Timeline

Timeline of Major Events, National Policies, and Establishment of Government Agencies Involved in U.S. National
Security

1790—August 4 U.S. Coast Guard founded as part of Department of the Treasury

1791—December 15 Adoption of the U.S. Bill of Rights

1815—September 26 Holy Alliance established among Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, and Russia

1819—February 22 Spain cedes Florida to United States in Transcontinental Treaty

1848—February Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1863 First Geneva Convention

1886—May 4 Haymarket Bombing, one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks in U.S. history

1898—April–August Spanish-American War

1899 First Hague Convention

1904—May Theodore Roosevelt articulates his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

1906 Second Geneva Convention

1906—June–August Second Hague Peace Conference

1909—December 4–February 26 First London Naval Conference

1914—June 28 Assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand is the spark

that ignites World War I

1917—April 6 United States enters World War I

1917—May 18 President Woodrow Wilson signs draft law to enlist soldiers for World War I

1917—November 2 Balfour Declaration

1918—October Native American codetalkers first employed during World War I

1920—January 10 League of Nations convenes for first time

1920—September 16 Terrorist bombing of Wall Street in New York City

1922—February 6 Washington Naval Treaty signed by the United States, Great Britain,
Japan, France, and Italy

1923 Interpol founded

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1925—June 17 Gas Protocol signed by many nations

1928—August 27 Kellogg-Briand Pact signed in Paris

1929 Third Geneva Convention

1930—January 21–April 22 Second London Naval Conference

1938—May 26 Creation of House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

1939—August 23 Soviet Union and Nazi Germany sign nonaggression pact

1939—September 1 Nazi forces launch blitzkrieg against Poland, marking the official start of World War II

1939—November 4 Neutrality Act

1940—June 22 France falls to Nazi Germany

1940—September 16 First peacetime draft takes place in the United States

1941—March 11 U.S. Congress passes Lend-Lease Act

1941—July Creation of the Foreign Information Service (FIS) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt

1941—August 9 Atlantic Charter signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt

1941—October Manhattan Project launched to produce atomic bomb

1941—December 1 Civil Air Patrol founded by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York

1941—December 7 Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II

1942—February 19 Executive order allowing for internment of Japanese Americans in the United States

1944—June 1–22 Bretton Woods Conference held in New Hampshire

1944—June 6 Allied forces launch the D-Day invasion of France

1944—December Battle of the Bulge, World War II

1945—February 3 Allies begin bombing Dresden, Germany

1945—February 4–11 Yalta Conference of the Big Three—Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill,
and Joseph Stalin

1945—May 8 German forces officially surrender, ending the European phase of World War II

1945—June 26 Formation of the United Nations

1945—July 16 Successful atomic bomb test at Trinity test site in New Mexico

1945—August 6 United States drops atomic bomb on Japanese city of Hiroshima

1945—August 9 United States drops atomic bomb on Japanese city of Nagasaki

1945—August 14 Japan surrenders unconditionally to the United States, ending World War II

1945—October 24 Ratification of the United Nations Charter

1946—March 5 Winston Churchill gives “Iron Curtain” speech

1947—January 2 National Security Committee established as part of Legislative Reorganization Act

1947—June 5 Announcement of the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan
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1947—July 26 National Security Act

1947—August 15 United States and 19 Latin American countries sign the Rio Pact

1947—October 30 Creation of General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

1948—April 3 President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan into law

1948—June 28 Start of Berlin airlift

1948—December 9 UN General Assembly adopts Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide

1949—March 26 Camp David Accords signed by Israel and Palestinians

1949—April 4 North Atlantic Treaty establishes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

1949—April–August Fourth Geneva Convention

1949—May 12 Soviet Union ends blockade of Berlin

1949—October 1 Formation of the communist People’s Republic of China

1949—October Chinese Communist Party takes control in China

1950—June 25 North Korean troops attack South Korea, beginning the Korean War

1950—July 4 Radio Free Europe begins broadcasting to Eastern Europe

1951—September 1 Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) established

1953—July 27 Cease-fire in Korea

1953—July Demilitarized zone (DMZ) established in Korea along the 38th parallel

1953—October 1 Mutual Defense Treaty signed between United States and Republic of Korea

1953—December 8 Dwight D. Eisenhower presents Atoms for Peace speech at the United Nations

1954—March 1 United States detonates hydrogen bomb on Bikini atoll in the Pacific

1954—April 7 Dwight D. Eisenhower first articulates the domino theory

1954—July 21 Vietnam and France sign the Geneva Peace Accord

1954—September 8 Formation of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO)

1955—May 14 Formation of the Warsaw Pact in Eastern Europe

1956—July 26 Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal

1956—October Revolt in Hungary

1956—October 29 Great Britain and Israel attack Egypt, initiating the Suez War

1956—November 6 Cease-fire in the Suez War

1957—January 5 Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes Eisenhower Doctrine

1957—March Establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC)

1957—July 29 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) founded

1957—October 4 Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first satellite to reach outer space
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1957—November Gaither Report presents proposals to narrow the missile gap between the
United States and Soviet Union

1958—January 31 First U.S. satellite, Explorer I, sent into orbit around the earth

1958—August 6 U.S. Congress passes Defense Reorganization Act

1958—September 2 National Defense Education Act (NDEA)

1959 Formation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

1960—May 1 U.S. spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers shot down by Soviets over Soviet territory

1961—March John F. Kennedy launches Alliance for Progress program

1961—April 17 Cuban exiles begin so-called Bay of Pigs invasion

1961—August 13 East German government begins building a wall between East and West Berlin

1961—September 4 Creation of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

