Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

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.

1927

The giant panda was discovered in China.

1935

United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.

1938

Nazis burned and looted synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night—referring to broken glass on streets).

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

The Professional Golfer's Association (PGA) eliminated its "caucasians only" rule.

1961

Major Robert White flew an X-15 rocket plane at a world record speed of 4,093 mph.

1963

In Japan, 160 people died in a train crash.

1963

In Japan, about 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion.

1965

The worst power failure in history occurred when a switch at a station near Niagara Falls failed. The Northeast and parts of Canada went dark for over 13 hours.

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

The Internation Monetary Fund approved a $5.8 billion loan to India. It was the highest loan to date.

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.

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

Borders between East and West Germany were opened and the Berlin Wall began to be dismantled the next day.

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.

2004

U.S. First Lady Laura Bush officially reopened Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to pedestrians.

1953

Author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.

1970

Former French president Charles De Gaulle died at age 79.