What Happened This Day In History

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History
November 15

1315 Swiss soldiers ambush and slaughter invading Austrians in the battle of Morgarten.
1533 The explorer Francisco Pizarro enters Cuzco, Peru.
1626 The Pilgrim Fathers, who have settled in New Plymouth, buy out their London investors.
1777 The Articles of Confederation, instituting perpetual union of the United States of America, are adopted by Congress.
1805 Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their party reach the mouth of the Columbia River, completing their trek to the Pacific.
1806 Explorer Zebulon Pike discovers the Colorado Peak that bears his name, despite the fact that he didn't climb it.
1864 Union Major General William T. Sherman's troops set fires that destroy much of Atlanta's industrial district prior to beginning Sherman's March to the Sea.
1881 The American Federation of Labor is founded.
1909 M. Metrot takes off in a Voisin biplane from Algiers, making the first manned flight in Africa.
1917 Kerensky flees and Bolsheviks take command in Moscow.
1920 Forty-one nations open the first League of Nations session in Geneva..
1922 It is announced that Dr. Alexis Carrel has discovered white corpuscles.
1930 General strikes and riots paralyze Madrid, Spain.
1937 Eighteen lawsuits are brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling for its dissolution.
1942 An American fleet defeats a Japanese naval force in a clash off Guadalcanal.
1946 The 17th Paris Air Show opens at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first show of this kind since World War II.
1952 Newark Airport in New Jersey reopens after closing earlier in the year because of an increase in accidents.
1957 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev asserts Soviet superiority in missiles, challenging the United States to a rocket-range shooting match.
1960 The first submarine with nuclear missiles, USS George Washington, takes to sea from Charleston, South Carolina.
1962 Cuba threatens to down U.S. planes on reconnaissance flights over its territory.
1963 Argentina voids all foreign oil contracts.
1965 In the second day of combat, regiments of the 1st Cavalry Division battle on Landing Zones X-Ray against North Vietnamese forces in the Ia Drang Valley.
1969 A quarter of a million anti-Vietnam War demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
1976 A Syrian peace force takes control of Beirut, Lebanon.
1984 Baby Fae dies 20 days after receiving a baboon heart transplant in Loma Linda, California.
1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald.
1988 Palestinian National Council proclaims an independent State of Palestine.
1990 People's Republic of Bulgaria replaced by a new republican government.
2007 Cyclone Sidr strikes Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people.

Born on November 15

1708 William Pitt the Elder, secretary of state of England whose strategies helped win the Seven Years War.
1738 Sir William Hershel, British astronomer who discovered Uranus.
1887 Georgia O'Keefe, American artist.
1891 Erwin Rommel, German field marshal in World War II.
1906 Curtis LeMay, general in US Army Air Corps and later US Air Force; vice presidential running mate of George Wallace in 1968; credited with planning the strategic bombing campaign against Imperial Japan during WWII.
1907 Claus von Stauffenberg, German army officer; a leader in the failed July 20, 1944, assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler.
1913 Guy Green, English film director, screenwriter, cinematographer; won Academy Award for cinematography for Great Expectations (1946); received Lifetime Achievement Award from BAFTA (2002) and named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (2004).
1925 Howard Baker, Ameican politician; Senate Majority Leader (1981-85), White House Chief of Staff under Ronald Reagan (1987-88), Ambassador to Japan (2001-05).
1939 W. C. Clark, blues musician known as the "Godfather of Austin Blues.".
1940 Sam Waterston, actor, producer, director (The Killing Fields; TV movie Lincoln; Jack McCoy, Law & Order TV series).
1941 Daniel Pinkwater, author best known for his children's books and Young Adult fiction (The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death).
1942 Daniel Barenboim, Israeli pianist and conductor.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History: Monday, November 18, 2013

AP Highlight in History:
On Nov. 18, 1978, more than 900 people died in Jonestown, Guyana, after Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones urged them to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced grape punch. Jones died of a bullet wound to the head; whether it was self-inflicted is unknown.


On this date in:
1883 The United States and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.
1886 Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States, died in New York at age 56.
1923 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American in space, was born in East Derry, N.H.
1928 The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York.
1936 Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
1966 U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.
1969 Financier and diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 81.
1976 Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
1987 The congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.
1988 President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.
2002 U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year hiatus, calling on Saddam Hussein's government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction.
2003 The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.
2006 Actor Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes were married in Italy. (The couple divorced in 2012.)
2009 Two days before turning 92, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., became the longest-serving lawmaker in congressional history, at 56 years, 320 days.

Today's Birthdays:

Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz turns 38 years old today.

