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November 18 |
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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 |
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1531: Roberto Ridolfi - Florentine conspirator who
attempted in 1570-71 to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England in favour of Mary Stuart,
Queen of Scots. |
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1785: British portrait painter and printmaker Sir
David Wilkie |
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1786: English composer Sir Henry Rowley Bishop
("Home, Sweet Home", "Lo, Here the Gentle Lark.") |
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1786: German composer and opera director Carl Maria
von Weber |
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1789: French physicist Louis Daguerre, inventor
of daguerreotype photography |
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1836: Comic opera libretto writer Sir W.S. Gilbert
(of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) |
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1836: Professor of psychiatry and founder Criminology
Cesare Lombroso |
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1860: Polish pianist, composer, and statesman Ignacy
(Jan) Paderewski (prime minister of Poland in 1919). |
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1848: French painter of rustic outdoor scenes Jules
Bastien-Lepage. |
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1870: Dorthea Dix, pseudonym for Elizabeth Gilman,
who wrote syndicated advice |
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1874: American writer Clarence (Shepard) Day (Life
with Father). |
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1897: Patrick M(aynard) S(tuart) Blackett Winner of
the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948 for his discoveries in the field of cosmic radiation. |
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1899: Hungarian-born American conductor Eugene
Ormandy |
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1900: Dr. Howard Thurman, theologian and first
African American to hold a full time position at Boston University. |
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1900: W. Wallace Smith American religious leader,
president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
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1901: Pollster George Gallup |
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1901: Golfer Craig Wood |
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1908: Actress-comedian Imogene Coca (Your Show of
Shows, Sid Caesar Invites You, It's about Time, Grindl, Admiral Broadway Revue, National
Lampoon's Vacation) |
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1909: American lyricist, vocalist, and composer
Johnny Mercer (On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, In the Cool Cool Cool of the
Evening [w/Hoagy Carmichael] [1951], Moon River [1961], Days of Wine and Roses [1962],
Autumn Leaves, One for My Baby, Charade, Satin Doll, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,
Come Rain or Come Shine, Hooray for Hollywood, Jeepers Creepers, I'm An Old Cowhand,
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive; wrote or co-wrote over a thousand songs) |
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1914: Expressionist painter Ibere Bassanti Camargo |
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1916: Opera soprano Amelita Galli-Curci |
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1919: Actress Jocelyn Brando (A Question of Love, The
Big Heat) |
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1923: Former astronaut Alan Shepard (First American
in space) |
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1923: Senator Ted Stevens (Republican, Alaska) |
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1925: Baseball manager Gene Mauch |
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1926: Singer (Marjorie Chandler) Dorothy Collins (My
Boy Flattop, Your Hit Parade) |
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1926: Baseball outfielder Roy Sievers (Rookie of the
Year 1949) |
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1936: Singer Hank Ballard (The Twist, Finger Poppin'
Time, Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go, Work with Me Annie, Sexy Ways, Annie Had a Baby) |
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1939: Canadian poet, novelist, and critic, Margaret
(Eleanor) Atwood (Cat's Eye, Dancing Girls & Other Stories) |
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1939: Actress Brenda Vaccaro (The Shape of Things,
Once is Not Enough, Cactus Flower, The Goodbye People, How Now Dow Jones, Midnight Cowboy,
Airport '77, Ten Little Indians) |
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1941: Auto racer Gary Bettenhausen (fastest Indy 500
qualifying time ever: 224.468 mph 1991) |
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1942: Actress Linda (Evanstad) Evans (Dynasty, The
Big Valley, Standing Tall, Hunter, North and South, Book II) |
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1944: Actress Susan Sullivan (It's a Living, Falcon
Crest, Rich Man Poor Man Book II, Having Babies, The George Carlin Show, The Dark Ride,
The Incredible Hulk, Deadman's Curve) |
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1946: Country singer Jacky Ward |
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1947: Actor Jameson Parker |
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1948: Actress-singer Andrea Marcovicci |
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1948 Football player Jack Tatum (longest fumble
return in history: 104 yards [1972 against the Green Bay Packers]; Super Bowl XI) |
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1949: Rock musician Herman Rarebell (The Scorpions) |
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1950: Singer Graham Parker |
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1953: Comedian Kevin Nealon (Saturday Night Live, All
I Want for Christmas, Roxanne) |
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1960: Actress Elizabeth Perkins |
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1960: Singer Kim Wilde |
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1962: Rock musician Kirk Hammett (Metallica) |
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1965: Rock singer Tim DeLaughter (Tripping Daisy) |
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1969: Singer Duncan Sheik |
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1974: Actress Chloe Sevigny |
0942: The Benedictine monk who
named the notes of the scale "A" to "G" died. "Odo," as he
was known, wrote a musical textbook. It begins with a foreword that says his brothers told
him to keep it simple so anyone could understand the rules.
