On November 9, 2004, Swedish writer Stieg Larsson dies suddenly of a heart attack at age 50, only months after turning in the manuscripts for three crime thrillers—“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl who Played with Fire” and “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”—which would later become international best-sellers.

Darmstadtium: The Discovery of Element 110 That Transformed Atomic Science

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough: 1.7 Megawatts from Controlled Experiment Paves Future for Clean Energy

On November 9, 1990, the federal government seizes all of the assets of country singer Willie Nelson—freezing his bank accounts and padlocking his real estate holdings.

East German officials open the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, allowing travel from East to West Berlin.

Saturn V Rocket Achieves Perfect Test Flight, Paving Way for Lunar Missions

At dusk on November 9, 1965, one of the biggest power failures in history occurs as all of New York state, portions of seven nearby states, and parts of eastern Canada are plunged into darkness.

Massive 1965 Blackout Left 25 Million in Darkness and Trapped Thousands in NYC Subways

In the second such antiwar incident within a week, Roger Allen LaPorte, a 22-year-old member of the Catholic Worker movement, immolates himself in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The French philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre—long an admirer of the Soviet Union—denounces both the USSR and its communist system following the brutal Soviet invasion of Hungary.