Name Profession Age
Brenda Vaccaro Actress 74
Linda Evans Actress ("Dynasty") 71
Graham Parker Singer 63
Warren Moon Football Hall of Famer 57
Elizabeth Perkins Actress ("Weeds") 53
Kim Wilde Rock singer 53
Gary Sheffield Baseball player 45
Owen Wilson Actor 45
Duncan Sheik Rock singer 44
Chloe Sevigny Actress 39
Nasim Pedrad Actress, comedian ("Saturday Night Live") 32

Actor-comedian Kevin Nealon ("Weeds," "Saturday Night Live") turns 60 years old today.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History: Tuesday, November 19, 2013

AP Highlight in History:
On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.

On this date in:
1831 James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, was born in Orange, Ohio.
1917 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was born in Allahabad.
1919 The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles.
1942 Russian forces launched a winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front during World War II.
1959 Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel.
1969 Apollo 12 astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
1985 President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began a summit in Geneva.


1990 The pop duo Milli Vanilli was stripped of its Grammy Award after it was revealed that neither performer sang on the group's records.
1998 Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr laid out his evidence against President Bill Clinton during a daylong appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.
2001 President George W. Bush signed legislation to put airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll.
2001 Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the first baseball player to win four Most Valuable Player awards.
2006 The Wii, the Nintendo Co.'s game console, first went on sale.
2007 Amazon.com Inc. introduced the Kindle, an electronic book-reading device.

Today's Birthdays:

Actress Jodie Foster turns 51 years old today.

Name Profession Age
Alan Young Actor ("Mister Ed") 94
Larry King Talk show host 80
Dick Cavett Talk show host 77
Ted Turner Broadcasting and sports mogul 75
Tom Harkin U.S. senator, D-Iowa 74
Garrick Utley Broadcast journalist 74
Tommy Thompson Former cabinet member, Wisconsin governor 72
Calvin Klein Fashion designer 71
Ahmad Rashad Football player, sportscaster 64
Glynnis O'Connor Actress 58
Allison Janney Actress ("The West Wing") 54
Meg Ryan Actress 52
Rocco DiSpirito TV chef 47
Sandrine Holt Actress 41
Ryan Howard Baseball player 34
Adam Driver Actor ("Girls") 30

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History: Wednesday, November 20, 2013

AP Highlight in History:
On Nov. 20, 1925, Robert F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass.

On this date in:

1789 New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1910 Revolution broke out in Mexico.
1917 Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Wilkesboro, N.C.
1945 Twenty-four 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 Westminster Abbey in London.
1966 The musical "Cabaret," with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, opened on Broadway.
1969 The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase-out.
1975 Spain's Gen. Francisco Franco died after nearly four decades of absolute rule.
1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's parliament.
1985 The first version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, was released.
1995 Princess Diana admitted during an interview broadcast on BBC TV that she had been unfaithful to Prince Charles.
2003 Singer Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, Calif. (He was later acquited.)



Today's Birthdays:

Vice President Joe Biden turns 71 years old today.

Name Profession Age

Kaye Ballard Actress 88
Estelle Parsons Actress 86
Dick Smothers Comedian (The Smothers Brothers) 75
Veronica Hamel Actress ("Hill Street Blues") 70
Judy Woodruff Broadcast journalist (CNN) 67
Joe Walsh Rock singer (The Eagles) 66
Richard Masur Actor ("One Day at a Time") 65
Bo Derek Actress ("10") 57
Sean Young Actress 54
Ming-Na Actress 50
Sabrina Lloyd Actress ("Sports Night") 43
Joel McHale Actor ("Community," "The Soup") 42
Marisa Ryan Actress 39
Ashley Fink Actress ("Glee") 27
Country singer Dierks Bentley turns 38 years old today.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History

November 21

1620 Leaders of the Mayflower expedition frame the "Mayflower Compact," designed to bolster unity among the settlers.
1783 Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes make the first free-flight ascent in a balloon to over 500 feet in Paris.
1789 North Carolina ratifies the Constitution, becoming the 12th state to do it.
1855 Franklin Colman, a pro-slavery Missourian, guns down Charles Dow, a Free Stater from Ohio, near Lawrence, Kansas.
1864 From Georgia, Confederate General John B. Hood launches the Franklin-Nashville Campaign into Tennessee.
1904 Motorized omnibuses replace horse-drawn cars in Paris.
1906 In San Juan, President Theodore Roosevelt pledges citizenship for Puerto Rican people.
1907 Cunard liner Mauritania sets a new speed record for steamship travel, 624 nautical miles in a one day run.
1911 Suffragettes storm Parliament in London. All are arrested and all choose prison terms.
1917 German ace Rudolf von Eschwege is killed over Macedonia when he attacks a booby-trapped observation balloon packed with explosives.
1918 The last German troops leave Alsace-Lorraine, France.
1927 Police turn machine guns on striking Colorado mine workers, killing five and wounding 20.
1934 A New York court rules Gloria Vanderbilt unfit for custody of her daughter.
1934 Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes premieres at New York's Alvin Theatre.
1949 The United Nations grants Libya its independence by 1952.
1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the air quality act, allotting $428 million for the fight against pollution.
1970 U.S. planes conduct widespread bombing raids in North Vietnam.
1985 US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard arrested for spying and passing classified information to Israel; he received a life sentence on Nov. 1, 1987.
1986 The Justice Department begins an inquiry into the National Security Council into what will become known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
1995 The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio; the agreement, formally ratified in Paris on Dec. 14, ends the three-and-a-half year war between Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2006 Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel assassinated in Beirut.

