Today In History
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 9, the 314th day of 2016. There are 52 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1976: The U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.”
ON THIS DATE 1620: The passengers and crew of the Mayflower sighted Cape Cod.
1872: Fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston.
1918: It was announced that Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate; he then fled to the Netherlands.
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.”
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.
1967: A Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.
1986: Israel revealed it was holding Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who’d vanished after providing information to a British newspaper about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. (Vanunu was convicted of treason and served 18 years in prison.)
1989: Communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog is 85. Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson is 81. Actor Charlie Robinson is 71. Movie director Bille August is 68. Actor Robert David Hall is 68. Actor Lou Ferrigno is 65. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is 64. Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 57. Rock musician Dee Plakas (L7) is 56. Rapper Pepa (Salt-N-Pepa) is 47. Rapper Scarface (Geto Boys) is 46. Blues singer Susan Tedeschi is 46. Actor Jason Antoon is 45. Actor Eric Dane is 44. Singer Nick Lache y (98 Degrees) is 43. Country musician Barry Knox (Parmalee) is 39. Rhythmand-blues singer Sisqo (Dru Hill) is 38. Country singer Corey Smith is 37. Actress Nikki Blonsky is 28. Actress-model Analeigh Tipton is 28.