It's November 9, Kids!

And you know what that means! 

First off, Egica, the Visigoth kind of Hispania, decided on this date that the Jews were helping the Muslims.  Ergo all Jews were enslaved.  Bet the fight against Islam really took a turn for the better that day!  Of course, it's sadly ironic, what with all the parts of the koran that refer to Jews as "pigs" and call for their deaths.  Oh well.  I doubt he'd ever gotten access to a koran, which is an excuse that won't wash today.

In 1494, the Medici were kicked out of Florence.  I suspect it didn't last long, but it looked good on paper.

Land ho!  That's what the folks on the little ship that could, aka the Mayflower, heard today.  It was Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.  They didn't land there of course.  The itinerary clearly stated that they were to land at Plymouth Rock, so what could they do?

Remember the other day when General McClellan got fired from command of the Union Army of the Potomac?  Well it took effect today, as he was replaced by General Burnside.  To this point, Burny had had a decent war, but it went downhill from here.  He was a prime example of The Peter Principle- while he was barely adequate (sometimes not even that) as a corps commander, he was a horrible army commander, as thousands of men could have attested, had they lived.  But on the other hand, he had some kickass facial hair!  And that gave us the word "sideburns".

In 1918, the Kaiser abdicates his crown as the War winds down, thus ending the Second Reich.  Germany becomes a republic, for all of 15 years, at which point it's time for the Third Reich.  And speaking of which, remember the Beer Hall Putsch that Hitler launched yesterday?  Well it ends today.  Better luck next time.

1965 sees the  Northeast Blackout, which wasn't quite as impressive as the one in 2003(ish).  But the latter one, while I was just within the limits of the power outage, didn't get featured in James Burke's awesome show "Connections".  I'm jealous- he should have postponed the filming for another 40 years or so, and then done a show about us.  Bastard. 

And in 1989, East Germany decides to stop shooting people who want to leave their little corner of paradise, and instead, allows them to leave.  Not surprisingly, a lot of people give the impression they're willing to do so.  The next day, the Berlin Wall starts to teeter.  Probably the greatest moment of my lifetime.