Today in History: November 9, Berlin Wall falls after 28 years

Today is Saturday, Nov. 9, the 314th day of 2024. There are 52 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 9, 1989, communist East Germany threw open 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 trip abroad of any sitting president in order to observe construction of the Panama Canal.

In 1935, United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.

In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as thousands of Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as “Kristallnacht.”

In 1965, the great Northeast blackout began with a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours, leaving 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.

In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.”

In 2007, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (pur-VEHZ’ moo-SHAH’-ruhv) of Pakistan placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto (BEN’-uh-zeer BOO’-toh) under house arrest for a day and rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a mass rally against his emergency rule.

In 2011, after 46 seasons as Penn State’s head football coach and a record 409 victories, Joe Paterno was fired along with the university president, Graham Spanier, over their handling of child sex 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.