Born on November 21

1694 Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet), French philosopher, historian, poet, dramatist and novelist.
1898 Rene Magritte, surrealist painter (Golconda).
1904 Coleman Hawkins, jazz saxophonist.
1908 Elizabeth G. Speare, writer of historical novels for children.
1920 Stan "The Man" Musial, Hall of Fame baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals.
1929 Marilyn French, novelist and critic (The Women's Room).
1936 Victor Chang, Chinese Australian cardiac surgeon who pioneered the development of an artificial heart valve.
1944 Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, US Senate Majority Whip (2007 – ).
1944 Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, pro basketball player known for his flamboyant playing style.
1945 Goldie Hawn, actress, director, producer; gained public attention as part of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In TV series in the 1960s; won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Cactus Flower (1969).
1948 George Zimmer, businessman; founded Men's Wearhouse.
1966 Troy Aikman, pro football quarterback; led Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl victories; member of Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History
November 22

1220 After promising to go to the aid of the Fifth Crusade within nine months, Frederick II is crowned emperor by Pope Honorius III.
1542 New laws are passed in Spain giving Indians in America protection against enslavement.
1757 The Austrian army defeats the Prussians at Breslau in the Seven Years War.
1847 In New York, the Astor Place Opera House, the city's first operatic theater, is opened.
1902 A fire causes considerable damage to the unfinished Williamsburg bridge in New York.
1915 The Anglo-Indian army, led by British General Sir Charles Townshend, attacks a larger Turkish force under General Nur-ud-Din at Ctesiphon, Iraq, but is repulsed.
1919 A Labor conference committee in the United States urges an eight-hour workday and a 48-hour week.
1928 British King George is confined to bed with a congested lung; the queen is to take over duties.
1935 Pan Am inaugurates the first transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila.
1936 1,200 soldiers are killed in a battle between the Japanese and Mongolians in China.
1942 Soviet troops complete the encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad.
1948 Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam requests admittance to the UN.
1963 Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president.
1964 Almost 40,000 people pay tribute to John F. Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery on the first anniversary of his death.
1973 Great Britain announces a plan for moderate Protestants and Catholics to share power in Northern Ireland.
1980 Eighteen Communist Party secretaries in 49 provinces are ousted from Poland.
1982 President Ronald Reagan calls for defense-pact deployment of the MX missile.
1986 Justice Department finds memo in Lt. Col. Oliver North's office on the transfer of $12 million to Contras of Nicaragua from Iranian arms sale.
1988 First prototype of B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber unveiled for public viewing.
1989 Lebanese President Rene Moawad killed when a bomb explodes near his motorcade in West Beirut.
1990 Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher confirms the end of her premiership by withdrawing from the leadership election of the Conservative Party.
1995 The first feature-length film created entirely with computer generated imagery – Toy Story – premiers.
2004 The Orange Revolution, protesting a primary election believed to have been rigged, begins in the Ukraine. On Dec 26 Ukraine's Supreme Court orders a revote..
2005 Angela Merkel becomes the first woman ever to be Chancellor of Germany; the former research scientist had previously been the first secretary-general of the Christian Democratic Union.
2008 Hamas and Israel begin a cease-fire following eight days of violence and 150 deaths.

Born on November 22

1819 George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), English novelist (Silas Marner, Middlemarch).
1890 Charles de Gaulle, French general in exile during World War II and president of France from 1958 to 1969.
1899 Hoagy Carmichael, American composer, pianist and singer.
1913 Benjamin Britten, English composer, pianist and conductor.
1924 Geraldine Page, actress well known for roles in Tennessee Williams' plays.
1925 Gunther Schuller, composer and French Horn player.
1943 Billie Jean King, U.S. tennis player and women's rights pioneer.
1949 David Pietrusza, historian, author (1920, 1960, 1948).
1950 Steven Van Zandt, singer, songwriter, musician, producer (E Street Band, Steel Mill, Southside Johnny & The Ashbury Jukes) and actor (The Sopranos).
1958 Jamie Lee Curtis, actress (Halloween, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda), author (Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day).
1961 Mariel Hemingway, actress (Lipstick, Manhattan).
1984 Scarlett Johansson, actress, model (North, Lost in Translation).

