A Day In History - Novemberl

November

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In 1699 Martin Luther, protestant reformer
In 1762 Spencer Perceval (Tory), British PM (1809-12)
In 1782 Viscount Goderich (Tory), British PM (1827-28)
In 1798 Sir Benjamin Lee, Baronet Guinness, Irish brewer, Dublin mayor
In 1834 First published reference to the game of Poker describes it as a Mississippi riverboat game.
In 1853 Jose' Santos Zelaya (L), ruler of Nicaragua (1893-1910)
In 1871 Stephen Crane, poet (Red Badge of Courage)
In 1878 Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine jurist (Nobel Peace Prize 1936)
In 1880 Sholem Asch, Yiddish novelist, playwright (Three Cities)
In 1886 Hermann Broch, Austrian novelist (Sleepwalkers, Bewitchment)
In 1889 Philip John Noel-Baker, statesman, disarmament advocate (Nobel '59)
In 1892 Alexander Alekhine of Russia, world chess champion (1927-46)
In 1932 Wernher von Braun named head of German liquid-fuel rocket program.
In 1935 Gary Player (in South Africa), golfer, born.
In 1942 Larry Flint, publisher (Hustler), born.
In 1950 First black player in National Basketball Association, Fort Wayne, IN.
In 1951 First atomic explosion witnessed by troops, NM.
In 1952 First hydrogen device exploded at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
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2nd

In 1470 King Edward V of England (1483); deposed, murdered? by Richard III, born.
In 1734 Daniel Boone frontiersman/explorer, born.
In 1755 Marie-Antoinette Queen of France, born.
In 1913 Burt Lancaster NYC, actor (From Here to Eternity, Elmer Gantry), born.
In 1934 Ken Rosewall, Sydney, Australia, tennis star (US Open 1956), born.
In 1942 Montgomery (Br) defeats Rommel (Ger) in battle of Alamein (WW II).
In 1947 Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose" flies for 1st (and last) time.
In 1956 Hungary appeals for UN assistance against Soviet invasion.
In 1961 K.D.Lang, singer, born.
In 1978 Crew of Soyuz 29 returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 31.
In 1983 President Reagan signs a bill establishing Martin Luther King day.
In 1988 Mexican radio station erroneously reports Mike Tyson dies in car crash.
In 1991 Jermaine Jackson releases "Word to the Badd!!" anti Michael song.

3rd

In 1679 Great panic occurs in Europe over the close approach of a comet.
In 1718 John Montague 4th Earl of Sandwich, inventor of sandwich, born.
In 1839 1st opium war-2 British frigates engage several Chinese junks.
In 1888 Jack the Ripper kills last victim.
In 1903 Columbia grants Panama independence.
In 1918 Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolves.
In 1918 Poland proclaims independence from Russia after WW I.
In 1922 Charles Bronson Penns, actor (Death Wish, Dirty Dozen), born.
In 1928 Turkey switches from Arabic to Roman alphabet.
In 1931 1st commercially produced synthetic rubber manufactured.
In 1935 George II returns to Greece and regains monarchy.
In 1936 Roy Emerson Australia, tennis player (Wimbledon '64, '65), born.
In 1948 Lulu, Glasgow, Scotland, singer/actress (To Sir With Love), born.
In 1952 Clarence Birdseye markets frozen peas.
In 1952 Roseanne Barr Arnold Salt Lake City, comedienne/TV star (Roseanne), born.
In 1954 Adam Ant [Stuart Goddard], punk rocker (If I Strip For You), born.
In 1955 Australia takes control of the Coco Islands.
In 1957 USSR launches Sputnik 2 with a dog (Laika), first animal in orbit.
In 1959 Dolph Lundgren actor, born.
In 1984 Body of assassinated Indian PM Indira Gandhi cremated.
In 1986 Lebanese magazine Ash Shirra reveals secret US arms sales to Iran.
In 1988 Soviet Union agrees to allow teaching of Hebrew.
In 1992 Bill Clinton elected US President.

4th

In 1650 King William III of Orange
In 1854 Lighthouse established on Alcatraz Island.
In 1862 Eden Phillpotts, English novelist, poet, playwright
In 1866 Kingdom of Italy annexes Venetia.
In 1879 James Ritty patents the first cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in his Dayton, Ohio saloon.
In 1918 Art Carney, actor (Honeymooners, Harold and Maude)
In 1922 Howard Carter discovers the tomb of Tutankhamen.
In 1937 Loretta Swit (in Passaic, NJ), actor (M*A*S*H)
In 1939 First air conditioned automobile (Packard) exhibited, Chicago, IL.
In 1946 UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization formed. (UNESCO)
In 1956 Israeli troops reach the Suez Canal for the first time.
In 1984 Nicaragua holds first free elections in 56 years; Sandinistas win 63%.

