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Eisenhower | Article

Eisenhower's World Events

Browse a chronology of major international events that occurred during Eisenhower's presidency.

1953

  • U.S. and North Korea sign armistice ending the Korean War
  • Marshal Tito is elected president of Yugoslavia
  • Josef Stalin dies
  • Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain crowned
  • USSR explodes a hydrogen bomb
  • Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay are the first to climb Mt. Everest

1954

  • Abdul Nasser seizes power in Egypt and becomes premier
  • Southeast Asia Treaty Organization is established (SEATO)
  • U.S. tests hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll
  • Vietnamese Communists occupy Dien Bien Phu and Hanoi
  • U.S. signs a pact with Nationalist China (Taiwan)

1955

  • Italy, West Germany, and France establish the European Union
  • West Germany joins NATO
  • Juan Perón resigns from the presidency of Argentina
  • Warsaw Pact signed, establishing military alliances between Communist members
  • Elections take place in South Vietnam -- Bao Dai is replaced by Ngo Dinh Diem

1956

  • Sudan becomes an independent nation
  • Pakistan becomes a Muslim republic
  • Israeli troops invade the Sinai Peninsula
  • Suez Crisis occurs
  • Japan joins the UN
  • Soviet troops enter Hungary -- martial law declared
  • Transatlantic cable telephone service begins

1957

  • Israel hands over the Gaza Strip to UN forces
  • USSR launches Sputnik
  • International Atomic Energy Agency established
  • Great Britain explodes a thermonuclear bomb

1958

  • The European Common Market is established
  • Egypt and the Sudan join to become the United Arab Republic under Nasser
  • Khruschev becomes head of the USSR
  • Charles de Gaulle becomes president of France
  • Fidel Castro begins "total war" against the Batista government in Cuba
  • U.S. Marines go into Lebanon at the request of President Camille Chamoun

1959

  • Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba
  • De Valera becomes president of Ireland
  • Bandaranaika, president of Ceylon, is assassinated
  • USSR Lunik program reaches the moon

1960

  • Belgian Congo is granted independence (Congo)
  • Cyprus becomes an independent republic
  • Khruschev, Harold Macmillan, Eisenhower, de Gaulle meet for summit talks in Paris
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