http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Nov 9, 1989: East Germany opens the Berlin Wall
East German officials today opened the Berlin Wall, allowing travel from East to West Berlin. The following day, celebrating Germans began to tear the wall down. One of the ugliest and most infamous symbols of the Cold War was soon reduced to rubble that was quickly snatched up by souvenir hunters.
The East German action followed a decision by Hungarian officials a few weeks earlier to open the border between Hungary and Austria. This effectively ended the purpose of the Berlin Wall, since East German citizens could now circumvent it by going through Hungary, into Austria, and thence into West Germany. The decision to open the wall was also a reflection of the immense political changes taking place in East Germany, where the old communist leadership was rapidly losing power and the populace was demanding free elections and movement toward a free market system.
The action also had an impact on President George Bush and his advisors. After watching television coverage of the delirious German crowds demolishing the wall, many in the Bush administration became more convinced than ever that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's statements about desiring a new relationship with the West must be taken more seriously. Unlike 1956 and 1968, when Soviet forces ruthlessly crushed protests in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, respectively, Gorbachev actually encouraged the East German action. As such, the destruction of the Berlin Wall was one of the most significant actions leading to the end of the Cold War.
Nov 9, 1938: Nazis launch Kristallnacht
On this day in 1938, in an event that would foreshadow the Holocaust, German Nazis launch a campaign of terror against Jewish people and their homes and businesses in Germany and Austria. The violence, which continued through November 10 and was later dubbed "Kristallnacht," or "Night of Broken Glass," after the countless smashed windows of Jewish-owned establishments, left approximately 100 Jews dead, 7,500 Jewish businesses damaged and hundreds of synagogues, homes, schools and graveyards vandalized. An estimated 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, many of whom were then sent to concentration camps for several months; they were released when they promised to leave Germany. Kristallnacht represented a dramatic escalation of the campaign started by Adolf Hitler in 1933 when he became chancellor to purge Germany of its Jewish population.
The Nazis used the murder of a low-level German diplomat in Paris by a 17-year-old Polish Jew as an excuse to carry out the Kristallnacht attacks. On November 7, 1938, Ernst vom Rath was shot outside the German embassy by Herschel Grynszpan, who wanted revenge for his parents' sudden deportation from Germany to Poland, along with tens of thousands of other Polish Jews. Following vom Rath's death, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ordered German storm troopers to carry out violent riots disguised as "spontaneous demonstrations" against Jewish citizens. Local police and fire departments were told not to interfere. In the face of all the devastation, some Jews, including entire families, committed suicide.
In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Nazis blamed the Jews and fined them 1 billion marks (or $400 million in 1938 dollars) for vom Rath's death. As repayment, the government seized Jewish property and kept insurance money owed to Jewish people. In its quest to create a master Aryan race, the Nazi government enacted further discriminatory policies that essentially excluded Jews from all aspects of public life.
Over 100,000 Jews fled Germany for other countries after Kristallnacht. The international community was outraged by the violent events of November 9 and 10. Some countries broke off diplomatic relations in protest, but the Nazis suffered no serious consequences, leading them to believe they could get away with the mass murder that was the Holocaust, in which an estimated 6 million European Jews died.
Nov 9, 1901: Teddy Roosevelt establishes a naval base in the Philippines
On this day in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt establishes a naval base in the Philippines at Subic Bay, on territory won from Spain during the Spanish-American War.
In 1898, a naval warship, the U.S.S. Maine, had exploded while docked in Cuba. War hawks in the U.S. blamed Spain for the probably accidental explosion, and war between the two nations soon followed. Roosevelt left his post as secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley, signed up for the U.S. cavalry and was promptly deployed to the Caribbean, where he earned the admiration of his countrymen for impassioned leadership and bravery during the Spanish-American War. His popularity as a soldier led McKinley to choose Roosevelt to serve as vice president during his second term. Roosevelt was then thrust suddenly into the presidency upon McKinley's assassination in March 1901.
As president, the former cavalry hero of the Spanish-American War—his unit was known as the "Rough Riders"—ushered in a new imperial era in American foreign affairs. He proceeded to expand America's influence into the Pacific as well as neighboring Latin American countries, such as Panama and Puerto Rico. In November 1901, he issued the executive order to establish a naval base at Subic Bay. He believed that the spot should become the Navy's Pacific headquarters, as the area's rugged jungle terrain would provide an ideal training ground for naval and marine forces.
Roosevelt also viewed a major naval base in the Philippines as a critical strategic asset in light of Japan's growing military might in the Pacific region and increasing political unrest in China. However, opposition from Leonard Wood, governor-general of the Philippines, and various military leaders, who preferred to build up an already existing base at Cavite in the Philippines, eventually derailed Roosevelt's plans to move the Navy's headquarters to Subic Bay. Roosevelt, disgusted with the hostile opposition of the military brass and Governor Wood, abandoned the idea in 1907. He then turned his attention to another potential site for an expanded naval base: Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii.
