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1945
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May 7 | German surrender. |
July 3 | Berlin: Allied troops complete occupation of Berlin. | |
July 16 | Atomic bomb: first successful test of atomic bomb. | |
August | Atomic bomb used on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. | |
August 14 | Japanese surrender. | |
November 5 | Elections in Hungary. Communist Party won only 17 percent of the vote. Stalin helped Communists to establish control in Hungary anyway. | |
November 29 |
Yugoslavia became a Communist republic under Marshal Tito. |
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1946
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February 28 | US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes introduced new "get tough with Russia" policy. |
March 5 | Winston Churchill made a speech at Fulton, Missouri. His speech claimed that an "iron curtain" has come down across Europe. | |
March 21 | Strategic Air Command, Tactical Air Command, and Air Defence Command are created within the American Army Air Forces. These are principally concerned with nuclear bombing. | |
June 30 | National referendum of Polish population approved Communist reforms in Poland which made Poland a Communist state. | |
July 1 | Further Atomic bomb tests, using the Nagasaki-type implosion bomb, held at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. | |
1947
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March 12 | Truman Doctrine |
May 31 | Hungary is taken over by Communist government. | |
June 5 | Marshall Plan | |
July | US announced Containment Policy to block the expansion of Soviet political and economic influence into areas around the world. | |
October 29 | Israel: The U.N. authorizes the creation of the State of Israel. | |
December 30 | Eastern Europe: Romania's monarchy is replaced by a Communist regime. | |
1948
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February 25 | Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia. |
March 17 | Brussels Treaty signed by Belgium, Britain, France, Holland, and Luxembourg created a Atlantic regional mutual-defence treaty, in part a response to the Czechoslovakian crisis. | |
April 1 | Berlin Blockade began. | |
August 3 | First of numerous revelations about Soviet spies in US government departments. Most allegations (but not all) were unfounded. |