This day in history

East and West Germany are reunited, ending 45 years of Cold War division.

In the aftermath of World War II, Germany was divided between the four major Allied powers; the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France. In 1949, the United States, Britain and France combined their occupation zones to create the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, while the Soviets established the communist German Democratic Republic in East Germany. Over four decades later, nearly a million Germans gathered at the Reichstag in Berlin to mark German reunification. At midnight on 3 October, 1990, the Freedom Bell, a gift from the United States, was rung, and Germany was again a united nation.

The East German state, which had essentially collapsed in 1989, was dissolved, and its people became citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1993, the united Germany joined the European Union.

The start of the first Battle of Mogadishu; the U.S. army, backed by the UN, launches Operation Gothic Serpent, an attempt to seize key leaders of the Somali militia loyal to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

Republican hunger-strikers at the H-block in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland finally give up their protest after eight months. During that time 10 of their fellow protesters died of starvation.

Italy invades Abyssinia.
 

The beginning of the Battle of Philippi between Mark Antony and Octavian against Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.