POSTED: November 9th 2009

InDepth

Berlin Wall falls - to change so much, including international sport

THIS DAY (NOVEMBER 09) IN THE WORLD OF SPORT MARKS . . . the 20th anniversary, from 1989, of the day the Berlin Wall came down after 28 years – heralding the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union’s industrial, political, social, cultural but also sporting stranglehold over eastern Europe. The end of East Germany also meant the end of one particular drug-tainted era in athletics, swimming and other elite sports. In other sports, this day in 1861 saw the first documented Canadian football game at the University of Toronto. In 1961 the USPGA eliminated its increasingly contentious ‘caucasians-only’ rule. In 1982 Sugar Ray Leonard retired from boxing, changing his mind only once later, in 1984, before becoming a TV boxing commentator. In 1989 Real Madrid incurred their largest fine from UEFA of £80,000 after crowd trouble at a European Champions Cup tie against holders Milan in the Estadio Bernabeu. WORLD EVENTS – 1938: The notorious Kristallnacht - of anti-Jewish violence across Nazi Germany. 1970: Death of former French President and General Charles De Gaulle. In 1985 Anatoly Karpov lost the world chess championship, after 10 years, to Gary Kasparov.

Keywords · November 9 · November 09 · Berlin Wall · East Germany · Krisstalnacht · De Gaulle · Karpov · Kasparov · chess

For more information contact:
Laura Walden ()

All original materials contained in this section are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Sports Features Communications, Inc the owner of that content. It is prohibited to alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.