November 19: Today is the anniversary of the Geneva Summit in 1985, where US president, Ronald Reagan, and the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time, during the " Cold War ".

TIME covers the historical Geneva Summit.

The two leaders met in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss an agenda of two points: international relations and the arms race. Both powers had escalated to dangerous levels of interplanetary nuclear weapons and both wanted to put a limit on that competition.

The United States Strategic Defense Initiative was high on Gorbachev's agenda at the Geneva Summit.

Both powers wanted to have the right to defensive systems, and neither wanted the other to be the first to launch a missile. It was necessary to convince Gorbachev that America wanted peace above all else.

... and US President Ronald Reagan heralded the opening of a new era in relations for the superpowers. Geneva saw the first such encounter in November 1985.

The summit was planned several months in advance, due to the sensitivity of the issues. Reagan described the meeting as a "peace mission".

From left: Soviet foreign ministerShevardnadze, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, US Sec of State Shultz

Reagan told Gorbachev that they were the only ones who could start World War III, but also the only leaders that could sow peace on Earth.

The Geneva summit has ended in optimism but with no agreement on the "Star Wars" space defence system. Both United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev spoke of the world being a "safer place" at the end of their two-day meeting in Switzerland.