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Quick Revision Table
| Event / Concept | Key Date(s) | Key Figures | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| WWI triggered | 28 Jun 1914 | Franz Ferdinand assassinated; Gavrilo Princip | Started the "Great War" |
| WWI ends | 11 Nov 1918 | Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated | 17 million dead; four empires collapsed |
| Treaty of Versailles | 28 Jun 1919 | Clemenceau, Wilson, Lloyd George | Imposed war guilt on Germany; caused WWII |
| League of Nations | Jan 1920 | Woodrow Wilson proposed; USA never joined | First collective security org; failed |
| Great Depression | 1929–33 | Stock market crash Oct 1929 | Unemployment 30% Germany; enabled Hitler |
| WWII starts | 1 Sep 1939 | Hitler invades Poland | Britain/France declare war 3 Sep 1939 |
| Stalingrad | Aug 1942 – Feb 1943 | Generals Paulus vs. Zhukov | Turning point of European war |
| D-Day | 6 Jun 1944 | General Eisenhower; 156,000 troops | Largest amphibious assault; opened Western Front |
| Hiroshima/Nagasaki | 6 & 9 Aug 1945 | Truman ordered; Enola Gay dropped bomb | 140,000+80,000 deaths; Japan surrendered 15 Aug |
| UN founded | 24 Oct 1945 | 51 founding members | Replaced League of Nations; P5 veto |
| Iron Curtain speech | Mar 1946 | Winston Churchill | Coined Cold War division concept |
| Truman Doctrine | Mar 1947 | President Truman | US commitment to fight communism globally |
| Marshall Plan | Jun 1947 | Secretary George Marshall | $13 billion for European reconstruction |
| NATO formed | 4 Apr 1949 | 12 founding members | US-led Western military alliance |
| Korean War | 1950–53 | Kim Il-sung, MacArthur, Truman | 38th Parallel; peninsula still divided |
| Panchsheel | 29 Apr 1954 | Nehru-Zhou Enlai | Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence |
| Bandung Conference | Apr 1955 | Nehru, Sukarno, Nasser | Foundation of Non-Aligned Movement |
| Warsaw Pact | 14 May 1955 | USSR + Eastern Europe | Soviet-led military alliance vs. NATO |
| Sputnik-1 | 4 Oct 1957 | USSR | First satellite; triggered Space Race |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | 16–28 Oct 1962 | Kennedy, Khrushchev | Closest to nuclear war; Hot Line created |
| Vietnam War ends | 30 Apr 1975 | Ho Chi Minh (died 1969); Ford | Communist victory; US withdrawal 1973 |
| SALT I | May 1972 | Nixon, Brezhnev | First strategic arms limitation agreement |
| Berlin Wall falls | 9 Nov 1989 | Gorbachev (passive); Kohl; Crowds | Cold War division ended; Germany reunified 1990 |
| USSR dissolves | 25 Dec 1991 | Gorbachev resigns | 15 new states; Cold War officially over |