Cold War Timeline by Hollys O'Connell

1945

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 00:38:46 UTC

US military researchers test an atomic bomb for the first time in New Mexico. Just days later the US president (Harry Truman) informed the Soviet Leader (Joseph Stalin) of his plan to drop atomic weapons on Japan. American warplanes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than one hundred thousand Japanese people. Many more died later from related injuries or illnesses. Japan soon surrendered.

1949

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 00:39:32 UTC

The Soviet Union tested their first ever nuclear weapon at a test range in Kazakhstan. U.S. intelligence assessments at the time guessed that Moscow was at least three years away from creating such powerful weapons.

1952-1955

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 00:39:58 UTC

The US and the Soviet Union began a race to develop the next class of weapons, known as thermonuclear, or hydrogen, bombs. US scientists exploded the first of these weapons at an atoll in the Marshall Islands, an explosion hundreds of times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Only weeks earlier the United Kingdom tested their first nuclear weapon. The Soviet Union tested their first thermonuclear device in November 1955. Soviet testing also produced devastating health effects on nearby residents in Kazakhstan.

1957

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 00:48:52 UTC

The International Atomic Weapon Agency (IAEA) was established in Vienna as a meeting for international cooperation on civilian nuclear research. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked for the creation of the agency in his Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General Assembly in 1953. It was approved by more than eighty countries. The IAEA’s charter outlined a three-part mission: nuclear verification and security, safety, and technology transfer. The IAEA’s first safeguards for civilian nuclear facilities were established in 1961.

1957-1958

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 00:54:44 UTC

The Soviet Union conducted the world’s first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which was able to strike U.S. territory, in October 1957. Just days later, a modified version of the rocket launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, into orbit. The Soviets’ quick making of powerful weapons shocked U.S. leaders, raising the specter of a first strike and the militarization of space. The Atlas missile program in United States conducted its first full-range ICBM flight in late 1958, the same year Washington created NASA, a civilian space exploration agency.

1958-1960

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 00:57:58 UTC

In 1958 the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States detonated more than one hundred devices in total. The three countries voluntarily paused testing for several years as they talked about a permanent testing ban. However, in 1960 France did their first test, becoming the fourth country with nuclear weapons.

1962

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 01:04:38 UTC

Cold War tensions nearly turned into a nuclear conflict when the U.S. reconnaissance flights revealed the Soviets constructing secret missile bases in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy warned Moscow of a “full retaliatory response” if it launched a nuclear attack from Cuba on any country in the Western Hemisphere. After a thirteen-day standoff between the two nations, which included a U.S. naval quarantine of Cuba, the Soviet Union agreed to take away their missiles. In exchange, the United States publicly pledged to not invade Cuba and also agreed to pull its nuclear missiles out of Turkey.

1963

ho22133 — 2024-08-06 01:08:47 UTC

After years of on and off negotiations, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to ban nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, outer space, and under water, and also to restrict underground testing. The Limited Test Ban Treaty showed international worries about a nuclear war. A high-speed “hotline” connecting the leaders of the Soviet and U.S. governments was created to reduce the risk of an accidental war. France and China, which later became the world’s fifth country with nuclear weapons were not in agreement with the treaty.