5th

In 1492 Christopher Columbus learns of maize (corn) from the Indians of Cuba.
In 1605 Gunpowder Plot; Catholics try to blow up English Parliament. Plot uncovered & leader Guy Fawkes hanged.
In 1811 El Salvador's 1st battle against Spain for independence.
In 1838 Honduras declares independence of Central American Federation.
In 1911 Italy attacks Turkey, takes Tipoli & Cyrenaica.
In 1913 Ludwig III crowned king of Bavaria.
In 1913 Vivien Leigh, actress (Gone With Wind), born.
In 1914 Britain annexes Cyprus.
In 1935 Parker Brothers launches game of Monopoly.
In 1942 Art Garfunkel, singer/actor (Sounds of Silence, Carnal Knowledge), born.
In 1964 US launches Mariner 3 toward Mars; no data returned.
In 1978 Iranian PM Jaafar Sharif-Emami resigns to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
In 1982 Jacques Tati actor/director, dies of pulmonary embolism.
In 1987 Iceberg twice the size of Rhode Island sighted in Antarctic.

6th

In 1661 Charles II, last Habsburg king of Spain (1665-1700)
In 1671 Colley Cibber, English dramatist, poet laureate (Love's Last Shift)
In 1771 Aloys Senefelder, inventor of lithography
In 1844 Spain grants Dominican Rep independence.
In 1851 Charles Henry Dow, co-founder of Dow Jones, first editor of the Wall Street Journal
In 1854 John Phillip Souza, march king (Stars and Stripes Forever, etc)
In 1860 Ignace Jan Paderewski, Polish composer, pianist, patriot
In 1861 James A. Naismith, inventor of basketball
In 1867 Marie Curie, discoverer of radium
In 1900 Heinrich Himmler, Nazi SS leader
In 1917 Bolshevik revolution begins.
In 1926 Joan Sutherland, opera star, born.
In 1943 Joni Mitchell, singer, born.
In 1946 Sally Field (in Pasadena, CA), actor (Flying Nun, Norma Rae), born.
In 1952 US explodes world's first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll.
In 1955 Maria Shriver, Newscaster, married to Arnold Schartznegger, born.
In 1984 Pres Reagan was elected to a second term, winning 49 states.
In 1985 Challenger 9, the 22nd Space Shuttle Mission, returns to Earth.

7th

In 994 Muhammad ibn Hazm, historian, jurist, writer of Islamic Spain
In 1598 Francisco de Zurbarin, Spanish Baroque painter
In 1837 Abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy murdered by mob at Alton, Ill.
In 1865 London Gazette, oldest surviving journal, is founded.
In 1867 Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie, discovered radium (Nobel 1903, 1911)
In 1872 Mary Celeste sails from NY to Genoa; found abandoned 4 weeks later.
In 1875 Verney Cameron is first European to cross equatorial Africa from sea to sea.
In 1879 Leon Trotsky, Russian Communist theorist, Bolshevik
In 1903 Konrad Lorenz, zoologist, ethnologist, writer (Nobel 1973)
In 1914 Bolsheviks overthrew Russian government in St Petersburg.
In 1917 October Revolution overthrows Russian Provisional Government.
In 1918 Goddard demonstrates tube-launched solid propellant rockets.
In 1922 Al Hirt, trumpet player, born.
In 1962 Richard Nixon's first time quitting politics - "You won't have Nixon to kick around", he tells the press.
In 1964 Dana Plato (in Maywood, CA)
In 1976 "Gone With the Wind" is shown on TV.
In 1983 Bomb explodes in U.S. Capitol, causing heavy damage but no injuries.
In 1985 Colombian troops ends 27-hour siege of Bogota's Palace of Justice.

8th

In 1656 Sir Edmond Halley, astronomer, first to calculate a comet's orbit
In 1789 Bourbon Whiskey is first distilled from corn by Reverend Elijah Craig in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
In 1793 The Louvre, in Paris, was opened to the public.
In 1848 Gottlob Frege, German mathematician, logician, philosopher
In 1864 Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as President.
In 1895 Wilhelm Rintgen discovers x-rays.
In 1900 Margaret Mitchell, author (Gone With the Wind)
In 1909 Katherine Hepburn (in Connecticut), actor (African Queen, On Golden Pond)
In 1916 Peter Weiss, German dramatist, novelist (Marat/Sade)
In 1922 Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed first human heart transplantation
In 1923 Hitler's "Beer Hall Putsch" failed; writes "Mein Kampf" while in jail.
In 1936 Edward G. Gibson, astronaut (Skylab 4)
In 1939 "Life with Father", longest running Broadway drama, opens (closes in 1947).
In 1942 Allied forces invade North Africa.
In 1949 Bonnie Raitt (in Los Angeles, CA), guitarist, singer
In 1952 Christie Hefner, daughter of Hugh Hefner
In 1954 Rickie Lee Jones (in Chicago), singer
In 1973 Walt Disney's "Robin Hood" is released.
In 1984 Fourteenth Space Shuttle Mission - Discovery 2 is launched.
In 1985 Judge overturned Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's conviction. (The case that inspired Bob Dylan's song "The Story Of The Hurricane")
In 1988 George Bush becomes the first sitting vice-president of the U.S. in 150 years to win a presidential election.

