November 20
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November 20 |
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 November is: |
Aviation History Month Diabetic Eye Disease Month Epilepsy Awareness Month National Adoption Month National Diabetes Month National Marrow Awareness Month Religion and Philosophy Books Month |
Born on this Day
1175: Saint Edmund of Abington distinguished scholar, outspoken
archbishop of Canterbury, one of the most virtuous and attractive figures of the English
church, whose literary works strongly influenced subsequent spiritual writers in England.
1602: Otto von Guericke, German physicist, engineer, and natural
philosopher who invented the first air pump and used it to study the phenomenon of vacuum
and the role of air in combustion and respiration.
1726: Oliver Wolcott American public official who signed the Declaration
of Independence (1776) and helped negotiate a settlement with the Iroquois (1784).
1752: Thomas Chatterton Chief poet of the 18th-century
"Gothic" literary revival, England's youngest writer of mature verse, and
precursor of the Romantic movement.
1761: Pius VIII, Italian pope from March 1829 to November 1830.
Original name was Francesco Saverio Castiglioni.
1851: Botanist John Merle Coulter
1884: Norman Thomas, six times the Socialist Party candidate for U.S.
president
1889: Edwin Powell Hubble American astronomer who is considered the founder
of extragalactic astronomy and who provided the first evidence of the expansion of the
universe.
1900: "Dick Tracy" cartoonist Chester Gould
1908: Author and TV commentator Alistair Cooke
1914: Fashion designer (Marchese deBarsento) Emilio Pucci
1916: Singer-actress Judy Canova (The Howdy Doody Show)
1917: Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat, West Virginia)
1919: Actress Evelyn Keyes
1920: Actress Gene Tierney (Laura, The Pleasure Seekers)
1921: Actress Phyllis Thaxter
1923: Economist Beryl Sprinkel
1925: Singer June Christy (Tampico, Shoo-Fly Pie, How High the Moon)
1925: Former U.S. Senator and U.S. attorney general Robert Kennedy
1926: Actress-comedian (Catherine Balotta) Kaye Ballard
1927: Actress Estelle Parsons
1929: Golfer Don January (1967 PGA Champion)
1932: TV personality Richard Dawson (Hogan's Heroes; TV host: Family
Feud)
1939: Comedian Dick Smothers
1939: Singer Kim Weston
1940: Singer Tony Butala (Group: The Letterman)
1942: Singer Norman Greenbaum
1942: Senator Joseph Biden (Democrat, Delaware)
1943: Actress Veronica Hamel
1945: Singer Dan McBride (Group: Sha Na Na)
1946: Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff
1946: Musician Duane Allman (Group: The Allman Brothers Band)
1947: Singer Joe Walsh (Group: The Eagles)
1948: Actor Richard Masur
1956: Actress (Cathleen Collins) Bo Derek (10, Bolero, Woman of Desire)
1957: Reggae musician Jim Brown (UB40)
1959: Actress Sean Young
1962: Rock musician Todd Nance (Widespread Panic)
1965: Rapper Mike D (The Beastie Boys)
1965: Rapper Sen Dog (Cypress Hill)
1967: Actress Ming-Na Wen
1974: Actress Marisa Ryan
0869: Death of St. Edmund, King of the East Angles, killed
by the Danes at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England
1022: Death of St. Bernward
1183: Saladin lays siege to Castle Kerak, and refuses to
bombard the part of the castle where a marriage was taking place.
1272: Edward I was proclaimed King of England.
1376: Richard II invested as Prince of Wales
1497: Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope, thus
discovering the water route to India
1564: Spanish expedition sets out to colonize the
Philippines
1578: 36 persons executed as witches in Kilkenny, Ireland
1614: Louis XIII is declared "of age" as King of
France
1620: Peregrine White was born aboard the
"Mayflower" in Massachusetts Bay -- the first child born of English parents in
present-day New England.
1780: Britain declared war on Holland.
1789: New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1864: Bruckner's Mass in D minor was presented at the
cathedral in Linz. A contemporary account says the bishop was overcome with emotion to the
point where he could not proceed with the service.
1866: The rotary crank bicycle was patented, by Pierre
Lallemont in Paris, France. The bike, incidentally, was known as "the bone
shaker."
1887: The "Mephisto Waltz" of Franz Liszt got
pasting in the Boston Gazette. The reviewer declared that the work, quote, "had about
as much propriety on the program after Schumann and Handel as a wild boar would have in a
drawing room."
1888: William Bundy invents the first timecard clock.
1910: Revolution broke out in Mexico, led by Francisco I.
Madero.
1914: The State Department starts requiring photographs
for passports
1918: A wild bore reviewed Prokofiev's "Scythian
Suite" in the publication Musical America. He implied that an audience had applauded
it to look hip.
1925: Robert F. Kennedy was born in Brookline,
Massachusetts.