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History

November 23

1248 The city of Seville, France, surrenders to Ferdinand III of Castile after a two-year siege.
1785 John Hancock is elected president of the Continental Congress for the second time.
1863 Union forces win the Battle of Orchard Knob, Tennessee.
1863 The Battle of Chattanooga, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, begins (also in Tennessee).
1903 Italian tenor Enrico Caruso makes his American debut in a Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi's Rigoletto.
1904 Russo-German talks break down because of Russia's insistence to consult France.
1909 The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes.
1921 President Warren G. Harding signs the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill. It forbids doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.
1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt recalls the American ambassador from Havana, Cuba, and urges stability in the island nation.
1934 The United States and Great Britain agree on a 5-5-3 naval ratio, with both countries allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three. Japan will denounce the treaty.
1936 The United States abandons the American embassy in Madrid, Spain, which is engulfed by civil war.
1941 U.S. troops move into Dutch Guiana to guard the bauxite mines.
1942 The film Casablanca premieres in New York City.
1943 U.S. Marines declare the island of Tarawa secure.
1945 Wartime meat and butter rationing ends in the United States.
1953 North Korea signs 10-year aid pact with Peking.
1968 Four men hijack an American plane, with 87 passengers, from Miami to Cuba.
1980 In Europe's biggest earthquake since 1915, 3,000 people are killed in Italy.
1981 US Pres. Ronald Reagan signs top secret directive giving the CIA authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1990 The first all-woman expedition to South Pole sets off from Antarctica on the part of a 70-day trip; the group includes 12 Russians, 3 Americans and 1 Japanese.
1992 The first Smartphone, IBM Simon, introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
2005 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president of Liberia; she is the first woman to lead an African nation.
2006 In the second-deadliest day of sectarian violence in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 war, 215 people are killed and nearly 260 injured by bombs in Sadr City.
2011 Yemeni President Ali Abullah Saleh signs a deal to to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity; the agreement came after 11 months of protests.

Born on November 23

1804 Franklin Pierce, hero of the American war with Mexico and 14th president of the United States.
1878 Ernest King, commander-in-chief of the U.S. fleet who designed the United States' winning strategy in World War II.
1887 Boris Karloff, film actor most famous for his role as the monster in the movie Frankenstein.
1888 Adolph Arthur "Harpo" Marx, American comedian, one of the Marx brothers.
1897 Willie "The Lion" Smith, jazz and ragtime pianist.
1923 Gloria Whelan, poet, author primarily known for children's and young-adult fiction; her novel Homeless Bird won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2000.
1943 Andrew Goodman, civil rights activist; murdered by Ku Klux Klan in 1964 near Philadelphia, Miss.
1961 John Schnatter, businessman; founded Papa John's Pizza.
1980 Ishmael Beah, authored A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a memoir of his time as a Sierra Leonean child solider in that country's civil war.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History

November 24

1542 The English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss in England.
1859 Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. The first printing of 1,250 copies sells out in a single day.
1863 In the Battle Above the Clouds, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's forces take Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1864 Kit Carson and his 1st Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, attack a camp of Kiowa Indians in the First Battle of Adobe Walls.
1874 Joseph Glidden receives a patent for barbed wire.
1902 The first Congress of Professional Photographers convenes in Paris.
1912 Austria denounces Serbian gains in the Balkans; Russia and France back Serbia while Italy and Germany back Austria.
1927 Federal officials battle 1,200 inmates after prisoners in Folsom Prison revolt.
1938 Mexico seizes oil land adjacent to Texas.
1939 In Czechoslovakia, the Gestapo execute 120 students who are accused of anti-Nazi plotting.
1944 American B-29s flying from Saipan bomb Tokyo.
1949 The Iron and Steel Act nationalizes the steel industry in Britain.
1950 UN troops begin an assault into the rest of North Korea, hoping to end the Korean War by Christmas.
1961 The United Nations adopts bans on nuclear arms over American protests.
1963 Jack Ruby fatally shoots the accused assassin of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, in the garage of the Dallas Police Department.
1977 Greece announces the discovery of the tomb of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
1979 The United States admits that thousands of troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent Orange.
1992 US Congress passes the Brady Bill requiring a 5-day waiting period for handgun sales; the bill is named for Pres. Ronald Reagan's press secretary who was left partially paralyzed by a bullet during an assassination attempt on Reagan.
1995 Ireland votes 50.28% to 49.72% to end its 70-year-old ban on divorce.
2012 A fire at a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills over 110 people.

