Timeline - 1950 - 1959

1950

• 1st  January -  Ho Chi Minh began an offensive against French troops in Indo China
• 5th January -  Against advice from the United States, Great Britain formally recognised the People's Republic of China. In response the Republic of China (Taiwan) severed diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
• 12th January -  US Secretary of State Dean Acheson delivered his "Perimeter Speech" outlining US foreign policy and military strategy with regard to Asia.
• 19th January - China officially diplomatically recognised Vietnam as independent from France.
• 21st January - The last Kuomintang soldiers surrendered on continental China.
• 24th January -  German scientist Klaus Fuchs revealed himself to be a spy and admitted to passing nuclear secrets to the Soviets. Fuchs had worked on the Manhattan Project, and was a naturalised British subject.
• 31st January -  US president Harry S. Truman authorised the development of a hydrogen bomb, a fusion bomb capable of greater destructive power than fission weapons.
• 3rd February - The Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Indonesia through an exchange of telegrams between Indonesian Vice-president, Mohammad Hatta and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Vyshinsky.
• 9th February -  Speaking in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged that the US State Department had 205 communists among its employees. This speech began the era of  "McCarthyism". (Text of McCarthy's speech and a follow-up letter to Truman.)
• 12th February - The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a pact of mutual defense.
• 16th February -  Following talks between Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, the Soviet Union and China signed the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, a mutual defence pact.
• 1st March -  A British court found Klaus Fuchs guilty of spying. He was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment and stripped of his British citizenship.
• 11th March -  Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek moved his capital to Taipei, Taiwan, establishing a stand-off with the People's Republic of China.
• 7th April - United States State Department Director of Policy Planning Paul Nitze issued NSC 68, a classified report, arguing for the adoption of containment as the cornerstone of United States foreign policy. It would dictate US policy for the next twenty years.
• 14th April -  US president Harry Truman received National Security Council Report 68, urging a significant increase in military spending to support the containment of communism. He approved its recommendations on April 25th.
• 11th May -  Robert Schuman described his ambition for a united Europe. Known as the Schuman Declaration, it marked the beginning of the creation of the European Community.
• 25th June - A massive artillery barrage from the North signalled the beginning of the Korean War. Roughly 100,000 North Korean troops poured across the 38th parallel, and, although South Korean forces were driven back, they retired in good order.
• 28th June -  Seoul, the capital of South Korea, fell to North Korean forces.
• 30th June -  The United Nations voted to send forces to Korea to aid South Korea. The Soviet Union could not veto the action, as it was boycotting the Security Council over the admission of  the People's Republic of China. Eventually, the number of countries operating under the UN aegis increased to 16 -  Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• 4th July -  United Nations forces engaged North Korean forces for the first time, in Osan. They failed to halt the North Korean advance, and fell back southwards, towards what would become the Pusan Perimeter.
• 8th August -  Winston Churchill expressed support for the formation of a European coalition force allied with the US.
• 30th September -  United Nations forces landed near Inchon, retook Seoul and begin pushing the North Koreans back into their own territory.
• 2nd October -   United Nations forces crossed the 38th parallel, into North Korea.
• 5th October -  Forces from the People's Republic of China mobilized along the Yalu River.
• 22nd October -  The United Nations coalition captured the North Korean capital Pyongyang. Having mobilised for two weeks, Chinese forces crossed the border with 300,000 soldiers, catching the United Nations by surprise. and entered the conflict. Within weeks United Nations troops were forced back south.
• 15th November -  United Nations forces approached the Yalu River. In response, China intervened in Korea again, but with a 500,000 strong army. This offensive forced the United Nations back towards South Korea.

