March 5, 1946Reputable sourceWell documented
Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' Speech
On the timeline · around March 5, 1946 ·
What happened
At Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, with President Truman present, Winston Churchill delivered his 'Sinews of Peace' address, warning that 'from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent,' dividing Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe from the West.
Why it matters
The speech gave the emerging East–West divide its defining image and is often taken as an opening salvo of the Cold War.