Today in History....November 9

On this day in …

1872, fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston

1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated. He then fled to the Netherlands

1938, Nazi-inspired anti-Jewish riots took place across Germany after the murder of a German official in Paris. Jewish businesses were ransacked, synagogues torched and many Jews sent to concentration camps. The night became known as "Kristallnacht" (Night of Broken Glass)

1965, a huge power failure blacked out New York City, parts of eight northeastern states and parts of Canada, affecting 30 million people

1967, the first Saturn V rocket carrying the unmanned Apollo 4 spacecraft was successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center

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

1990, King Birendra of Nepal proclaimed a new constitution that restored multi-party democracy to the Himalayan kingdom and stripped him of his absolute power

1995, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, ym"sh, made his first visit to Israel and paid a surprise condolence call at the Tel Aviv home of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's widow, Leah

1996, President Clinton used his weekly radio address to condemn the decision of the nation's distillers to end their voluntary ban on airing hard-liquor ads, calling it "simply irresponsible"

1999, Cuba said it would file a lawsuit against the United States for more than $100 billion for the damages resulting from Washington's 40-year economic embargo against Havana

2002, Iyad Sawalha, ym"sh, head of Islamic Jihad's military wing and the top of an Israeli wanted list, was shot dead in the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli forces

2005, three suicide bombers, practitioners of that "religion of peace", blew themselves up at three international hotels in Jordan's capital Amman, killing 60 and wounding many others