1951

• 4th January - Chinese forces re-captured the South Korean capital Seoul, after losing it the previous September.
• 12th January -  The USA established the Federal Civil Defense Administration.
• 14th March -  United Nations forces recaptured Seoul during Operation Ripper. By the end of March, they had reached the 38th Parallel, and formed a defensive line across the Korean peninsula
• 29th March -  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II.
• 5th April -  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for passing nuclear secrets to Soviet agents.
• 11th April -   US President Harry S. Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur from command of US forces in Korea,  after he made public criticisms of the Truman administration and its policies.
• 18th April -  The European Coal and Steel Community was formed by the Treaty of Paris.
• 23rd April -  William Oatis, an American foreign correspondent in Prague, was  arrested by Czechoslovakian authorities and charged with espionage. The charges were based only on information published in Oatis' news reports.
• 9th May -  The US began Operation Greenhouse, a series that concluded by testing its first thermonuclear weapon, or hydrogen bomb, in the Marshall Islands.
• 24th May -  As part of Operation Greenhouse the US detonated a fusion enhanced device. It was not a true thermonuclear weapon, and was not a deliverable device.
• 4th July -  In Prague, William Oatis was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released in May 1953, following the death of Joseph Stalin and pressure from the US government.
• 1st September -   Australia, New Zealand, and the United States signed the ANZUS Treaty. This compelled the three countries to cooperate on matters of defence and security in the Pacific. The treaty came into force the following year.
• 8th September -  The US and 47 other nations signed the Treaty of San Francisco, resolving World War II hostilities with Japan. The Soviet Union and several Soviet bloc countries did not sign, opting to sign their own treaty with Japan.
• 10th October -  President Harry S. Truman signed the Mutual Security Act, announcing to the world, and its communist powers in particular, that the U.S. was prepared to provide military aid to "free peoples."
• 26th October -  Sir Winston Churchill (Conservative)  became UK Prime Minister.
• 14th November -  President Harry Truman asked Congress for U.S. military and economic aid for the communist nation of Yugoslavia.
• 12th December -  The International Authority for the Ruhr lifted part of the remaining restrictions on German industrial production and on production capacity.

1952

• 6th February -  HRH George VI died he was succeeded by HRH Queen Elizabeth II, who was to reign for 70 years.
• 18th February -  Greece and Turkey were granted membership of NATO.
• 10th March -  Joseph Stalin proposed a newly unified Germany, in an attempt to avoid West Germany being integrated into NATO.
• 28 April -  A peace treaty between Japan and the allied powers, the Treaty of San Francisco came into force.
• The Treaty of Taipei, was signed by Japan and the Republic of China.
• June -   The US Strategic Air Command began Reflex Alert deployments of Convair B-36 and B-47 Stratojet long-range nuclear bombers to overseas bases like purpose-built Nouasseur Air Base in French Morocco, placing them within striking range of Moscow without the need to re-fuel.
• 14th June -  The United States laid the keel for the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus.
• 30th June -  The US Marshall Plan ended, with European industrial output well above that of 1938.
• 23rd July -  Gamal Abdel Nasser headed a coup against King Farouk of Egypt.
• 2nd October -  The United Kingdom successfully tested its first atomic bomb in Operation Hurricane. The test made the UK the world's third nuclear power. The plutonium implosion bomb, was exploded in the hull of a River Class frigate HMS Plym, and had a yield of  25kT.
• 1st November -   The United States tested their first thermonuclear device, Ivy Mike, however it was not a deliverable weapon due to its design and size, being heavier than any US bomber of the time its yield was 10.4  megatons  more than 400 times more powerful than the atomic devices used against Japan in World War II.
• 4th November -  Former World War II military commander Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States. Eisenhower defeated Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, carrying 39 states to Stevenson's nine.

1953

• 6th January -  The first meeting of the Asian Socialist Conference began in Rangoon, Burma. It was attended by socialist party leaders from nine Asian nations.
• 20th January -  Dwight D. Eisenhower was sworn in as the 34th president of the United States.
• 1st March -  Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin suffered a crippling stroke and was not discovered for several hours.
• 5th March -  Joseph Stalin died, having never regained consciousness. He had not nominated a successor and it was unclear who would replace him as leader of the Soviet Union.
• 16th May -  American journalist William N. Oatis was released from prison in Czechoslovakia after serving 22 months of a ten-year sentence for espionage.
• 16th June -  Construction workers in East Berlin went on strike, protesting increases in their work quotas. Their strike grew into a public demonstration and protest involving around 50,000 East Germans.
• 17th June -  East German police and Soviet troops suppressed the uprising in East Berlin, killing between 200 and 800 protestors.
• 19th June -  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the electric chair in New York, despite numerous pleas for clemency.
• 27th July -  Fighting ended in the Korean War, with the signing of an armistice at Panmunjom. This did not mean an end to war, simply the cessation of hostilities. A demilitarised zone was established to separate the two Koreas.
• 8th August -  Soviet minister Georgy Malenkov announced that the USSR had successfully tested a thermonuclear weapon.
• 19th August -  The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), together with the UK, assisted a royalist coup that ousted Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh (Operation Ajax). The coup was organised because of Iranian nationalization of the oil industry and fears of Iran joining the Soviet cam
• 5th September -  The United Nations refused to grant membership to the People's Republic of China.
• 7th September -  Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Communist Party. His main rival, Lavrentiy Beria, was executed in the December.
• 30th October -  President Eisenhower received National Security Council report 162/2. It recommended expanding and maintaining the US nuclear arsenal, to inflict "massive retaliatory damage" in the event of a war with the Soviet Union.
• 4th - 8th December -  Eisenhower met with Churchill and Joseph Laniel of France in Bermuda.

