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Highlights for November 9
1938 Night of the Broken Glass
All over Germany, Austria, and other Nazi-controlled areas, organized bands of Nazis destroy Jewish shops, burn synagogues, and beat, kill, or arrest thousands of Jews. The attack, known as Krystallnacht, or "Crystal Night," after all the broken glass littering the streets, comes two days after Herschel Grynszpan, a seventeen-year-old Jew living in France, shot and killed Ernst vom Rath, a member of the German embassy staff in Paris. Grynszpan was acting in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels used the Paris shooting as an opportunity to begin a long-planned attack on Jews living in Nazi-controlled areas. Nazi troops and sympathizers destroyed and looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, burned 267 synagogues, killed 91 Jews, and rounded up over 25,000 Jewish men, who are later sent to concentration camps. Three days later, the Nazi authorities declare that Jews must pay for the violence that they supposedly provoked, and they are charged one billion marks in damages for the murder of vom Rath, and six million marks to cover insurance fees for the destroyed shops. The reaction outside Germany is shock and outrage, and the U.S. permanently removes its ambassador to Germany.
1940 Prime Minister of Appeasement Dies
On this day, just months after he was chased (literally) out of office, Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister at the outbreak of the European war, died. He is best remembered for his rather infamous policy of appeasement toward Hitler in the pre-war years. Chamberlain met first with Hitler in private consultations at Berchtesgaden-Hitler's Bavarian mountaintop retreat. The Fuehrer, who Chamberlain described as a "gentleman," convinced the Prime Minister to support Germany's territorial demands in Czechoslovakia. Hitler wanted the Sudetenland, an area in northern Czechoslovakia where three million ethnic Germans lived. On September 29 and 30, 1938, Chamberlain, Hitler, Premier Daladier of France, and Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, met in Munich to decide the fate of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain convinced Daladier that joining England in support of Hitler's demands would avert war. The German army had already been mobilized, and Hitler had threatened to march into Czechoslovakia. The Munich Pact, signed by all four European leaders in attendance, created a new Czechoslovakia, stripped of the Sudetenland. Hitler was appeased for the moment, but the Pact left Czechoslovakia highly vulnerable for German attack.
Returning to England from Munich, Chamberlain boasted the notoriously naïve claim, "I believe it is peace for our time." These words, as well as Chamberlain's umbrella, became widely recognized symbols of appeasement. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Chamberlain issued an ultimatum to Hitler to immediately withdraw from Poland. Hitler ignored the ultimatum, and on Sunday, September 3, Chamberlain declared war. By this point, Britain's faith in its Prime Minister was diminishing quickly. Chamberlain stayed afloat until Germany launched the Denmark and Norway campaign in May 1940. Soon thereafter, one of Chamberlain's supporters stood up in Parliament session and quoted Oliver Cromwell: "Depart, I say, and let us have done with you! In the name of God, go!" Chamberlain was driven from the House amid unanimous chants of "Go! Go! Go!" Two days later, on May 10, King George VI asked Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, to succeed as Prime Minister.
1961 Brian Epstein meets the Beatles
Record store manager Brian Epstein goes to a Liverpool nightclub called the Cavern to hear the Beatles. Two months later, he became their manager and helped them land their first record deal, in 1962. The "Fab Four"-Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison--recorded "Love Me Do," the group's first Top 20 hit in the United Kingdom, in September 1962.
Epstein gave the group their clean-cut suit-and-tie image; previously, the band had played in blue jeans and leather jackets. He also helped manage their rise to fame. By the time they went on their first U.S. tour, in 1964, Beatlemania was in full swing, and the band was mobbed when they landed at Kennedy Airport in New York. Their debut album in the United States, Meet the Beatles, became the fastest-selling album in U.S. history to that time. The Beatles went on to score more No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts than any other group in history, with 20 chart toppers. They received the Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 at Buckingham Palace.
The band became more experimental with time, moving from upbeat harmonies to concept albums like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). Epstein, however, did not live to see the band's later years; he died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills in August 1967.
After Epstein's death, the band stayed together until 1970. Later, each member pursued a solo career or formed a new group. Although there was frequent speculation about the possibility of a reunion, Lennon's tragic murder by a deranged fan in 1980 brought that to an end.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-Mail me.
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