9th

In 1799 Napoleon becomes dictator (1st consul) of France
In 1818 Ivan Turgenev, Russia, novelist/poet/playwright (Fathers and Sons), born.
In 1841 Edward VII, king of England (1901-10), born.
In 1874 Israel Bak created 1st Hebrew printing press, dies.
In 1913 Hedy Lamarr, actress (Ecstasy, Samson and Delilah), born.
In 1918 Bavaria proclaims itself a republic.
In 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates after German defeat in WW I.
In 1934 Carl Sagan, NYC, astronomer/author/professor (Cosmos, Broca's Brain), born.
In 1938 "Kristallnacht" (Crystal Night)-Nazi stormtroopers attacked Jews.
In 1940 Germany invades Norway and Denmark in WW II.
In 1952 Chaim Weizmann 1st pres of Israel, dies at 57.
In 1953 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud founder of Saudi Arabia, dies (born c 1880).
In 1953 Cambodia (now Kampuchea) gains independence within French Union.
In 1953 Dylan Thomas author-poet, dies in NY at 39.
In 1970 Charles DeGaulle French pres, dies at 79.
In 1985 Gary Kasparov (USSR) becomes World Chess Champion at age of 22.
In 1989 East Berlin opens its borders.
In 1990 President Bush announces DOUBLING of US forces in Gulf.
In 1991 Yves Montand actor, dies at 70 from a heart attack.

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10th

In 1483 Martin Luther, Eisleben, Germany, founded Protestantism, born.
In 1683 George II king of England (1727-60), born.
In 1864 Austrian Archduke Maximilian became emperor of Mexico.
In 1889 Claude Rains London, actor (Invisible Man, Casablanca), born.
In 1917 41 suffragists are arrested in front of the White House.
In 1918 Independence of Poland proclaimed by Jozef Pilsudski.
In 1919 Moise Tshombe, president of Katanga, then premier of the Congo (Zaire), born.
In 1925 Richard Burton, Wales, actor (Cleopatra, Virginia Woolf), born.
In 1928 Hirohito enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
In 1935 Roy Scheider Orange NJ, actor (All That Jazz, Jaws), born.
In 1938 Kemal Atarok 1st pres of Turkey, dies.
In 1951 1st long distance telephone call without operator assistance.
In 1969 "Sesame Street" premieres on PBS TV.
In 1982 Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet 1st secretary, dies of a heart attack at 75.
In 1986 River Rhine (Germany) polluted by chemical spill.
In 1989 Berlin Wall opens in East Germany.
In 1989 Guerrillas battle with government forces in El Salvador.
In 1989 Germans begin punching holes in the Berlin Wall.
In 2084 Transit of Earth as seen from Mars.

11th

In 1050 Henry IV, Holy Roman emperor (1036-1106)
In 1620 41 Pilgrims signed a compact aboard Mayflower.
In 1636 Yen Jo-chu, Chinese scholar of Ch'ing dynasty
In 1648 Dutch and French agree to divide St. Maarten, Leeward Islands.
In 1748 Charles IV, king of Spain (1788-1808)
In 1790 Chrysanthemums are introduced into England from China.
In 1821 Fyodor Dostoyevsky (in Russia), author (Crime and Punishment)
In 1885 George S. Patton, U.S. military leader
In 1918 Armistice Day -- WW I ends (at 11AM on Western Front).
In 1922 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., author (Slaughterhouse Five, Sirens of Titan)
In 1942 During WWII Germany completed their occupation of France.
In 1945 Daniel Ortega Saavedra, president of Nicaragua (1984- )
In 1955 Jigme Singye Wangchuk, King of Bhutan (1972- )
In 1963 Demi Moore, actor (Ghost, G. I. Jane) born.
In 1965 Rhodesia proclaimed independence from Britain by PM Ian D. Smith.
In 1966 Gemini XII launched on four-day flight (the final Gemini flight).
In 1968 John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear nude on cover of "Two Virgins" album.
In 1972 US Army turned over Long Bihn base to South Vietnamese army.
In 1975 Portugal grants Angola independence (Natl. Day).
In 1980 The crew of Soyuz 35 returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 37.
In 1982 5th Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 5 is launched (first commercial flight).
In 1984 Rev Martin Luther King Sr., dies in Atlanta at 84.
In 1987 Van Gogh's "Irises" sells for record $53.6 million at auction.

12th

In 1817 Baha'Ullah (Mirza Husayn Ali), founded Baha'i faith
In 1833 Aleksandr Borodin, Russian composer
In 1840 Auguste Rodin, sculptor (Kiss)
In 1859 Jules Leotard performs the first Flying Trapeze circus act in Paris. He also designed the garment that bears his name.
In 1866 Sun Yat-sen, father of modern China (ROC and PRC)
In 1908 Harry A. Blackmun, U.S. Supreme Court justice, born.
In 1918 Austria becomes a republic.
In 1927 Trotsky expelled from Soviet CP; Stalin becomes undisputed dictator.
In 1929 Grace Kelly (in Philadelphia, PA), actor, Princess of Monaco
In 1933 First Sunday football game in Philadelphia (previously illegal).
In 1933 First known photo of Loch Ness monster (or whatever) is taken.
In 1937 Richard H. Truly, U.S. astronaut (STS-2, 8)
In 1942 Stefanie Powers (in Hollywood, CA), actor (Hart to Hart)
In 1944 German battleship Tirpitz was sunk off Norway.
In 1945 Neil Young, singer/songwriter
In 1946 The first "autobank" (banking by car) was established, in Chicago.
In 1946 Walt Disney's "Song Of The South" released.
In 1948 Japanese premier Tojo sentenced to death by war crimes tribunal.
In 1961 Nadia Comaneci (in Romania), Olympic gymnasts
In 1965 Venera 2 launched by Soviet Union toward Venus.
In 1977 New Orleans elects first black mayor, Ernest `Dutch' Morial.
In 1980 US space probe Voyager I approaches 77,000 miles of Saturn.
In 1981 First balloon crossing of Pacific completed (Double Eagle V).
In 1981 Second Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 2 is launched. First time a spacecraft is launched twice.
In 1982 Yuri V. Andropov succeeds Leonid Brezhnev.
In 1984 Space shuttle astronauts snared a satellite first space salvage.