1962—October Cuban Missile Crisis

1963—July Limited Test Ban Treaty signed in Moscow

1964—August U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1966 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution begins in China

1967—June 5 Israel attacks Egypt, precipitating the Six-Day War

1967—August 8 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) established

1968—January 23 North Korea seizes U.S. intelligence ship, the Pueblo

1968—January 31 Tet Offensive launched by North Vietnamese against South Vietnam

1969—July 20 U.S. places first humans on the moon with the Apollo 11 flight

1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organized Act (RICO)

1970—March 5 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty entered into force

1970—May 4 Shootings of students at Kent State University by Ohio National Guard troops

1971—January 2 Congress repeals Tonkin Gulf Resolution

1971—June 13 New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers

1972—February 27 Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai sign U.S.-China joint communiqué

1972—April 10 Biological Weapons Convention goes into effect

1972—May Moscow Summit between United States and Soviet Union

1972—May 26 United States and Soviet Union sign the Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty

1973—January 23 North Vietnam and South Vietnam sign peace agreement ending the war

1973—July 1 Conscription (the draft) ends in the United States

1973—October OPEC nations impose production restraints and an embargo on the United States

1973—October 6 Egypt and Syria launch surprise attack on Israel, beginning the Yom Kippur War
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1973—November 7 Congress passes the War Powers Act

1975—May 15 Cambodian gunboats seize the Mayaquez, a U.S. merchant vessel

1976 National Defense University formed from the National War College and the
Industrial College of the Armed Forces

1977—June U.S. Congress establishes Department of Energy

1978—May 26 First attack of the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski

1979—April 10 President Jimmy Carter signs the Taiwan Relations Act

1979—June 18 United States and Soviet Union sign the SALT II Treaty

1979—November 4 Iranian hostage crisis begins with seizure of U.S. embassy in Tehran

1980—April 11 Operation Desert One, attempt to free U.S. hostages in Iran

1981—January 20 End of Iranian hostage crisis, with release of the hostages

1983—March 23 President Ronald Reagan announces his Strategic Defense Initiative

1983—October 25 U.S. forces invade Caribbean island of Grenada

1986—April 15 United States launches bombing raid against Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi

1986—October Summit meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, between the United States and Soviet Union

1986—October 1 Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act

1986—December 20 United States invades Panama and captures Manuel Noriega

1987—May–August Televised hearings on the Iran-Contra affair

1987—December Founding of radical Islamic organization Hamas

1987—December 8 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed by Reagan and Gorbachev

1990—August 2 Iraq invades and seizes neighboring nation of Kuwait

1990—October 3 People of East and West Germany vote to reunite their countries

1990—November 5 Defense Closure and Realignment Act

1990—November 19 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty signed by NATO and Warsaw Pact members

1990—November 21 Charter of Paris for a New Europe signed by various European nations

1990—November 29 United Nations authorizes use of force against Iraq after Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

1991—January 9 U.S. Congress authorizes use of force against Iraq

1991—January 17 Beginning of Operation Desert Storm, offensive against Iraq in first Gulf War

1991—February 24 Beginning of Operation Desert Sabre, the ground invasion of Kuwait

1991—March Founding of Mercosur, the so-called Southern Common Market

1991—July Break up of the former Warsaw Pact

1991—August 18 Attempted coup by communist hardliners against Mikhail Gorbachev and Soviet government

1991—September 25 Collapse of the Soviet Union

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1991—December National Security Education Act passed by Congress

1991—December 12 Maastricht Treaty establishes the European Union (EU)

1991—December 31 Soviet Union is officially dissolved and broken up into separate republics

1992—March 24 United States and Russia sign the Open Skies Treaty

1992—May United Nations authorizes sending of humanitarian aid to Bosnia

1992—August FBI siege of white separatists at Ruby Ridge, Idaho

1993—January 3 United States and Russia sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II)

1993—February 26 Terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City

1993—February 28 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms launches Operation Trojan Horse against Branch
Davidians in Waco, Texas

1993—September 13 Israel and the PLO sign the Oslo Accords

1993—October 3 Start of the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia

1994—January 1 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) takes effect

1994—October 21 Agreed Framework signed by United States and North Korea

1995—January Creation of World Trade Organization (WTO)

1995—March 20 Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo, releases deadly sarin gas in Tokyo subway

1995—April 19 Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building

1995—November 21 Signing of Dayton Accords by Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia

1996—June 25 Terrorist attack on Al-Khobar complex housing U.S. forces in Dhahran

1996—September Taliban seizes power in Afghanistan

1996—September 24 Signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

1997—April Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force

1998—July 17 Rome Statute creates the International Criminal Court

1998—August Terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania

1998—October 1 Defense Threat Reduction Agency established

1999—March 1 Ottawa Treaty outlaws land mines

1999—December 17 Establishment of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)

2000—October 12 Terrorist bombing of USS Cole at the port of Aden, Yemen

2000—November 30 Congress passes the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

2001—September 11 Terrorist attacks against World Trade Center and the Pentagon

2001—October 7 United States begins bombing campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan

2001—October 8 Homeland Security Council established by executive order

2001—October 26 George W. Bush signs USA PATRIOT Act into law

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2002—January George W. Bush refers to “axis of evil” in state of the union address

2002—March Adoption of Homeland Security Advisory System

2002—May 24 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) signed by United States and Russia

2002—October 12 Terrorist bomb explodes on island of Bali

2002—November 25 U.S. Congress passes Homeland Security Act

2003—January U.S. Department of Homeland Security begins operation

2003—March 20 United States begins air strikes against Iraq in Iraq War of 2003

2003—May 1 George W. Bush proclaims end to major combat operations in Iraq