Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991), as named by the Western Allies.East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop emigration and defection westward through the Border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin into West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. On June 26, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited Checkpoint Charlie and looked from a platform onto the Berlin Wall and into East Berlin.After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin.
1990Jun, 22
Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
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Events on 1990
- 2Aug
Gulf War
Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War. - 8Aug
Gulf War
Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward. - 23Aug
Gulf War
Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War. - 28Aug
Kuwait
Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province. - 28Nov
Margaret Thatcher
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigns as leader of the Conservative Party and the prime ministry, and is succeeded as both by John Major.