June 22nd

On this day - June 22 1941 - Germany invades USSR in "Operation Barbarossa

Unternehmen Barbarossa was the code name for the Nazi-Germany attack on the Soviet Union during world war 2. The background for the attack was Adolf Hitlers desire of conquer Soviet territory. The massive attack started as a success for Nazi Germany who initially won several important territories from the Soviet Union. However, the German attack was stopped and pushed back outside of Moscow, much due to weather and the limitations of the German supply line. The failure of Operation Barbarossa turned the tide in the war, but millions of lives were lost during the five months the operation lasted.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1974-099-19 / Kempe / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, 

May 29th

On this day - May 29th 1988 - Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev meet at the Moscow summit

The Moscow summit was a meeting between the american president, Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Unions leader, Michael Gorbachev. The summit lasted from may 29th til June 3 and it was the first time an American president had traveled to the soviet union since the cold war began. The two leaders discussed several topics such as human rights and fishing rights, and agreements was signed on several areas. Reagan also gave Gorbachev a version of the movie "Friendly Persuasion" which had been blacklisted in the USA due to its allegedly communist sympathies.

May 19th

On this day - May 19th 1971 - The Mars 2 probe launched 

The Mars 2 probe was one of the space probes of the Mars program. It consisted of a series of unmanned lander and orbiter probes launched by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. The Mars 2 lander was the first man made object to land on Mars. The probe reached Mars on November 27th 1971. Around 4.5 hours before reaching Mars the landing module separated and entered at a speed of 6km/h but the decent system failed most likely due to the angle of decent was to steep. The parachute did not even deploy and it became the first man made object to hit Mars. The exact site for the crash is unknown but its estimated to be at 45°S 313°W 

April 26th

On this day - April 26th 1986 - Chernobyl Nuclear Accident 

The Chernobyl Nuclear accident was a disaster that happened in Ukraine which was a part of the Soviet area. The accident started when a systems test was run on reactor number 4. A sudden power surge and the complications which followed led to several explosions and a fire. The explosions and the fire led to the release of several radioactive particles which was spread to other parts of the world, manly the Soviet Union and Europe. 31 people died in the accident itself, and several others might have suffered from long-term effects from the radioactive particles (Read Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment for a debate on long-term effects). The accident have played an important role in both debates about nuclear power plants and the environment ever since.

March 18th

On this day - March 18th 1965 - The first person to walk in space 

On March 16th left the Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov his spacecraft for 12 minutts and 9 seconds for a walk in Space. He thereby became the first human to do Extravehicular activities, which is the official term for activities done in space outside of the spacecraft. Leonov was connected to the spacecraft with a long cable and pulling this cable was the only way he could control is motions while in space. In June the same year did the US their first spacewalk when Edward White left his spacecraft for 21 minutes. The first person to successfully stay outside of the spacecraft for longer periods was Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin who worked on the aircraft for over two hours in 1966.

February 22

On this day -February 22 1980 - The "Miracle on Ice" ice hockey match

The USA won 4-3 against the Soviet Union in an ice hockey match during the Olympic winter games in Lake Placid, USA. The Soviet Union was the favorite to win the match, as they had won six out of the seven last Olympic Gold medals in Ice Hockey. After the second round was the Soviet Union leading 3-2 and it wasn't until the last round that the US actually gained the lead. The US went on to win the tournament after beating Finland, while the Soviet Union took the Silver medal in a round-robin organized final. It wasn't until 1991 that the US again managed to beat the Soviet Union. Walt Disneys movie Miracle (2004) (Amazon) is about this Ice Hockey match.

Sports Illustrated did not see the need for any text to explain the picture because everyone knew what it was about anyways