November 09
1888
Jack the Ripper killed his last victim, Mary Jane Kelly.
1938
Nazis burned and looted temples and Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night—referring to broken glass on streets).
1953
Author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.
1965
A switch at a station near Niagara Falls failed. The Northeast and parts of Canada went dark for more than 13 hours.
1970
Former French president Charles De Gaulle died at age 79.
1989
Borders between East and West Germany were opened and the Berlin Wall began to be dismantled the next day.
Birthdays
Carl Sagan
1934–1996, American astronomer and popularizer of science. Born in New York City.
Benjamin Banneker
mathematician, astronomer, surveyor (1731)
Gail Borden
dairyman, surveyor, and inventor (1801)
Elijah Lovejoy
abolitionist (1802)
Ivan Turgenev
novelist (1818)
Stanford White
architect (1853)
Anne Sexton
poet (1928)
Lou Ferrigno
actor, bodybuilder (1951)
David Duval
golfer (1971)