1929: The radio program "The Rise of the
Goldbergs" debuted on the NBC Blue Network.
1929: Leo Reisman and his Orchestra recorded "Happy
Days are Here Again" for Victor records. The now classic was recorded just three
weeks AFTER the stock market crash that plunged the nation into The Great Depression.
1931: The first commercial teletype service was introduced
this day by American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
1945: 24 Nazi leaders went on trial before an
international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.
1947: Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married
Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh: in a ceremony broadcast worldwide from Westminster
Abbey.
See today's History Focus
1947: The first presentation of "Meet the Press"
aired on NBC-TV (consisting of two stations). The panel interview program became the
longest-running series on network television.
1959: One of America's great rock jocks was fired from
WABC Radio in New York. The 'Moondoggy' himself, Alan Freed, was axed in the midst of the
payola music scandal. Freed left WABC while he was on the air. He was replaced in
mid-record by Fred Robbins, who later became a nationally-known entertainment reporter for
Mutual Radio.
1960: The famed actor of the silver screen, Clark Gable,
at the age of 59 with a heart attack.
1966: The musical, "Cabaret" opened on Broadway
for the first of 1,166 stellar performances. Joel Gray starred in the hugely successful,
box-office smash that is an adaptation of both the play, "I Am a Camera" and the
novel, "Goodbye to Berlin."
1967: The Census Clock at the Commerce Department ticked
past 200 million.
1969: The Nixon administration announced a halt to
residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phaseout.
1969: Soccer star, Pel collected his 1,000th career goal
in Rio de Janeiro.
1971: Isaac Hayes, of Memphis, TN got his first #1 hit as
the "Theme from Shaft" began a two week stay at the top of the charts.
1975: Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for the 1976
Republican presidential nomination. He lost to incumbent Gerald Ford, who was defeated by
Democrat Jimmy Carter.
1975: After nearly four decades of absolute rule, Spain's
General Francisco Franco died, two weeks before his 83rd birthday.
1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab
leader to address Israel's parliament.
1984: 35 years and 11 months after the very first
McDonald's hamburger was sold, the 50 billionth burger was made by Edward Rensi, president
of Mickey D's. The milestone was celebrated at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
1984: The largest crowd to see the unveiling of a
Hollywood Walk-of-Fame star turned out as Michael Jackson got his piece of the sidewalk
right in front of Mann's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. He became star number 1,793 on
the famed walk. 1987: President Reagan and congressional leaders announced agreement on a
two-year, $76 billion deficit-reduction plan designed to reassure jittery financial
markets.
1987: Investigating police said arson was unlikely in a
London subway fire that took 30 lives.
1988: Egypt and China announced they were recognizing the
Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.
1989: More than 200,000 people rallied peacefully in
Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms and the ouster of Communist Party
leader Milos Jakes.
1990: Saddam Hussein ordered another 250,000 Iraqi troops
into Kuwait.
1990: The Soviet Union again rebuffed President Bush's
efforts to rally support for a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military force
against Iraq.
1990: The space shuttle Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral,
Florida, after completing a secret military mission.
1991: California Democrat Alan Cranston accepted a Senate
reprimand for his dealings with former savings-and-loan chief Charles H. Keating Jr., but
then denied he was guilty of many of the allegations.
1992: The United States and the European Community
announced they had resolved a dispute over E-C farm subsidies; however, French officials
expressed dissatisfaction.
1992: Fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor
Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth the Second.
1993: The US Senate ended a filibuster against the Brady
Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, and passed it by a
vote of 63-to-36; the Senate also approved legislation implementing the North American
Free Trade Agreement, 61-to-38.
1994: The Angolan government and rebels signed a treaty in
Zambia to end 19 years of war, even as fighting continued in their homeland.
1995: BBC Television broadcast an interview with Princess
Diana, who admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles.
1995: Federal employees idles during a government shutdown
returned to their jobs.
1995: Olympic figure skating champion Sergei Grinkov died
of a heart attack in Lake Placid, New York.
1995: Radio stations began airing a new Beatles recording,
"Free As a Bird," which had debuted on ABC-TV the night before.
1996: House Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be speaker
for a second term. Thirty-nine people were killed when fire broke out in a building in
Hong Kong.
1997: Prodded by Russia, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
agreed to allow US arms monitors back into his country, ending a three-week crisis that
had raised fears of a military confrontation with the United States.
1998: Successfully taking the focus off of his leagal
problems, president Clinton wrapped up a visit to Japan and flew to South Korea.
1998: Forty-six states embraced a $206 billion settlement
with cigarette makers over health costs for treating sick smokers.
1998: Israel turned over an additional two percent of the
West Bank to the Palestinians.
1999: A day after violent anti-American protests in Greece, President Clinton sought to heal old wounds by acknowledging the United States had failed its "obligation to support democracy" when it backed Greek's harsh military junta during the Cold War.
See today's History Focus
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