slug: soviet-union

label: Soviet Union

description: former country in Eurasia (1922–1991)

date: December 30

text: December 30 – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Republic (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) come together to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

title: 1922

section: Disasters & Accidents

date: July 10

text: July 10 – Large hailstones kill 23 people in Rostov, Soviet Union.

title: 1923

section: Events › July–August

date: March 17

text: March 17 – Dobrolyot is formed as the first Soviet civil aviation service; it will become part of flag carrier Aeroflot.

title: 1923

section: Events › March–April

date: March 9

text: March 9 – Vladimir Lenin suffers his third stroke, which renders him bedridden and unable to speak; consequently he retires from his position as Chairman of the Soviet government.

title: 1923

date: August 28

text: August 28 – August Uprising: Georgia rises against rule by the Soviet Union in an abortive rebellion, in which several thousands die.

title: 1924

section: Events › August

date: January 20

text: January 20–30 – Kuomintang in China holds its first National Congress, initiating a policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party.

title: 1924

section: Events › January

section: Culture & Society

date: March 6

text: March 6 – Pionerskaya Pravda, one of the oldest children's newspapers in Europe, is founded in the Soviet Union.

title: 1925

date: May 24

text: May 24 – The United Kingdom cuts its diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union due to revelations of espionage and underground agitation.

title: 1927

section: Events › May

date: November 12

text: November 12 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

title: 1927

section: Events › November

date: January 1

text: January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, Joseph Stalin's personal secretary, crosses the border to Iran to defect from the Soviet Union.

title: 1928

section: Economy & Finance

date: October 1

text: October 1 – Joseph Stalin launches the first five-year plan (1928–1932); the average nonfarm wage falls by 50% in the Soviet Union.

title: 1928

section: Events › October

date: February 9

text: February 9 – "Litvinov's Pact" is signed in Moscow by the Soviet Union, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia, who agree not to use force to settle disputes between themselves.

title: 1929

section: Events › February

date: January 30

text: January 30 – Pavel Molchanov launches a radiosonde from Slutsk in the Soviet Union.

title: 1930

date: March 11

text: March 11 – The Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.

title: 1931

date: March 2

text: March 2 – Mikhail Gorbachev, the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2022)

title: 1931

section: Births › March

date: August 2

text: August 2 – The White Sea–Baltic Canal, Stalin's 227 km ship canal constructed using forced labour in the Soviet Union, opens, connecting the White Sea with Lake Onega and the Baltic.

title: 1933

text: November 16 – The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.

title: 1933

date: September 19

text: September 19 – The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.

title: 1934

section: Events › September–October

text: December 28 – Pravda publishes a letter from Pavel Postyshev, who revives the New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.

title: 1935

text: Joseph Stalin's Great Purge begins in the Soviet Union.

title: 1936

date: December 5

text: December 5 – The 1936 Soviet Constitution, promulgated by Stalin, is adopted in the Soviet Union. The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic is dissolved, and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia become full Republics of the Soviet Union.

title: 1936

section: Events › November–December

text: Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in 1928.

title: 1937

section: Events › Date unknown

date: August 5

text: August 5 – The Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet elements". Within the following year, at least 724,000 people are fired on order of the troikas, directed by Joseph Stalin. This is an offensive that targets social classes (such as the kulaks or nobles) and Stalin's personal opponents from the Communist Party and their sympathizers.

title: 1937

date: January 23

text: January 23 – Moscow Trials: Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center – In the Soviet Union 17 leading Communists go on trial, accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime, and assassinate its leaders.

title: 1937

date: July 31

text: July 31 – NKVD Order No. 00447 "Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов" ("The operation for repression of former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements") is approved by the decision of the Politbureau of the CC of the VKP(b) of the Soviet Union, initially as a 4-month plan for 75,950 people to be executed and an additional 193,000 to be sent to the Gulag.

