By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2021. There are 52 days left in the year.

Todayís 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 a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as ìKristallnacht.î

On this date:

In 1620, the passengers and crew of the Mayflower sighted Cape Cod. In 1872, fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston.

In 1918, it was announced that Germanyís 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 renamed the Congress of Industrial Organizations).

In 1953, Welsh author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.

In 1965, the great Northeast blackout began as 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 1970, former French President Charles de Gaulle died at age 79.

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

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