
8th October, 1981 |
| Ronald Reagan announces the plan to spend $180 billion on arms spending over next 6 years. |
18th November, 1981 |
| The Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega suspends the Nicaraguan constitution. |
15th March, 1982 |
| European Community imposes economic sanctions on Argentina. |
11th April, 1982 |
| Ronald Reagan announces that United States citizens are banned from visiting Cuba. |
19th April, 1982 |
| Israel's ambassador to Britain, Shlomo Argov is shot in London. |
2nd May, 1982 |
| Israeli forces invade Lebanon. |
5th May, 1982 |
| Olof Palme and the Social Democratic Labour Party win general election in Sweden. |
19th September, 1982 |
| Lech Walesa is released from detention. |
12th November, 1982 |
| Ronald Reagan declares his support for the Nicaraguan Contras. |
4th May, 1983 |
| The Polish government announces an end to martial law. |
21st July, 1983 |
| A South Korean Boeing 747 airliner is shot down by a Soviet fighter. |
1st September, 1983 |
| CIA denies that the South Korean Boeing 747 airliner was spying on the Soviet Union. |
16th September, 1983 |
| Maurice Bishop and his government in Grenada is overthrown by a coup led by Bernard Coard. |
19th October, 1983 |
| US Marines invade Grenada. |
25th October, 1983 |
| Yuri Andropov announces an increase in the number of missiles aimed at the United States. |
23rd November, 1983 |
| Konstantin Chernenko replaces Yuri Andropov as leader of the Soviet Communist Party. |
13th February, 1984 |
| Ronald Reagan visits China. |
26th April, 1984 |
| Andrey Sakharov begins a hunger strike. |
2nd May, 1984 |
| Daniel Ortega elected president of Nicaragua. |
4th November, 1984 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev meets Margaret Thatcher in London. |
15th December, 1984 |
| Ronald Reagan announces the tripling of expenditure on the Star Wars research program. |
4th February, 1985 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev is named first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. |
11th March, 1985 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev announces a moratorium on Soviet missile deployments in Europe. |
7th April, 1985 |
| Enver Hoxha dies in Albania. |
11th April, 1985 |
| Ronald Reagan imposes trade sanctions on Nicaragua. |
1st May, 1985 |
| Andrei Gromyko is named president of the Soviet Union. |
2nd July, 1985 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan agree to open negotiations on arms reductions. |
19th November, 1985 |
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