The changing world (153) Aug-Dec 89

Aug 1 Church prayer meeting.
Then no diary kept until the next entry below. Probably a period of depression and inactivity. And the biggest changes in the world in my lifetime were starting. 

• August 15
  • P.W. Botha resigns as State President of South Africa.
  • F. W. de Klerk becomes the seventh and last State President of South Africa.
• August 19
  • Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be Prime Minister, the first non-communist in power in 42 years.
• August 20
  • Fifty-one people die when the Marchioness pleasure boat collides with a barge on the River Thames adjacent to Southwark Bridge.
  • August 23 Singing Revolution: Two million indigenous people of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian SSRs join hands to demand freedom and independence from Soviet occupation, forming an uninterrupted 600 km human chain called the Baltic Way.

• August 24
  • Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Solidarity is elected Prime Minister of Poland.
  • September 22 1989 Deal barracks bombing: An IRA bomb explodes at the Royal Marine School of Music in Deal, Kent, United Kingdom, leaving 11 dead and 22 injured.

• October 7
  • The first mass demonstration against the socialistic regime in the GDR began in Plauen, East Germany, at 7 October 1989 and it was the beginning of a series of mass demonstrations in the whole GDR which ultimately led to the unification of Germany in 1990.
• October 18
  • The Communist leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, is forced to step down as leader of the country after a series of health problems, and is succeeded by Egon Krenz.

• November 9
  • Cold War and Fall of the Berlin Wall: Günter Schabowski accidentally states in a live broadcast press conference that new rules for traveling from East Germany to West Germany will be put in effect "immediately". East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time in decades (November 17 celebrates Germans tearing the wall down)

• December 1
  • In a meeting with Pope John Paul II, General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev pledges greater religious freedom for citizens of the Soviet Union.
• December 3
  • Cold War: Malta Summit – In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.
• December 7
  • Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic becomes the first of the republics of the Soviet Union to abolish the Communist Party's monopoly on power.

• December 17
  • The Romanian Revolution begins in Timișoara when rioters break into the building housing the District Committee of the Romanian Communist Party and cause extensive damage. Their attempts to set the buildings on fire are foiled by military units.
  • Old Mrs Herbert next door died. She had had denmentia for years. Her son George remained until he was taken into care with dementia circa 2000.

• December 21 – Nicolae Ceaușescu addresses an assembly of some 110,000 people outside the Romanian Communist Party headquarters in Bucharest. The crowd begin to protest against Ceaușescu and he addresses protesters to calm down.
• December 22
  • After a week of bloody demonstrations because of the interfering European Union, masonry and any other "people" who have interest in stealing Romania and subjugate the noble people, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, who flees his palace in a helicopter after the palace is invaded by rioters.
• December 23 – Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu are captured in Târgoviște.
• 24th         Elliott on Ps 8, What is man. Cooked tandoori. Led carol service. Music good with choir.George next door came. (the only time?) Prepared for Christmas lunch. Stockings done by 11:30. Improved mood. 
• December 25  Fried breakfast cooked. Single malt from Elliott and tobacco from Larry. - Presbyterian Mixture. David Barnes preached. George to lunch. 
  • Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena are executed.
  • 28th At work 9-8 Very quiet. Alan Bartley brought a kind gift, a Kuyper book.
  • December 29 Work 8:30 to 9pm. Family to Mrs Herbert's funeral. She was 90. Geoffrey and Sara staying.Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia.
  • Dec 30th With Geoffrey and Sara and the family to Windsor. Thatcher and Gorbachev BBC radio's people of the year.
  • Dec 31st Larry led for Paul. Visited Mr Overend in Potters Bar. I took evening service Pot luck supper, games and watch night service led by Elliott. Bed 1:30am.