The Cold War

This is a timeline of events in the history of the Cold War, from 1945 to 1991. The Cold War was a period of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union after the end of World War II, as they tried to prevent each other from gaining too much power, with the threat of nuclear weapons looming.

In 1961, a gift from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to President John F. Kennedy, the adorable pooch Pushinka, brought the men closer together. Did puppy diplomacy prevent an all out nuclear war?

Using animals to spy on enemies was an espionage tactic employed by the US during the Cold War - and beyond.

In the midst of the Cold War, things got heated, when, in 1959, US Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in a very public spat with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. So how did a kitchen bring two world leaders to loggerheads? David Rubenstein answers that question in a fact-filled history minute.

One of the Cold War’s only violent actions, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 proved to be a humiliating defeat for the U.S. government.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, led by CIA-backed Cuban exiles, was a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro’s Communist regime, marking a pivotal moment in U.S.-Cuba relations.

In 1962, the Moscow-Washington Hotline was established as a quick and accurate means of communication between two of the world's greatest superpowers. Since then, the technology used to facilitate this line of communication has changed over time.

This is the untold story of how the US prepped citizens for a potential atom-bomb Armageddon.

This is a timeline depicting the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis as they unfolded from 1952 to 1963. When the Soviets installed nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island of Cuba in 1692, a diplomatic standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union began. Tensions rose and the world watched as nuclear war loomed. A deal was finally struck on October 28th, 1962 to end the crisis.

In 1962, the United States discovered that the Soviets had installed nuclear warheads in Cuba, sparking an international crisis that impacted millions and was resolved through diplomacy.