title: 1937

section: Events › July

date: November 20

text: November 20 – Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) of the Soviet Union (b. 1872)

title: 1937

section: Deaths › November

date: September 18

text: September 18 – During a meeting between Neville Chamberlain, the recently elected Premier of France, Édouard Daladier, and Daladier's Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, it becomes apparent that neither the British nor the French governments are prepared to go to war over the Sudetenland. The Soviet Union declares it will come to the defence of Czechoslovakia only if France honours her commitment to defend Czechoslovak independence.

title: 1938

section: Events › September

text: August 23 – The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact is signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, a neutrality treaty that also agrees to division of spheres of influence (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Bessarabia (modern-day Moldova), north-east province of Romania to the Soviet Union; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany). Its annex reassigns Lithuania to the Soviet Union.

title: 1939

date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Soviet Union establishes the Finnish Democratic Republic puppet state in Terijoki.

title: 1939

date: November 26

text: November 26 – Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Union's Red Army shells the Russian village of Mainila, then claims that the fire originated from Finland, giving a casus belli for the Winter War.

title: 1939

date: September

text: The Soviet Union invades Poland, and then occupies eastern Polish territories.

title: 1939

date: September 16

text: September 16 – A ceasefire ends the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, the undeclared border war between the Soviet Union (and Mongolian allies) and Japan.

title: 1939

date: August 3

text: August 3 – The Lithuanian SSR is annexed into the Soviet Union, followed by the Latvian SSR on August 5 and the Estonian SSR August 6, just seven weeks after their occupation. Ethnic Germans will be deported to Germany.

title: 1940

text: July 23 – Welles Declaration: United States Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles announces that the U.S. will not accord diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union's occupation of the Baltic states.

title: 1940

text: March 12 – Moscow Peace Treaty: The Soviet Union and Finland sign a peace treaty in Moscow, ending the Winter War; Finns, along with the world at large, are shocked by the harsh terms.

title: 1940

text: June 13 – TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union.

title: 1941

text: June 14 – June deportation: Soviet officials deport about 65,000 people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Siberia.

title: 1941

text: June 22 – WWII: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany (with allies) invades the Soviet Union and declares war on it. Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe." Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.

title: 1941

text: June 25 – WWII: Finland (as a co-belligerent with Germany) attacks the Soviet Union, starting the Continuation War.

title: 1941

text: As the Battle of Moscow begins, temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C, and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time, against the freezing German forces near the city.

title: 1941

text: October 30 – WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.

title: 1941

text: October 8 – WWII: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov, with the capture of Mariupol (Ukraine).

title: 1941

text: September 8 – WWII: Siege of Leningrad – German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Germans deported to Siberia.

title: 1941

text: July 29 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union institutes the Order of Suvorov and Order of Kutuzov and reinstates the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

title: 1942

text: Second Battle of Kharkov: In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive to capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.

title: 1942

text: November 19 – WWII: Battle of Stalingrad: Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counter-attacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.

title: 1942

text: November 22 – WWII: Battle of Stalingrad: The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus, and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram, saying that the German Sixth Army is surrounded.

title: 1942

text: February 16 – WWII: The Soviet Union reconquers Kharkiv, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkiv.

title: 1943

text: January 18 – WWII: Soviet officials announce that the Red Army has broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad as part of Operation Iskra, opening a narrow land corridor to the city. Georgy Zhukov is promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.

title: 1943

text: German forces recapture Kharkiv after four days of house-to-house fighting against Soviet troops, ending the month-long Third Battle of Kharkiv.

title: 1943

text: October 10 – The Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky is instituted in the Soviet Union.

title: 1943

text: January 15 – The Soviet Union ceases production of the Mosin–Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.

title: 1944

text: Operation Bagration: A general attack by Soviet forces clears the German forces from Belarus, resulting in the destruction of German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.

title: 1944

text: March 15 – The Soviet Union introduces a new anthem, replacing The Internationale.

title: 1944

text: Crimean Tatars are deported by the Soviet Union.

title: 1944

text: October 11 – The Tuvan People's Republic is annexed into the Soviet Union.