Born on November 24

1784 Zachary Taylor, general during the Mexican War, 12th President of the United States.
1826 Carlo Collodi, the creator of Pinocchio.
1849 Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden.
1859 Cass Gilbert, architect.
1864 Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, French post-impressionist painter.
1868 Scott Joplin, composer.
1886 Margaret Anderson, editor, founder of The Little Review.
1888 Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People.
1912 Garson Kanin, writer and director (Born Yesterday).
1925 William F. Buckley, Jr., journalist, founder of National Review.
1946 Ted Bundy, serial killer; he confessed to 30 murders between 1974-78, but the total could be much higher.
1948 Spider Robinson, Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author (Callahan's Crosstime Saloon; Melancholy Elephants); received Robert A. Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in 2008.
1949 Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded Monica Lewinsky's confidential phone calls about Lewinsky's affair with then-President Bill Clinton.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History
November 25

2348 BC Biblical scholars have long asserted this to be the day of the Great Deluge, or Flood.
1863 Union ends the siege of Chattanooga with the Battle of Missionary Ridge.
1876 Colonel Ronald MacKenzie destroys Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife's village, in the Bighorn Mountains near the Red Fork of the Powder River, during the so-called Great Sioux War.
1901 Japanese Prince Ito arrives in Russia to seek concessions in Korea.
1914 German Field Marshal Fredrich von Hindenburg calls off the Lodz offensive 40 miles from Warsaw, Poland. The Russians lose 90,000 to the Germans' 35,000 in two weeks of fighting.
1918 Chile and Peru sever relations.
1921 Hirohito becomes regent of Japan.
1923 Transatlantic broadcasting from England to America commences for the first time.
1930 An earthquake in Shizouka, Japan kills 187 people.
1939 Germany reports four British ships sunk in the North Sea, but London denies the claim.
1946 The U.S. Supreme Court grants the Oregon Indians land payment rights from the U.S. government.
1947 The Big Four meet to discuss the German and European economy.
1951 A truce line between U.N. troops and North Korea is mapped out at the peace talks in Panmunjom, Korea.
1955 The Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation in interstate travel.
1963 The body of assassinated President John F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1964 Eleven nations give a total of $3 billion to rescue the value of the British currency.
1986 As President Ronald Reagan announces the Justice Department's findings concerning the Iran-Contra affair; secretary Fawn Hall smuggles important documents out of Lt. Col. Oliver North's office.
1987 Typhoon Nina sticks the Philippines with 165 mph winds and a devastating storm surge and causes over 1,030 deaths.
1992 Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia votes to partition the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, beginning Jan. 1, 1993.
2008 Sri Lanka is hit by Cyclone Nisha, bringing the highest rainfall the area had seen in 9 decades; 15 people die, 90,000 are left homeless.

Born on November 25

1844 Carl Benz, pioneer of early motor cars.
1896 Virgil Thompson, American composer (Four Saints in Three Acts, The Mother of Us All).
1910 Alwin Nikolais, choreographer.
1913 Lewis Thomas, physician and author (The Lives of a Cell).
1914 Joe DiMaggio, Hall of Fame baseball star who led the New York Yankees to ten World Series.
1939 Shelagh Delaney, playwright (A Taste of Honey).
1942 Bob Lind, singer, songwriter who was an important influence in the 1960s folk rock movement in the US and UK ("Elusive Butterfly").
1945 Gail Collins, journalist; first woman to serve as editorial page editor of The New York Times.
1953 Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron Corp.; convicted of multiple felony charges in 2006, relating to Enron's financial collapse.
1960 John F. Kennedy Jr., elder son of US Pres. John F. Kennedy (assassinated three days before JFK Jr.'s third birthday); co-founded George magazine in 1995; died in plane crash, July 16, 1999.
1971 Christina Applegate, actress (Married . . . with Children, Samantha Who? TV series).
1981 Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of US Pres. George W. Bush; she and her sororal twin sister were the first twin children of a US president; presently (2013) a special correspondent to NBC's Today Show and a contributor to NBC Nightly News.
1986 Amber Hagerman, whose kidnapping and murder in Jan. 1996 led to the development of the AMBER Alert system to notify surrounding communities when a child is reported missing or abducted.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History

