November 9
1857 - Readers picked up a new magazine on newsstands. The Atlantic Monthly featured the first installment of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.
1911 - George Claude of Paris, France applied for a patent on neon advertising signs. You may have seen his handiwork for advertisers that appeared at various times on the Eiffel Tower.
1912 - Pop Warner was a legendary coach of the Carlisle School for Indians in Pennsylvania (Jim Thorpe played for Warner at Carlisle). On this day, Carlisle hammered Army 27-6. Playing right halfback on the Army team was a future U.S. war hero and president: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1938 - The kids’ magazine, Jack and Jill, was published. 40,000 of the first edition were printed. By the late 1950s, the popular magazine reached a circulation of 702,000.
1938 - On this night and into the wee hours of the next morning, glass store and house windows were smashed throughout Jewish neighborhoods in Germany. Thousands of books -- volumes of history, philosophy, poetry and religion -- fueled bonfires throughout the ghettoes. Synagogues and the Torah scrolls inside them were burned to the ground. 91 Jews were killed and over 30,000 arrested. It was Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), a sign of the unconscionable, and unforgivable death and destruction soon to come at the hands of the Nazis.
1948 - This is Your Life debuted on NBC radio. Ralph Edwards hosted the radio show for two years and for nine more (1952-1961) on television.
1953 - Maurice Richard set a National Hockey League record by scoring his 325th career goal. Most guys would have kept the record-breaking puck. Richard sent this one to Queen Elizabeth of England.
1955 - Harry Belafonte recorded Jamaica Farewell and Come Back Liza for RCA Victor. The two tunes completed the Calypso album which led to Belafonte’s nickname, ‘Calypso King’.
1965 - A huge blackout in the northeast U.S. left millions without electricity. 800,000 people wound up trapped in New York subways, elevators and skyscrapers. Rioting broke out in New York City. Dramatic photos showed the eery sight of a moonlit, electric lightless, Manhattan skyline. Power was not restored until the next morning.
1967 - The first issue of Rolling Stone was published. John Lennon was on the cover. The magazine said it was not simply a music magazine but was also about “...the things and attitudes that music embraces.”
1982 - Sugar Ray Leonard retired from boxing, five months after having retinal surgery on his left eye. (In 1984, Leonard came out of retirement to fight one more time before becoming a fight commentator for NBC.)
1984 - There was a big fight in the NBA. Larry Bird of Boston tangled with Dr. J (Julius Irving) at the old Boston Garden. The Celtics won the game 130-119, but the two players lost $7,500 each. They were not alone: 16 other players who joined in the melee paid a total of $15,500 in fines in a game that was more like professional wrestling than pro basketball.
1984 - Donna Reed joined the cast of Dallas as J.R. Ewing’s new mamma, on CBS-TV. This was Reed’s first return to television since her own successful show ended in 1966. However radiantly beautiful, Reed would not score well with viewers who had become attached to Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie. Reed was written out of the script and Bel Geddes returned in 1985.
1984 - Three Servicemen, a sculpture by Frederick Hart, was unveiled in Washington, DC. It was the final addition to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The statue faces the wall of names of more than 58,000 Americans who were either killed or reported missing in action during the Vietnam War.
1986 - Bobby Rahal won his first national auto racing driving title. He had earned $300,000 for six victories, including an Indy 500 win.
1989 - The 27.9-mile-long Berlin Wall, the symbol of the Cold War that separated East and West Germany for 28 years, was opened. Both East and West German citizens celebrated their freedom as they once again were able to walk freely between the two states. 1996 - Evander Holyfield joined Muhammad Ali, in making history as the second man to become the three-time World Heavyweight Champion. He accomplished this by defeating Mike Tyson at 37 seconds of the 11th round at the MGM Grand Garden, Las Vegas.
