The Berlin Wall fell because an official misread his own notes

On 9 November 1989, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski was handed a note about new travel rules minutes before a press conference and hadn't been briefed on the details. Asked when they'd take effect, he guessed: 'immediately, without delay.' West German TV broadcast his mistake as 'borders open' within the hour, crowds swarmed the checkpoints, and overwhelmed guards opened the gates that same night — with no government decision behind it.

— Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall — 2014
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