Today in History

German Bundestag passes controversial bill mandating storage of citizens’ telecommunications traffic date for six months without probable cause.

Largest civil settlement in US history: 37 brokerage houses are ordered to pay $1.3 billion to NASDAQ investors to compensate for price fixing.

The chemical element Darmstadtium, a radioactive synthetic element, discovered by scientists in Darmstadt, Germany.

Stari Most, a 427-year-old bridge in the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is destroyed, believed to be caused by artillery fire from Bosnian Croat forces.

The Berlin Wall is opened after dividing the city for 28 years.

Alfred Heineken, beer brewer from Amsterdam, is kidnapped and held for a ransom of more than $10 million.

Bones discovered by the Leakeys push human origins back 1 million years.

NASA launches Apollo 4 into orbit with the first successful test of a Saturn V rocket.

Nine Northeastern states and parts of Canada go dark in the worst power failure in history, when a switch at a station near Niagara Falls fails.

Tom Fogerty, musician; guitarist with Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Nazis kill 35 Jews, arrest thousands and destroy Jewish synagogues, homes and stores throughout Germany. The event becomes known as Kristallnacht, the night of the shattered glass.

Mary Travers, singer, songwriter; member of Vocal Group folk group Peter, Paul and Mary (“Puff the Magic Dragon,” “If I Had a Hammer”).

Japanese troops invade Shanghai, China.

Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer.

Anne Sexton, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

Robert Frank, photographer.

James Schuyler, poet, novelist and playwright.

Spiro Agnew, vice president to Richard Nixon.

The Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney wrecks the German cruiser Emden, forcing her to beach on a reef on North Keeling Island in the Indian Ocean.

President Theodore Roosevelt leaves Washington, D.C., for a 17-day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico, becoming the first president to make an official visit outside of the United States.

Russia completes its occupation of Manchuria.

Ed Wynn, actor and comedian.

Stanford White, architect whose designs include Madison Square Garden and Washington Arch.

The first U.S. Post Office in California opens in San Francisco at Clay and Pike streets. At the time there are only about 15,000 European settlers living in the state.

Edward VII, King of England, who succeeded his mother Victoria in 1901.

Ivan Turgenev, Russian author (Fathers and Sons, A Month in the Country).

Napoleon Bonaparte participates in a coup and declares himself dictator of France.