If you said Winston Churchill's famous March 5, 1946 speech in
Fulton, Missouri, you're wrong!

Several people using the phrase “iron curtain” were quoted in the
media in the years before 1946. The earliest recorded use of “iron
curtain” was from Ethel Snowden, the wife of labor leader Philip
Snowden. She used it in a 1920 book titled “Through Bolshevik
Russia”. It is not clear if she coined the phrase. The phrase
appeared in the media again in 1924. A 1945 appearance of the phrase
was attributed to Josef Goebbels, the German propaganda minister.

However, it was Churchill's speech that made the term a lasting
part of history, outliving the Soviet Union!