November 9 in history — What Happened Today in History

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences.

The chemical element darmstadtium is discovered.

Stari Most, the "old bridge" in the Bosnian city of Mostar, built in 1566, collapses after several days of bombing by Croat forces during the Croat–Bosniak War.

Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Berlin.

Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union, becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov.

Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect a purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.

American banker John List murdered his wife, mother, and three children with a pair of handguns.

Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6–3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.

Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft, atop the first Saturn V rocket, from Florida's Cape Kennedy.

Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast blackout of 1965.

A Catholic Worker Movement member, Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building.

At a coal mine in Miike, Japan, an explosion kills 458 and hospitalises 839 with carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Tsurumi rail accident on the Tōkaidō Main Line in Yokohama kills 162 people.

Robert McNamara is named president of the Ford Motor Company, becoming the first non-Ford family member to serve in that post. He resigns a month later to join the newly elected John F. Kennedy administration.

Cambodia gains independence from France.

Soo Bahk Do and Moo Duk Kwan martial arts are founded in Korea.

An agreement for the founding of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration is signed by 44 countries in the White House, Washington, D.C.

Battle of Stalingrad: German forces of the 6th Army under general Friedrich Paulus reach the river bank of the Volga, capturing 90% of the ruined city of Stalingrad and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets.

Warsaw is awarded the Virtuti Militari by the Polish government-in-exile.

Kristallnacht occurs, instigated by the Nazis using the killing of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan as justification.

Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Army withdraws from the Battle of Shanghai.

American fashion designer Ruth Harkness seeks and captures a nine-week-old panda cub in Sichuan; named Su Lin, he becomes the first live giant panda to enter the United States.

The Committee for Industrial Organization, the precursor to the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by eight trade unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor.

In Munich, police and government troops crush the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch.

The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista or PNF) is founded in Italy.

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic.

The Balfour Declaration is published in The Times newspaper.

SMS Emden is sunk by HMAS Sydney in the Battle of Cocos.

Delta Goodrem, Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress

French Montana, Moroccan-American rapper

Seven, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor

Rob Elloway, German rugby player

Ted Potter Jr., American golfer

Michael Turner, English footballer

Boaz Myhill, American-Welsh footballer

Jana Pittman, Australian hurdler

Eyedea, American rapper and producer (died 2010)

Jobi McAnuff, Jamaican footballer

Kane Waselenchuk, Canadian racquetball player

Vanessa Lachey, Filipino-American television host and actress

Dominique Maltais, Canadian snowboarder

Byron Krieger, American fencer (born 1920)

Andy White, Scottish drummer (born 1930)

Rubén Alvarez, Argentinian golfer (born 1961)

Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani, Qatari prince (born 1966)

R. A. Montgomery, American author and publisher (born 1936)

Myles Munroe, Bahamian pastor and author (born 1954)

Orlando Thomas, American football player (born 1972)

Joe Walsh, Irish politician, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (born 1943)

Savaş Ay, Turkish journalist (born 1954)

Helen Eadie, Scottish politician (born 1947)

Grethe Rytter Hasle, Norwegian biologist and academic (born 1920)

Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, American saxophonist (born 1936)

Steve Prescott, English rugby player (born 1973)