Europe Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Twenty years after the Berlin Wall fell in Germany, thousands gathered to remember that incredible night. Fireworks capped off the evening that was attended by all of the leaders of European countries. The high point of the celebration came when more than one thousand decorated styrofoam dominos fell one by one. The dominoes were stretched out along a two kilometer strip where the famous wall once stood. After Germany was defeated in World War II, the country was divided in two, with West Germany under the watch of the United States and its allies, and East Germany under the control of the Soviet Union. Within East Germany, the city of Berlin was also divided in half. Life was much harder in East Berlin and East Germany, and people kept trying to leave for freedom through West Berlin. In 1961, the people in charge of East Berlin built a wall to keep the people inside. Many years had passed when people all over Eastern Europe began demanding more freedom, even as their governments were weakening. On November 9, 1989, the people on the east side started knocking down the wall. It was the beginning of the end of what was called The Cold War. There was a great celebration that night. Soldiers put down their guns as people climbed over the wall, and poured through the formerly guarded gates. People chipped off pieces of the wall to keep as souvenirs. Ed Clancy takes us to Berlin to see what happened to many of those pieces of that wall.