title: 1944

text: October 9 – WWII: Fourth Moscow Conference: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begin a 9-day conference in Moscow, to discuss the future of Europe.

title: 1944

text: The Soviet–Japanese War opens: The Soviet Union begins its army offensive against Japan, in the northern part of the Japanese-held puppet region of Manchuria, including the 25th Army (Soviet Union)'s advance into the northern peninsula of Korea.

title: 1945

text: The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific War against Japan, once hostilities against Germany are concluded.

title: 1945

text: February 4–11 – WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hold the Yalta Conference.

title: 1945

text: January 12 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe, against the German Army.

title: 1945

text: June 29 – Czechoslovakia cedes Carpathian Ruthenia to the Soviet Union.

title: 1945

text: March 6 – A Communist-led government is formed in Romania under Petru Groza, following Soviet intervention.

title: 1945

text: The Soviet Union marks VE Day as the Red Army enters Prague, celebrated in the USSR as Victory Day.

title: 1945

text: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. The famous picture of Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is taken at this date.

title: 1945

text: October 24 – The United Nations is founded by ratification of its Charter, by 29 nations including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Canada, Egypt, Brazil, Haiti, Luxembourg, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and others.

title: 1945

text: September 9 – Japanese troops in Keijō (modern-day Seoul) formally relinquish control over Southern Korea to the United States Army Military Government in Korea, while Soviet forces control Northern Korea from Heijō (modern-day Pyongyang), effectively ending 35 years of Korea under Japanese rule and beginning the Division of Korea at the 38th parallel.

title: 1945

text: August 7 – The Soviet Union escalates the Turkish Straits crisis through a diplomatic demand to Turkey.

title: 1946

text: December 25 – The first artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in Europe is initiated, within the Soviet (Russian) nuclear reactor F-1.

title: 1946

text: February 1 – The Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic, heavily influenced by the Soviet Union.

title: 1946

text: January 31 – Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeled on the Soviet Union, establishes 6 constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

title: 1946

text: November 27 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."

title: 1946

text: April 16 – American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch describes the post–World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a "Cold War".

title: 1947

text: February 12 – The fragments of a meteorite create a number of impact craters up to 36 metres wide in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.

title: 1947

text: February 17 – Cold War: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

title: 1947

text: February 1 – The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.

title: 1948

text: President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States, amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt)

title: 1948

text: October 10 – The R-1 missile on test becomes the first Soviet launch to enter space.

title: 1948

text: August 29 – The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, RDS-1 ("Joe 1"). Its design imitates the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.

title: 1949

text: c. January 28 – Stalin and antisemitism: The media in the Soviet Union resume a propaganda campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans", a euphemism for Soviet Jews, accusing them of being pro-Western and antisocialist.

title: 1949

text: January 25 – The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or COMECON) is established by the Soviet Union and other communist nations.

title: 1949

text: March 25 – Operation Priboi: An extensive deportation campaign begins in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltic states to remote areas of the Soviet Union.

title: 1949

text: May 12 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade.

title: 1949

text: January 24 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs, German émigré physicist, confesses to a British MI5 interrogator that he is a Soviet spy: for seven years, he passed top secret data on U.S. and British nuclear weapons research to the Soviet Union. Fuchs is formally charged on February 2.

title: 1950

text: January 31 – United States President Harry S. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb, in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb in 1949.

title: 1950

text: April 21 – The National Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union is formed. The USSR will first participate in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952.

title: 1951

text: May 25–26 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean leave the United Kingdom to defect to the Soviet Union.

title: 1951

text: September 8 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, 48 representatives out of 51 attending sign a peace treaty with Japan, formally ending the Pacific War; the delegations of the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia do not sign the treaty, instead favoring separate treaties.

title: 1951

text: August 30 – The last Finnish war reparations are sent to the Soviet Union.

title: 1952

text: November 5 – The 9.0 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake hits the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Soviet Union with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). A tsunami took the lives of more than 2,300 people.

title: 1952

text: September 18 – The Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations.

title: 1952

text: August 8 – Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.

