November 9 (A Huge Day)

A third Huge Day in a row...As such, I have highlighted the entire day in blue.
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1799 - Coup de 18 de Brumaire: Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Dictator of France.

The French Revolution was about to take a new turn, and it ended with a dictator.  Luckily it slowed down the insanity of the French Revolution and the 'terror'...It's important to understand, Napoleon's elevation didn't end the Revolution - even though many historians claim it did.

Napoleon was a son of the Revolution, and his rule took it a different direction, but it most definitely didn't end the French Revolution...His downfall ended it.

Bonaparte's reign was amazing, however, and proved to be France's finest hour, but it was temporary and came with a tremendous cost for all of Europe.

1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and a Council of People's Delegates assumed power in Germany:  WWI.

The Second Reich came to a pathetic end, and the Wiemar Republic followed in it's footsteps...Which ultimately led to the Third Reich and the Nazis.

For those who don't know what these 'Reich's' are: reich = realm/empire.

1st Reich = The Holy Roman Empire (843-1871)...Please remember, the HRE was neither 'holy' nor 'Roman.'

2nd Reich = The Kaiser's Germany (1871-1918).

3rd Reich = Nazi Germany (1933-1945). The "Thousand Year Reich"...Which barely lasted 12 years.

1921 - Mussolini formed the Partito Nazionalista Fascista.

National Fascist Party.

1921 - The 'Unknown Soldier' arrived at Washington aboard the USS Olympia.

It's semantics, but there is no such thing as the 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier'...It is properly called the 'Tomb of the Unknowns.'

I can't give enough praise to Arlington National Cemetery, and also can't state enough that each American should make a point of visiting this awesome memorial.

I spent two days there on my D.C. visit, and could have spent a lifetime...The memorials and symbols are amazing, but it's the simple rows of headstones that make the cemetery so brilliant - Headstones honoring those who who have served our nation, protecting us against foreign and domestic enemies.

If you haven't been, you must go...I must go again.

1925 - The Nazi Party formed the S.S. (Black Shirts) within the S.A (Brown Shirts).

At the time of its founding, the S.S. (Schutzstaffel) was nothing more than a battalion in the S.A. (Sturmabteilung), and the unit had a meager 300 troops, but was an elite corps.

The status of the S.S. remained in this order, until Heinrich Himmler took over in 1929...Amazingly, within three years, Himmler enlarged the S.S. to over 52,000 troops. All of which were personally loyal and bound by oath to Hitler and Himmler

S.S. Motto: "Meine Ehre heißt Treue" = "My honor is called loyalty."

It only took five years for Himmler to turn the tables on the S.A., with the Night of the Long Knives, where the S.S. killed most of the S.A. leadership and either killed or assimilated its masses.

1938 - Kristallnacht: Nazis burned and looted temples and Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland in a Reich-wide pogrom.

Also called 'The Night of the Broken Glass,' 'Reichskristallnacht,' and 'Pogromnacht' in reference to broken glass on the streets during this Jewish pogrom.

By this time, Himmler's S.S. had consolidated absolute power in the Reich, and used this event to kill and terrorize Germany's Jewish population (not that it hadn't for years)...200 synagogues were destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; and 30,000 male Jews were sent to concentration camps.

Oh by the way, it's not coincidental this event happened on November 9th. Look above, and you will see this was the S.S.'s birthday.

1953 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that Major League Baseball did not come within the scope of federal antitrust laws.

How is Major League Baseball one of the only interstate businesses in the U.S. with an antitrust exemption?

Make no mistake, the owners handpicked Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as commissioner with this lawsuit in mind...And his influence in this court ruling was huge.

1989 – The Berlin Wall ‘fell’: East Germans on foot and in cars began arriving in West Germany and West Berlin only hours after the East German government threw open its border to the West.

This is one of the great events of my life...I was 19 years old, and remember watching in amazement as this horrible monument to tyranny was toppled and crossed over.

The Iron Curtain was being shredded and the chains of Soviet Communism were falling apart with each succeeding month...A truly magical moment, and an event which forever helped form my worldview.

1995 - In a pair of telephone interviews, O. J. Simpson told Associated Press reporter Linda Deutsch that people have supported rather than shunned him since his acquittal, and he has learned that fame and wealth are illusions: "The only thing that endures is character."

Only one person could have schooled O.J. so well in the delicate 'Art of Bullshitting': Bill Clinton.

At least Bill hasn't killed his wife...YET!  :)