13th

In 354 St. Augustine of Hippo (in Numidia, Algeria)
In 867 St Nicholas I (the Great), pope (858-67) dies.
In 1002 English king Ethelred II launches massacre of Danish settlers.
In 1312 Edward III, King of England (1327-77)
In 1792 Edward John Trelawney, English traveler, author
In 1833 Edwin Booth, American actor
In 1850 Robert Louis Stevenson (in Scotland), writer (Treasure Island)
In 1895 First shipment of canned pineapple from Hawaii.
In 1909 250 miners die in a fire at St. Paul Mine at Cherry, Ill.
In 1921 "The Sheik", starring Rudolph Valentino, is released.
In 1927 The Holland Tunnel, first underwater vehicular tunnel, opened between New York and New Jersey.
In 1937 NBC forms first full sized symphony orchestra exclusively for radio.
In 1940 Walt Disney's "Fantasia" is released.
In 1941 British aircraft carrier Ark Royal sank in Mediterranean.
In 1956 U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregation of races on public buses.
In 1970 Cyclone kills estimated 300,000 in Bangladesh.
In 1971 Mariner 9, first orbit of another planet, first orbit of Mars.
In 1974 Karen Silkwood, subject of a motion picture, Silkwood, released in 1984, killed in a car crash while on her way to meet with an Atomic Energy Commission official and a New York Times reporter
In 1981 First manned balloon flight across Pacific Ocean ended.
In 1982 Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim fatally injured when KOed by Ray Mancini.
In 1982 Vietnam War Memorial dedicated in Washington, DC.
In 1985 Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts in Colombia, kills 25,000.
In 1988 Soviets launch first unmanned Space Shuttle in two-day test.

14th

In 1666 Samuel Pepys reports on first blood transfusion (between dogs).
In 1708 William Pitt the Elder (Whig), British PM (1756-61, 1766-68)
In 1765 Robert Fulton, built first commercial steamboat
In 1776 Henri Dutrochet, discovered & named process of osmosis
In 1797 Sir Charles Lyell, geologist
In 1840 Claude Monet, impressionist painter
In 1851 "Moby Dick", by Herman Melville, is published.
In 1889 Jawaharlal Nehru, first Indian PM (1947-64), made fashion statement
In 1896 Power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation.
In 1906 Louise Brooks, silent screen star (American Venus, Pandora's Box)
In 1910 Rosemary DeCamp (in Arizona)
In 1910 First airplane flight from the deck of a ship.
In 1912 Barbara Hutton, actress
In 1919 Veronica Lake, actress
In 1921 Brian Keith, actor, born.
In 1922 BBC began domestic radio service.
In 1929 McLean Stevenson, actor (M*A*S*H)
In 1930 Edward H. White II, astronaut (Gemini 4), born.
In 1933 Fred Haise, astronaut (Apollo 13)
In 1935 Hussein I, King of Jordan (1953-1999 ), born.
In 1940 During WW II, German planes destroyed most of Coventry, England.
In 1948 Charles Phillip Arthur George Windsor, Prince of Wales, born.
In 1959 Kilauea Volcano's most spectacular eruption (in Hawaii).
In 1969 Apollo 12 is launched.
In 1972 Dow Jones closes above 1,000 for first time (1003.16).
In 1973 Britain's Princess Anne marries a commoner, Capt. Mark Phillips.
In 1981 Second Space Shuttle Mission, Columbia 2, returns to Earth.
In 1986 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposes a record $100 million penalty against inside-trader Ivan Boesky.

15th

In 1630 Johannes Kepler, planetary law-maker, dies.
In 1738 Sir William Herschel, astronomer discovered Uranus
In 1862 Gerhart Hauptmann, German writer (Before Dawn) (Nobel 1912)
In 1889 Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, deposed; republic proclaimed.
In 1891 Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshall, brilliant tactician, born.
In 1920 League of Nations holds first meeting, in Geneva.
In 1929 Ed Asner, actor (Lou Grant), born.
In 1932 Petula Clark (in England), singer, born.
In 1932 Walt Disney Art School created.
In 1945 Anni-Frid (in Lyngsdtad, Sweden), singer (ABBA), born.
In 1958 Actor Tyrone Power dies of a heart attack at 44.
In 1966 Gemini XII returns to Earth.
In 1967 Michael Adams in X-15 reaches altitude of 80 km.
In 1969 250,000 protesters peacefully demonstrate against Vietnam War.
In 1977 President Jimmy Carter welcomes Shah of Iran.
In 1980 Pope John Paul II began 5 day visit to West Germany.
In 1982 Funeral services held in Moscow's Red Square for Leonid I. Brezhnev.
In 1984 Baby Fae, who received a baboon's, heart died at a California medical center.
In 1988 Soviet unmanned Space Shuttle completes 2 day test, lands just 8 miles from launch site in central Asia.

