Event # 1 - 1980 Olympic Games (Little swimmer guy on the map)1980
Event # 2 - Glasnost and Perestroika (Purple marker on the map)
Event # 3 - Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (Volcano on the map)
Event #4 - Tiananmen Square (Policeman on the map)
Event #5 - Fall Of The Berlin Wall
- Olympic Games
- Moscow
- Affected a majority of the world
- Largest boycott of Olympic Games in history
- After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979, the U.S other countries decided to boycott the Olympics
- 65 countries did not participate in the games, a majority of them did not go because of the boycott but a minority did not go due to economic issues
- China, Japan, and West Germany were some of the countries that boycotted the games
- France, Italy, and Sweden did not participate in the boycott
- The British government did boycott the Olympic games, but the athletes went against the wishes of the government and participated in the games without the blessing of the government
Event # 2 - Glasnost and Perestroika (Purple marker on the map)
- 1985-1991
- The people of the Soviet Union
- Founder of the policies was Mikhail Gorbachev
- To reform the declining Soviet Union, democratization of the Communist Party was promoted by Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of Perestroika and Glasnost
- Perestroika was the reconstruction of the political and economic system established by the Communist party
- Glasnost means “openness”
- Glasnost was the name of the political and social reforms to bestow more freedoms and rights to the Soviet people
- The policies of Perestroika and Glasnost were in effect from 1985 to 1991 when Boris Yeltsin became Russia’s first elected president
- Yeltsin formed the Commonwealth of Independent States
- Perestroika and Glasnost eventually helped cause the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which lasted for 46 years from 1945 to 1991
Event # 3 - Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (Volcano on the map)
- April 26th, 1986
- Chernobyl near Pripyat in Northern Ukraine
- The worst nuclear disaster in the world
- On April 25th, reactor 4 was shut down for a normal routine maintenance and testing, so everything including safety systems were shut off
- At approximately 1 in the morning (April 26th), the power of the reactor dropped drastically and situations became alarming
- Without the safety systems on, reactor 4 went out of control and exploded at 1:23 a.m.
- The aftermath of the explosion would last for decades
- 31 people died instantly after the explosion
- Thousands more would die to long-term effects
- The Chernobyl power plant was finally shut down in 2000
Event #4 - Tiananmen Square (Policeman on the map)
- April-June 1989
- Pro-Democracy demonstration that went for 7 weeks
- At 2:00 a.m. on June 4th 1989 soldiers opened fire on the protesters and tanks rolled over anyone in their way
- Hundreds of supporters and students were killed during the demonstration
- Didn't necessarily take place in Tiananmen Square but in the streets surrounding it
- A majority of the violence took place on the Avenue of Eternal Peace (ironic much?) on the south side of Tiananmen Square
- Most of the people killed in the incident were not student protesters, but just ordinary Beijing citizens who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time
- The People's Liberation Army had never used their weapons on the Chinese people with intentions of murdering mass amounts of people
- Demonstrations in 1976 and 1987 had been broken up with tear gas and batons, not tanks and guns
Event #5 - Fall Of The Berlin Wall
- November 9th, 1989
- After discussions and discussions of a new travel law, the Communist leader of East Berlin said that at 7p.m. the night of November 9th, the border would be unsealed for "private trips abroad."
- Shortly after, an onrush of people from East Berlin began towards West Berlin
- Celebrations began at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin
- Demolition work began on November 10th with the aim of instigating new border crossings
- November 12th-Checkpoint at the Potsdamer Platz was opened
- A checkpoint for pedestrians was opened on December 22nd at the Brandenburg Gate
- People hammered pieces off the wall
- Many pieces were sold as souvenirs while larger pieces were sold or officially donated
- The wall almost disappeared completely until 1991, with some remainders left