November 27

43 BC Octavian, Antony and Lepidus form the triumvirate of Rome.
511 Clovis, king of the Franks, dies and his kingdom is divided between his four sons.
1095 In Clermont, France, Pope Urbana II makes an appeal for warriors to relieve Jerusalem. He is responding to false rumors of atrocities in the Holy Land.
1382 The French nobility, led by Olivier de Clisson, crush the Flemish rebels at Flanders.
1812 One of the two bridges being used by Napoleon Bonaparte's army across the Beresina River in Russia collapses during a Russian artillery barrage.
1826 Jebediah Smith's expedition reaches San Diego, becoming the first Americans to cross the southwestern part of the continent.
1862 George Armstrong Custer meets his future bride, Elizabeth Bacon, at a Thanksgiving party.
1868 Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's 7th Cavalry kills Chief Black Kettle and about 100 Cheyenne (mostly women and children) on the Washita River.
1887 U.S. Deputy Marshall Frank Dalton, brother of the three famous outlaws, is killed in the line of duty near Fort Smith, Ark.
1904 The German colonial army defeats Hottentots at Warm bad in southwest Africa.
1909 U.S. troops land in Blue fields, Nicaragua, to protect American interests there.
1919 Bulgaria signs peace treaty with Allies at Unequally, France, fixing war reparations and recognizing Yugoslavian independence.
1922 Allied delegates bar the Soviets from the Near East peace conference.
1936 Great Britain's Anthony Eden warns Hitler that Britain will fight to protect Belgium.
1942 The French fleet in Toulon is scuttled to keep it from Germany.
1950 East of the Choosing River, Chinese forces annihilate an American task force.
1954 Alger Hiss, convicted of being a Soviet spy, is freed after 44 months in prison.
1959 Demonstrators march in Tokyo to protest a defense treaty with the United States.
1967 Lyndon Johnson appoints Robert McNamara to presidency of the World Bank.
1967 Charles DeGaulle vetoes Great Britain's entry into the Common Market again.
1970 Syria joins the pact linking Libya, Egypt and Sudan.
1973 US Senate votes to confirm Gerald Ford as President of the United States, following President Richard Nixon's resignation; the House will confirm Ford on Dec. 6.
1978 San Francisco mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, the city's first openly gay supervisor, assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White.
1978 Kurdistan Workers' Party (Parti Karkerani Kurdistan, or PKK) founded; militant group that fought an armed struggle for an independent Kurdistan.
1984 Britain and Spain sign the Brussels Agreement to enter discussions over the status of Gibraltar.
1999 Helen Clark becomes first elected female Prime Minister of New Zealand.
2001 Hubble Space Telescope discovers a hydrogen atmosphere on planet Osiris, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.
2004 Pope John Paul II returns relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church.
2005 First partial human face transplant completed Amiens, France.
2006 Canadian House of Commons approves a motion, tabled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, recognizing the Quebecois as a nation within Canada.

Born on November 27

1701 Anders Celsius, astronomer who devised the centigrade temperature scale.
1870 Joe Mack, builder of gasoline-powered delivery wagons which eventually evolved into the Mack Truck Company.
1874 Charles A. Beard, distinguished American historian who wrote History of the United States.
1909 James Agee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (A Death in the Family).
1942 Jimi Hendrix, influential rock musician.
1955 Bill Nye, scientist, educator, TV host; known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, host of the Disney/PBS children's show of the same name.
1957 Caroline Kennedy, author, attorney, only surviving child of President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline "Jackie" Bouvier; named US Ambassador to Japan (2013– ).
1963 Princess Desiree of Hohenzollern.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History
December 2

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of France in Notre Dame Cathedral.
1805 Napoleon Bonaparte celebrates the first anniversary of his coronation with a victory at Austerlitz over a Russian and Austrian army.
1823 President James Monroe proclaims the principles known as the Monroe Doctrine, "that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by European powers."
1863 General Braxton Bragg turns over command of the Army of Tennessee to General William Hardee at Dalton, Ga.
1864 Major General Grenville M. Dodge is named to replace General William Rosecrans as Commander of the Department of Missouri.
1867 People wait in mile-long lines to hear Charles Dickens give his first reading in New York City.
1907 Spain and France agree to enforce Moroccan measures adopted in 1906.
1909 J.P. Morgan acquires majority holdings in Equitable Life Co. This is the largest concentration of bank power to date.
1914 Austrian troops occupy Belgrade, Serbia.
1918 Armenia proclaims independence from Turkey.
1921 The first successful helium dirigible, C-7, makes a test flight in Portsmouth, Va.
1927 The new Ford Model A is introduced to the American public.
1932 Bolivia accepts Paraguay's terms for a truce in the Chaco War.
1942 The Allies repel a strong Axis attack in Tunisia, North Africa.
1944 General George S. Patton's troops enter the Saar Valley and break through the Siegfried line.
1946 The United States and Great Britain merge their German occupation zones.
1964 Brazil sends Juan Peron back to Spain, foiling his efforts to return to his native land.
1970 The U.S. Senate votes to give 48,000 acres of New Mexico back to the Taos Indians.
1980 A death squad in El Salvador murders four US nuns and churchwomen.
1982 Dentist Barney Clark receives the first permanent artificial heart, developed by Dr. Robert K. Jarvik.
1993 NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavor on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
1999 UK devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive, the administrative branch of the North Ireland legislature.
2001 Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, one of the most complex bankruptcy cases in US history.

