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!"
