1. You are listening to “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & The Comets. Although it was recorded in 1954, it didn’t become a hit in the U.S. until 1955. “Rock Around the Clock" was the first record ever to sell over one million copies in both Britain and Germany and, in 1957, Haley became the first major American rock singer to tour Europe.

3. During World War II, 85% of the buildings in Warsaw, Poland were destroyed.

4. Children Playing in Warsaw, Poland

5. Dresden, Germany after World War II Dresden, Germany prior to World War II

6. In this Soviet photograph from 2 May 1945, Red Army soldiers are raising the Soviet flag on the roof of the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany

7. Teufelsberg “Devil’s Mountain” in Berlin, Germany… This 262 foot tall mountain was created by the removal of rubble from the city after World War II.

11. Oct. 1945: A New and Improved League of Nations: The United Nations The Soviet Union (Now Russia), France, China, Great Britain, and the U.S. have permanent seats on the security Council

12. The United States and the Soviet Union will emerge as the two superpowers of the second half of the 20 th century.

13. The Bi-Polarization of Europe: The Beginning of the Cold War

14. Origins of the Cold War Stalin distrustful of the West. He has two goals In Eastern Europe: 1) Spread communism 2) Create a buffer zone of friendly govts. as a defense against Germany, which invaded Russia in WWI and WWII. Stalin: “Whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system.”

16. 1946: While visiting Westminster College in Fulton, MO, former Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives his famous “Iron Curtain” speech. “ A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by Allied victory… From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” Origins of the Cold War

18. Origins of the Cold War The Marshall Plan

19. A young girl at a spring fair in Vienna, Austria, in 1951, holds a bouquet of balloons advertising the Marshall Plan. Reading "Peace, Freedom, Welfare" in German, the balloons were one of many ways America and its allies strived to counter negative Soviet propaganda against the reconstruction and economic development plan.

20. Marketing the United States to Europe

21. Origins of the Cold War The Division of Germany The Allies’ abandoned plan of De-Nazification

28. U.S. and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles 1945-2006

30. An estimate of the size of the damage caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A modern hydrogen bomb would be tens of times more powerful and cause similar levels of damage at 2-5 times the distance.

31. The De-Colonization of European Powers

40. Finns enjoy more paid statutory vacation every year than anyone else in the rich world, getting an average of 44 days off in which to relax (including annual leave and public holidays). Most European countries allow more than the EU legal minimum of four weeks. American workers have perhaps the most to feel aggrieved about: ours is the only rich-world country that does not give any statutory paid holiday. (In practice, most workers get around 14 days off.) All work and little play does provide some consolation, however—America and Japan are the world's biggest economies.