ON THIS DAY- On this day in 1989 the Berlin Wall was opened by the East German government. “Ecstatic crowds immediately began to clamber on top of the Wall and hack large chunks out of the 28-mile (45-kilometre) barrier,” the BBC reported at the time. It was a darker time in Germany in 1938 as it was the beginning of the Kristallnacht, “some 48 hours of Nazi-orchestrated anti-Jewish violence erupted throughout Germany and Austria, resulting in the destruction and vandalizing of synagogues and Jewish businesses and the deaths of at least 91 Jews.” On this day in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power as the Coup of 18–19 Brumaire began in Paris, signalling an end of the French Revolution. France also woke up to the news that former President Charles de Gaulle died on this day in 1970. In 1922, Albert Einstein was named the winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect; the Nobel committee had delayed awarding the 1921 physics prize until 1922. King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman “Ibn Saud,” founder of Saudi Arabia, died on this day in 1953. Two years ago we were reporting on the cabinet leaving the passage of the VAT law to the incoming parliament and last year, the reform measures were getting praise from Christine Lagarde.