THURSDAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2017. There are 52 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On Nov. 9, 1967, a Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.

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 (later renamed the Congress of Industrial Organizations).

In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom that became known as “Kristallnacht.”

In 1965, the great Northeast blackout began as a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours left 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.

In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.”

In 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

Ten years ago: Six U.S. troops died in an insurgent ambush in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, making 2007 the deadliest year for American forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

Five years ago: Retired four-star Army Gen. David Petraeus abruptly resigned as CIA director after an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was revealed by an FBI investigation.

One year ago: Democrat Hillary Clinton conceded the presidential election to Republican Donald Trump.

Today’s Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog is 86. Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson is 82. Actor Charlie Robinson is 72. Movie director Bille August is 69. Actor Lou Ferrigno is 66. Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 58. Actress Ion Overman is 48. Rapper Pepa is 48. Singer Nick Lachey is 44.

Thought for Today: “I think charm is the ability to be truly interested in other people.” — Richard Avedon, American fashion photographer (1923-2004).