1945 Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
1946 Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."
1947 Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an act implementing the Truman Doctrine. The act granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.
1947 Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
1948 Cold War: The Berlin Blockade begins.
1948 Cold War: President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt).
1949 Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
1952 Cold War over Germany's frontiers intensify
1953 Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see: Operation Ajax).
1953 Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.
1955 The Austrian State Treaty is signed by the Allied Powers, restoring Austria as a sovereign, democratic state, to be neutral in the Cold War.
1957 Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
1959 Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed - 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a landmark treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent (this was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War).
1960 August 19
1960 October 12
1961 A standoff between Soviet and American tanks in Berlin, Germany heightens Cold War tensions.
1967 Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey, for the 3-day Glassboro Summit Conference.
1969 Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS ''Gato'' in the Barents Sea.
1969 Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
1976 Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate, on the island of Hokkaido in Japan, and requests political asylum from the United States.
1983 Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspa All 269 on board are killed.
1985 Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
1986 Cold War: Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in eykjav
1989 Cold War: The Communist government of East Germany resigns, although SED leader Egon Krenz remains head of state.
1989 Cold War: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to freely travel to West Germany for the first time in decades (the next day celebrating Germans began to tear the wall down).
1989 Cold War: TheVelvet Revolution begins - In Czechoslovakia a peaceful student demonstration in Prague is severely beaten back by riot poli This sparks a revolution aimed at overthrowing the Communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
1989 Cold War: Velvet Revolution - The number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
1989 Cold War: Velvet Revolution - With other Communist regimes falling all around it and with growing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power (elections held in December bring the first non-communist government to Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years).
1989 Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist-dominated SED its monopoly on power. Egon Krenz, the Politburo and the Central Committee resign two days later.
1989 Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.
1989 Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.
1990 Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and reform his nation.
1994 Cold War: Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.