The Revolutions of 1989 were a wave of largely peaceful protests and political changes that ended communist rule in Eastern Europe and the Soviet bloc. They began in Poland, where the trade union Solidarity won a landslide in partly free elections, and spread to Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, where the uprising against Nicolae Ceausescu was violent. The opening of the Berlin Wall in November became their most famous symbol. The upheaval followed Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, which signalled that the Soviet Union would no longer intervene by force. It led to German reunification and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, and the Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991.
Before and after
- 9 January 1989Birth of Nina Dobrev
- 23 January 1989Death of Salvador Dalí
- 21 February 1989Birth of Corbin Bleu
- 3 March 1989Death of Ruhollah Khomeini
- from 9 March 1989 to 27 April 1992Revolutions of 1989
- 12 March 1989World Wide Web
- 21 March 1989Basel Convention
- 9 April 1989April 9 tragedy
- 15 April 1989Hillsborough disaster
More in Wars, politics & history
- 15 August 1947India and Pakistan become independent
- from 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953Korean War
- from 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975Vietnam War
- from 16 May 1966 to 6 October 1976Cultural Revolution
- 20 February 2014Russo-Ukrainian war
- 31 January 2020Brexit
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.