1954

• 12th January -  US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, speaking at a Council of Foreign Relations dinner, said the US would protect its allies with "massive retaliatory power". Many consider this the starting point for the doctrine of "mutually assured destruction" or 'MAD'.
• 21st  January -  The United States launched the world's first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. The nuclear submarine would become the ultimate nuclear deterrent.
• 22nd April -  The US Army-McCarthy hearings began in Washington DC. These hearings, which were televised, exposed McCarthy's questioning to a wider audience.
• May -  The Huk revolt in the Philippines was defeated
• 7th May -  The Viet Minh defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu. France withdrew from Indochina, leaving four independent states -  Cambodia, Laos, and what became North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The Geneva Accords called for free elections to unite Vietnam, but none of the major Western powers wished this to occur in the likely case that the Viet Minh (nationalist Communists) would win.
• 2nd June -  Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that communists had infiltrated the CIA and the atomic weapons industry.
• 18th June -  Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was overthrown in a coup d'etat orchestrated by the CIA and John Foster Dulles, whose personal investments had been affected by his policies.
• 23rd July -  Gamal Abdel Nasser, a former military officer with pro-Soviet views, seized power in Egypt.
• 11th August -  The first Taiwan Strait Crisis began with the Chinese Communist shelling of Taiwanese islands. The US backed Taiwan, and the crisis resolved itself as both sides declined to take action.
• 3rd September -  The People's Republic of China began shelling islands occupied by former Nationalists.
• 8th September -  The South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed  by Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Like NATO, it was founded to resist Communist expansion, this time in the Philippines and Indochina.
• 2nd December -  The US Senate passed a motion censuring Joseph McCarthy.

1955

• 24th February -  The Baghdad Pact was founded by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It was committed to resisting Communist expansion in the Middle East
• April -  The Non-Aligned Movement was pioneered by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Achmed Sukarno of Indonesia, Josef Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. This movement was designed to be a bulwark against the 'dangerous polarization' of the world at that time and to restore balance of power with smaller nations. It was an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
• 5th April -  The Baghdad Pact, later described as the "Middle Eastern NATO", was signed by Britain, Turkey and Iraq. Iran and Pakistan joined later in 1955.
• 6th April -  Sir Anthony Eden (Conservative) became UK Prime Minister.
• 18th April -  At the behest of Moscow, Imre Nagy was removed as the chief minister of Hungary.
• 9th May -  West Germany joined NATO and began rearmament.
• 14th May -  The Warsaw Pact was founded in Eastern Europe and included East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. It acted as the Communist military counterpart to NATO.
• 15th May -  Austria was granted independence and allied occupation ended.
• 18th July -  President  Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of the United Kingdom, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France, known as the 'Big Four', attended the Geneva Summit. Also in attendance was Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union.

1956

• 25th February -  Nikita Khrushchev delivered the speech "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences" at the closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU. The speech marked the beginning of the de-Stalinization of the USSR.
• 28th June -  Workers in Poland rioted against poor conditions and political oppression. This unrest led to the replacement of the Polish government in October.
• 26th July -  Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, now aligned with the Soviet Union, nationalized the Suez Canal.
• 23rd October -   Hungarians revolted against the Soviet dominated government. They were crushed by the Soviet military, which reinstated a Communist government.
• 29th October -  France, Israel, and the United Kingdom attacked Egypt with the goal of removing Nasser from power. International diplomatic pressures forced the attackers to withdraw. Canadian Lester B. Pearson encouraged the United Nations to send a Peacekeeping force, the first of its kind, to the disputed territory. Pearson won a Nobel Peace Prize for his actions, and soon after became Canadian Prime Minister.
• 1st November -  The leader of the Hungarian Revolution, Imre Nagy, announced that Hungary was withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact.
• 4th November -  Soviet tank units crossed the border, enter Budapest and began crushing the Hungarian Uprising.
• 22nd November -  Imre Nagy was arrested by Soviet authorities after leaving the Yugoslav embassy. He was removed to Romania for interrogation.
• December -  Communist insurgency began in South Vietnam, sponsored by North Vietnam.
• 6th December -  The "Blood in the Water" water polo match at the Olympic Games in Melbourne. The Hungarians won the match 4-0 but not before rough and violent encounters between several players.

