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NATO

intergovernmental military alliance between 32 member states

48 dated entries naming NATO, drawn from 32 separate years between 1948 CE and 2025 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

JSONWikipedia articleWikidata Q7184

20th century

  • 1948January 22 – British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France and the Benelux countries to stand up against the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence, a predecessor to NATO.source
  • 1949March 30 – An anti-NATO riot in Iceland takes place, prompted by the decision of the Icelandic parliament to join the newly formed NATO.source
  • 1949April 4 – The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance.source
  • 19494 April – Luxembourg signs the North Atlantic Treaty, becoming a founder member of NATO.source
  • 1949August 24 – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is established.source
  • 1951September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.source
  • 1955May 9 – West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).source
  • 1960December 16 – Secretary of State Christian Herter announces that the United States will commit five nuclear submarines and eighty Polaris missiles to the defense of the NATO countries by the end of 1963.source
  • 1961January 7 – Following a four-day conference in Casablanca, five African chiefs of state announce plans for a NATO-type African organization to ensure common defense. The Charter of Casablanca involves the Casablanca Group: Morocco, the United Arab Republic, Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.source
  • 1966September 9 – NATO decides to move Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe to Belgium.source
  • 1974August 14 – Greece withdraws its forces from NATO's military command structure, as a result of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.source
  • 1979June 25 – NATO Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt in Belgium by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.source
  • 1981December 10 – During the Ministerial Session of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Spain signs the Protocol of Accession to NATO.source
  • 1983November 7 – Able Archer 83: Many Soviet officials misinterpret this NATO exercise as a nuclear first strike, causing the last nuclear scare of the Cold War.source
  • 1990February 12 – Representatives of NATO and the Warsaw Pact meet in Ottawa for an "Open Skies" conference. The conference results in agreements about superpower troop levels in Europe and on German reunification.source
  • 1990October 24 – Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti reveals the existence of Operation Gladio, a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy during the Cold War.source
  • 1993May 26 – Albanian President Sali Berisha urges the United States and NATO to take action to prevent Serbian ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians.source
  • 1995June 2 – A United States Air Force F-16 piloted by Captain Scott O'Grady is shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines six days later.source
  • 1995August 30 – Operation Deliberate Force, the NATO bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb artillery positions, begins in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuing into September. At the same time, ARBiH forces begin an offensive against the Bosnian Serb Army around Sarajevo, central Bosnia and Bosnian Krajina.source
  • 1995December 20 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.source
  • 1996February 10 – Bosnian Serbs break off contact with the Bosnian government and with representatives of IFOR, the NATO localised force, in reaction to the arrest of several Bosnian Serb war criminals.source
  • 1997July 8 – NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.source
  • 1999March 12 – Former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic join NATO.source
  • 1999March 24 – NATO launches air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign state.source
  • 1999May 7 – Kosovo War: in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 others wounded when a NATO B-2 aircraft bombs the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.source
  • 1999June 9 – Kosovo War: Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty to end their hostilities.source
  • 1999June 10 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.source
  • 1999June 12 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian/Operation Agricola begins: NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping forces KFOR enter Kosovo, Yugoslavia.source

21st century

  • 2001August 21 – Operation Essential Harvest: NATO sends a military forces to the Republic of Macedonia in response to the ongoing insurgency.source
  • 2002November 22 – Prague summit: NATO announces seven new countries that intend to join: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.source
  • 2003March 23 – Slovenia approves joining the European Union and NATO in a referendum.source
  • 2004March 29 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are admitted to NATO, the largest expansion of the organization.source
  • 200429 March – Bulgaria is admitted to NATO.source
  • 2009April 1 – Albania and Croatia join NATO.source
  • 2009May 1 – The state stamp maker Azermarka issued postage stamps dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Azerbaijan's cooperation with NATO.source
  • 2010April 22 - NATO foreign ministers agree to launch a Membership Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina.source
  • 20141 April – NATO suspends "all practical civilian and military cooperation" with Russia as a result of the annexation of Crimea, and no sign that Russian troops have withdrawn from the Ukrainian border.source
  • 2015November 24 – Turkey shoots down a Russian fighter jet on the Turkish–Syrian border in the first case of a NATO member destroying a Russian aircraft since the 1950s.source
  • 2017June 5 – Montenegro joins NATO as the 29th member.source
  • 2019February 12 – The Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia, officially ending a decades-old dispute with Greece and paving the way for the former's integration into NATO and the EU.source
  • 2020February 28 – Syrian Civil War: NATO expresses solidarity with Turkey after 34 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike by pro-Syrian government forces.source
  • 202027 March – North Macedonia becomes a full member of NATO.source
  • 2020May 14 – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is "ready to support" the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Libya while Greece, a member state of NATO, strongly criticizes Stoltenberg's remarks, saying his recognition of the "Muslim Brotherhood government" does not reflect the positions of the military alliance.source
  • 2020December 14 – Turkey–United States relations: The United States places sanctions on Turkey in retaliation for their purchase of a S-400 missile system from Russia, marking the first time they have sanctioned a NATO ally.source
  • 2021April 2 – Russia warns NATO against sending any troops to aid Ukraine, amid reports of a large Russian military build-up on its borders.source
  • 2022February 4 – China and Russia issue a joint statement opposing further NATO expansion, expressing "serious concerns" about the AUKUS security pact, and pledging to cooperate with each other on a range of issues.source
  • 2024March 7 – As the final Nordic country to join the alliance, Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming its 32nd member after Finland a year earlier.source
  • 2025September 9 – Russian drone incursion into Poland: Multiple drones breach Polish airspace during a large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine and are intercepted by Polish and NATO forces, marking the first attack on NATO territory and prompting Poland to invoke Article 4.source

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