After the Second World War, Subic Bay's strategic importance was recognized. The harbor became a service port for U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. The base was eventually abandoned and the area was returned to the Filipino government in 1992.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
694 - Spanish King Egica accuses Jews of aiding Moslems/sentenced to slavery
1282 - Pope Martinus IV excommunicates king Pedro III of Aragonorth
1313 - Louis the Bavarian defeats his cousin Frederick I of Austria at the Battle of Gamelsdorf.
1330 - Battle of Posada, Wallachian Voievode Basarab I defeats the Hungarian army in an ambush
1492 - Peace of Etaples (Henry VII of England & Charles VIII of France)
1494 - Family de' Medici become rulers of Florence
1520 - Swedish King Christian II executes 600 nobles
1526 - Jews are expelled from Pressburg (Bratislava), Hungary, by Maria of Hapsburg
1541 - Queen Catharine Howard confined in Tower of London
1569 - Catholic uprising under Northumberland & Westmoreland
1580 - Spanish troops lands in Ireland
1673 - British king Charles II dismisses Earl of Shaftesbury
1681 - Hungarian parliament promises protestants freedom of religion
1697 - Pope Innocent XII founds the city of Cervia.
1720 - Rabbi Yehuda Hasid synagogue set afire
1729 - Spain, France & Britain sign Treaty of Seville
1764 - Mary Campbell, a captive of the Lenape during the French and Indian War, is turned over to forces commanded by Colonel Henry Bouquet.
1794 - Russian troops occupy Warsaw
1799 - Napoleon becomes dictator (1st consul) of France
1821 - 1st US pharmacy college holds 1st classes, Philadelphia
1848 - Post office at Clay & Pike opens
1848 - Robert Blum, a German revolutionary and MP (Liberal), is executed in Vienna.
1851 - Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape.
1853 - Origin of Carrington rotation numbers for rotation of Sun
Composer/Pianist Franz LisztComposer/Pianist Franz Liszt 1854 - Franz Liszt's "Fest-Long," premieres
1857 - Atlantic Monthly magazine 1st published
1858 - 1st performance of NY Symphony Orchestra
1861 - 1st documented Canadian football game (at U of Toronto)
1861 - Battle of Piketon, Ky
1862 - US Grant issues orders to bar Jews from serving under him
1864 - 1st export of goods from Burrard Inlet, BC to a foreign country
1864 - Sherman issues preliminary plans for his "March to the Sea"
1872 - The Great Boston Fire of 1872. Close to 1,000 buildings destroyed
1877 - American Chemical Society chartered in NY
1885 - Opera "Ermine," premieres in London
1888 - Jack Ripper's 5th and probably last victim, Mary Jane Kelly, found on her bed
1904 - 1st airplane flight to last more than 5 minutes
1905 - Swedish mine workers win 5 month strike for minimum wages
1906 - Theodore Roosevelt is 1st US President to visit other countries (P Rico and Panama)
1907 - Edmonton Rugby Foot-ball Club 1st game, loses to Calgary City Rugby Foot-ball Club 26-5 at Edmonton Exhibition Grounds
1907 - The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.
1912 - Ferenc Molnàrs "Farkas," premieres in Budapest
1913 - Storm "Freshwater Fury" sinks 8 ore-carriers on Great Lakes
1915 - Italian liner Ancona sinks by German torpedos, killing 272
1918 - Bavaria proclaims itself a republic
1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates after German defeat in WW I
1918 - Republic Germany proclaimed
Italian Dictator Benito MussoliniItalian Dictator Benito Mussolini 1921 - Partito Nazionalista Fascista, forms in Italy by Mussolini
1923 - Beer Hall Putsch-Nazis fail to overthrow government, 16 die/Hitler flees
1924 - Miriam (Ma) Ferguson becomes 1st elected woman governor (of Texas)
1925 - German NSDAP form Schutzstaffel (SS)
1927 - Giant Panda discovered, China
1927 - Pastor of Have begins blessing of motorcars/motors
1930 - 1st nonstop airplane flight from NY to Panama
1932 - Hurricane storm wave sweeps over Santa Cruz del Sur Cuba kills 2,500
1932 - Riots between conservative and socialist supporters in Switzerland kill 12 and injure 60.
1935 - Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) labor union forms
1935 - Japan invades Shanghai, China
1936 - Albanian government of Frasheri falls
1937 - Japanese army conquers Shanghai
1937 - St Louis Cards Triple Crown winner Joe Medwick is named NL MVP
1938 - Al Capp, cartoonist of Lil' Abner creates Sadie Hawkins Day
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 1938 - Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany's first large-scale physical act of anti-Jewish violence, begins.