16th

In 1532 Pizarro seizes Incan emperor Atahualpa.
In 1766 Rodolphe Kreutzer, French composer, virtuoso violinist
In 1841 N.E. Guerin of New York receives a patent for his cork filled life preserver.
In 1873 William Handy, blues musician, established the popularity of the blues in band music
In 1894 6,000 Armenians massacred by Turks in Kurdistan.
In 1895 Paul Hindemith (in Germany), composer
In 1908 Burgess Meredith, actor (Batman, Rocky)
In 1933 Roosevelt establishes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
In 1942 Donna McKechnie (in Pontiac, Michigan)
In 1950 The United Nations gets approval from the U.S. government for issuing postage stamps.
In 1955 First speed-boat to exceed 200 miles per hour (D. M. Campbell, pilot).
In 1965 First public announcement about Walt Disney World.
In 1965 Venera 3 launched. (Later, the first man-made object to land on another planet when it crashed into Venus.)
In 1966 Dr. Sam Sheppard freed after 9 years in jail, by a jury.
In 1967 Lisa Bonet (in San Francisco, CA), actor (Cosby Show)
In 1971 Donald Wolf, computer game creator
In 1973 Skylab 4 and its crew are launched into earth orbit (The final Skylab mission).
In 1982 Fifth Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 5 returns to Earth.
In 1984 Fourteenth Space Shuttle Mission - Discovery 2 returns to Earth.

17th

In 1503 Il Bronzino, Florentine painter
In 1558 Elizabeth I ascends English throne upon death of Queen Mary.
In 1587 Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet, dramatist
In 1717 Jean d'Alembert, French mathematician, scientist, philosopher
In 1755 Louis XVIII, first post-revolutionary king of France (1814-24)
In 1790 August Ferdinand Mobius, mathematician, inventor of Mobius strip
In 1869 The Suez Canal opens.
In 1887 Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (in Moville, Ireland)
In 1904 Isamu Noguchi, sculptor
In 1913 The Panama Canal opens for use.
In 1917 Sculptor August Rodin died in Meudon, France.
In 1925 Rock Hudson (in Winnetka, Ill), actor (Pillow Talk, A Farewell to Arms, McMillan and Wife)
In 1937 Peter Cook, British actor, comedian
In 1938 Gordon Lightfoot, folksinger
In 1942 Martin Scorsese, director (Mean Streets, NY, NY)
In 1943 Lauren Hutton (in South Carolina), model, actor (American Gigolo, Lassiter)
In 1944 Danny DeVito, actor (Taxi, Ruthless People, Twins), director (War of the Roses)
In 1948 Britain's House of Commons voted to nationalize steel industry.
In 1966 Jeff Buckley (singer, son of Tim Buckley)
In 1970 Russia lands unmanned remote-controlled vehicle on Moon.
In 1973 Pres Nixon told AP "...people have got to know whether or not their pres is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."
In 1977 Egyptian President Sadat formally accepts invitation to visit Israel.
In 1982 South Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim was legally declared dead.

18th

In 1497 Bartolomeu Dias discovers Cape of Good Hope.
In 1789 Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, developed a method of photography
In 1803 Battle of Vertieres, in which Haitians defeat French.
In 1820 Antarctica discovered by U.S. Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer.
In 1836 Sir W. S. Gilbert, playwright (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame)
In 1883 U.S. and Canada begin the use of standard time zones (standard time zones established by the railroads in both countries).
In 1889 Oahu Railway begins public service in Hawaii.
In 1901 George H. Gallop, pollster (what's your opinion?)
In 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, gives US exclusive canal rights through Panama.
In 1909 U.S. invades Nicaragua, later overthrows President Zelaya.
In 1913 Lincoln Deachey performs first airplane loop-the-loop.
In 1918 Latvia declares independence from Russia.
In 1923 Alan B. Shepard, Jr., first American in space (Freedom 7, Apollo 14)
In 1928 Mickey Mouse, cartoon character, sired by Walt Disney's pen
In 1928 Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse debuts in New York in "Steamboat Willie".
In 1929 William "Pete" Knight, X-15 pilot, born.
In 1939 Brenda Vaccaro (in Brooklyn, NY) actor (Midnight Cowboy)
In 1932 "Flowers and Trees" awarded first Academy Award for a cartoon.
In 1936 Main span of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge joined.
In 1942 Linda Evans, actor (Dynasty), born.
In 1943 First ambassador to Canada, Ray Atherton, nominated.

