Ralph Bunche, a leading American diplomat after World War II, was the first African American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in Detroit in 1904, he studied government and international relations at Harvard University and in 1944 published An American Dilemma, a monumental study of U.S. race relations written with the Swedish socialist Gunnar Myrdal. Bunche entered the field of U.S. diplomacy while serving in the Office of Strategic Services and the State Department during World War II, and in 1945 was active in organizing the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference. In 1947, he was appointed to the United Nations and subsequently served as an aide on the U.N. Palestine Commission, a special committee formed to seek an end to the crisis over the first Arab-Israeli war. When the chief U.N. mediator between Israel and its Arab opponents was assassinated in early 1949, Bunche was thrust into a leading role in the process and proved instrumental in the successful negotiation of a cease-fire between the warring parties. For his peace mediation, Bunche was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize for Peace. In the 1950s, Bunche continued his important role at the U.N., supervising the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping forces to the Suez Canal in 1956, the Congo in 1960, and Cypress in 1964. In the 1960s, he was active in the African American civil rights movement. He died in 1971.

Peter Weller visits a Kremlin in Novgorod, Russia.

A brief look at the disappearnce of the Romanovs and the cover up behind it

A historical look at Stalin's Purges and the paranoia behind it

54-year old Mikhail Gorbachev became the youngest Russian leader since Joseph Stalin. He did not rise through Stalin's militant ranks, and the world quickly discovered that Gorbachev was not the type to conduct business as usual. In addition to initiatives for disarmament and military disengagement, Gorbachev promoted greater freedom and democracy in his own country and released prominent dissidents.

In the late 1980s, East German communist leader Erich Honecker resisted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika reforms, which he viewed as dangerously liberal and subversive. It was not long, however, before Honecker's hard-line regime was overwhelmed by the wave of democratization sweeping across Eastern Europe. In the summer of 1989, Reform-minded East Germans staged massive demonstrations, and thousands fled to the West through newly liberalized Hungary. In October, another hard-line communist, Egon Krenz, replaced Honecker, but it was too late to save communism in East Germany. On the evening of November 9, 1989, East Germany announced an easing of travel restrictions to the West, and thousands demanded passage though the Berlin Wall. Faced with a growing demonstration, East German border guards opened the borders. Jubilant Berliners climbed on top of the Berlin Wall, painted graffiti on it, and removed fragments as souvenirs. The fortified barrier--the most famous symbol of Cold War division--had split Berlin since 1961. In 1990, East and West Germany were formally reunited.