Monday 9 November

Overcast today with a line of rain moving in from the Atlantic. It'll be here before nightfall. Hurricane Ida is weakening as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico; current thinking from the National Hurricane Center places landfall between Pascagoula (MS) and Indian Pass (FL) overnight local time. The storm will just about be at hurricane strength. Beware of tornadoes and the rainfall totals, which could top 8 inches from the Gulf Coast to the Appalachians and the Tennessee Valley.

9 November 1938 - an organised mob of Nazi forces and sympathisers go on the rampage in towns and cities across Germany, smashing and destroying Jewish-owned property and businesses. It was to be a marker, to what was to come during World War II - the extermination of anyone deemed sub-human by the warped mind of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. Jews topped their league of the unfit, closely followed by gypsies, the mentally ill and many many others. The Reichskristallnacht was a night of infamy, and not just to Germany.

9 November 1989 - a premature announcement about the opening of the East German borders leads to a spontaneous breaking of the border control points in Berlin. Nobody interferes, and the night is one of delirious happiness. The oppressive regime of Erich Honecker is at an end, something that the Soviet leaders had been anticipating and allowing to happen. It was the preamble to the collapse of another regime of oppression in Europe, that of communism.

9 November is referred to in Germany as the Night of Fate. Many key events in the country's history appear to take place on this date. I am very happy that the Wall came down in 1989, and hope that the Berliners have a great day of it today. I sincerely hope they do not forget that the Fall of the Wall ended what the Night of Broken Glass commenced.