The world's first registered partnerships, Copenhagen

Denmark became the first country to give same-sex couples legal recognition when its registered partnership law came into force on 1 October 1989. That day eleven couples registered at Copenhagen City Hall, the first of them Axel and Eigil Axgil, who had helped found Denmark's first gay rights organisation in 1948 and campaigned for the law. It became a model across Europe; Denmark opened marriage to same-sex couples in 2012.