title: 1953

text: December 23 – The Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrentiy Beria has been executed.

title: 1953

text: February 11 – The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel, after a bomb explodes at the Soviet Embassy, in reaction to the 'Doctors' plot'.

title: 1953

text: June 17 – Workers' Uprising in East Germany: The Soviet Union orders a Division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.

title: 1953

text: March 1 – Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke, after an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev. The stroke paralyzes the right side of his body and renders him unconscious until his death on March 5.

title: 1953

text: September 25 – The first German prisoners of war return from the Soviet Union to West Germany.

title: 1953

text: April 3 – Petrov Affair: Diplomat Vladimir Petrov defects from the Soviet Union and asks for political asylum in Australia.

title: 1954

text: February 19 – 1954 transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

title: 1954

text: March 25 – The Soviet Union recognises the sovereignty of East Germany. Soviet troops remain in the country.

title: 1954

text: September 14 – The Soviet Union carries out the Totskoye nuclear exercise.

title: 1954

text: September 18 – Finnish president J. K. Paasikivi is the first Western head of state to be awarded the highest honor of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin.

title: 1954

text: January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941.

title: 1955

text: June 13 – Mir mine, the first diamond mine in the Soviet Union, is discovered.

title: 1955

text: May 14 – Eight Communist Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty in Warsaw, Poland, that is called the Warsaw Pact (it will be dissolved in 1991).

title: 1955

text: October 29 – Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608 (the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster to date).

title: 1955

text: April 19 – British diver Lionel (Buster) Crabb (working for MI6) dives into Portsmouth Harbour, to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser, and vanishes.

title: 1956

text: February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union, after being missing for 5 years.

title: 1956

text: January 25–26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala, after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.

title: 1956

text: July 31 – Luzhniki Stadium, well known sports venue of Russia and the Soviet Union, officially opens in Moscow.

title: 1956

text: July 4 – An American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft makes its first flight over the Soviet Union.

title: 1956

text: June 1 – Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as foreign minister of the Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassador to Mongolia.

title: 1956

text: June 28 – Poznań 1956 protests: Labour riots in Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at a crowd protesting high prices, killing 53 people.

title: 1956

text: November 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: More Soviet troops invade Hungary, to crush the revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.

title: 1956

text: February 15 – Andrei Gromyko becomes foreign minister of the Soviet Union.

title: 1957

text: February 6 – The Soviet Union announces that Swedish envoy Raoul Wallenberg had died in a Soviet prison ("possibly of a heart attack"), on July 17, 1947

title: 1957

text: November 3 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2, with the first animal to orbit the Earth, a dog named Laika, on board. There is no technology available to return her to Earth.

title: 1957

text: October 4 – Space Age – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

title: 1957

text: December 16 – Soviet polar pilot V. M. Perov on Li-2 rescues four Belgian polar explorers, led by Gaston de Gerlache, who have survived a plane crash in Antarctica 250 km from their base five days earlier.

title: 1958

text: May 15 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.

title: 1958

text: December 1 – Cold War: Antarctic Treaty – 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a landmark treaty that sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent (the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War).

title: 1959

text: January 15 – The Soviet Union conducts its first census after World War II.

title: 1959

text: September 30 – Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev meets Mao Zedong in Beijing.

title: 1959

text: December 1 – A Soviet satellite containing live animals (dogs Pcholka and Mushka) and plants is launched into orbit. Due to a malfunction, it burns up during re-entry.

title: 1960

text: December 4 – The admission of Mauritania to the United Nations is vetoed by the Soviet Union.

title: 1960

text: December 7 – The United Nations Security Council is called into session by the Soviet Union, in order to consider Soviet demands for the Security Council to seek the immediate release of former Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba.

title: 1960

text: July 1 – Cold War: A Soviet Air Force MiG-19 fighter plane flying north of Murmansk, Russia, over the Barents Sea, shoots down a six-man RB-47 Stratojet reconnaissance plane of the U.S. Air Force. Four of the U.S. Air Force officers are killed, and the two survivors are held prisoner in the Soviet Union.

