History Thread...

[LaceyLou]

On 11/9/2025 at 7:37 AM, CMRivdogs said:

November 9

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-9

 

 

 

 

I just finished Vidal's Lincoln. It's fiction, but the way it goes over all of the different tenures of the different Union army commanders was very entertaining.

[CMRivdogs]

November 12

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-12

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On November 12, 1954, Ellis Island, the gateway to America, shuts it doors after processing more than 12 million immigrants since opening in 1892. Today, tens of millions of Americans can trace their roots through Ellis Island, located in New York Harbor off the New Jersey coast and named for merchant Samuel Ellis, who owned the land in the 1770s.

On January 2, 1892, 15-year-old Annie Moore, from Ireland, became the first person to pass through the newly opened Ellis Island, which President Benjamin Harrison designated as America’s first federal immigration center in 1890. Before that time, the processing of immigrants had been handled by individual states.

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Upon hearing of England’s rejection of the so-called Olive Branch Petition on November 12, 1775, Abigail Adams writesto her husband, John, “Let us separate, they are unworthy to be our Brethren. Let us renounce them and instead of supplications as formerly for their prosperity and happiness, Let us beseech the almighty to blast their councils and bring to Nought all their devices.”

The previous July, Congress had adopted the Olive Branch Petition, written by John Dickinson, which appealed directly to King George III and expressed hope for reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain. Dickinson, who hoped desperately to avoid a final break with Britain, phrased colonial opposition to British policy as follows:

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On November 12, 1799, Andrew Ellicott, an early American astronomer, witnesses the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys. Ellicott wrote in his journal that the “whole heaven appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets, flying in an infinity of directions, and I was in constant expectation of some of them falling on the vessel. They continued until put out by the light of the sun after day break.” Ellicott’s journal entry is the first known record of a meteor shower in North America.

The Leonids meteor shower is an annual event that is greatly enhanced every 33 years or so by the appearance of the comet Tempel-Tuttle. When the comet returns, the Leonids can produce rates of up to several thousand meteors per hour that can light up the sky on a clear night. Ellicott witnessed one such manifestation of the Leonids shower, and the subsequent return of the comet Tempel-Tuttle in 1833 is credited as inspiring the first organized study of meteor astronomy.

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 14

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-14  
On November 14, 1851, Moby-**** is published. Now considered a great classic of American literature—with one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael”—the book about Captain Ahab and his quest to catch a giant white whale was originally a big flop.

On November 14, 1776, the St. James Chronicleof London carries an item announcing “The very identical Dr. Franklyn [Benjamin Franklin], whom Lord Chatham [former leading parliamentarian and colonial supporter William Pitt] so much caressed, and used to say he was proud in calling his friend, is now at the head of the rebellion in North America.”

On November 14, 1914, in Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire, the religious leader Sheikh-ul-Islam declares an Islamic holy war on behalf of the Ottoman government, urging his Muslim followers to take up arms against Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro in World War I.

 

On November 14, 1970, a chartered jet carrying most of the Marshall University football team clips a stand of trees and crashes into a hillsidejust two miles from the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia, killing everyone onboard.The team was returning from that day’s game, a 17-14 loss to East Carolina University. Thirty-seven Marshall football players were aboard the plane, along with the team’s coach, its doctors, the university athletic director and 25 team boosters–some of Huntington, West Virginia’s most prominent citizens–who had traveled to North Carolina to cheer on the Thundering Herd. “The whole fabric,” a citizen of Huntington wrote later, “the whole heart of the town was aboard.”

 

 

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 15

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-15
 

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After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress, sitting in its temporary capital of York, Pennsylvania, agrees to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union on November 15, 1777. Not until March 1, 1781 would the last of the 13 states, Maryland, ratify the agreement.

In 1777, Patriot leaders, stinging from British oppression, were reluctant to establish any form of government that might infringe on the right of individual states to govern their own affairs. The Articles of Confederation, then, provided for only a loose federation of American states. Congress was a single house, with each state having one vote, and a president elected to chair the assembly. Although Congress did not have the right to levy taxes, it did have authority over foreign affairs and could regulate a national army and declare war and peace. Amendments to the Articles required approval from all 13 states. On March 2, 1781, following final ratification by the 13th state, the Articles of Confederation became the law of the land.

