Millions of people crowded cloudless cities and towns in Spain in search of the best views of a total solar eclipse, when the alignment of the sun, moon and Earth briefly plunged parts of the planet into darkness.

President Donald Trump had held a rare Cabinet meeting at Camp David, leaving behind the gold-accented White House for the rustic retreat in Maryland’s mountains.

When former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral is held at the Washington National Cathedral, he will join a bipartisan but exclusive list of figures memorialized there, in a church that tells the story of America on hallowed ground.

For decades, the threat of nuclear conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union hung over humanity.

Zurab Tsereteli, a prominent Georgian and Russian sculptor known for colossal, often controversial, monuments, has died at 91.

Former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky has died aged 86 in England.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump talked about the fighting in Ukraine, of course.

A group of American veterans and diplomats who served in Kyiv are teaming up with a Ukrainian winery owner to bring a taste of the Black Sea coast to a U.S. audience.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has died at his home in Plains, Georgia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for resuming production of intermediate-range missiles that were banned under a now-scrapped treaty with the United States.

President Vladimir Putin is in North Korea for a summit with its leader, Kim Jong Un, as the two nations deepen their cooperation.

Former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov has died at age 94.

When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed “Russian oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers.

NATO allies have frozen their participation in a key Cold War-era security treaty in response to Russia’s withdrawal from the pact.

Abortion has had a complicated history in the Soviet Union and Russia.

Imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Under President Vladimir Putin’s nearly quarter-century in office, Russia’s quality of life rose markedly and the country opened itself to the world.

Lubomir Strougal, a Czechoslovak communist-era leader who served as prime minister for a record length of more than 18 years, has died.

With its brutality, technological accomplishments and rigid ideology, the Soviet Union loomed over the world like an immortal colossus.

One would have to go back hundreds of years to find a monarch who reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II.

A collection from the estate of General Colin Powell of nearly 400 items stretching from the momentous to the mundane is currently up for auction.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin has become the face of Russia’s new military strategy in Ukraine, which includes unleashing a barrage of strikes against the country's infrastructure.

There are moments in history that appear as critical to the world as they are terrifying.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, ended his tenure as America’s top diplomat in Moscow on Sunday after nearly three years, spanning the Trump and Biden administrations, and will retire from a lengthy career in government service.

Residents of the far-away Russian village where he spent his youth have lauded Mikhail Gorbachev too as Moscow paid last respects to him.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has been buried in Moscow after a ceremony attended by thousands of mourners but snubbed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mikhail Gorbachev has been buried at a Moscow cemetery where he's once again next to his wife Raisa.

When Mikhail Gorbachev died at age 91, Associated Press journalists began sharing their “Gorby” stories from the collapse of the Soviet Union and its aftermath.

Mikhail Gorbachev was enduringly popular in Germany for enabling the country’s reunification after four decades of post-World War II division — and setting the scene for the peaceful collapse of communism that made it possible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev but will not attend the weekend funeral, a decision reflecting the Kremlin’s ambivalence about Gorbachev’s legacy.

The funeral and burial plans for Mikhail Gorbachev will sum up the crosscurrents of his legacy.

The Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States Before Mikhail Gorbachev came along.

Call it a slice of life.

The Kremlin treaded carefully Wednesday reacting to Mikhail Gorbachev’s death, praising his prominent role in reshaping 20th-century history, but noting his “romantic” view of the West.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, is for many the man who restored democracy to many European countries under communist rule.

Before Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died at 91.

The United Nations chief is warning that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”.

New tensions between Moscow and the West are rising after Lithuania decided to halt the transport of some goods through its territory to the Russian region of Kaliningrad as part of European Union sanctions on the Kremlin.

The Russian warship now known as the Moskva began its life as the Slava, or “glory” in 1979 at the height of the Cold War in what was the Soviet republic of Ukraine.

China has called reports of civilian killings in Ukraine disturbing and urged further investigation, even while declining to blame Russia.

Russia’s leading independent newspaper has suspended operations under pressure from the authorities.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation 30 years ago was a momentous event that ended an era by drawing a line under the USSR’s existence.

People strolling across Moscow’s snowy Red Square on the evening of Dec. 25, 1991 witnessed one of the 20th century’s most pivotal moments.

