dynamic sidebar function kills my sidebar

So I have a div for my sidebar called #rightColumn and in that div I set up the dynamic sidebar UL as directed in the codex guide. but when I add the PHP the entire rightColumn disappears, as does my facebook like button which isnt even in the div.

here is what I mean:

<div id="rightColumn">
	<?php
		$events = new WP_Query('category_name=events&posts_per_page=3');
		if ($events->have_posts()) :
		   while ($events->have_posts()) : $events->the_post();
	?>
			<div class="blogEntry">

				<h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>">
					<?php the_title(); ?></a>
				</h3>
			</div>
			<?php
		   endwhile;
		endif;
	?>

	<ul id="sidebar">
		<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar() ) : ?>
	</ul>
</div>

that line of php in#sidebar kills the entire div and im not sure what.

Oh yeah, my functions.php has this in it too:

<?php
if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') )
    register_sidebar();
?>