Glancing Backward 11/09

Today is Monday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2009. There are 52 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 9, 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

Glancing Backward Locally:

25 years ago - 1984

At the ninth annual Bradford County Photography Exhibit at the county library in Milan, the winners were: in the black and white competition, first place to Dick Allyn, second place to Dawn Lis-Jamieson, and third place to Kyle Lis; in the color competition, first place to James R. Spencer, second place to Dick Allyn, and third place to Emory M. Allen.

Air Force Airman First Class Jack W. Hunter was awarded the Good conduct Medal at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. He is the son of Evelyn B. Hunter of Athens.

The VFW was selling poppies in Sayre for Poppy Days.

50 years ago - 1959

Hugh Johnston has opened a TV-radio repair business in his home, west of Towanda Borough.

At the Towanda Valley High School, Frederick Watson is organizing a faculty chorus.

Jose Silva, an internationally-known Brazilian banjoist, performed for the Towanda senior high school students.

75 years ago - 1934

In LeRoy, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Gilbert entertained on Halloween by playing games, telling ghost stories, and singing songs.

A benefit card party for the Troy room of the Robert Packer Hospital was held at the home of Mrs. Mary Bloom.

Several people attended a birthday party held by Mrs. Maude Wright in honor of the 89th birthday of her mother, Mrs. Shadrack Williams.

Elsewhere on this date:

In 1872, fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston.

In 1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization, later Congress of Industrial Organizations.

In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom that became known as "Kristallnacht."

In 1953, author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.

In 1963, twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and about 160 people died in a train crash.

In 1965, the great Northeast blackout occurred as a series of power failures lasting up to 13½ hours left 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.

In 1967, a Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a successful test flight.

In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as "illegitimate."

Ten years ago: With fireworks, concerts and a huge party at the landmark Brandenburg Gate, Germany celebrated the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The flight data recorder from EgyptAir Flight 990 was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean and shipped to a National Transportation Safety Board laboratory in Washington.

Five years ago: Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans resigned; they were the first members of the Cabinet to leave as President George W. Bush headed from re-election into his second term. Kenny Chesney won the Country Music Association album of the year award for "When The Sun Goes Down" as well as entertainer of the year. Roger Clemens won his record seventh Cy Young Award.

One year ago: Barack Obama's transition chief, John Podesta, told "Fox News Sunday" the president-elect planned to review President George W. Bush's executive orders on such things as stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas. China unveiled a $586 billion stimulus package aimed at inoculating the world's fourth-largest economy against the global financial crisis.

Today's Birthdays: Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate R. Sargent Shriver is 94. Baseball executive Whitey Herzog is 78. Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson is 74. Actor Charlie Robinson is 64. Movie director Bille August is 61. Actor Robert David Hall ("CSI") is 61. Actor Lou Ferrigno is 58.

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