19th

In 1493 Christopher Columbus discovers Puerto Rico.
In 1582 Puerto Rico Discovery Day.
In 1600 Charles I, king of England (1625-49); later executed by Parliament
In 1620 Pilgrims reach Cape Cod on the Mayflower.
In 1644 First protestant ministry society in New England.
In 1805 Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat, built Suez Canal
In 1863 President Lincoln delivers his famous address at Gettysburg, PA.
In 1888 Jose Raul Capablanca of Cuba, world chess champion (1921-27)
In 1895 The pencil is invented.
In 1905 Tommy Dorsey, band leader
In 1917 Indira Gandhi, Indian prime minister (1966-77, 1980-84)
In 1919 Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations rejected by U.S. Senate.
In 1938 Ted Turner, broadcasting mogul
In 1941 Dan Haggerty, actor (Grizzly Adams)
In 1942 Calvin Klein, clothes designer
In 1954 Kathleen Quinlan (in Mill Valley, CA), actor (Twilight Zone)
In 1959 Ford Motor Company cancels the Edsel.
In 1962 Jodie Foster (in Los Angeles, CA), actor (Silence of the Lambs, Nell, The Accused)
In 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat arrives in Israel for peace talks.
In 1978 Rev Jim Jones leads 911 people in suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.

20th

In 1602 Otto von Guericke, invented the air pump.
In 1780 Britain declares war against Holland.
In 1781 Andres Bello, Venezuelan diplomat, author, humanist
In 1888 William Bundy invents the first timecard clock.
In 1889 Edwin Hubble, US astronomer, discoverer of galaxies, red shift
In 1900 Chester Gould, cartoonist (gave Dick Tracy a job)
In 1910 Revolution broke out in Mexico, led by Francisco I. Madero.
In 1914 The U.S. State Department starts requiring photographs for passports.
In 1925 Maya Plisetkaya, prima ballerina
In 1925 Robert Kennedy (in Brookline, Mass), Democratic Senator from New York, U.S. Attorney General; later assassinated
In 1943 Veronica Hamel (in Philadelphia, PA), actor (Hill Street Blues)
In 1945 International War Crimes Tribunal opens trial of Nazi leaders in Nuremberg.
In 1947 Britain's Princess Elizabeth, marries Duke Philip Mountbatten in London's Westminster Abbey.
In 1956 Bo Derek (in Long Beach, CA), actor? (10; Tarzan, Ape Man)
In 1975 Spain's Gen. Francisco Franco dies in Madrid at 82.
In 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became first Arab leader to address Israel's Knesset.
In 1980 Steve Ptacek in Solar Challenger makes first solar-powered flight.
In 1981 Anatoly Karpov, USSR retains world chess championship.
In 1986 UN's WHO announces first global effort to combat AIDS.

21st

In 1620 Mayflower Compact signed by Pilgrims in Providencetown, MA harbor.
In 1624 Jakob Bohme, German philosophical mystic, dies (birth date unknown).
In 1694 Voltaire, thinker
In 1783 Pilftre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes make first free balloon flight.
In 1785 William Beaumont, surgeon, studied digestion
In 1787 Sir Samuel Cunard, founded first regular Atlantic steamship line
In 1854 Benedict XV, 258th Roman Catholic pope (1914-22)
In 1898 Rene Magritte, painter (This is Not a Pipe)
In 1904 Coleman Hawkins, virtually created the tenor saxophone for jazz
In 1923 Vivian Blaine, actor (Guys and Dolls)
In 1933 Henry W. "Hank" Hartsfield, U.S. astronaut (STS-4, 41D, 61A)
In 1933 First US ambassador to the USSR (W.C. Bullitt).
In 1938 Marlo Thomas (in Detroit, Michigan), actor (That Girl), born.
In 1940 Natalia Maskarova (in Lenningrad), ballerina, born.
In 1941 Juliet Mills (in London, England), born.
In 1945 Goldie Hawn (in Washington, DC), actor (Butterflies Are Free, Foul Play, Private Benjamin), born.
In 1959 Jack Benny (Violin) and Richard Nixon (Piano) play their famed duet.
In 1964 The Verrazanno Narrows Bridge (Brooklyn to Staten Island) opens, becoming the world's longest suspension bridge.
In 1980 The "Who Shot JR" episode of "Dallas" begins the tradition of season-ending cliff-hangers.
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22nd

In 1710 Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, composer, son of J.S. Bach
In 1819 George Eliot (in England), novelist (Silas Marner)
In 1888 Tarzan of the Apes, according to Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel.
In 1890 Charles de Gaulle, pres of France (1958-69), general
In 1906 International Radio Telegraphic Convention adopts "SOS" as new call for help.
In 1913 Benjamin Britten, English composer
In 1924 Geraldine Page (in Kirksville, MO), actor (Trip to Bountiful)
In 1930 Owen K. Garriott, astronaut (Skylab 3, STS-9)
In 1932 Robert Vaughn, actor (Man from U.N.C.L.E)
In 1943 Billie Jean King (in California), tennis pro
In 1943 Lebanon gains independence from France (National Day).
In 1958 Jamie Lee Curtis (in Los Angeles, CA), actor, (Halloween, Trading Places, True Lies), Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh's daughter
In 1961 Mariel Hemingway (in Ketchum, Idaho), actor (Star 80, Manhattan, Personal Best), born.
In 1963 President John Kennedy assassinated in Dallas; Lee Harvey Oswald is assumed to have been the assassin.
In 1967 UN Security council passes resolution 242, declaring that Israel must give back land won in the 6 day war.
In 1968 Beatles release "The Beatles", their only double album.