Born on December 2

1837 Dr. Joseph Bell, British physician believed to be the prototype of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes.
1859 Georges Seurat, French painter, founder and leader of the Pointilism style.
1863 Charles Ringling, one of the seven Ringling brothers of circus fame.
1884 Ruth Draper, actress and writer.
1885 Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer and lawyer (Zorba the Greek).
1896 Georgi Zhukov, Soviet general who captured Berlin during World War II.
1906 Peter Carl Goldmark, engineer, developed the first commercial color television and the long-playing phonograph record.
1912 Henry Armstrong, the only boxer to hold three titles simultaneously.
1925 Alexander Haig, American army general and Secretary of State for President Ronald Reagan.
1948 T. Corgaghessan Boyle, novelist and short story writer (Water Music).
1939 Harry Reid, politician; the Nevada Democrat served as Senate Majority Leader (2007– ).
1944 Ibrahim Rugova, first President of Kosovo (1992–2000) and was re-elected by parliament (2002–2006).
1954 Stone Phillips, Emmy-winning journalist; co-anchor of Dateline NBC.
1963 Ann Patchett, author; her novel Bel Canto received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award (2002).
1981 Brittany Spears, singer, songwriter, actress; her … Baby One More Time (1999) became the best-selling album to date (2013) by a teenage solo artist.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Wow Britney is 32 Dam is she gorgeous almost as pretty as my wife

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History
December 3

1468 Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano succeed their father, Piero de Medici, as rulers of Florence, Italy.
1762 France cedes to Spain all lands west of the Mississippi–the territory known as Upper Louisiana.
1818 Illinois admitted into the Union as the 21st state.
1800 The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
1847 Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney establish the North Star, and anti-slavery paper.
1862 Confederate raiders attack a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville, Tenn.
1863 Confederate General James Longstreet moves his army east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marks the end of the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
1864 Major General William Tecumseh Sherman meets with slight resistance from Confederate troops at Thomas Station on his march to the sea.
1906 The U.S. Supreme Court orders Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.
1915 The United States expels German attaches on spy charges.
1916 French commander Joseph Joffre is dismissed after his failure at the Somme. General Robert Nivelle is the new French commander in chief.
1918 The Allied Conference ends in London where they decide that Germany must pay for the war.
1925 The League of Nations orders Greece to pay an indemnity for the October invasion of Bulgaria.
1926 British reports claim that German soldiers are being trained in the Soviet Union.
1950 The Chinese close in on Pyongyang, Korea, and UN forces withdraw southward.
1965 The National Council of Churches asks the United States to halt the massive bombings in North Vietnam.
1977 The State Department proposes the admission of 10,000 more Vietnamese refugees to the United States.
1979 Eleven are dead and eight injured in a mad rush to see a rock band (The Who) at a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1984 Toxic gas leaks from a Union Carbide plant and results in the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India.
1989 Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce the official end to the Cold War at a meeting in Malta.
1992 A test engineer for Sema Group sends the world's first text message, using a personal computer and the Vodafone network.
1997 Representatives of 121 nations sign the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting the manufacture or deployment of antipersonnel landmines; the People's Republic of China, the US and the USSR do not sign.
2005 First manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail takes place in Mojave, Cal.
2009 Suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, kills 25 people, including three miniseries of the Transitional Federal Government.

Born on December 3

1755 Gilbert Stewart, portrait painter.
1826 George B. McClellan, Union general who defeated Robert E. Lee at Antietam and ran against Abraham Lincoln for president.
1833 Carlos Juan Finlay, Cuban epidemiologist.
1857 Joseph Conrad, Polish-born novelist (Heart of Darkness, Nostromo).
1922 Sven Nykvist, Swedish cinematographer.
1925 Jean-Luc Godard, French film director (Breathless).
1933 Paul Crutzen, Dutch chemist.
1934 Abimael Guzman (Presidente Gonzalo), leader of the Shining Path Maoist guerrilla insurgency in Peru.
1937 Morgan Llywelyn, American-born Irish author noted for historical fantasy and historical fiction novels, as well as historical nonfiction (1921, the War for Independence); received Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year award (1999).
1948 Ozzy Osbourne, singer, songwriter, actor; member of the influential rock band Black Sabbath; an MTV reality show, The Osbournes, followed the lives of the singer and his family (2002-05).
1951 Rick Mears, race car driver; three-time Indycar national champion (1979, 1981, 1982).
1960 Daryl Hannah, actress (Blade Runner, Steel Magnolias).
1963 Terri Schiavo, who became the focus of a 15-year legal struggle over the question of artificially prolonging the life of a patient, Schiavo, whom doctors had diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state.
1973 Holly Marie Combs, actress, TV producer (Charmed; Pretty Little Liars TV series).
2005 Prince Sverre Magnus, third in line of succession to the Norwegian throne.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History
December 4

