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Sputnik I
The launch of the orbital satellite Sputnik-I was a source of great fear for the American population as many people believed that the successful mission proved beyond any doubt that the USSR was capable of reaching our country with a nuclear missile, and/ or achieving Soviet supremacy of the final frontier. Unsurprisingly this historic point is widely regarded as the event that began the Space Race. -
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The U-2 Incident
American U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers is Shot down and captured by Soviets. America initially denies it was a spy plane, but the Soviets reveal they have pieces of the plane, photos of their bases, and the man himself Gary Powers. He is charged to three years in prison and seven additional years of hard labor. Two years into his sentence the USA and USSR reached an agreement and he was exchanged for the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel who we had held for five years previous. -
Yuri Gagarin's Flight
Yuri Gagarin is the first human launched into space. the Soviets kept everything pretty secretive but the Vostok 1 rocket took the 27-year-old cosmonaut to an altitude of 187 miles above the earth surface where he made a little over one complete orbit before re-entering the earth's atmosphere and parachuting to safety from a height of 20,000 feet. -
Tsar Bomba Detonation
The Soviets detonated the largest ever thermonuclear device; a whopping 50 Megaton bomb in a display of Soviet might. There was no practicality in deploying the weapon in a war despite having constructed 6 more casings. Tsar Bomba's Immense scale meant it would not get off the ground without the help of a heavily modified Tupolev plane. The bomb is still to this day the largest manmade explosion ever and spectacularly highlights the destructive powers of nuclear weaponry. -
Start of Cuban Missile Crisis
An American U-2 Spyplane discovers several missile sites under construction proving Soviet armament of Cuba. photographs displaying all the necessary equipment for constructing a nuclear arsenal hit the public thus sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis -
Quarantine of Cuba
The United States under the authority of OAS set up a naval blockade of Cuba which they called a "Quarantine" for legal purposes; after it was discovered that Cubans had been rapidly assembling Mig fighters and Soviet bombers, as well as several missile sites around the island. Initially, the quarantine was set at a distance of 800 miles from the shore and Robert Kennedy was sent to the Soviet embassy to talk with Ambassador Dobrynin. -
DefCon-2
we pulled our blockade back from 800 to 500 miles to give inbound ships a chance to turn around. One Soviet submarine armed with nuclear torpedos continued towards the Quarantine prompting us to go to DefCon 2. It was too deep for radio communications so After battleships attempted to signal it up with depth charges, the sub's crew believed the war had begun and prepared to launch a nuclear torpedo. If not for Vasily Arkhipov's decision to not fire, we would have probably gone to nuclear war. -
U-2 Shot down over Cuba
American Pilot Major Rudolf Anderson is Shot down in his Lockheed U-2 Spy plane by a SAM (surface to air) missile which was believed to have been launched from Baines Cuba. despite JFK's cabinet members suggestions to airstrike missile bases, JFK himself was not ready to abandon diplomacy and sent his brother to the Soviet Embassy to work things out. -
Cuban Missile Crisis Ends
In a radio address from Moscow Nikkita Khrushchev announces that he will be removing nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for the removal of American missiles from Turkey and a promise that America will adhere to its no invasion pledge. the denuclearization of Cuba and Turkey brings the cold war to an end and puts us several steps closer to cordial relations with Russia. -
JFK's Speech at the Berlin wall
President John F. Kennedy in his speech at the Berlin wall to the people of West Berlin claimed that anyone who felt communism was the future should come to Berlin because although democracy has its pitfalls, we have never need to build a wall to keep our people in. he then says that all free men no matter where they live are citizens of Berlin and that he( a free man) was proud of the words " Ich bin ein Berliner." (I am a Berliner).
