Milestones
August 14, 1941
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill issue a joint declaration to be known as the Atlantic Charter. The document is an affirmation, as the document declared, “of certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they based their hopes for a better future for the world.”
Jan 1, 1942
Delegates from twenty-six countries affirm the principles of the Atlantic Charter and signed the United Nations Declaration in 1942.
July 1-22, 1944
The Bretton Woods Conference is held in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, leading to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank).
April 25–June 26, 1945
San Francisco Conference, representatives from fifty nations approve the United Nations Charter.
September 6, 1946
Secretary of State James F. Byrnes delivers the landmark speech -- known as the “Speech of Hope” -- which sets the course for postwar U.S. relations with Europe and laid the groundwork for the Marshall Plan.
September 19, 1946
Speaking in Zurich, Switzerland, British statesman Winston Churchill speaks of "the re-creation of the European family” and the need “to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe.”
June 5, 1947
In a commencement speech at Harvard University, Secretary of State George Marshall announces a new European Recovery Program. In return for financial investments, the Marshall Plan required close economic cooperation between European nations. This helped lay the groundwork for the European Union. The program distributed $13 billion of U.S. aid to 16 European countries before it ended in 1952. The Plan included West Germany, which was thus reintegrated into the European community. The Marshall Plan also institutionalized and legitimized the concept of U.S. foreign aid programs, which have become an integral part of U.S. foreign policy.
1947
The first draft of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947) is concluded and signed.
July 1947
George F. Kennan, a career Foreign Service officer, formulates the policy of "containment," the basic U.S. Cold War strategy. The concept first comes to public attention in the form of an anonymous contribution entitled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” to the journal, Foreign Affairs. "The main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union," Kennan wrote as “X”, "must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies."
April 16, 1948
The Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) is created to coordinate the Marshall Plan.
1948-49
In June 1948, the Soviet Union institutes a blockade of Berlin to protest Western efforts to integrate their zones of occupation in western Germany. The United States and its allies respond with a massive airlift that delivered supplies to the people of Berlin. The blockade is lifted in May 1949.
December 10, 1948
The General Assembly of the United Nations adopts and proclaims the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
March 17, 1948
The Western European Union (WEU) is set up for the purposes of cooperation on defence and security.
April 4, 1949
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, is founded. The Washington Treaty is signed by the USA, Canada and 10 Western European states. The key feature of the pact is a mutual defense clause: if one country is attacked the others will come to its defense.
May 9, 1950
French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann presents a proposal, now known as the “Schumann Declaration,” for the creation of a unified Europe.
November 4, 1950
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is drawn up within the Council of Europe as a step toward the collective enforcement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
April 18, 1951
Triggered by the Schumann Plan, the Treaties of Paris establish the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
May 27, 1952
The six members of the ECSC sign the European Defence Community (EDC) Treaty in Paris. The original scheme called the Pleven Plan was aimed at setting up a European army. The French Parliament refused to ratify the treaty in 1954 and as a result it collapsed.
August 11, 1952
The ECSC begins work with Jean Monnet at its head. The United States was the first country to recognize the European Coal and Steel Community. On his first day on the job as President of the Community’s High Authority, the forerunner to the European Commission, Monnet received a diplomatic dispatch from Secretary of State Dean Acheson on behalf of President Truman - the first formal diplomatic note addressed by a foreign government to a European institution.
Excerpt: “It is the intention of the United States to give the Coal and Steel Community the strong support that its importance to the political and economic unification of Europe warrants. As appropriate under the Treaty, the United States will now deal with the Community on coal and steel matters. All Americans will join me in welcoming this new institution and in expressing the expectation that it will develop as its founders intended, and that it will realize the hopes so many have placed in it. The six-nation Coal and Steel Community represents the first major step toward the unification of Europe.”
1953
Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the European Community are initiated. U.S. observers under David Bruce -- who had previously served as US Ambassador to France, and would subsequently act as Ambassador to West Germany and to the United Kingdom -- are sent to the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Defence Community.
The U.S. Mission to the ECSC formally opens in Luxembourg in 1956. The United States Mission to the European Communities, now the United States Mission to the European Union, is established in 1961 in Brussels.
1954
The Delegation of the European Commission to the United States in Washington, D.C. is established in 1954, the Community’s first external presence. The first Community ‘envoy’ to the United States was George Ball, an American lawyer. Ball establishes an information office with the following broad goal:
“To the great mass of Americans the Community remains little known and little understood. Among more informed circles earlier assumptions that it was a cartel, was dirigiste, or was merely another impotent international organization, are gradually being corrected. Some influential American are coming to recognize it as a pioneer achievement in European federalism, as a strong force for freedom and progress in the Western world. However, as the symbol of progress towards unification, the Community has suffered in American opinion by what have appeared to Americans as delays and reverses in the unifying process. The full appreciation of the Community as the symbol of unification must await some further major step.”
May 9, 1955
West Germany formally joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation at a special ceremony in Paris. Norway's Foreign Minister, Halward Lange, who spent two years in Ravensbruck concentration camp, called the entry of Germany into Nato "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent".
West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer said: "The German people have paid harshly for the horrors which were committed in their name by evil leadership and have paid these horrors with unlimited suffering. Today, everywhere in Germany, peace and freedom are felt to be the greatest treasures as was true in the best periods of her history."
