NOVEMBER 9TH

Today is Sunday, Nov. 9, the 314th day of 2008.
There are 52 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 9, 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht." It's estimated that more than 90 Jews were killed in the pogrom.

On this date:

• In 1872, fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston.
• In 1918, it was announced that Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.
• In 1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (later Congress of Industrial Organizations).
• In 1953, author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.
• In 1963, twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and about 160 people died in a train crash.
• In 1965, the great Northeast blackout occurred 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.
• In 1967, a Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a successful test flight.
• In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as "illegitimate."
• In 1988, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, a major figure in the Watergate scandal, died in Washington at age 75.
• In 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

Ten years ago:

• A federal judge in New York approved a massive antitrust settlement in which leading brokerage firms promised to pay $1.03 billion to investors who had sued over a price-rigging scheme for stocks listed on the Nasdaq market.
• The age of digital and interactive TV opened with the airing of a PBS documentary special, "Chihuly Over Venice."

Five years ago:

• Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ruling bloc won a majority in the country's parliamentary elections.
• Three-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney, 63, ended her 30-year racing career with a loss in the second round of the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway in California.
• Comic actor Art Carney died in Chester, Conn., at age 85.

One year ago:

• President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for a day, and rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a mass rally against his emergency rule.
• Chadian authorities released three Spanish flight crew members and a Belgian pilot detained in an alleged kidnapping plot of African children by a French charity.

Today's Birthdays:

• Baseball executive Whitey Herzog is 77.
• Former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., is 72.
• Singer Mary Travers is 72.
• Actor Charlie Robinson ("Night Court") is 63.
• Movie director Bille August is 60.
• Actor Robert David Hall ("CSI") is 60.
• Actor Lou Ferrigno is 56.
• Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 49.
• Rock musician Dee Plakas (L7) is 48.
• Rapper Pepa (Salt-N-Pepa) is 39.
• Rapper Scarface (Geto Boys) is 39.
• Blues singer Susan Tedeschi is 38.
• Actor Eric Dane is 36.
  
• Singer Nick Lachey (98 Degrees) is 35.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Sisqo (Dru Hill) is 30.
• Actress Nikki Blonsky (Film: "Hairspray") is 20.

Thought for Today:

"All life is an experiment."
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice (1841-1935).

"Let's all be careful out there!"