1939 - "Ninotchka," with Greta Garbo premieres
1939 - Nobel for physics awarded to Ernest O Lawrence (cyclotron)
1939 - Venlo-incident: German Abwehr kills 2 English agents
1941 - Hitler threatens Clemens August, Graf von Galen, Bishop of Münster
1942 - German occupiers put Erik Scavenius as Danish premier
1942 - Transport number 44 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
1944 - Red Cross wins Nobel peace prize
1944 - Walcheren purged of nazi troops
1946 - Pres Harry Truman ends wage/price freeze
1949 - Costa Rica adopts Constitution
1950 - Boston Brave Sam Jethroe wins NL Rookie of Year
1950 - Phillies skipper Eddie Sawyer selected as Manager of Year
1950 - White Sox release Luke Appling, who had been a Sox since 1930
1953 - Cambodia (aka Kampuchea) gains independence from Fance, within the French Union
33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman 1953 - KTVQ TV channel 2 in Billings, MT (CBS/NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 - Supreme Court rules Major League baseball exempt from anti-trust laws
1955 - Michael Gazzo's "Hatful of Rain," premieres in NYC
1955 - NZ all out for 70 v Pakistan at Dacca
1955 - UN disapproves of South Africa's apartheid politics
1956 - Lou Thesz beats Whipper Billy Watson in St Louis, to become NWA champ
1961 - PGA eliminates caucasians only rule
1961 - Paddy Chayefsky's "Gideon," premieres in NYC
1961 - USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 30,970m
1962 - Catharina Lodders of the Netherlands elected Miss World
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - "Tovarich" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 264 performances
1963 - 450 die in a coal-dust explosion & 160 die in train crash (Japan)
1964 - "Comedy in Music-Opus 2" opens at John Golden NYC for 192 perfs
1964 - Eisaku Sato becomes premier of Japan
1965 - 1st NY Knick game postponed (black-out) vs St Louis
1965 - Hurricane hits north east US/Canada
1965 - Willie Mays named NL MVP
1965 - Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast Blackout of 1965.
Artist & Musician Yoko OnoArtist & Musician Yoko Ono 1966 - John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at an avante-garde art exposition at Indica Gallery in London
1966 - "Let's Sing Yiddish" opens at Brooks Atkinson NYC for 107 perfs
1966 - Oakland Coliseum Arena opens
1967 - 1st unmanned Saturn V flight to test Apollo 4 reentry module
1967 - Surveyor 6 soft lands on Moon
1968 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1970 - Trial of Seattle 8 anti-war protesters begins
1971 - David Storey's "Changing Room," premieres in London
1971 - John List kills family & moves to Colorado
1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1973 - Fire at Taiyo dept store, kills 101 & injures 84 (Kumamoto Japan)
1973 - Government De Uyl decides Palestijnse fugitives to support
1973 - Ringo Starr releases "Ringo" album
1976 - Oakland releases Billy Williams, ending his Hall of Fame career
1976 - UN General Assembly condemns apartheid in South Africa
1977 - Reds' George Foster wins NL MVP
1978 - NASL realligns its 24 teams into 6 divisions
Iraqi President Saddam HusseinIraqi President Saddam Hussein 1980 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declares holy war against Iran
1980 - Tatsuko Ohsako wins LPGA Mazda Japan Golf Classic
1982 - Brewers' Robin Yount wins AL MVP, unanimously
1982 - Sugar Ray Leonard retires for 1st time
1983 - Amsterdam brewer Freddie Heineken kidnapped
1983 - Discovery flies from Vandenberg AFB to Kennedy Space Center
1984 - 1st-class cricket debut for Brian McMillan, Transvaal B v N Tvl B
1984 - Larry Holmes TKOs Bonecrusher Smith in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
1984 - Most shots in an Islander game-88-Isles 45, Rangers 43
1984 - Vietnam Veterans Memorial ("3 Servicemen") completed
1985 - "News" closes at Helen Hayes Theater NYC after 4 performances
1985 - Gary Kasparov becomes world chess champion
1985 - Richard Hadlee takes 9-52 v Australia at the Gabba
1985 - Surprise attack on Belgium supermarket in Aalst, 8 killed
1986 - Ai-Yu Tu wins LPGA Mazda Japan Golf Classic
1986 - Pakistan all out for 77 v West Indies at Lahore
1988 - "Prince of Central Park" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 4 perfs
1988 - MLB All-Star team beat Japan 8-2 in Nishinomya, (Game 4 of 7)
1989 - East Berlin opens its borders
1990 - Tanzania government of Malecela forms
1990 - New democratic constitution is issued in Nepal.
