The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, marked the symbolic end of the Cold War in Europe, as East German authorities opened the border after weeks of mass protests, leading to German reunification the following year.
The Berlin Wall had divided communist East Berlin from democratic West Berlin since 1961, becoming the most potent physical symbol of the Cold War's division of Europe.
By 1989, mounting economic troubles and mass pro-democracy protests across Eastern Europe, coupled with reduced Soviet intervention under Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, put immense pressure on East German authorities.
Crowds of East and West Berliners gathered at the wall on the night of November 9, 1989, and began tearing it down by hand, an event broadcast worldwide that led directly to German reunification in October 1990.