1477: "The Sayings of the
Philosophers" was published, the earliest known book printed in England to carry a
date.
1095: The Council of Clermont
begins
1188: Richard,"the Lion
Hearted," heir to England, does homage to Philip Augustus, King of France, for his
French possessions
1210: Excommunication of Otto
IV, Holy Roman Emperor
1247: Death of Robin Hood,
according to Bulfinch
1307: William Tell shoots the
apple off his son's head? Did it happen? No one know for sure. The origin of the story is
even unknown. It is of either Swiss, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic or Persian origin.
1414: Coronation of Sigsimund
as King of Germany
1441: Roger Bolingbroke,
astrologer, hanged, drawn and quartered
1518: Cortez sets out from
Cuba to conquer Mexico
1557: John Hallingdale,
William Sparrow and Richard Gibson tortured and executed for heresy.
1618: Sir George Yardley is
appointed as Governor of Virgina
1626: Consecration of St.
Peter's Basilica at the Vatican
1779: The theatre at Prince
Esterhazy's country estate burned down. The Prince decided to go to Paris while it was
rebuilt, giving Haydn and his musicians a much-needed vacation.
1820: US Navy Captain
Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the frozen continent of Antarctica.
1874: Women's Christian
Temperance Union is formed. Today's History Focus
1883: The United States
adopted Standard Time and set up four zones - Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.
1886: The 21st president of
the United States, Chester A. Arthur, died in New York at age 56.
1894: The "New York
World" published the first regular Sunday comic section on this day.
1912: Cholera breaks out in
Constantinople.
1921: New York City considers
varying work hours to avoid long traffic jams.
1921: Washington DC hosted the
first international fencing championships to be held in America. The competition with
light swords was sponsored by the Racquet Club.
1928: The first successful
sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," starring
Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York at the Colony Theater.
1928: George Gershwin finished
"An American in Paris". It is the best-known piece of music scored for taxi
horns.
1932: For the first time, a
tie occurred for the Best Actor Academy Award. Wallace Beery and Fredric March were only
one vote apart so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled it a tie. Both
received an Oscar. March thought it rather funny that the two were honored for "best
male performance of the year" when they each had adopted a child that year.
1936: Germany and Italy
recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
1936: The main span of the
Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is joined.
1939: The Irish Republican
Army explodes three bombs in Picadilly Circus.
1942: Thornton Wilder's play,
"The Skin of Our Teeth" opened in New York City. The play was Wilder's sequel to
"Our Town". "The Skin of Our Teeth" starred Tallulah Bankhead, Fredric
March, Montgomery Clift and E.G. Marshall. One critic wrote, "As of last evening, the
theatre was looking up."
1948: Alben W. Barkley married
Elizabeth J. Rucker in St. Louis. It was the first time a U.S. Vice President married
while in office.
1949: The U.S. Air Force
grounds B-29s after two crashes and 23 deaths in three days.
1949: Jackie Robinson of the
Brooklyn Dodgers was named the National League's Most Valuable Player.
1966: US Roman Catholic
bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.
1967: Lulu's "To Sir with
Love", from the movie of the same name, started its fifth and final week at number
one on the "Billboard Hot 100."
1969: Financier-diplomat
Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at age 81.