1991 - Houston's Roman Anderson is 1st NCAA to kick 400 pts
1992 - Howard Stern's radio show begins broadcast in Las Vegas Nevada (KFBI)
1992 - Prix Goncourt awarded to Patrick Chamoiseau for "Texaco"
1993 - "Cinderella" opens at New York State Theater NYC for 14 performances
1993 - Serbian army fires on school in Sarajevo, 9 children died
1993 - Stari Most (the "old bridge", built in 1566) in Mostar, Bosnia, collapses after several days of bombing.
1994 - Chandrika Kumaratunga chosen 1st female president of Sri Lanka
1994 - The chemical element Darmstadtium is discovered.
1995 - "Danny Gans on Broadway" opens at Neil Simon Theater NYC
1997 - "Cherry Orchard," closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC
1997 - "Scarlet Pimpernel," opens at Minskoff Theater NYC
1997 - Energizer Senior Golf Tour Championship
1997 - Liselotte Neumann wins LPGA Toray Japan Queens Cup
1997 - Toray Japan Queens Cup
1998 - Brokerage houses are ordered to pay 1.03 billion USD to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for their price-fixing. This is the largest civil settlement in United States history.
1998 - Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences.
1999 - TAESA Flight 725, crashes a few minutes after leaving the Uruapan airport en-route to Mexico City. 18 people were killed in the accident.
2003 - A suicide-terrorist attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, kills 17 people.
2004 - Video game Halo 2 a first person shooter first released on Xbox by Bungie Studios
2005 - Suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 60 people.
2005 - The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
2009 - Joe Cada becomes the youngest champion of the World Series of Poker's main event.
2012 - 2 Iranian fighter jets fire on a US General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drone in international air space
2012 - 25 people are killed and 62 injured after a train carrying liquid fuel bursts into flames in Burma
2012 - An Algerian C-295 military transport plane crashes near Avignon, France, killing 6 people
1857 - The "Atlantic Monthly" first appeared on newsstands and featured the first installment of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. 1872 - A fire destroyed about 800 buildings in Boston, MA. 1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt left for Panama to see the progress on the new canal. It was the first foreign trip by a U.S. president. 1911 - George Claude of Paris, France, applied for a patent on neon advertising signs. 1918 - Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II announced he would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands. 1923 - In Munich, the Beer Hall Putsch was crushed by German troops that were loyal to the democratic government. The event began the evening before when Adolf Hitler took control of a beer hall full of Bavarian government leaders at gunpoint. 1935 - United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization. 1938 - Nazi troops and sympathizers destroyed and looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, burned 267 synagogues, killed 91 Jews, and rounded up over 25,000 Jewish men in an event that became known as Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass." 1953 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that major league baseball did not come within the scope of federal antitrust laws. 1961 - Major Robert White flew an X-15 rocket plane at a world record speed of 4,093 mph. 1961 - The Professional Golfer's Association (PGA) eliminated its "caucasians only" rule. 1963 - In Japan, about 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion. 1963 - In Japan, 160 people died in a train crash. 1965 - The great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours. 1967 - A Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight. 1976 - The U.N. General Assembly approved ten resolutions condemning the apartheid government in South Africa. 1979 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously called upon Iran to release all American hostages "without delay." Militants, mostly students had taken 63 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4. 1981 - U.S. troops began arriving in Egypt for a three-week Rapid Deployment Force excercise. Somalia, Sudan and Oman were also involved in the operation. 1981 - The Internation Monetary Fund approved a $5.8 billion load to India. It was the highest loan to date. 1982 - Sugar Ray Leonard retired from boxing. In 1984 Leonard came out of retirement to fight one more time before becoming a boxing commentator for NBC. 1984 - A bronze statue titled "Three Servicemen," by Frederick Hart, was unveiled at the site of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. 1989 - Communist East Germany opened its borders, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany. 1990 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany. 1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin, visiting London, appealed for assistance in rescheduling his country's debt, and asked British businesses to invest. 1997 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) became the first player in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in nine straight seasons. In the same game Sanders passed former Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett for third place on the all-time rushing list. 1998 - A federal judge in New York approved the richest antitrust settlement in U.S. history. A leading brokerage firm was ordered to pay $1.03 billion to investors who had sued over price-rigging of Nasdaq stocks. 1998 - PBS aired its documentary special "Chihuly Over Venice." 2004 - U.S. First Lady Laura Bush officially reopened Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to pedestrians.
1888 Jack the Ripper killed his last victim, Mary Jane Kelly. 1938 Nazis burned and looted temples and Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night—referring to broken glass on streets). 1953 Author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39. 1965 A switch at a station near Niagara Falls failed. The Northeast and parts of Canada went dark for more than 13 hours. 1970 Former French president Charles De Gaulle died at age 79. 1989 Borders between East and West Germany were opened and the Berlin Wall began to be dismantled the next day.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/nov09.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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