Saturday,  Nov. 09, 2013 • Vol. 16--No. 116 • 34 of 35

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• Today is Saturday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2013. 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 a pogrom that became known as "Kristallnacht."

• 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 Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.
• In 1952, Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, died.
• In 1953, Welsh author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.
• In 1961, U.S. Air Force Maj. Robert M. White became the first pilot to fly an X-15 rocket plane at six times the speed of sound. The Beatles' future manager, Brian Epstein, first saw the group perform at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.
• 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 on a successful test flight.
• 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 "illegitimate."
• 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: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's (joon-ee-chee-roh koh-ee-zoo-meez) 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.

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