Table of Contents
Today is Saturday, November 9, the 314th day of 2024. There are 52 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On November 9, 1989, communist East Germany opened its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West for the first time in decades.
Also on this date:
In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt made the first foreign trip by a sitting president to observe the construction of the Panama Canal.
In 1935, John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, and other union leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.
In 1938, the Nazis looted and burned synagogues and thousands of Jewish shops and homes in Germany and Austria in a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as “Kristallnacht.”
In 1965, the Great Blackout in the Northeast began with a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 1/2 hours, leaving 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.
In 1976, the UN General Assembly passed resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one that declared the white government “illegitimate.”
In 2007, Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf (pur-VEHZ’moo-SHAH’-ruhv) placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto (BEN’-uh-zeer BOO’-toh) under house arrest for a day and arrested thousands of people. its supporters to block a mass demonstration against his emergency government.
In 2011, after 46 seasons as Penn State’s head football coach and a record 409 wins, Joe Paterno was fired along with university President Graham Spanier over their handling of child abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Film director Bille August is 76.
- Actor-bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno is 73.
- Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is 72.
- Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 65.
- TV writer-director-producer Ryan Murphy is 59.
- Rapper Scarface (Geto Boys) is 54.
- Blues singer Susan Tedeschi (teh-DEHS’-kee) is 54.
- Golfer David Duval is 53.
- Actor Eric Dane is 52.
- Singer-TV personality Nick Lachey is 51.
- R&B singer Sisqo is 46.
- Actor-TV personality Vanessa Lachey is 44.
- Country singer Chris Lane is 40.