Timeline, Part One: 1945-1960









World War II ends

May 8: Allies declare victory in Europe.

Aug. 14: Japan surrenders.

Sept. 2: V-J Day declared.







'Iron Curtain' drops

March 5: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declares that an "iron curtain" has descended across Europe.



Nixon elected

Nov. 5: Freshman congressman Richard Nixon (left) is assigned to the then-obscure House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).









Hoover testifies

March 26: FBI director J. Edgar Hoover warns HUAC that communists had launched "a furtive attack on Hollywood" 12 years earlier.

Reagan informs

April 10: Ronald Reagan and wife Jane Wyman provide to the FBI names of SAG members believed to be communist sympathizers.

blacklist begins

Nov. 24: Top Hollywood executives decide not to employ individuals who refused to answer questions about communist infiltration of the film industry.









Hiss investigated

Aug. 3: Whitaker Chambers, an editor of Time magazine, testifies before HUAC that Alger Hiss, below, a former member of Franklin Roosevelt's State Department, had been part of the U.S. Communist Party's underground.







UC requires loyalty oath

March 25: University of California President Robert Gordon Sproul proposes a loyalty oath for faculty.

Soviets use A-bomb

Sept. 23: President Harry S. Truman announces that the Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb "in recent weeks."

HUAC probes UC lab

Sept. 27: HUAC holds hearings on alleged communist infiltration of the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley.

Communists rule China

Oct. 1: Mao Zedong formally proclaims the Communist People's Republic of China.







Hiss convicted

Jan. 21: The former State Department employee is found guilty of perjury after first trial ended in hung jury.

McCarthyism starts

Feb. 9: Sen. Joseph P. McCarthy says he has a list of 205 communists in the State Department.



Korean War begins

June 25: North Korea invades South Korea.

State adopts loyalty oath

Sept. 26: California Legislature passes a bill requiring state employees to sign a loyalty oath.

Nixon elected senator

Nov. 7: Nixon wins a seat in the U.S. Senate.







State accuses UC leaders

June 7: The California Senate Subcommittee on Un-American Activities releases a report that accuses top UC officials of having "aided and abetted" subversive groups on campus.







Kerr becomes chancellor

July 1: Kerr is appointed to be the first chancellor for UC Berkeley.



Eisenhower elected

Nov. 4: Dwight Eisenhower, with Nixon as his running mate, is elected president.









Rosenbergs executed

June 19: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of conspiring to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union, are executed.

Korean War ends

July 27: U.S., North Korea and China sign an armistice.



Soviets test H-bomb

Aug. 12: Soviet Union explodes its first hydrogen bomb.









Vietnam divided

July 21: Geneva Accords end French colonialism in Indochina and divide Vietnam at the 17th Parallel.

Reagan goes on TV

Sept. 26: Reagan makes his first appearance as host of "General Electric Theater."



McCarthy rebuked

Dec. 2: The Senate condemns Sen. McCarthy (right) for his unsubstantiated allegations and conspiracy charges.







Warsaw Pact signed

May 14: Soviet Union and seven Eastern European nations sign an agreement calling for the countries to defend each other in case of attack.







Hungarians revolt

October 23: The people of Hungary rebel against communist rule but the resistance is crushed by the Soviets.

Eisenhower re-elected

Nov. 6: The GOP ticket of Eisenhower and Nixon is returned to office for a second term.

Khrushchev speech worries West

Nov. 17: "We will bury you," Soviet Secretary General Nikita Khrushchev tells Western diplomats.









Soviets launch Sputnik

Oct. 4: Soviet Union sends the first satellite into orbit. A month later it launches Sputnik 2, which carries a dog into space.







U.S. launches Explorer

Jan. 31: The United States sends its first satellite into orbit.

Reagan pitches FBI role

June 20: FBI headquarters learns Reagan wants to star in the movie "The FBI Story," but the bureau isn't interested because of his left-wing past.



Kerr becomes UC president

Sept 29: Clark Kerr (right) is inaugurated as UC president in a ceremony at the Greek Theatre.









Castro takes reins

Jan. 8: Culminating a six-year rebellion, Fidel Castro (left) rolls into Havana, a week after President Batista fled Cuba. Castro becomes prime minister in February.

Reagan stumps for Nixon

As Vice President Nixon campaigns against John F. Kennedy for the presidency, Reagan delivers more than 200 speeches as a "Democrat for Nixon."









Soviets shoot American plane

May 1: U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down over central USSR.

HUAC protested

May 12-14: Thousands of demonstrators protest HUAC hearings at San Francisco City Hall.

JFK wins election

Nov. 8: Kennedy defeats Nixon in the closest presidential election of the century.



Part Two: 1961-1965