title: 1960

text: May 1 – The U-2 incident: Several Soviet surface-to-air missiles shoot down an American Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Its pilot, Francis Gary Powers of the Central Intelligence Agency, is captured.

title: 1960

text: May 15 – The satellite Sputnik 4 is launched into orbit by the Soviet Union.

title: 1960

text: May 16 – Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the U-2 reconnaissance plane flights over the Soviet Union, thus aborting their summit meeting scheduled for Paris this year.

title: 1960

text: October 12 – Cold War: Shoe-banging incident – Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, his way of protesting the discussion of the Soviet Union's policies toward Eastern Europe.

title: 1960

text: December 10 – Albania–Soviet relations: The Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Albania.

title: 1961

text: February 15 – United States President John F. Kennedy warns the Soviet Union to avoid interfering with the United Nations' pacification of the Congo.

title: 1961

text: January 25 – In Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential news conference. In it, he announces that the Soviet Union has freed the two surviving crewmen from the July 1 1960 RB-47 shootdown incident involving a USAF reconnaissance aircraft and a MiG-19 over the Barents Sea.

title: 1961

text: January 9 – British authorities announce they have uncovered a large Soviet spy ring, the Portland spy ring, in London.

title: 1961

text: May 8 – British intelligence officer George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying, having been found guilty of being a double agent in the pay of the Soviet Union, the longest non-life sentence ever handed down by a British court.

title: 1961

text: October 27 – Berlin Crisis: Confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie – A standoff between Soviet and American tanks in Berlin, Germany, heightens Cold War tensions.

title: 1961

text: October 30 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Soviet Union detonates a 58-megaton yield hydrogen bomb known as Tsar Bomba, over Novaya Zemlya (it remains the largest ever man-made explosion).

title: 1961

text: January 27 – The Soviet government changes all place names honoring Molotov, Kaganovich and Georgy Malenkov.

title: 1962

text: March–May – Yi–Ta incident: At least 60,000 Chinese citizens migrate from the People's Republic of China to the Soviet Union, predominantly (but not exclusively) ethnic Kazakhs.

title: 1962

text: November 20 – Cuban Missile Crisis: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, President John F. Kennedy ends the blockade of the island.

title: 1962

text: October 16 – Cuban Missile Crisis begins when U.S. President Kennedy is told of photographs (taken from U-2 flights) showing Soviet nuclear weapon installations being constructed on Cuba in the Caribbean. A stand-off ensues for 12 days between the United States and the Soviet Union, threatening the world with nuclear war.

title: 1962

text: August 5 – The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

title: 1963

text: December 5 – The Seliger Forschungs-und-Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH demonstrates rockets for military use to military representatives of non-NATO-countries near Cuxhaven. Although these rockets land via parachute at the end of their flight and no allied laws are violated, the Soviet Union protests this action.

title: 1963

text: June 19 – Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, returns to Earth, landing in the Soviet Union.

title: 1963

text: June 20 – Swedish Air Force Colonel Stig Wennerström is arrested as a spy for the Soviet Union.

title: 1963

text: May 23 – Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union.

title: 1963

text: January 29 – The Soviet Union launches two scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.

title: 1964

text: December 21 – The Soviet Union announces that it has shipped rockets to North Vietnam.

title: 1965

text: November 16 – Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe from Baikonur, Kazakhstan toward Venus (on March 1, 1966, it becomes the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet).

title: 1965

text: September 19 – Pakistani Forces achieve a decisive victory at the Battle of Chawinda, ultimately halting the Indian advance and successfully stabilizing the Sialkot Front; it is the world's largest tank battle since the Battle of Kursk in the Second World War between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

title: 1965

text: April 27 – Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican (the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union).

title: 1966

text: February 20 – While Soviet author and translator Valery Tarsis is abroad, the Soviet Union negates his citizenship.

title: 1966

text: March 31 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

title: 1966

text: May 4 – Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.

title: 1966

text: October 7 – The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.

