Today In History

1872: Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston.

1935: United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.

1938: Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as “Kristallnacht.”

1965: The great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 hours.

1976: The U.N. General Assembly approved 10 resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.”

1988: Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, a major figure in the Watergate scandal, died in Washington at age 75.