TODAY IN HISTORY

In1872, fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston.

In1935, United Mine Workers president John Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization. In1937, Japanese t roops took Shanghai.

In1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as “Kristallnacht.” In1953, the Supreme Court up held a 1922 ruling that Major League Baseball did not come within the scope of federal anti trust laws .(Clinton signed a bill overturning the laborof the anti trust exemption.) In1962, the United States completed its emergency air lift of arms and ammunition to India in that country’ s border war with China. In1967, a Saturn 5 rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight. In1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved 10 resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.”

In1980, in a nationally broadcast speech marking the start of the new Islamic year, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared that his army was conducting a holy war against Iran in order to up hold the ideals of Islam. In1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced a top the Berlin Wall.

In2000, George W. Bush’ s lead over Al Gore in all-or-nothing Florida slipped beneath 300 votes in a suspense-filled recount, as Democrats threw the presidential election to the courts, claiming “an in justice unparalleled in our history .” In2005, three suicide bombers carried out nearly simultaneous attacks on three U.S.-based hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing 60people and wounding hundreds.

In2013, two Russian cosmonauts took the Olympic torch on a walk outside the International Space Station inthe run-up to the Sochi Olympic Gamesin February 2014.