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In 1918, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated as World War I drew to a close.
In 1933, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt set up the Civil Works Administration as an emergency Depression agency to provide jobs for the unemployed.
In 1938, mobs of Germans attacked Jewish businesses and homes throughout Germany in what became known as Kristallnacht, or Crystal Night.
In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Major League Baseball isn't within the scope of federal antitrust laws.
In 1965, a massive power failure left more than 30 million people in the dark in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
In 1984, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington was completed by the addition of the Frederick Hart statue called "Three Servicemen."
In 1985, Gary Kasparov, 22, became the youngest world chess champion, ending the 10-year reign of Anatoly Karpov in Moscow.
In 1989, East Germany announced free passage for its citizens through border checkpoints. The announcement rendered the Berlin Wall, the most reviled symbol of the Cold War, virtually irrelevant 28 years after its construction.
In 1995, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat visited Israel for the first time to offer personal condolences to the wife of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
In 2006, losses by incumbent Republicans in Virginia and Montana in midterm elections gave the Democratic Party a majority in the U.S. Senate.
In 2008, three men were executed by firing squad for 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, mostly tourists.
In 2011, a burgeoning child sexual-abuse scandal at Penn State University claimed its legendary football coach when the school's board of trustees fired Joe Paterno. Authorities investigating 40 child-abuse counts against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky accused Paterno of helping conceal allegations against his old friend. Penn State President Graham Spanier also was sacked.
In 2012, CIA Director David Petraeus resigned, citing an extramarital affair. In 2013, the USS Gerald R. Ford was christened at Newport News, Va., by the late president's daughter, Susan Ford Bales. The ship is the first of a new class of technologically advanced U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers.