Monday, November 9, 2009 Pt 1

Today in History

• Kristallnacht: Jews were beaten and killed by Nazis, and their homes and shops destroyed, during "the night of the broken glass" (1938)
• Northeast Blackout of 1965: 25 million residents of seven US states and Ontario, Canada, lost power for up to half a day due to the failure of a switch at a Niagara Falls power station
• Rolling Stone: music and pop culture magazine published its first issue (1967)
• Berlin Wall: East Germany allowed free travel across its border to West Germany for the first time in 28 years (1989)

Today's Birthdays

• Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883): novelist, dramatist and short-story writer; other authors born on this date include Anne Sexton (1928-1974) and Imre Kertész (80)
• Whitey Herzog (78): baseball manager; MLB pitcher Bob Gibson (74) shares this birth date
• Mary Travers (1936-2009): the distaff member of Peter, Paul and Mary; other singers born on this date include Susan Tedeschi (39), Nick Lachey (36) and Sisqo (31)
• Carl Sagan (1934-1996): scientist who brought planetary astronomy to the masses; also, mathematician/astronomer Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)
• Eric Dane (37): Grey's Anatomy's Dr. McSteamy; also, actors Robert David Hall (62), Lou Ferrigno(58) and Nikki Blonsky (21)