23rd

In 912 Otto I (the Great), German king, Holy Roman emperor (962-73)
In 1221 Alfonso X (the Wise), king of Castile and Leon (1252)
In 1852 Just past midnight, a sharp jolt causes Lake Merced to drop 30 feet.
In 1859 Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney), criminal
In 1860 Karl Branting, Swedish statesman, diplomat (Nobel Peace Prize 1921)
In 1863 Battle of Chattanooga begins.
In 1863 Patent granted for a process of making color photographs.
In 1887 Boris Karloff, actor (Frankenstein, Isle of the Dead)
In 1889 The first jukebox is installed, at a saloon in San Francisco.
In 1911 Post Hospital at Presidio renamed Letterman General Hospital.
In 1933 Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer (Hiroshima Threnody)
In 1935 Vladislav N. Volkov, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 7, 11)
In 1948 Lens to provide zoom effects patented (F.G. Back).
In 1952 Francie Larrieu, track runner
In 1979 Merle Oberon dies at age 68.
In 1980 Mae West dies at age 88.

24th

In 1759 Destructive eruption of Vesuvius.
In 1832 South Carolina passes Ordinance of Nullification.
In 1864 Henre de Toulouse-Lautrec (in France), painter
In 1874 A patent is granted to Joseph Glidden for barbed wire.
In 1888 Dale Carnegie, author (How to Win Friends and Influence People)
In 1922 Charles Schultz, Peanuts Creator
In 1938 Oscar "Big O" Robertson, basketball player
In 1952 Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opens in London. At last report, it is still running.
In 1954 First US Presidential airplane christened.
In 1963 First and only live murder on TV - Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald.
In 1969 Apollo 12 returns to Earth.

25th

In 1783 Britain evacuated New York, their last military position in U.S.
In 1835 Andrew Carnegie, steel industrialist, library builder
In 1846 Carry Nation, scourge of barkeepers and drinkers
In 1867 Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
In 1881 John XXIII (born Angelo Roncalli near Bergamo, Italy), 261st pope (1958-63)
In 1884 John B. Meyenberg of St Louis patented evaporated milk.
In 1920 Ricardo Montalban, actor (Fantasy Island, Star Trek II)
In 1933 First Soviet liquid rocket attains altitude of 261 ft.
In 1937 John Larroquette, actor (Night Court, Star Trek III)
In 1941 Tina Turner (in Brownsville, Texas), singer, actor
In 1960 John F. Kennedy, Jr.
In 1960 First atomic reactor for research and development, Richland, Wa.
In 1973 Greek Pres George Papadopoulos ousted in a bloodless military coup.
In 1974 UN Secretary-General U Thant dies in NY of cancer at 65.
In 1975 Netherlands grants Surinam independence (Natl Day).
In 1976 O J Simpson gains 273 yards for Buffalo vs. Detroit.
In 1980 Sugar Ray Leonard regains WBC welterweight championship.
In 1983 Soyuz T-9 returns to Earth, 149 days after take-off.
In 1984 William Schroeder, becomes second to receive Jarvik-7 artificial heart.

26th

In 1607 John Harvard, English clergyman, scholar, founder of Harvard U.
In 1716 First lion to be seen in America was exhibited in Boston.
In 1731 William Cowper, English poet
In 1778 Captain Cook discovers Maui (in the Sandwich Islands).
In 1792 Sarah Moore Grimke, American antislavery, women's rights advocate
In 1793 Republican calendar replaces Gregorian calendar in France.
In 1832 Louisa May Alcott, author (Little Women)
In 1865 "Alice in Wonderland" is published.
In 1868 The first baseball game played in enclosed field in San Francisco, at 25th and Folsom.
In 1876 Willis Haviland Carrier, developed air-conditioning equipment
In 1885 First Meteor photograph.
In 1894 Norbert Wiener, inventor of cybernetics, absentminded-professor
In 1912 Eugene Ionesco, French dramatist (Rhinoceros)
In 1933 Robert Goulet (in Canada), singer, actor
In 1937 Boris Yegorov, Soviet cosmonaut (Voskhod 1)
In 1938 Rich Little (in Canada), impressionist
In 1940 Nazis force 4.5 mil Warsaw Jews to live in walled ghetto.
In 1949 India adopts a constitution as a British Commonwealth Republic.
In 1950 China enters Korean conflict.
In 1962 The Fab Fours' first recording session under the name Beatles (they were formerly the Silver Beatles).
In 1965 France launches first satellite, a 92-pound A1 capsule.
In 1966 First major tidal power plant opened at Rance estuary, France.
In 1975 Federal jury found Lynette Fromme guilty of attempted assassination.
In 1982 Yasuhiro Nakasone elected PM of Japan succeeding Zenko Suzuki.
In 1985 23rd Space Shuttle Mission - Atlantis 2 is launched.