771 With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Empire.
1861 The U.S. Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Brekinridge of Kentucky because of his joining the Confederate Army.
1861 Queen Victoria of Britain forbids the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for their production.
1862 Winchester, Va., falls into Union hands, resulting in the capture of 145 Southern soldiers.
1863 Seven solid days of bombardment ends at Charleston, S.C. The Union fires some 1,307 rounds.
1872 The U.S. brigantine Marie Celeste is found adrift and deserted with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal.
1900 The French National Assembly, successor to the States-General, rejects Nationalist General Mercier's proposal to plan an invasion of England.
1914 The first Seaplane Unit formed by the German Navy officially comes into existence and begins operations from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
1918 France cancels trade treaties in order to compete in the postwar economic battles.
1941 Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft.
1942 U.S. planes make the first raids on Naples, Italy.
1947 Tennessee William's play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy.
1950 The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
1952 The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight.
1959 Peking pardons Pu Yi, ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo.
1981 President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States.
1985 Robert McFarland resigns as National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter is named to succeed.
1991 The last American hostages held in Lebanon are released.
1992 US Pres. George H. W. Booth orders 28,000 troops to Somalia during the Somali Civil War.

Born on December 4

1584 John Cotton, English-born Puritan clergyman (The Way of the Church of Christ in New England).
1795 Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist (The French Revolution, Sartor Resartus).
1835 Samuel Butler, English writer and painter (Erewhon, The Way of All Flesh).
1861 Lillian Russell, singer and actress.
1865 Edith Cavell, English nurse who tended to friend and foe alike during World War I.
1866 Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born painter.
1875 Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet.
1892 Francisco Franco, Spanish general and dictator who came to power as a result of the Spanish Civil War.
1924 Frank Press, geophysicist.
1937 Max Baer Jr., actor, screenwriter, director, producer; best know for his role as Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies TV series
1940 Gary Gilmore, American murderer who demanded his death sentence be carried out; he was the first prisoner executed in the US following the Supreme Court's ruling on the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia.
1944 Chris Hillman, singer, songwrier, musician; performed with the bands The Byrds, The Hillmen, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Manassas.
1945 A. Scott Berg, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer (Lindberg, 1998).
1949 Jeff Bridges, actor, producer; won Academy Award for Best Actor as Otis "Bad" Blake in Crazy Heart (2009).

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Today in History
December 5

1484 Pope Innocent VIII issues a bill deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in Germany.
1776 Phi Beta Kappa is organized as the first American college Greek letter-fraternity, at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.
1791 Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna.
1861 In the U.S. Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery are introduced.
1862 Union General Ulysses S. Grant's cavalry receives a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
1864 Confederate General John Bell Hood sends Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry and a division of infantry toward Murfreesboro, Tenn.
1904 The Japanese destroy a Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
1909 George Taylor makes the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he designed himself.
1912 Italy, Austria and Germany renew the Triple Alliance for six years.
1916 David Lloyd George replaces Herbert Asquith as the British prime minister.
1921 The British empire reaches an accord with the Irish revolutionary group the Sinn Fein; Ireland is to become a free state.
1933 The 21st Amendment ends Prohibition in the United States, which had begun 13 years earlier.
1934 Italian and Ethiopian troops clash at the Ualual on disputed the Somali-Ethiopian border.
1936 The New Constitution in the Soviet Union promises universal suffrage, but the Communist Party remains the only legal political party.
1937 The Lindberghs arrive in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile.
1945 Four TBM Avenger bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida.
1950 Pyongyang in Korea falls to the invading Chinese army.
1953 Italy and Yugoslavia agree to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
1955 A bus boycott begins under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama.
1966 Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory heads for Hanoi, North Vietnam, despite federal warnings against it.
1978 The Soviet Union signs a 20-year friendship pact with Afghanistan.
1983 Military Junta dissolves in Argentina.
2006 Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
2007 A gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle kills 8 people at Westroads Mall, Omaha, Neb., before taking his own life.

Born on December 5

1782 Martin Van Buren, 8th president in the United States–and the first born in the United States.
1839 George Armstrong Custer, Union cavalry leader who met his fate at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
1890 Fritz Lang, film director (Metropolis, M).
1901 Walt Disney, animator and creator of an entertainment empire.
1931 James Cleveland, considered the "King of Gospel."
1932 Richard Wayne Penniman [Little Richard], singer, musician; important influence on rock 'n' roll.
1934 Joan Didion, essayist and novelist (Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Play it as it Lays).
1935 Calvin Trillin, journalist and writer.
1947 Jim Plunkett, pro football quarterback.
1963 Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, first to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping.
1969 Morgan J. Freeman, film director; his Hurricane Streets (1997) was the first narrative film to win three awards at the Sundance Film Festival; produced MTV reality shows (16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom).