Cold War Timeline
| Chronology of 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 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev proposes a 15 year timetable for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. | 25th January, 1986 |
| Soviet and Israeli leaders hold talks to discuss the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. | 18th August, 1986 |
| The European Economic Community agrees to end investment in South Africa. | 16th September, 1986 |
| The US Senate ignores Ronald Reagan an imposes economic sanctions on South Africa. | 2nd October, 1986 |
| Ronald Reagan admits to a secret arms deal with Iran. | 13th November, 1986 |
| It is admitted that money from arms sales to Iran was illegally passed to Contras. | 25th November, 1986 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev orders the release of Andrey Sakharov. | 23rd December, 1986 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev proposes reforms including secret ballot and the election of party officials. | 27th January, 1987 |
| US Congress votes to cut off aid to Contra rebels in Nicaragua. | 20th February, 1987 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev proposes abolishing intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. | 28th February, 1987 |
| Gustav Husak in Czechoslovakia announces political and economic reforms. | 19th March, 1987 |
| At Iran-Contra hearings Oliver North claims his actions were sanctioned by his superiors. | 7th July, 1987 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev offers to dismantle all short and medium range nuclear missiles. | 22nd July, 1987 |
| Erich Honecker begins the first official visit to West Germany by a leader of East Germany. | 7th September, 1987 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev makes a speech criticizing the political errors of Joseph Stalin. | 2nd November, 1987 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan agree to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces. | 7th December, 1987 |
| Cuba agrees to remove military personnel from Angola. | 29th January, 1988 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev announces the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. | 8th February, 1988 |
| Seven leaders of Solidarnosc are arrested during shipyard strike in Poland. | 2nd May, 1988 |
| Several conservatives, including Andrei Gromyko, are purged from the Soviet Politburo. | 30th September, 1988 |
| The serious Iran-Contra conspiracy charges are dropped against Oliver North. | 5th January, 1989 |
| Vaclav Havel is imprisoned for inciting public disorder in Czechoslovakia. | 21st February, 1989 |
| A large rally in Hungary calls for the introduction of democracy. | 15th March, 1989 |
| US Congress approves $41 million in aid for Nicaragua's Contra rebels. | 24th March, 1989 |
| Lech Walesa and the Polish government sign an agreement for political and economic reform. | 5th April, 1989 |
| Solidarnosc is legalized in Poland. | 17th April, 1989 |
| People's Liberation Army tanks kill 2,000 protesters in Tiananmen Square in China. | 3rd June, 1989 |
| Oliver North is given a suspended sentence for his role in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. | 5th July, 1989 |
| The Polish United Workers' Party and Solidarnosc agree to form a coalition government. | 19th August, 1989 |
| New Forum, a anti-communist group, is formed in East Germany. | 11th September, 1989 |
| The first noncommunist government in Eastern Europe since the war is formed in Poland. | 12th September, 1989 |
| Poland offers sanctuary to anti-communists in East Germany. | 11th October, 1989 |
| Erich Honecker resigns as leader of the Communist Party in East Germany. | 18th October, 1989 |
| A new multiparty democracy is announced in Hungary. | 23rd October, 1989 |
| The new government in East Germany announces the opening of its border with West Germany. | 9th November, 1989 |
| The government in East Germany orders the Berlin Wall to be pulled down. | 10th November, 1989 |
| A general strike in Czechoslovakia calls for an end to communist rule. | 27th November, 1989 |
| The Czechoslovak prime minister announces the end of the communist monopoly of power. | 28th November, 1989 |
| The governments of the United States and the Soviet Union announce the end of the Cold War. | 2nd December, 1989 |