On this date

In 1918, it was announced that Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate.

In 1961, the Beatles’ future manager, Brian Epstein, first saw the group perform at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.

In 1965, the great Northeast blackout began as a series of power failures lasting up to 131⁄2 hours left 30 million people in seven states and 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, East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

In 2000, George W. Bush’s lead over Al Gore in Florida slipped beneath 300 votes in a suspense-filled recount, as Democrats threw the presidential election to the courts.

In 2007, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest, and rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a rally against his emergency rule.

Ten years ago: China unveiled a $586 billion stimulus package aimed at inoculating the country against the global financial crisis.

Five years ago: Three surviving Doolittle Raiders who attacked Tokyo in 1942, all in their 90s, offered a final toast to their fallen comrades in a ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.

One year ago: The Washington Post quoted a woman as saying that Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama had sexual contact with her when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney.