Here is a timeline that I have made which illustrates key events between 1945 to 1965 such as post WW2 events that had a large impact on the world.
1945
- 10th March 1945 - German prisoners of war escaped from Island Farm Camp in Bridgend, South Wales through a tunnel. It is known as the biggest escape by German prisoners of war in the United Kingdom during the second world war.
- 30th April 1945 - Adolf Hitler died by method of suicide in his "Führerbunker". The method he killed himself with was gunshot. His wife Eva also committed suicide by method of taking cyanide.
- 8th May 1945 - V.E Day. A week after the death of Adolf Hitler, Grand Admiral Donitz was left to surrender to "Western and Russian demands on 7th May 1945." The date for official celebrations to begin after this news was 8th May, however British people began celebrating on 7th May as soon as hey heard the news. It was the end of rationing- the end of only having 5 inches of water to bath in.
- 6th August 1945 - In the morning on this day, an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. 60,000 to 80,000 people were killed instantly. The following weeks and months after the bombing thousands more people died due to injuries such as burns, radiation sickness and malnutrition. The explosion destroyed 10 square kilometres of the city, and due to the explosion being so hot, fires burned throughout the city for 3 days.
- 9th August 1945 - Three days after the Hiroshima atomic bomb, the US dropped a second, bigger atomic bomb onto another Japanese city called Nagasaki which was a very important port. Again a large amount of people were killed on the impact of the bomb- somewhere around 40,000 people were killed instantly, then thousands more would follow due to the after effects of the bomb, like in Hiroshima. These bombings were a major turning point for WW2, as people questioned whether or not things could get any worse. Japan later surrendered on 15th August.
- 2nd September 1945 - World war 2 came to an end. Although on 30th April when Hitler died it marked the end of the war in Europe and other Western countries, in some countries such as Japan, the war still raged on. On 2nd September 1945, Japan officially surrendered- ending the second world war.
- 31st December 1945 - England received their first shipment of bananas since the end of the war.
1947
- 1947 - This is the year when the Cold War began. The Cold War was the "geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR" the USSR is also known as the soviet union.
1950
- 1950's - Rock and Roll movement. It originated in the United States from sub genres of African American music such as blues.
- 25th June 1950 - The Korean war began which was a war between North and South Korea. The United States fought for the south of Korea and China, along with some assistance from the Soviet Union fought for the north of Korea. The war began after the end of WW2 when Korea was divided, as Korea had been ruled by Japan.
1955
- 1st December 1955 - Rosa Parks, an African American woman was arrested on this date for not giving up her seat on a bus for a white man. During this time African Americans had to sit at the back of the bus- or if the bus was full/busy they'd have to give up their seat for any white person who didn't have one. On the night of Rosa Parks' arrest, a bus boycott began. The bus boycott was where African American's "refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating". This boycott ran from 1st December 1955 to 20th December 1965.
1957
- 3rd November 1957 - The first spacecraft carrying a living thing was launched into the earths orbit. The spacecraft was called Sputnik 2. The "living thing" that was sent into the earth's orbit was a dog called Laika. This mission provided scientists with the first data on a living organism in a space environment.
1962
- 16th October 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis happened. This was an event that went on for 13 days. It was between the United States and The Soviet Union where they fired missiles into eachother over the country of Cuba. The result of this was the soviet union and United States withdrawing nuclear missiles. The United States also came to the agreement that they wouldn't attack Cuba unless "directly provoked". This agreement also lead to the formation of the "nuclear hotline" between the United States and Russia. This "hotline" provides direct communication between the two countries leaders.
1963
- 28th August 1963 - Martin Luther King gave his iconic and world renowned "I have a dream" speech.
1965
- 8th March 1965 - The first American combat troops arrived in Vietnam. They joined 23,000 American troops already in Vietnam at China Beach.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_events_in_the_Cold_War
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-cold-war-1945-1965
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zdfcwmn/revision/10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/ve_day
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652262.shtml
http://worldwar2.org.uk/when-did-world-war-2-finish
http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rosa-parks-ignites-bus-boycot
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
http://www.enkivillage.com/when-did-the-vietnam-war-start.html
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1965.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_events_in_the_Cold_War
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-cold-war-1945-1965
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zdfcwmn/revision/10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/ve_day
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652262.shtml
http://worldwar2.org.uk/when-did-world-war-2-finish
http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rosa-parks-ignites-bus-boycot
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
http://www.enkivillage.com/when-did-the-vietnam-war-start.html
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1965.html