Today in History: November 9, Berlin Wall falls after 28 years

Today in history: On Nov. 9, 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West for the first time in decades. In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as thousands of Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as “Kristallnacht.” The headlights of autos provide the only illumination as they move bumber to bumber along New York’s 42nd Street, Nov. 9, 1965, as they try to leave the city during a power failure. In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.” Police beat opposition protesters during a rally against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Peshawar, Pakistan on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. In 2007, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for a day and rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a mass rally against his emergency rule. In 2011, after 46 seasons as Penn State’s head football coach and a record 409 victories, Joe Paterno was fired along with the university president, Graham Spanier, over their handling of child sex abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.