Today in History, November 9th
On November 9, 1989, East Germany opened the Berlin Wall. Plus Kristallnacht, the 1965 Northeast blackout, and Carl Sagan's birth.
Published
November 9 is best known for the night in 1989 when East Germany opened the Berlin Wall and crowds poured across. The same date also saw Kristallnacht in 1938, the 1965 blackout that darkened much of the Northeast, and the birth of astronomer Carl Sagan in 1934.
The big story: The Berlin Wall Opens (1989)
For 28 years, the Berlin Wall split a city and stood for the whole Cold War. It came down, in a sense, by accident. On the evening of November 9, 1989, East German Politburo member Günter Schabowski read out a new travel rule at a press conference just before 7:00 p.m. He fumbled the details and said it applied immediately. West German TV ran with the story, and East Berliners headed for the checkpoints. The guards had no orders. At Bornholmer Strasse, they let a few people through at 9:20 p.m. to ease the pressure. By 11:30 p.m., the officer in charge simply raised the barrier, and about 20,000 people crossed in the next hour. Other crossings opened that night. The wall had been put up in August 1961, and at least 191 people died trying to get over it. Most of it was torn down between June and November 1990.
More events on November 9
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1799 | Napoleon Bonaparte launched the Coup of 18 Brumaire in Paris, toppling the Directory. Many historians treat it as the end of the French Revolution. |
| 1872 | The Great Boston Fire broke out. Over two days it burned more than 60 acres of the commercial district and destroyed 776 buildings. |
| 1918 | Germany’s government announced Kaiser Wilhelm II’s abdication, a republic was proclaimed in Berlin, and Wilhelm fled to the Netherlands. |
| 1923 | Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch in Munich collapsed when police fired on his marchers. He was arrested two days later. |
| 1938 | Kristallnacht began, two days of Nazi-led attacks on Jewish people, homes, businesses and synagogues across Germany and Austria. |
| 1953 | Cambodia gained full independence from France under King Norodom Sihanouk. |
| 1965 | One tripped transmission line set off a cascading failure that cut power to about 30 million people in the northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada. |
| 1967 | Apollo 4 lifted off from Florida on the first-ever flight of the Saturn V, the rocket that would later carry astronauts to the Moon. |
| 1985 | Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov in Moscow to become, at 22, the youngest world chess champion up to that time. |
| 2005 | Suicide bombers struck three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing dozens of people. |
| 2020 | Pfizer and BioNTech reported that their COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in a late-stage trial. |
Born on November 9
- 1731: Benjamin Banneker, self-taught mathematician, astronomer and almanac maker from Maryland.
- 1922: Dorothy Dandridge, singer and actress, the first Black woman nominated for the Best Actress Oscar.
- 1923: Alice Coachman, high jumper and the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal (London, 1948).
- 1934: Carl Sagan, astronomer and science writer who brought the cosmos to a mass audience.
Keep reading
Sources
- Opening and Fall of the Wall, Berlin.de
- Berlin Wall, Britannica
- Coup of 18–19 Brumaire, Britannica
- Boston fire of 1872, Britannica
- The last year of the German Empire, Britannica
- Beer Hall Putsch, Britannica
- Kristallnacht, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Cambodia Gains Independence from France, EBSCO Research Starters
- The Great Northeast Blackout, History.com
- Apollo 4, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
- Kasparov becomes youngest World Champion in the history of chess, ChessBase
- Suicide blasts in Jordan hotels, Dawn
- Pfizer CEO on Covid vaccine efficacy, CNBC
- Benjamin Banneker, Britannica
- Dorothy Dandridge, Britannica
- Alice Coachman, Britannica
- Carl Sagan, Britannica
