Today in History: November 9, East Germany opens its borders
Today in History
Today is Thursday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2023. There are 52 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 9, 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West for the first time in decades; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.
On this date:
In 1620, the passengers and crew of the Mayflower sighted Cape Cod.
In 1872, fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston.
In 1918, it was announced that Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate; he then fled to the Netherlands.
In 1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.
In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as “Kristallnacht.”
In 1965, the great Northeast blackout began with a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours, leaving 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.
In 1970, former French President Charles de Gaulle died at age 79.
In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.”
In 2007, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (pur-VEHZ’ moo-SHAH’-ruhv) of Pakistan placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto (BEN’-uh-zeer BOO’-toh) under house arrest for a day, and rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a mass rally against his emergency rule.
In 2011, after 46 seasons as Penn State’s head football coach and a record 409 victories, Joe Paterno was fired along with the university president, Graham Spanier, over their...