title: 1966

text: June 12 – Venera program: Venera 4 is launched by the Soviet Union (the first space probe to analyze another planet's atmosphere and successfully return data).

title: 1967

text: November 7 – The 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution is celebrated in the Soviet Union.

title: 1967

text: March 8 – The Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 sinks with all 98 crew members, about 90 nautical miles (104 miles or 167 km) southwest of Hawaii.

title: 1968

text: August 13 – Serious border clashes occur between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

title: 1969

text: July 24 – The Soviet Union returns British lecturer Gerald Brooke to the United Kingdom freed from a Soviet prison in exchange for their spies Peter and Helen Kroger (Morris and Lona Cohen).

title: 1969

text: March 2 – Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.

title: 1969

text: May 16 – Venera program: Soviet space probe Venera 5 lands on Venus.

title: 1969

text: November 17 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

title: 1969

text: June 1 – Soyuz 9, a two-man spacecraft, is launched from the Soviet Union for an orbital flight of nearly 18 days, an endurance record at this time.

title: 1970

text: May 26 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.

title: 1970

text: November 17 – Luna programme: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world, and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.

title: 1970

text: December 18 – The world's largest hydroelectric plant in Krasnoyarsk, Soviet Union, begins operations.

title: 1971

text: December 2 – The Soviet Mars 3 lander reaches the surface of Mars, transmits for a few seconds and then goes silent. It is the first spacecraft to reach the planet.

title: 1971

text: May 19 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.

title: 1971

text: March 4 – Libya and the Soviet Union sign a cooperation treaty.

title: 1972

text: July 25 – The Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.

title: 1973

text: November 10 – Lev Leshchenko revives "Den Pobedy", one of the most popular World War II songs in the Soviet Union.

title: 1975

text: June 2 – The Philippine government opens relations with the Soviet Union.

title: 1976

text: February 7 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24 (Viktor Gorbatko, Yury Glazkov) to dock with the Salyut 5 space station.

title: 1977

text: September 20 – The Petrozavodsk phenomenon is observed in the Soviet Union and some northern European countries.

title: 1977

text: April 14 – Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against an attempt by Soviet authorities to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

title: 1978

text: January 24 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.

title: 1978

text: October 13 – The Soviet Union launches a major Russification campaign throughout all union republics.

title: 1978

text: April 2 – Sverdlovsk anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock. It is a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972.

title: 1979

text: December 24 – The Soviet Union covertly launches its invasion of Afghanistan – 3 days later, PDPA general secretary Hafizullah Amin is executed in Operation Storm-333 and Babrak Karmal replaces him, beginning the war.

title: 1979

text: November 15 – British art historian and former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt's role as the "fourth man" of the 'Cambridge Five' double agents for the Soviet NKVD during World War II is revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom; she gives further details on November 21.

title: 1979

text: November 9 – Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect an apparent massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.

title: 1979

text: January 22 – Andrei Sakharov, Soviet scientist and human rights activist, is arrested in Moscow.

title: 1980

text: July 19–August 3 – The 1980 Summer Olympics are held in Moscow, Soviet Union. As 82 countries boycott the Games, athletes from 16 of them participate under a neutral flag.

title: 1980

text: March 8 – The Soviet Union's first rock music festival starts.

title: 1980

text: November 12 – In the Soviet Union, former KGB head Yuri Andropov is selected to become the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid Brezhnev, who had died two days earlier.

title: 1982

text: August 7 – Soviet authorities pass harsher punishments for drunkenness and absenteeism, responding to public calls to curb high rates of alcoholism.

title: 1983

text: September 6 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.

title: 1983

text: December 28 – A Soviet cruise missile plunges into Lake Inari in Finnish Lapland, known as the Lake Inari missile incident. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985.

title: 1984

text: May 8 – The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

title: 1984

text: Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet Union begins to transfer the burden of fighting the mujahideen to the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, a cause of the Revolutions of 1989.

title: 1985

text: April 19 – The Soviet Union performs a nuclear weapon test in eastern Kazakhstan.