1970: Nobel Prize winner,
Linus Pauling declared that large doses of Vitamin C could ward off the common cold.
1974: Frank Sinatra, emerged
from retirement to do a TV special with dancer, Gene Kelly. The show was a smash hit and
revived Sinatra's career.
1975: John Denver received a
gold record for his song, "I'm Sorry". When he, like all artists do, took the
gold single out of the frame and tried to play it, he heard "I'm Sorry" - by
Brenda Lee - instead.
1976: Spain's parliament
approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
1978: California Congressman
Leo J. Ryan and four other people were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the
Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 912
cult members.
1986: For the first time since
his departure from his own late-night TV show, Jack Parr was a guest of Johnny Carson on
"The Tonight Show." One of TV's great lines came from the show, when Carson
quipped (after one of Parr's long, long spiels), "Why is it that I feel I'm guesting
on your show?"
1986: Roger Clemens was named
the American League's Most Valuable Player. He was the first American League starter to be
so named in 15 years. The Boston Red Sox hurler won the honor one week after earning the
Cy Young Award.
1987: The congressional
Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Reagan bore
"ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.
1987: Thirty-one people died
in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station.
1987: CBS Incorporated
announced it had agreed to sell its records division to Sony Corporation for about two
billion dollars.
1988: President Reagan signed
major legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the death penalty for
drug traffickers who kill.
1989: Longshoreman Buck Helm,
who had initially survived the northern California earthquake, died at a hospital in
Oakland, almost a month after he was pulled from a flattened section of the Nimitz
Freeway.
1990: President Bush began a
series of meetings in Paris with Allied leaders aimed at solidifying support for his
Persian Gulf policies.
1990: Soviet President Mikhail
S. Gorbachev met at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II, who said all possible efforts
should be made to avoid war in the Persian Gulf.
1991: Shiite Muslim kidnappers
in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and educator Thomas Sutherland.
1992: President-elect Clinton
began a two-day whirlwind visit to the nation's capital by meeting with President Bush.
1992: Roman Catholic bishops
defeated a controversial document on women in the church, with the issue of women's
ordination at the center of their disagreement.
1993: The US House of
Representatives joined the Senate in approving legislation aimed at protecting abortion
facilities, staff and patients.
1993: American Airlines flight
attendants went on strike; they ended their job action four days later.
1993: Representatives of 21
South African political parties approved a new constitution.
1994: 15 people were killed
and more than 150 wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on rioting worshipers
outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip.
1994: The Commerce Department
reported that America's trade deficit worsened to $10.3 billion dollars in September.
1994: Bandleader Cab Calloway
died in Hockessin, Delaware, at age 86.
1995: With no relief in sight
from a budget impasse that forced a partial government shutdown, the House rebelled
against Republican leaders during a raucous Sunday session and voted to oppose formally
adjourning the chamber until Monday.
1995: Bob Dole won a major
Florida straw poll, cementing his status as the Republican presidential front-runner.
1996: Onetime CIA station
chief Harold J. Nicholson was charged with selling top secrets to the Russians for more
than 120-thousand dollars. (Nicholson later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced
to 23 and a-half years in prison; he was spared a life sentence for cooperating with
investigators.)
1997: The FBI officially
pulled out of the probe into the TWA Flight 800 disaster, saying the explosion that
destroyed the Boeing 747, killing all 230 people aboard, was not caused by a criminal act.
1997: In the biggest banking
deal in US history, First Union Corporation announced the purchase of CoreStates Financial
Corporation for $16.1 billion.
1998: House Republicans
endorsed US Representative Bob Livingston of Louisiana to be their next speaker,
succeeding Newt Gingrich. (However, Livingston later resigned from the House before he
could take over the speakership after admitting to marital infidelities.)
1999: Twelve people were killed when a bonfire under construction at Texas A&M University collapsed.
1999: A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spared him the death penalty.
1999: American author and composer Paul Bowles, best known for "The Sheltering Sky" and other novels set in North Africa, died in Morocco at age 88.
See today's History Focus
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