A Russian military buildup has raised fears in Ukraine and the West that Moscow could invade its neighbor.

When the leaders of the Soviet Union’s three Slavic republics met at a secluded hunting lodge near the Polish border on Dec. 8, 1991, they delivered a death blow to the USSR.

The Nobel Peace Prize sometimes recognizes groundbreaking efforts to resolve seemingly intractable conflicts.

Journalists, human rights groups and other activists enthusiastically welcomed the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists at a time when media groups around the world face new pressures and crackdowns from the authorities.

Ukraine’s president has urged closer ties between the ex-Soviet nation and NATO and the European Union in a speech marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

On Aug. 19, 1991, a group of top Communist Party hard-liners declared they had removed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power and declared a state of emergency in the country.

The world held its breath 30 years ago when a group of top Communist officials ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and flooded Moscow with tanks.

Russian rock musician, poet and actor Pyotr Mamonov has died at the age of 70.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the outcome of his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and called him an astute negotiator.

With Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin heading to town, Geneva is returning to the international spotlight as a leading hub for diplomacy and multilateralism, things that were largely shunned by the Trump administration.

If President Joe Biden has any private words with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at their meeting next week, U.S. interpreters and diplomats will be standing by to document their high-stakes encounter.

Top diplomats from the United States and Russia have sparred firmly but politely in Iceland in their first face-to-face encounter.

(AP Photo/Barry Thumma, File)WASHINGTON – Time was running out when Secretary of State George P. Shultz returned home in April 1988 after flying 16,000 miles in a failed mission to persuade Arabs and Israelis to negotiate their differences. AdA lifelong Republican, Shultz negotiated the first-ever treaty with the Soviet Union to reduce the size of their ground-based nuclear arsenals. The president would not yield, and Reagan and Shultz returned to the United States disappointed but determined to pursue an accord. Although Shultz objected, Reagan went ahead with the deal and millions of dollars from Iran went to right-wing Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. But only a few years later, Reagan and Shultz, considered Israel’s best friends, had opened the door to Palestinian legitimacy and possibly a Palestinian state on land held by Israel.

King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his production company, Ora Media, tweeted. In its early years, “Larry King Live” was based in Washington, which gave the show an air of gravitas. “Do you know who I am?”“Always loved Larry King and will miss him,” Seinfeld tweeted Saturday. Originating from Washington on the Mutual network, “The Larry King Show” was eventually heard on more than 300 stations and made King a national phenomenon. “Larry King Live” debuted on June 1, 1985, and became CNN’s highest-rated program.

Sheehy, widow of New York magazine founder Clay Felker, died Monday of complications from pneumonia in Southampton, New York, according to her daughter, Maura Sheehy. She would continue with The Silent Passage (menopause), New Passages (life after 50), Understanding Mens Passages (a midlife resource for men) and Passages in Caregiving (caring for family members). Sheehy told her own story in the 2014 memoir Daring: My Passages.When not writing books, Sheehy was a popular lecturer and television commentator and a well-traveled journalist specializing in psychological portraits of public figures. For New York magazine, Vanity Fair and other publications, she interviewed everyone from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Margaret Thatcher to Mikhail Gorbachev. (Sheehy and Felker later adopted a girl, Momh).

The very nature of a protest suggests a fervent desire for change, the need to right a perceived historic injustice. Confronting tyranny can also backfire, the result a more dictatorial leader or a ruinous civil war. Here's a look at some of the key protests of recent decades and what they achieved or failed. Syria exploded quickly from an uprising against the Assad dynasty to ruinous civil war which still continues with more than half million dead and millions displaced. In neighboring Lebanon and in Iraq, civil protests erupted last October against ruling elites.

FILE - In this on Friday, June 12, 1987 file photo, U.S. President Ronald Reagan acknowledges the applause after speaking to an audience in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The U.S. Embassy in Berlin is unveiling the statue of Ronald Reagan as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The larger-than-life statue is being installed Friday atop the embassy's terrace, at eye-level with the landmark Brandenburg Gate in downtown Berlin. The larger-than-life statue is being installed Friday atop the embassy's terrace, at eye-level with the landmark Brandenburg Gate in downtown Berlin. The Berlin Wall fell Nov. 9, 1989.