March 25, 1957
The six members of the ECSC sign the Treaties of Rome setting up the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). The EEC aims to create a common market a customs union plus free movement of capital and labor. Euratom's goal is the joint development of nuclear energy. The treaties enter into force on January 1, 1958.
October 1-23, 1957
The first session of the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference takes place in Vienna. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is established in Vienna to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The Agency's genesis is inspired by President Dwight Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" address to the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 8, 1953. These ideas shape the IAEA Statute, which 81 nations unanimously approved in October 1956. The Statute outline the three pillars of the Agency's work - nuclear verification and security, safety and technology transfer.
1958
The European Court of Justice comes into existence to interpret the Treaty of Rome and rule in disputes over Community decisions.
November 1958
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev presents an ultimatum to the three Western occupying powers claiming that because of their violation of the Potsdam Agreement they had lost their right to be in Berlin.
June 4, 1961
Newly-elected President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev meet at a summit conference in Vienna. Khrushchev threatens to sign a peace agreement with East Germany that would impinge on Western access to Berlin by turning over control of the access roads and air routes.
August 13, 1961
The East German Government, supported by Premier Khrushchev, closes the border between East and West Berlin by erecting what eventually became the most concrete symbol of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall.
September 1961
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) takes over the work of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), which had been formed to administer aid under the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
1961
President Kennedy establishes the U.S. Agency for International Development.
July 4, 1962
On America’s national holiday, President Kennedy speak at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. He calls for a ‘Declaration of Interdependence’ between Europe and America, adding that the United States anticipated the day when Europe would develop sufficiently to engage in a true partnership of equals.
June 26, 1963
”Ich bin ein Berliner.” President John F Kennedy visits Berlin and promises American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany.
1964
The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD-I) is held in Geneva, Switzerland.
1965
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is established.
November 22, 1972
The preparatory meeting for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) opens in Helsinki. The objective of this conference was to improve relationships between East and West. The Final Act of Helsinki (1975) and the Charta 77 (1977) represent the major milestones in the CSCE’s history. In 1995, the CSCE became the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).
September 3, 1971
The Four Power Agreement on Berlin charges the governments of West Berlin and the GDR with negotiating an accord that would regulate access to and from West Berlin from the FRG and secure the right of West Berliners to visit East Berlin and the GDR.
January 1, 1973
The first enlargement of the European Community takes place. Britain, Denmark and Ireland join the European Community. The three countries and Norway had failed to join 10 years earlier because of France’s veto on British membership.
1974
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) becomes a UN specialized agency.
1975
The European Regional Development Fund is established.
August 1, 1975
The Heads of State or Government of 35 nations gathered
in Helsinki to sign the Final Act of the Conference
on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). The
CSCE evolved into the OSCE, the only Eurasian security
body in which all the states in the Euro-Atlantic
region, Central Asia and the Caucasus sit at the
same table as equal partners. This broad membership
of 56 nations provides the OSCE with the opportunity
to build overarching commitments on standards and
values to prevent new divisions within Europe and
beyond.
November 15-19, 1975
The first World Economic Summit (G7) takes place
in Rambouillet.
June 12, 1987
President Ronald Reagan visits Berlin. His speech at the Brandenburg Gate is delivered to the people of West Berlin, but his words – “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” - are also audible on the East side of the Berlin wall."
July 1, 1987
The Single Act of the European Community (SEA) comes into effect. It further deepens the initial goals of European integration of the Treaty of Rome of 1957.
November 9, 1989
The Berlin Wall falls.
October 3, 1990
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) is officially dissolved, creating a sovereign unified German state.
November 1990
The U.S.-EU Transatlantic Declaration sets out principles for greater consultation and establishes regular summit and ministerial meetings.
November 1, 1993
The Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) enters into force after ratification by the 12 European Economic Community members. The European Union is established. Provisions on instituting a common foreign and security policy and cooperation in the areas of home affairs and justice are adopted.
December 3, 1995
The New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) and the EU-U.S. Joint Action Plan provide a framework for promoting stability and democracy together, responding to global changes, and expanding world trade. The NTA also strengthened individual ties across the Atlantic, launching a number of dialogues, including ones for business leaders and legislators.
January 1, 1995
World Trade Organization (WTO) is established as the successor to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) to promote international trade through the elimination of trade barriers.
October 2, 1997
The Treaty of Amsterdam is signed. It establishes the framework for expansion of the European Union to include Eastern European nations.
1998
The European Central Bank is established.
May 18, 1998
EU-US Summit leaders adopt a joint statement on the Transatlantic Economic Partnership (TEP). The plan initiates both a bilateral and multilateral approach to trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States, incorporating bilateral negotiations on nontariff barriers, services, government procurement, intellectual property, agriculture, labor, and electronic commerce within the broader multilateral framework of the WTO.
September 11, 2001
As a result of the terrorist attacks in America, NATO invokes the Article V self-defense clause for the first time.
Jan 1, 2002
Euro notes and coins become legal tender in 12 countries.
2002
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is established by the international community to stabilize Afghanistan. NATO assumes control of ISAF in 2003. By November 2006, ISAF has an estimated 32,000 troops from 37 countries, with NATO members providing the core of the force.
February 2005
President Bush visits Brussels and Mainz to deepen transatlantic cooperation and reach out to friends and allies in the EU and NATO.
Last updated: December 22, 2006
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