November 9.

November 9 is an extremely important date throughout history:

1620 - Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower spot land on Cape Cod, Massachusetts
1906 - Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting president of the US to take a trip out of the country
1921 - Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
1938 - Kristallnacht begins, the first large-scale act of anti-Jewish violence in Germany
1989 - Fall of the Berlin Wall

November 9 is also the birth date of Benjamin Banneker, Carl Sagan, Tom Fogerty, Sisqo, and my husband.

Yes, today is my husband's birthday. We already celebrated this morning with presents and a nice little breakfast. Later, Susann (our friend that we're staying with in Berlin) and I are meeting Steve for lunch at his favorite Berlin pizza spot and surprising him with a homemade German-style marble (Marmor) cake.

And lastly, tonight we are going to the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate Steve's birthday and, along with millions, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:

Bösebrücke
(The first border crossing site to open on November 9, 1989.)

Berliner Mauer

(A small part of the Berlin Wall that still remains standing at Bösebrücke)

Mauer is the buzz word this week and Berlin has been gearing up for this event for months: http://www.mauerfall09.de/. Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany), Nicolas Sarkozy (President of France), Dmitry Medvedev (President of Russia), Gordon Brown (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), and Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State) will all be in attendance.

Bon Jovi is going to sing "We Weren't Born to Follow."

And to top it off, 1000 life-size "dominos" are being knocked over along a small part of the path where the Berlin Wall once stood - from Potsdamer Plotz to the Brandenburg Gate:

"Dominos"
(Set-up on Saturday, November 7)


Steve und Ich
(Checking out the scene at Potsdamer Platz)

We will report back to you after tonight. In the meantime, you should wish Steve a happy birthday. ;)

Or, on a more somber note, you can read this article from BBC that highlights walls and barriers around the world which are still standing or have been erected since 1989: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/2009/walls_around_the_world/default.stm. Glad to see that we're making so much progress...