Today in History

What went down and why you should care.

aug 12 Learn More Construction of the Berlin Wall Begins


East Germany began building the Berlin Wall on this day in 1961. It wasn't exactly a wall, though. Rather, it was two concrete barricades with a "death strip" in between. The death strip was a treacherous course of trenches, dog runs, trip-wire machine guns, and watchtowers. In other words, all the stuff you'd draw underneath the suspension rig when you played Hangman as a kid, none of which was enough to stop freedom: the wall finally fell in 1989.

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