13 June
The Catalina affair was a military confrontation and Cold War-era diplomatic crisis in June 1952, in which Soviet Air Force fighter jets shot down two Swedish aircraft in the Baltic Sea over international waters. Continue reading “1952 – Sweden: the Catalina affair”
26 April
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on this day in 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat, then located in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. Continue reading “1986 – The Chernobyl nuclear disaster”
7 April
The domino theory was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s, that speculated that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. Continue reading “1954 – President Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech”
18 March
The Tito–Stalin Split, was a conflict between the leaders of SFR Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, which resulted in Yugoslavia’s expulsion from the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) in 1948. This was the beginning of the Informbiro period, marked by poor relations with the USSR, that came to an end in 1955. Continue reading “1948 – Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito–Stalin split”
10 March
The 1959 Tibetan Uprising or 1959 Tibetan Rebellion began on this day in 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the Communist Party of China since the Seventeen Point Agreement in 1951. Continue reading “1959 – Tibetan uprising”
6 March
Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (8 January 1902 – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician and Communist Party leader. Continue reading “1953 – Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union”
21 January
The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted in Khe Sanh of northwestern Quảng Trị Province, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), between 21 January and 9 July 1968 during the Vietnam War. Continue reading “1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begins”
14 January
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the USSR from 1952 and operated by numerous air forces in many variants. It is an advanced development of the very similar appearing MiG-15 of the Korean War. Continue reading “1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight”
30 December
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (abbreviated to USSR (Russian: СССР) or shortened to the Soviet Union, was a Marxist–Leninist state on the Eurasian continent that existed between 1922 and 1991. A union of multiple sub-national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The Soviet Union was a single-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital. Continue reading “1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed”
28 November
East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century, and was known as Portuguese Timor until on this day in 1975, when the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) declared the territory’s independence.
Continue reading “1975 – East Timor declares its independence from Portugal”
9 September – On this day
Chinese revolutionary and statesman Mao Zedong, who had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other health problems, dies in Beijing at the age of 82.
