21.48pm Michael Binyon, Times leader writer, remembers life in the old, divided Berlin. He says it may have been grim, but it was certainly fun.

21.41pm The Huffington Post points out that Merkel and Hillary Clinton chose almost identical outfits to mark the day.

21.24pm Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, hailed the ordinary citizens who helped topple the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, saying “their story still inspires today".

“Twenty years ago today, the fall of the Berlin Wall changed the course of history and came to symbolize the triumph of ordinary people in their quest for freedom,” he said.

The night the Wall came down

The photographer Robert Wallis was in Berlin by chance on November 9, 1989. Here he shares his pictures and memories

• Timeline: 50 years in Berlin

Multimedia

• Berlin Wall: from the archives

• Pictures: Berlin Wall

BACKGROUND

• Last leader of GDR reflects on his legacy

• Hungarian guard who helped to end communism

• How Thatcher tried to stop Berlin Wall falling

Related Links

• Life in divided Berlin was grim — but fun

• Berlin crowds gather to remember fall of Wall

• Blair makes final throw of dice for presidency

Multimedia

• ARCHIVE: The Berlin Wall

• BLOG: Sarkozy caught out over Wall claims

• Pictures: Berlin Wall

• Pictures: Berlin Wall anniversary

20.56pm There certainly is some diplomacy going on in between blasts of Bon Jovi and swirling Catherine wheels. It has just been announced that Sarkozy and Medvedev will visit each other's country's in the next year.

20.38pm Any further fireworks will be behind closed doors over dinner - where some of Europe's most senior politicians are expected to discuss the candidates for the EU presidency and foreign spokesman jobs. The Times can reveal tonight that David Miliband has caught a last-minute flight to join the discussions in Berlin. It is the strongest signal yet that he is interested in quitting the Government to become the EU’s foreign minister.

20.26pm From Roger Boyes, the Berlin correspondent of The Times: "Well, it was a wet and cheerful show; not quite as earnest as one could have expected. The leaders have all gone off for dinner. Gordon Brown looked very pleased with himself. He even managed to slip a strong pro-European statement into his well-received speech. Perhaps the other EU leaders will take him more seriously at dinner now. Except for Czech president Vaclav Klaus of course."

20.17pm Here come the fireworks. With a stirring musical accompaniment, a crescendo of pyrotechnics greets the final round of dominos.

20.09pm Roger Boyes: "Thirty year old woman next to me in the crowd, spectacles fogged by freezing rain, sneezing. 'I think this was a swine flu moment,' she says. Glad to see that someone understood the full historic dimensions of the evening."

20.06pm The dominoes have been paused again. Guests from nations still divided by walls - including Cyprus and Korea - are now speaking.

20.01pm The dominos are off again - it looked like a bunch of school children that set them off this time. There are a thousand of the foam dominos spanning a kilometre.

19.57pm Roger Boyes is still in the crowd by the Brandenburg Gate. He says: “Jon Bon Jovi, an acquired taste. He wasn't the obvious choice of crooner. Ten years ago it was the German band, the Scorpions - the lead singer was a mate of the then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder - who stirred the crowd. They played 'Wind of Change' - composed in 1989 after an East European tour it goes "I follow the Moskva / Down to Gorky Park / Listening to the wind of change...the future's in the air". It was backed by 166 cellists including Mtislav Rostropovich. Everyone waved candles or cigarette lighters as if in a trance.

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