On This Day November 9

1994
Element 110: Scientists create a new element. With an atomic weight of 269, it is the heaviest known element.

1989
The Berlin Wall: The 28-year-old symbol of the cold war is opened to the West.

1984
Vietnam Memorial: The monument is completed with the unveiling of the statue Three Serviceman, facing a black granite wall engraved with the names of more than 58,000 Americans killed or missing in action during the Vietnam War.

1966
Death of Paul McCartney?: In 1969, using "clues" found in Beatles songs and album covers, a Detroit disc jockey and his radio audience determined that he died on this day in a car accident - They were wrong of course.

1965
Power failure blacks out most of Northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada.

1961
The Beatles: Brian Epstein goes to hear a new group at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club. He becomes their manager and helps them rocket to stardom.

1938
World War II - Crystal Night: Nazi storm troopers raid and shatter the glass of Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues.

1936
Su-Lin, a giant panda, is discovered in China. In December it became the first giant panda in the U.S. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1924
First woman U.S. governor: Mrs. Nellie Tayloe Ross is elected by Wyoming, taking office on January 5, 1925. Mrs. Miriam Ferguson was also elected governor of Texas, but didn't take office until January 20, 1925.

1906
First U.S. president to visit a foreign country while in office: Teddy Roosevelt leaves for Panama.

1888
Jack the Ripper: The last known murder by the brutal killer is committed. For three months he had murdered and mutilated prostitutes in London's East End. He was never caught.

324
First public consecration of a church: Pope St. Sylvester consecrates the Basilica of the Most Holy Savior (now known as St. John the Lateran).

1952
Lou Ferrigno, American body builder, actor. TV: Incredible Hulk (the angry one).

1934
Carl Edward Sagan, American astronomer. He won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of Eden.

1921
Stan Drake, American cartoonist, creator of The Heart of Juliet Jones (1953).

1918 d. 1996
Spiro Theodore Agnew, 39th U.S. Vice-President (1969-73). He resigned after pleading no contest to income tax evasion charges (1973).

1913
Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Kiesler), Austrian actress. Film: Samson and Delilah (1949, Delilah).

1886 d. 1966
Ed Wynn (Isaiah Edwin Leopold), American comedian. He starred in the Ziegfeld Follies (1914), was the Texaco Fire Chief (1932-39), and won the first Most Outstanding Live Personality Emmy (1949).

1881 d. 1963
Herbert Thomas Kalmus, American film pioneer, inventor of technicolor (1912).

1864 d. 1920
Dmitry Iosifovich Ivanovsky, Russian biologist, discover of viruses. He was studying a tobacco crop disease when he found that an invisible parasite, much smaller than any known bacterium, was the cause. This newly-discovered life form was the virus.

1853 d. 1906
Stanford White, American architect, designed the old Madison Square Garden and the Washington Arch.

1841 d. 1910
Edward VII (Albert Edward), King of England and Ireland (1901-10).

1837 d. 1919
Captain Martin Van Buren Bates, American giant, 7' 4" tall. He and his wife, Anna Swan at 7' 5½", were billed as the "The Giants of Seville."

1801 d. 1874
Gail Borden, American inventor. He developed a process for making condensed milk (1853).

1988 b. 1913
John Newton Mitchell, U.S. attorney general (1968-72), convicted in the Watergate scandal (1975).

1980 b. 1915
Victor Sen Yung, American actor. TV: Bonanza (Hop Sing, the Chinese Cook). Film: The Charlie Chan movies (1930s - 40s, Jimmy the No. 2 son). Writings: Great Wok Cookbook (1974).

1976 b. 1950
Smokey Bear, American black bear, orphaned by a New Mexico forest fire, he became the national symbol for forest fire prevention. By 1964, his fan mail was so great that he was given his own zip code, 20252.

1970 b. 1886
William Levi Dawson, American politician. He was the first black U.S. representative to chair a Congressional committee (1949, Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments).

1967 b. 1889
Charles Bickford, American actor. TV: The Virginian (Shiloh Ranch owner John Grainger).

1953 b. 1914
Dylan Marlais Thomas, English poet. Writings: Deaths and Entrances.

1952 b. 1874
Chaim Weizmann, Israeli statesman, biochemist, instrumental in the Balfour Declaration (1917), which established a national home for Jews in Palestine and served as Israel's first president (1948-52).

November 9

Events

Birthdays

Deaths