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On November 15, 1783, John Hanson, the first president of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation, dies in his home state of Maryland. Hanson is sometimes called the first president of the United States, but this is a misnomer, since the presidency did not exist as an executive position separate from Congress until the federal Constitution created the role upon its ratification in 1789.

Hanson was the self-educated son of Charles County, Maryland, farmers. His family had lived in Maryland for three generations beginning with the emigration from England of his grandfather, for whom he was named. At age 25, John married 16-year-old Jane Contee in Maryland. Their lasting union produced nine children, five of whom survived to adulthood, although their son Peter was later killed in action as a Continental soldier at Fort Washington, New York, in November 1776.

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On November 15, 1867, the first stock ticker is unveiled in New York City. The advent of the ticker ultimately revolutionized the stock market by making up-to-the-minute prices available to investors around the country. Prior to this development, information from the New York Stock Exchange, which has been around since 1792, traveled by mail or messenger.

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Microsoft releases the Xbox gaming console on November 15, 2001, dramatically influencing the history of consumer entertainment technology.

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates first decided to venture into the video game market because he feared that gaming consoles would soon compete with personal computers. At the time, Japanese companies Sony and Nintendo dominated the field, and no American company had challenged them since Atari ceased selling its Jaguar console in 1996.

 

[CMRivdogs]

“I have made the following Sketch, which may be varied in any one particular an infinite Number of Ways, So as to accommodate it to the different, Genius, Temper, Principles and even Prejudices of different People.”

Lee will circulate copies of Adams’s letter widely in pursuit of the goal the two of them share, moving the majority of the Congress and other colonial leaders away from pursuit of reconciliation with Great Britain and in favor of, as they call it, separation.

[CMRivdogs]

November 17

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-17

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1558 Queen Mary I, the monarch of England and Ireland since 1553, dies and is succeeded by her 25-year-old half-sister, Elizabeth.

The two half-sisters, both daughters of King Henry VIII, had a stormy relationship during Mary’s five-year reign. Mary, who was brought up as a Catholic, enacted pro-Catholic legislation and made efforts to restore the pope to supremacy in England. A Protestant rebellion ensued, and Queen Mary imprisoned Elizabeth, a Protestant, in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity. After Mary’s death, Elizabeth survived several Catholic plots against her; though her ascension was greeted with approval by most of England’s lords, who were largely Protestant and hoped for greater religious tolerance under a Protestant queen. Under the early guidance of Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, Elizabeth repealed Mary’s pro-Catholic legislation, established a permanent Protestant Church of England, and encouraged the Calvinist reformers in Scotland.

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On November 17, 1777, Congress submits the Articles of Confederation to the states for ratification.

The Articles had been signed by Congress two days earlier, after 16 months of debate. Bickering over land claims between Virginia and Maryland delayed final ratification for almost four more years. Maryland became the last state to approve the Articles on March 1, 1781, affirming them as the outline of the official government of the United States. The nation was guided by the document until the implementation of the current U.S. Constitution in 1789.

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1869 

The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.

In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build a canal 100 miles across the Isthmus of Suez. An international team of engineers drew up a construction plan, and in 1856 the Suez Canal Company was formed and granted the right to operate the canal for 99 years after completion of the work.

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• 1953 - The St. Louis Browns officially become the Baltimore Baseball Club Inc. The Baltimore franchise board officially changes its name to the Orioles.

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• 1960 - The new Washington franchise is awarded to Elwood Quesada, Washington native, World War II hero, and head of the Federal Aviation Agency.

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

“Captain Selmon order’d his party to go in to take Mr Wright from the arms of his Wife and Sister, and insultingly smiled at the Tears and Lamentations of Women who were in the greatest distress; at being seperated from their Husband and Brother.”
The Continentals also spike the guns of the overlooking fort. When they depart, they take Callbeck and Wright with them as prisoners, hoping Congress can exchange them. Among their plunder is the great seal of the colony, made of sterling silver, which has never been recovered.

