TIMELINE

March 8, 1917	The Russian Revolution begins.
December 28, 1922	The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also called the Soviet Union, is founded with Vladimir Lenin as its leader.
January 21, 1924	Vladimir Lenin dies.
March 16, 1926	Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket.
1929	Joseph Stalin becomes the leader of Soviet Union.
May 26, 1938	The House Un-American Activities Committee is founded.
September 1, 1939	Germany invades Poland, starting World War II.
June 22, 1941	Adolf Hitler breaks the non-aggression pact with the USSR and the Soviets join the Allied powers.
December 7, 1941	Japan attacks the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, triggering the United States’ entry into World War II.
September 8, 1944	The first German V-2 ballistic missile hits London, England, killing three people.
May 7, 1945	Germany surrenders to the Allies.
August 6, 1945	The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and, three days later, Nagasaki.
September 2, 1945	Japan surrenders, ending World War II.
September 29, 1945	Wernher von Braun arrives in the United States.
April 16, 1946	The United States sees its first successful flight of a captured V-2 rocket.
October 20, 1947	The USSR sees its first successful flight of a captured V-2 rocket.
June 11, 1948	Albert 1, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first animal to reach space on a U.S.-launched V-2.
June 24, 1948	The Soviet blockade of West Berlin begins.
April 4, 1949	The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is founded.
February 9, 1950	U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy claims he has knowledge of communists in the U.S. government.
June 25, 1950	The Korean War begins.
March 5, 1953	Joseph Stalin dies.
July 27, 1953	The Korean War ends with a truce.
September 12, 1953	Nikita Khrushchev becomes leader of the Soviet Union.
May 14, 1955	The Warsaw Pact is founded.
August 21, 1957	The first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7, is tested by the USSR.
October 4, 1957	Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, is launched by the USSR.
November 3, 1957	The USSR launches Laika the dog, who becomes the first animal to reach orbit.

January 31, 1958	The United States launches its first satellite, Explorer 1.
July 29, 1958	The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is formed.
February 17, 1959	The United States launches the world’s first weather satellite, Vanguard 2.
May 28, 1959	Able and Baker become the first primates to reach space.
October 7, 1959	The Soviet Union’s Lunar 3 sends back the first pictures of the far side of the moon.
May 1, 1960	The USSR shoots down an American U-2 spyplane, capturing pilot Gary Powers.
July 5, 1960	The United States launches the world’s first spy satellite.
April 12, 1961	Soviet Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
April 17, 1961	The Bay of Pigs invasion fails.
May 5, 1961	Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.
May 25, 1961	U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives a speech announcing U.S. plans to land on the moon.
February 20, 1962	John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth.
October 16, 1962	The Cuban missile crisis begins.
June 16, 1963	Soviet Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
August 5, 1963	The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
November 22, 1963	President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.
October 12, 1964	The USSR launches the first multi-person crew aboard Voskhod 1.
February 9, 1965	The first U.S. combat troops are sent to Vietnam.
March 18, 1965	Soviet Alexey Leonov performs the first spacewalk.
March 23, 1965	The United States sends its first manned Gemini flight.
June 3, 1965	Ed White performs the first American spacewalk.
January 14, 1966	Sergei Korolev, the chief designer of the Soviet Union’s space program, dies.
February 3, 1966	The USSR’s Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the moon.
March 16, 1966	America’s Gemini 8 makes the first docking in space.
June 2, 1966	America’s Surveyor 1 launches for a journey that includes a soft landing on the moon.
January 27, 1967	Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee are killed in the launchpad fire of Apollo 1.
April 24, 1967	Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies during the first manned launch of Soyuz.
July 1, 1968	The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
December 21, 1968	The crew of Apollo 8 become the first people to orbit the moon.
July 20, 1969	Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first people to walk on the moon.