October 7, 1949: The German Democratic Republic, a.k.a. East Germany, is founded by that country's Communist Party. In other words, it's not democratic, and it's not a republic. But it is quite German: Imagine Communist ideology combined with German demands for efficiency. It was a charter member of the Warsaw Pact in 1955.
Perhaps even more than the Soviet Union, East Germany became known for steroid-aided Olympic athletes. They were among the countries that joined the Soviets' boycott of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984. But in that year's Winter Olympics, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia), Katarina Witt won the 1st of 2 Olympic Gold Medals in women's figure skating, putting a human face on the country.
The notorious Ministry for State Security -- Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, or "Stasi" -- worked very hard to stop Witt from defecting to the West, bribing her with cars and the kind of travel allowances that would never have been given to a private citizen.
It worked, until reunification in 1989. She had already retired from competitive skating, and only made 1 return to compete for the united Germany. But she embraced the Western lifestyle anyway, posing nude for Playboy magazine, writing a romance novel, and hosting skating-themed TV shows on the TV networks that had dominated the media of the former West Germany.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Saturday Night Live did a parody of the game show The Hollywood Squares: "The East Berlin Squares" had half of the celebrity panelists missing, because they'd defected, including half of a comedy duo.
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October 7, 1949 was a Tuesday. Game 3 of the World Series was played at Ebbets Field. Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers ran out of gas in the top of the 9th inning, giving up a 2-RBI single to Johnny Mize, and then Jack Banta gave up an RBI single to Jerry Coleman. Luis Olmo and Roy Campanella hit solo home runs in the bottom of the 9th, but Joe Page hung on, and the New York Yankees won, 4-3, to take a 2-1 lead in the Series. They won the Series in Game 5.
The other New York Yankees also won on this day. What "other New York Yankees"? The team playing in the All-America Football Conference. They beat the Chicago Hornets, 38-24 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
