The ill-fated attempt, in April of 1961, to overthrow Fidel Castro by means of an invasion of Cuban exiles. The invasion force was cut to pieces at the bay that gave the fiasco its name.
The struggle, commencing with the end of World War II, between the Soviet Union and the United States for world supremacy. It reached its point of highest tension in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The two-week period of crisis in October 1962, which began with the Soviet Union's decision to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, just off the coast of the United States. During these two weeks, international tensions threatened to catapult the world into nuclear war, but JFK and Nikita Khrushchev were able to resolve the crisis peacefully.
The conflict (1939-45) that pitted Nazi Germany and Japan against Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. It ended with the Nazis' defeat, and the emergence of the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. as the world's two "superpowers." See also the SparkNote on World War II.