27th

In 1095 Pope Urban II preaches first Crusade.
In 1701 Anders Celsius, scientist, invented centigrade temperature scale
In 1804 Sir Julius Benedict, composer
In 1815 Cracow declared a free republic.
In 1874 Chaim Weizmann, Israeli statesman
In 1874 Charles A. Beard, American historian
In 1895 Alfred Nobel establishes Nobel prize.
In 1910 NY's Penn Station opens as world's largest railway terminal.
In 1921 Alexander Dubcek, head of Czech Communist Party (1968-69)
In 1932 Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippine opposition leader; assassinated
In 1941 Eddie Rabbitt, singer
In 1942 Jimi Hendrix, guitarist, born.
In 1942 French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to prevent them from falling into hands of Nazis.
In 1945 Gen George C. Marshall named special U.S. envoy to China.
In 1951 First rocket to intercept an airplane, White Sands, NM.
In 1953 Playwright Eugene O'Neill dies in Boston at 65.
In 1967 Beatles release "Magical Mystery Tour."
In 1970 George Harrison releases 3 album set "All Things Must Pass."
In 1970 Pope Paul VI wounded in chest during a visit to Philippines by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.
In 1971 Mars 2, Mars landing. First crash landing on Mars.
In 1978 San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk shot by Dan White.
In 1980 Soyuz T-3 is launched.
In 1985 Republic of Ireland gains consultative role in Northern Ireland.
In 1985 Space shuttle Atlantis makes second flight, carries 7 (1 Mexican).

28th

In 1520 Magellan begins crossing the Pacific Ocean.
In 1628 John Bunyan, English cleric, author (Pilgrim's Progress)
In 1632 Jean Baptiste Lully, French composer, musician
In 1757 William Blake, poet (Songs of Innocence and Experience)
In 1776 Washington and his troops cross the Delaware River.
In 1820 Friedrich Engels, Marx's collaborator
In 1895 America's first auto race starts; 6 cars, 55 miles, winner averages a blazing 7 MPH.
In 1908 Claude Levi-Strauss, Belgian social anthropologist
In 1929 Admiral R.E. Byrd makes first South Pole flight.
In 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met at Tehran.
In 1943 Randy Newman, singer (Raindrops), songwriter
In 1949 Alexander Godunov, composer
In 1949 Paul Schaeffer, musician (Saturday Night Live, David Letterman), actor (This Is Spinal Tap), Thunder Bay, Ont.
In 1960 Mauritania gains independence from France (National Day).
In 1964 Mariner 4 launched. First spacecraft to fly by Mars.
In 1983 Ninth Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 6 is launched.
In 1986 Reagan administration exceeds SALT II arms limitations for first time.

29th

In 1530 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey adviser to England's King Henry VIII, died.
In 1803 Christian Doppler, discovered Doppler Effect (color shift)
In 1849 Sir Ambrose Fleming, inventor of the diode
In 1864 Colorado militia kills 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians.
In 1874 Antonio Egas Moniz, Portuguese lobotomist (Nobel 1949)
In 1887 U.S. receives rights to Pearl Harbor, on Oahu, Hawaii.
In 1916 U.S. declares martial law in Dominican Republic.
In 1922 King Tut's Tomb is discovered in Egypt.
In 1924 Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels.
In 1929 Richard Byrd and crew flies over the South Pole.
In 1932 Diana Ladd
In 1933 John Mayall, blues singer
In 1940 Chuck Mangione, jazz musician, composer
In 1944 Albania liberated from Nazi control (National Day).
In 1945 Yugoslav Republic Day.
In 1947 U.N. General Assembly allows for a Jewish state in Palestine.
In 1951 First underground atomic explosion, Frenchman Flat, Nevada.
In 1952 President-elect Eisenhower visits Korea to assess the war.
In 1955 Howie Mandel, actor (St Elsewhere, Walk Like a Man), comedian, born.
In 1961 Mercury 5 launches a chimp (Ham/Enos).
In 1963 Beatles release "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
In 1963 LBJ sets up Warren Commission to investigate assassination of JFK.
In 1981 Actor Natalie Wood drowns off Santa Catalina, Calif., at 43.
In 1986 Cary Grant, dies in Davenport, Iowa, at 82.

30th

In 30 B.C. Cleopatra died
In 1466 Andrea Doria, Genovese statesman, admiral
In 1667 Jonathan Swift, satirist (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal)
In 1793 Johann Lukas Schonlein, helped establish scientific medicine
In 1810 Oliver Fisher Winchester, rifle maker
In 1835 Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) (at Hannibal, MO), author (Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn)
In 1874 Sir Winston Churchill (C), Brit. PM (1940-45, 1951-55) (Nobel 1953)
In 1920 Virginia Mayo (in St Louis, MO)
In 1923 Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., actor (77 Sunset Strip, The Untouchables)
In 1927 Richard Crenna, actor born.
In 1929 Dick Clark, America's oldest teenager (American Bandstand)
In 1930 G. Gordon Liddy, tough guy, Watergate celebrity
In 1936 Abbie Hoffman, inventor of LSD born.
In 1939 The Soviet Union invades Finland over a border dispute.
In 1947 Only one day after the U.N. decrees Israel's right to exist, Jewish settlements are attacked.
In 1954 First meteorite known to have struck a woman - Sylacauga, Alabama.
In 1955 Billy Idol, rocker (White Wedding) born.
In 1958 First guided missile destroyer launched, the Dewey, Bath, Me.
In 1964 USSR launches Zond 2 towards Mars.
In 1966 Barbados gains independence from Britain (National Day).
In 1967 South Yemen (then Aden) gains independence from Britain.

This page last revised: May 2005

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