CHRONOLOGY: Seemingly minor events in early 1989 led to big changes : Europe World

CHRONOLOGY: Seemingly minor events in early 1989 led to big changes : Europe World: "August 19, 1989 - A 'Pan European Picnic' is held near the border town of Sopron, Hungary, where attendees peacefully demand an open border. Hundreds of holidaying East Germans crash the event and cross into Austria. August 23, 1989 - On the fiftieth anniversary of the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact, independence organizations hold huge demonstrations in all three Baltic nations - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - creating 'the Baltic Way,' a 600-kilometre human chain linking the three capitals."