title: 1985

text: July 10 – Aeroflot Flight 5143 crashes near Uchquduq, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, killing all 200 people on board.

title: 1985

text: March 11 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the Soviet Union.

title: 1985

text: November 19 – Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.

title: 1985

text: April 26 – Chernobyl disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union "killed at least 4,056 people and damaged almost $7 billion of property". Radioactive fallout from the accident is concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and at least 350,000 people are forcibly resettled away from these areas. After the accident, "traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere".

title: 1986

text: August 31 – The Soviet passenger liner collides with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the Black Sea and sinks almost immediately, killing 398.

title: 1986

text: February 11 – Human rights activist Natan Sharansky is released by Soviet authorities and leaves the country for Israel.

title: 1986

text: February 19 – The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.

title: 1986

text: June 12 – During a visit to Berlin, Germany, U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

title: 1987

text: May 28 – Eighteen-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defenses and lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained (released on August 3, 1988).

title: 1987

text: November 7 – The Soviet Union celebrates the 70th Anniversary of The October Revolution with a Parade on Moscow's Red Square.

title: 1987

text: April 14 – In the Geneva Accords, the Soviet Union commits itself to withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.

title: 1988

text: May 29–June 3 – The Moscow Summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev takes place, where the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was finalized.

title: 1988

text: November 15 – In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran is launched by an Energia rocket on its maiden orbital spaceflight (the first and last space flight for the shuttle).

title: 1988

text: December 1 – In a meeting with Pope John Paul II, General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev pledges greater religious freedom for citizens of the Soviet Union.

title: 1989

text: February 2 – Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet Union armoured column leaves Kabul, ending nine years of military occupation since 1979.

title: 1989

text: March 9 – Revolutions of 1989: The Soviet Union submits to the jurisdiction of the World Court.

title: 1989

text: October 9 – An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.

title: 1989

text: April 13 – Cold War: The Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn massacre.

title: 1990

text: August 1 – RELCOM is created in the Soviet Union by combining several computer networks. Later in August, the Soviet Union got its first connection to the Internet.

title: 1990

text: August 24 – The Armenian SSR declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

title: 1990

text: January 20 – Cold War: Black January – Soviet troops occupy Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, under the state of emergency decree issued by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, and kill over 130 protesters who were demonstrating for independence. The Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic declares its independence from the USSR.

title: 1990

text: July 27 – Cold War: Belarus declares its sovereignty, a key step toward independence from the Soviet Union.

title: 1990

text: May 4 – Singing Revolution: The Latvian SSR declares independence from the Soviet Union.

title: 1990

text: October 1 – The Soviet Union enacts a law permitting religious freedom, ending government interference in religious activity and permitting Soviet citizens to engage in private religious study in their homes.

title: 1990

text: October 12 – A leader of the right-wing Pamyat organization is arrested in the Soviet Union for spreading antisemitic hatred.

title: 1990

text: October 17 – A major financial service of Russia, VTB Bank is founded in Russia SSR, former part of Soviet Union, as predecessor name was Vneshtorg Bank.

title: 1990

text: September 10 – The first Pizza Hut opens up in the Soviet Union.

title: 1990

text: March 31 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Georgia votes for independence from the Soviet Union while on April 9, the Supreme Council declares the independent Republic of Georgia.

title: 1991

text: October 18 – The Soviet Union restores its diplomatic relations with Israel, which have been suspended since the 1967 Six-Day War.

title: 1991

text: October 25 – Lithuania holds a referendum on its first constitution after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.

title: 1992

text: August 31 – The Russian Army leaves Estonia and Latvia, ending the last traces of Eastern Europe's Soviet occupation.

title: 1994

text: August 30 – Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union, dies at the age of 91.

title: 2022


slug: space-shuttle-atlantis

label: Space Shuttle Atlantis

description: American Space Shuttle orbiter

section: Science & Discovery

date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight.

