On November 9, 1848, agitator for democracy Robert Blum was executed by a firing squad in Vienna; to many this seemed like the final dashing of hopes for revolutionary change across Germany in 1848.
On November 9, 1918, the last Hapsburg emperor abdicated as Austria-Hungary disintegrated around him.
On November 9, 1938, Nazi party thugs unleashed the violent assault on Germany's Jews that we know as Kristallnacht.
On November 9, 1989, an East German news anchor mistakenly announced that the government had lifted the ban on travel to the west, effective immediately. Berliners rushed to the wall and began to tear it down, an event that was both a transformational political act and one of history's greatest street parties.
Via David Frum
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