Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.

World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.

World War II: Fuehrerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.

Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the ''Wehrmacht'' of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.

World War II: Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.

World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the ''Reichstag'' building.

Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by the Soviet Union.

World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

World War II: the Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.

Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.

Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.

Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union are established.

Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn.

Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Argentina.

The first in Europe artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated within Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.

A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.

The Voice of America begins transmitting radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union.

The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.

King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.

Cold War: Berlin Airlift – Military forces, under direction of the Russian-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin. * 1948

Start of the Berlin Blockade: the Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.

The Western allies begin an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman issues a peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.

Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.

The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to force collectivisation by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.

Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as ''First Lightning'' or ''Joe 1'', at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic are established.

The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty.

Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.

Cold War: The Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy.

Cold War: The Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy.

Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.

Harry Gold is sentenced to thirty years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel.

East Germany Workers Uprising: in East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.

Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of ''Joe 4'', the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.

The Soviet Union publicly acknowledges that it had tested a hydrogen bomb.