Explore technological innovations of the Cold War
Explore technological innovations of the Cold War
Learn about inventions that were created during the Cold War, such as the Internet and different kinds of military equipment.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn about inventions that were created during the Cold War, such as the Internet and different kinds of military equipment.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Pres. John F. Kennedy rallying the people of the United States to support NASA's Apollo program to land human beings on the Moon, September 12, 1962.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.An overview of Ronald Reagan.
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Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential LibraryU.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan delivering his first inaugural address, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1981.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points, about 22.6 percent of its value.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn more about how Cold War medical innovations led to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.An overview of Richard Nixon.
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Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © Dance60/Dreamstime.com; © Konstantin Gushcha/Dreamstime.comLearn how Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms in the Soviet Union unleashed forces that ended the Cold War.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.After the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in November 1979 by Iranian students aligned with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, more than 50 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
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Transcript
Let’s explore some of the things that were invented because of the Cold War...starting with the most useful.
The Internet
Cold War research and development gave us the Internet’s forerunner: ARPANET, a communication network designed to work on decentralized servers.
That way, if one server went down, the network would still work and communication would still be possible.
RFID Tags
Activated by radio waves, the devices use those waves to broadcast information.
During the Cold War, an RFID tag allowed Soviet spying on the ambassador of the United States in Moscow to go undetected.
Today it’s used to authenticate passports, detect credit card information by waving the card above a sensor, and prevent shoplifting by beeping when an activated tag leaves the store.
And here’s where Cold War innovations go a little bit off the rails...
U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s pet project, the Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed as a system that would intercept incoming Soviet missiles.
Since Reagan imagined that part of the system would take place in space, the SDI was quickly nicknamed “Star Wars” and was soundly criticized by the public and military officials alike.
The Blue Peacock
The Blue Peacock, a British nuclear project, theorized that keeping the Soviets out of western Europe would take something big—and by “something big,” the British meant atomic bombs buried and made into land mines.
Since the bombs had to be kept warm to function, the British suggested either wrapping them in blankets or placing live chickens inside the casing for insulation.
What were they thinking?!?
The Aerocycle
Traveling in cars, trains, and planes is so passé. As an alternative, the U.S. military invented the Aerocycle: a “personal helicopter” piloted by standing on a small platform over the spinning rotor blades. After a number of crashes, development halted.
For more, visit Britannica.com
The Internet
Cold War research and development gave us the Internet’s forerunner: ARPANET, a communication network designed to work on decentralized servers.
That way, if one server went down, the network would still work and communication would still be possible.
RFID Tags
Activated by radio waves, the devices use those waves to broadcast information.
During the Cold War, an RFID tag allowed Soviet spying on the ambassador of the United States in Moscow to go undetected.
Today it’s used to authenticate passports, detect credit card information by waving the card above a sensor, and prevent shoplifting by beeping when an activated tag leaves the store.
And here’s where Cold War innovations go a little bit off the rails...
U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s pet project, the Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed as a system that would intercept incoming Soviet missiles.
Since Reagan imagined that part of the system would take place in space, the SDI was quickly nicknamed “Star Wars” and was soundly criticized by the public and military officials alike.
The Blue Peacock
The Blue Peacock, a British nuclear project, theorized that keeping the Soviets out of western Europe would take something big—and by “something big,” the British meant atomic bombs buried and made into land mines.
Since the bombs had to be kept warm to function, the British suggested either wrapping them in blankets or placing live chickens inside the casing for insulation.
What were they thinking?!?
The Aerocycle
Traveling in cars, trains, and planes is so passé. As an alternative, the U.S. military invented the Aerocycle: a “personal helicopter” piloted by standing on a small platform over the spinning rotor blades. After a number of crashes, development halted.
For more, visit Britannica.com
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