title: 1985

date: October 18

text: October 18 – NASA launches the uncrewed Galileo orbiter on a mission to study the planet Jupiter, via Atlantis mission STS-34.

title: 1989

date: November 15

text: November 15 – STS-38: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on a classified U.S. military mission.

title: 1990

date: April 5

text: April 5 – Space Shuttle Atlantis leaves an observatory in Earth's orbit to study gamma rays before returning on April 11. It is followed by Space Shuttle Discovery, which studies instruments related to the Strategic Defense Initiative from April 29 to May 6. Space Shuttle Columbia carries the Spacelab into orbit on June 5.

title: 1991

section: Events › April

date: March 22

text: March 22 – STS-45: Space Shuttle Atlantis takes off from Cape Canaveral carrying instruments designed to study global warming.

title: 1992

section: Events › March

date: June 29

text: June 29 – STS-71: Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.

title: 1995

section: Events › June

date: May 11

text: May 11–24 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope on May 11, landing at Edwards Air Force Base May 24.

title: 2009

date: July 21

text: July 21 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lands successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135, concluding NASA's Space Shuttle program.

title: 2011


slug: space-shuttle

label: Space Shuttle

description: partially reusable launch system and space plane developed by NASA (1981–2011)

date: August 12

text: August 12 – The NASA Space Shuttle, named Enterprise, makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

title: 1977

section: Events › August

date: March 25

text: March 25 – The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.

title: 1979

date: April 12

text: April 12 – The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia, with NASA astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, launches on the STS-1 mission, returning to Earth on April 14. It is the first time a crewed reusable spacecraft has returned from orbit.

title: 1981

date: February 3

text: February 3 – STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission.

title: 1984

date: June 24

text: June 24 – STS-51-G: Space Shuttle Discovery completes its mission, best remembered for having Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a payload specialist.

title: 1985

date: September 29

text: September 29 – STS-26: NASA resumes Space Shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster, with Space Shuttle Discovery.

title: 1988

title: 2011

date: May 30

text: May 30 – The first crewed flight of the SpaceX Dragon 2 (initially scheduled for May 27 but delayed due to weather) is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first crewed spacecraft to take off from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.

title: 2020


slug: spacex

label: SpaceX

description: American spaceflight and AI company

date: September 28

text: September 28 – SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.

title: 2008

date: December 22

text: December 22 – SpaceX lands an uncrewed Falcon 9 rocket, the first reusable rocket to successfully enter orbital space and return.

title: 2015

section: Events › December

date: March 30

text: March 30 – SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital-class rocket.

title: 2017

date: February 6

text: February 6 – SpaceX successfully conducts its maiden flight of its most powerful rocket to date, the Falcon Heavy, from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

title: 2018

date: April 30

text: April 30 – NASA officially selects SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to build its next-generation lunar lander to carry American astronauts to the Moon by 2024.

title: 2020

date: June 3

text: June 3 – SpaceX successfully launches and deploys 60 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, bringing the total number of Starlink satellites in orbit to 482.

title: 2020

text: November 15 – NASA and SpaceX launch the SpaceX Crew-1 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A to the ISS, the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon capsule.

title: 2020

section: Exploration & Expansion

date: April 23

text: April 23 – SpaceX launches the Crew-2 mission, carrying four crew members of Expedition 65 and 66 to the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour.

title: 2021

date: November 11

text: November 11 – SpaceX launches the Crew-3 mission, carrying four Expedition 66 crew members to the International Space Station.

title: 2021

date: September 16

text: September 16 – Inspiration4, launched by SpaceX, becomes the first all-civilian private spaceflight, carrying a four-person crew on a three-day orbit of the Earth. Sian Proctor becomes first female commercial astronaut spaceship pilot and Hayley Arceneaux becomes first astronaut with a prosthesis.

title: 2021

date: October 13

text: October 13 – SpaceX achieves the first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly.

title: 2024

date: April 1

text: April 1 – Fram2 launches aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, becoming the first crewed spaceflight to enter a polar retrograde orbit.

title: 2025