1957

• 5th January -  US president Dwight Eisenhower promised military intervention to assist Middle Eastern nations if they were threatened by communist aggression. This position became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.
• 10th January -  Harold Macmillan (Conservative) became UK Prime Minister.
• 15th February -  Andrei Gromyko was appointed the foreign minister of the Soviet Union, replacing Dmitri Shepilov.
• 2nd May -  Senator Joseph McCarthy succumbed to illness exacerbated by alcoholism and died.
• 1st October -  The Strategic Air Command initiated 24/7 nuclear alert  (continuous until termination in 1991) in anticipation of a Soviet ICBM surprise attack capability.
• 4th October -  The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite.Its bleeping radio signal was heard all round the globe.

• 3rd November -  The Soviets launched Sputnik II, a satellite containing a dog named Laika, the first living creature in space. Laika died within hours of the launch, however, the Soviets claimed she survived for several days.
• 7th November -  The final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation's defence readiness indicated that the United States was falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities, and urged a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens.  The report was based on flawed intelligence, and in fact there was no Soviet superiority at the time. This report is known by the title "Deterrence & Survival in the Nuclear Age"  aka the Gaither Report.
• 15th November -  Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claimed that the Soviet Union had missile superiority over the United States and challenged America to a missile "shooting match" to prove his assertion.

1958

• 31st January -  After several failed attempts to put a satellite into orbit the US successfully launched Explorer 1.
• 27th March -  Nikita Khrushchev's de facto leadership of the Soviet Union was formalized with his appointment as Premier.
• 14th April -  American pianist Van Cliburn won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. The judging panel declared Cliburn the winner only after consulting Khrushchev. 
• 16th June -  Imre Nagy, the leader of the Hungarian Uprising in late 1956, was executed by the Soviet government
• 3rd July -  The UK-USA Mutual Defence Agreement was signed.
• 14th July -  A coup d'etat in Iraq removed the pro-British monarch Faisal II. Iraq began to receive support from the Soviets. Iraq maintained close ties with the Soviets throughout the Cold War.
• 15th July -  Dwight Eisenhower deployed the US Navy and Marines to Lebanon to support the pro-Western government there.
• 29th July -  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed in the US.
• August -  The US military deployed Thor medium-range ballistic missiles in England in 'Operation Emily'. The Thor was capable of striking Moscow.
• 23rd August -  US warships were sent into the Taiwan Strait after the People's Republic of China bombarded the island of Quemoy and Taiwanese forces returned fire. The fighting continued for a month and claimed almost 3,000 lives, and is referred to as the second Taiwan Straight Crisis.
• September -  American singer Paul Robeson toured the Soviet Union, performing for officials and students.
• 2nd September -  An American C-130 reconnaissance plane was shot down by MiG fighters after straying into Soviet airspace. All six crewmen were killed, while the fate of 11 intelligence agents on the plane was never revealed.
• November -  The start of the Second Berlin crisis, Nikita Khrushchev asked the West to leave Berlin.
• 10th November -  Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev issued an ultimatum, demanding that the US and its Western allies leave Berlin within six months.
• 14th December -  The US and its allies rejected Khrushchev's ultimatum to withdraw from Berlin.

1959

• 1st January -   Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba by overthrowing the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in the Cuban revolution. However he  refrained from declaring the country Communist. Cuban-inspired guerrilla movements spring up across Latin America.  
• 24th March -  The New Republic government of Iraq left the Central Treaty Organization.
• 4th April -  NATO also rejected Khrushchev's ultimatum of November 1958, declaring its intention to protect all occupying powers in West Berlin.
• 15th April -  US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles resigned, after receiving a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He died on May 24th.
• 23rd June -  Convicted spy Klaus Fuchs was released from prison in Britain, having served almost nine and a half years of his 14-year sentence. Fuchs took up residence in East Germany.
• 24th July -  During the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev openly debated the military capacities of each Superpower. This conversation is known as the "Kitchen Debate".
• 7th August -  Explorer 6 was launched, by the USA  to photograph the Earth.
• 15th September -  Nikita Khrushchev began a controversial fortnight-long visit to the US.
• 19th September -  During his visit to Los Angeles Khrushchev became outraged after being denied access to Disneyland for security reasons, instead he visited Seaworld.
• 30th September -  After his visit to the US, Khrushchev met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing.
• 1st December -  The US, the Soviet Union and ten other nations signed the Antarctic Treaty. It maintains Antarctica for scientific research and outlaws military bases or operations there.