Dedication of St. John Lateran feast day, commemorating the first public consecration of a church on November 9, 324 A.D.

1994 Element 110 Scientists create a new element. With an atomic weight of 269, it is the heaviest known element.

1989 The Berlin Wall The 28-year-old symbol of the cold war is opened to the West.

1984 Vietnam Memorial The monument is completed with the unveiling of the statue Three Serviceman, facing a black granite wall engraved with the names of more than 58,000 Americans killed or missing in action during the Vietnam War.

1966 Death of Paul McCartney? In 1969, using "clues" found in Beatles songs and album covers, a Detroit disc jockey and his radio audience determined that he died on this day in a car accident - They were wrong of course.

1965 Power failure blacks out most of Northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada.

1965 Centrifugal Birthing Device The U.S. Patent offices issues a patent for a device for "Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force."

1964 The Wizard of Id comic strip premiers.

1961 The Beatles Brian Epstein goes to hear a new group at Liverpool's famous "The Cavern Club." A month later he bacame their manager and helped them rocket to stardom.

1938 World War II - Crystal Night Nazi storm troopers raid and shatter the glass of Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues.

1936 Su-Lin, a giant panda is discovered in China. In December it became the first giant panda in the U.S. Source: Famous First Facts

1924 First woman U.S. governor Mrs. Nellie Tayloe Ross is elected by Wyoming, taking office on January 5, 1925. Mrs. Miriam Ferguson was also elected governor of Texas, but didn't take office until January 20, 1925.

1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates his throne.

1906 First U.S. president to visit a foreign country while in office Teddy Roosevelt leaves for Panama.

1888 Jack the Ripper The last known murder by the brutal killer is committed. For three months he had murdered and mutilated prostitutes in London's East End. He was never caught.

324 First public consecration of a church Pope St. Sylvester consecrates the Basilica of the Most Holy Savior (now known as St. John the Lateran).

1952 Lou Ferrigno American body builder, actor. TV: Incredible Hulk (the angry one).

1942 Eliot Wigginton American educator, Georgia Teacher of the Year (1986), founder of the Foxfire program (1966) to help students get interested in education. In 1992 he pleaded guilty to child molestation of a 10-year-old and was sentenced to one year in prison.

1934 Carl Edward Sagan American astronomer. He won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of Eden.

1921 Stan Drake American cartoonist, creator of The Heart of Juliet Jones (1953).

1918 Spiro Theodore Agnew d. 1996 39th U.S. Vice-President (1969-73). He resigned after pleading no contest to income tax evasion charges (1973).

1913 Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Kiesler), Austrian actress. Film: Samson and Delilah (1949, Delilah).

1907 Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia d. 1994 grandson of Germany's last emperor, third in line to the throne. Worked as a mechanic in a Detroit Ford automobile plant (1929-34) and opposed Hitler and the Nazi Party.

1886 Ed Wynn d. 1966 (Isaiah Edwin Leopold), American comedian. He starred in the Ziegfeld Follies (1914), was the Texaco Fire Chief (1932-39), and won the first Most Outstanding Live Personality Emmy (1949).

1881 Herbert Thomas Kalmus d. 1963 American film pioneer, inventor of technicolor (1912).

1864 Dmitry Iosifovich Ivanovsky d. 1920 Russian biologist, discover of viruses. He was studying a tobacco crop disease when he found that an invisible parasite, much smaller than any known bacterium, was the cause. This newly-discovered life form was the virus.

1853 Stanford White d. 1906 American architect, designed the old Madison Square Garden and the Washington Arch.

1841 Edward VII d. 1910 (Albert Edward), King of England and Ireland (1901-10).

1837 Captain Martin Van Buren Bates d. 1919 American giant, 7' 4" tall. He and his wife, Anna Swan at 7' 5½", were billed as the "The Giants of Seville."

1801 Gail Borden d. 1874 American inventor. He developed a process for making condensed milk (1853).

1988 John Newton Mitchell b. 1913 U.S. attorney general (1968-72), convicted in the Watergate scandal (1975).

1980 Victor Sen Yung b. 1915 American actor. TV: Bonanza (Hop Sing, the Chinese Cook). Film: The Charlie Chan movies (1930s - 40s, Jimmy the No. 2 son). Writings:     Great Wok Cookbook (1974).

1976 Smokey Bear b. 1950 American black bear, orphaned by a New Mexico forest fire, he became the national symbol for forest fire prevention. By 1964, his fan mail was so great that he was given his own zip code, 20252.

1970 William Levi Dawson b. 1886 American politician. He was the first black U.S. representative to chair a Congressional committee (1949, Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments).

1970 Charles De Gaulle b. 1890 French general and statesman. He founded the French Fifth Republic (1958) and served as its first President (1959-69).  Quote:  "How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?" (1962).

1967 Charles Bickford b. 1889 American actor. TV: The Virginian (Shiloh Ranch owner John Grainger).

1953 Dylan Marlais Thomas b. 1914 English poet. Writings: Deaths and Entrances.

1952 Chaim Weizmann b. 1874 Israeli statesman, biochemist, instrumental in the Balfour Declaration (1917), which established a national home for Jews in Palestine and served as Israel's first president (1948-52).

1888 Mary Jane Kelly b. circa 1863 English crime victim. She is believed to be the fifth and final victim of Jack the Ripper.

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