On Christmas Day 26 years ago -- December 25, 1991 -- the Soviet Union peacefully dissolved itself, thus ending the Cold War. With that event the narrative in which the whole world had lived since the end of World War II also dissolved. World War II ended with a bang -- two of them, actually, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After we entered World War II Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were deemed existential threats to the United States. Without such a massive public celebration to denote the end of the war America remained on a war footing.

Source: Forbes December 25, 2017 13:52 UTC