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George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as 41st President of the United States.
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Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan.
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Tiananmen Square Massacre
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semi free elections in Poland show complete lack of backing for the Communist Party; Solidarity trade union wins all available seats in the Parliament and 99% in the Senate
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Parliament in Poland elects Tadeusz Mazowiecki as leader of the first non-communist government in the East Bloc.
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The Hungarian constitution is amended to allow a multi-party political system and free elections. The nearly 20-year rule of communist leader Erich Honecker comes to an end in East Germany.
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Revolutions in Eastern Europe: Soviet reforms and their state of bankruptcy have allowed Eastern Europe to rise up against the Communist governments there. The Berlin Wall is breached when Politburo spokesman, Günter Schabowski, not fully informed of the technicalities or procedures of the newly-agreed lifting of travel restrictions, mistakenly announces at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders have been opened
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At the end of the Malta Summit, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush declare that a long-lasting era of peace has begun. Many observers regard this summit as the official beginning of the end of the Cold War.
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Democracy is restored in Chile.
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Romanian Revolution. Rioters overthrow the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu, executing him and his wife, Elena. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to violently overthrow its Communist regime or to execute its leaders.
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Romanian Revolution
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The Romanian Revolution
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The Romanian Revolution
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Romanian Revolution
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The Romanian Revolution
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The Romanian Revolution
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Romanian Revolution
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Romanian Revolution
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Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, elena, are executed.
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Vaclav Havel becomes President of the now free Czechoslovakia.
