Intelligence Events Timeline
The CIA Legacy Timeline is the leading national archive of declassified intelligence artifacts, culture, and history.
1941, December 7
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
1942, June 4
Battle of Midway victory due to US Navy’s ability to break key Japanese naval code
1944, June 6
D-Day; Allies invade France, landing at Normandy
1945, July 16
First atomic bomb detonates at the Trinity site (NM); Soviet spies working in program keep Stalin informed
1945, September 2
World War II ends
1945, October 24
United Nations formed
1946, March 5
UK Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill delivers “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, MO
1947, March 12
President Truman announces the Truman Doctrine to aid nations threatened by Communism
1948, April 3
President Truman signs the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Western Europe
1948, June 1948
USSR blockades Berlin; resulting crises deepen worsening Cold War
1949, September 23
US announces that the Soviets have exploded an atomic bomb
1949, October 1
The People’s Republic of China is proclaimed in Beijing
1950, June 25
North Korea invades South Korea
1951, April 5
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sentenced to death for spying for Soviet Union
1953, March 5
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin dies
1953, July 27
Armistice ends Korean war
1953, August 12
USSR secretly explodes its first hydrogen bomb
1956, October 1956
Crises and conflicts in both Hungary and the Suez
1957, October 4
Soviet Union successfully launches Sputnik I satellite
1959, January 1
Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba
1961, May 5
Alan Shepard becomes first American to travel in outer space
1961, August 13
Soviet-led East Germany begins Berlin Wall construction
1963, May 16
Soviets execute Col. Oleg Penkovsky, a CIA asset and high-ranking member of Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU)
1963, November 1
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem regime toppled
1963, November 22
President Kennedy assassinated,
1964, August 7
Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, deepening US commitment in Vietnam
1967, June 1967
Arab-Israeli war (known as Six-Day War) ends in quick Israeli victory
1968, January 30
Tet Offensive shocks American commanders in Vietnam; shifts US public opinion against war
1968, August 20
Soviets invade Czechoslovakia to suppress reformist government
1969, November 17
US-USSR Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) begin
1970, April 30
US and South Vietnam troops invade Cambodia to cut Communist supply routes
1971, June 13
The New York Times publishes the “Pentagon Papers” – classified historical documents on US involvement in Vietnam
1972, February 21
President Nixon visits China
1972, May 26
US and USSR sign Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, followed by signing of SALT I agreement in August
1972, June 17
Watergate break-in; five of the men arrested have past CIA ties
1973, January 27
US signs Paris Peace Accords intended to end Vietnam War
1973, October 6
Arab coalition attacks Israel at the start of Yom Kippur war
1975, April 30
US Personnel evacuate Saigon as South Vietnam falls to the Communists
1979, November 4
Iran seizes US Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of US hostages until January 1981
1979, December 25
Soviets invade Afghanistan
1981, December 13
Poland’s Communist government declares martial law and suppresses Solidarity Movement
1983, April 18
Terrorists bomb US Embassy in Beirut; many Americans killed
1983, October 25
US invades Grenada to rescue stranded US citizens and to topple its Marxist regime
1986, April 26
Russian nuclear reactor in Chernobyl explodes
1988, December 21
Libyan-sponsored terrorists blow up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland
1989, April 5
Poland’s government restores Solidarity Movement’s legal status; vows to permit free elections
1989, June 3
Chinese troops crush protest demonstration in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
1989, November 9
German citizens from both East and West Berlin tear down Berlin Wall
1989, December 20
US invades Panama to arrest strongman president General Manuel Noriega on narcotics trafficking charges
1990, August 2
Iraq invades Kuwait
1990, October 3
West and East Germany unify as a single republic in NATO
1991, January 17
US-led coalition begins Operation Desert Storm to enforce UN resolutions and to drive Iraq out of Kuwait
1991, December 21
USSR splits into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
1993, February 26
Islamic terrorists bomb New York World Trade Center; Ramsi Yousef responsible
1993, December 21
President Boris Yeltsin abolishes KGB
1994, September 19
US Operation Uphold Democracy lands troops in Haiti
1995, November 21
Bosnia Peace Accord signed; US sends 20,000 troops to UN International Peacekeeping Force in Bosnia
1998, January 8
Ramsi Yousef sentenced to life in prison for 1993 New York World Trade Center bombing
1998, August 7
Al-Qa’ida bombs US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; more than 225 people killed
1999, March 24
NATO begins air bombing campaign to force Serbia out of Kosovo
1999, June 7
Usama bin Laden added to FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list
1999, December 14
NATO and Yugoslavia sign accord for withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo
2000, October 12
Al-Qa’ida attacks USS Cole in Aden, Yemen; 17 sailors killed
2001, September 11
Al-Qa’ida terrorists crash airplanes into World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, PA, killing almost 3,000 people
2001, November 17
Taliban removed from power in Afghanistan
2003, March 11
Pakistan captures Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, reported mastermind of 9/11 attacks
2003, March 19
Operation Iraqi Freedom launched
2003, April 9
Saddam Hussein’s regime collapses in Iraq
2003, December 13
U.S. Special Forces capture Saddam Hussein near Tikrit, Iraq
2004, October 2004
Afghanistan holds first national election
2005, January 2005
Iraq holds first national election
2005, July 7
Al Qa’ida affiliated terrorists conducted bombing attacks in London’s subway and bus systems, killing 52 and injuring approximately 700
2006, December 30
Saddam Hussein executed at Iraqi army base in Baghdad
2008, November 26
Attacks at 10 sites in Mumbai, India kill almost 200 people
2009, December 25
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts to destroy flight over Detroit with PETN explosives hidden in his clothes
2010, January 12
7.0 magnitude earthquake causes alleged death toll of 300,000 and destroys majority of schools and businesses in Haiti
2010, March 26
Mysterious explosion splits and sinks South Korean Navy ship Cheonan, killing 46 of the 104 sailors on board
2010, April 20
Gulf of Mexico Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit DEEPWATER HORIZON explosion kills 11 and results in catastrophic oil spill
2010, August 5 - October 13
A large cave-in at a Chilean copper-gold mine trapped 33 men 2,300 feet underground, 3 miles from the mine entrance. They survived for a record 69 days.
2011, January 8
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head in Arizona during her first “Congress on Your Corner” gathering of the year. The gunman injured 14 and killed six.
2011, January 25-February 11
The Egyptian revolution and uprising – mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance.
2011, March 11
The Tōhoku earthquake was a magnitude-9.0 undersea earthquake off the coast of Japan.
2011, December 17
Kim Jong Un becomes the new leader of North Korea following the death of Kim Jong Un
2012, June 4
Al Qa’ida’s number two, Abu Yahya al-Libi, is killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan
2012, August 6
The American rover Curiosity (pictured) landed on Mars, as part of the Mars Science Laboratory
2013, April 15
Boston Marathon bombing kills 3, injures 250
2014, March 21
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs legislation to complete the annexation of Crimea
2015, July 20
The United States restores bilateral relations with Cuba
2016, June 24
The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union by a vote of 52 percent to 48 percent
2016, October 15
US Strategic Command detects a failed North Korean ballistic missile launch
2016, November 25
Fidel Castro dies
2017, September 3
North Korea conducts underground nuclear test at Punggye Nuclear Test Site, estimated yield 140 KT
