Today in History: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declares holy war against Iran

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 9: 

 

1799 Napoleon Bonaparte pulls off a coup and becomes the dictator of France under the title of First Consul.

1937 – Ramsay MacDonald, who became Britain’s first Labour prime minister in 1924, died at age 70.

1938 – Nazi-inspired anti-Jewish riots took place across Germany after the murder of a German official in Paris. Jewish businesses were ransacked, synagogues torched and many Jews sent to concentration camps. The night became known as “Kristallnacht” (Crystal Night).

1953 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and prose writer, died in New York after succumbing to whisky and drugs on a reading tour of the U.S.

1970 – Charles De Gaulle, French soldier and statesman, died aged 79.

1980 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declares holy war against Iran.

1985 – Princess Diana dances with actor John Travolta at White House dinner.

1985 - Russia's Garry Kasparov (22) becomes the youngest ever world chess champion, with a 13-11 win over fellow countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1989 – 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.

1993 – The Ottoman bridge at Mostar in southwestern Bosnia, which endured scores of wars and invading armies over four centuries, collapsed into the Neretva River.

2002 – Iyad Sawalha, head of Islamic Jihad’s military wing and the top of an Israeli wanted list, was shot dead in the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli forces.

2005 – Three suicide bombers blew themselves up at three international hotels in Jordan’s capital Amman, killing 60.

2012 – World’s first pink fluorescent angelfish go on public display in Taipei.

2012 – Ten people killed during gunfight in Colombo’s biggest jail as prisoners clash with Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force.

(Reuters)