[CMRivdogs]

3 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

 

"If they were reminded of their duty, as enjoined by the apostles, Servants, obey your masters, and were taught the necessity of the different orders of men in this world, they would be contented with their situation... 

"...and expect a better condition in the next world, and not run a risk of being unhappy here and miserable hereafter. I am certain, if they had been told these things, not one slave would have our enemies." 

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 18

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-18

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On November 18, 1978, Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. Many of Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch while others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The final death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; a third of those who perished were children.

Jim Jones was a charismatic churchman who established the Peoples Temple, a Christian sect, in Indianapolis in the 1950s. He preached against racism, and his integrated congregation attracted many African Americans. In 1965, he moved the group to Northern California, settling in Ukiah and after 1971 in San Francisco. In the 1970s, his church was accused by the media of financial fraud, physical abuse of its members and mistreatment of children. In response to the mounting criticism, the increasingly paranoid Jones invited his congregation to move with him to Guyana, where he promised they would build a socialist utopia. Three years earlier, a small group of his followers had traveled to the tiny nation to set up what would become Jonestown on a tract of jungle.

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1883 

At exactly noon on this day, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies.

The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America by the 1880s. Since human beings had first begun keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. Even as late as the 1880s, most towns in the U.S. had their own local time, generally based on “high noon,” or the time when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days or months to mere hours, however, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Railroad timetables in major cities listed dozens of different arrival and departure times for the same train, each linked to a different local time zone.

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

Edited Tuesday at 03:44 PM by CMRivdogs

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 19

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-19

 

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On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In fewer than 275 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier, was one of the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over the course of three days, more than 45,000 men were killed, injured, captured or went missing. The battle also proved to be the turning point of the war: General Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army’s ultimate decline.

 

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1985 

For the first time in eight years, the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States hold a summit conference. Meeting in Geneva, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachevproduced no earth-shattering agreements. However, the meeting boded well for the future, as the two men engaged in long, personal talks and seemed to develop a sincere and close relationship.

The meeting came as somewhat of a surprise to some in the United States, considering Reagan’s often incendiary rhetoric concerning communism and the Soviet Union, but it was in keeping with the president’s often stated desire to bring the nuclear arms race under control. For Gorbachev, the meeting was another clear signal of his desire to obtain better relations with the United States so that he could better pursue his domestic reforms.Little of substance was accomplished. Six agreements were reached, ranging from cultural and scientific exchanges to environmental issues. Both Reagan and Gorbachev, however, expressed satisfaction with the summit, which ended on November 21.

 

 

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On November 19, 2004, Metta Sandiford-Artest (then known as Ron Artest) of the Indiana Pacers jumps into the stands to confront a Detroit Pistons fan who throws a drink at him as he rests on the scorers' table. This ignites what becomes known as "Malice at the Palace," one of the more infamous moments in sports history.

The game at the Palace of Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit—a rematch of the previous season's Eastern Conference Finals—was expected to be physical.

With roughly 46 seconds left and Indiana ahead, 97-82, Artest fouled Detroit's Ben Wallace, who shoved Artest, leading players and coaches from both teams to confront each other on the court. To calm himself, Artest lay on the scorers' table. Then a fan threw a cup of beer, hitting Artest.

Artest ran into the crowd, followed by his teammate, Stephen Jackson, leading to a chaotic scene. Artest and the Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal swung at two fans who rushed to the court. The remaining 45.9 seconds were never played.

In the locker room, Artest asked Jackson a strange question.

"After we calmed down, [Artest] looked at me like, 'Jack, you think we going to get in trouble?'" Jackson told . "Jamaal Tinsley fell out laughing. I said, 'Are you serious, bro? Trouble? Ron, we'll be lucky if we have a freaking job.'"

 

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[oblong]

Nov 19, 1969.  Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land Apollo 12 on the moon, only a few hundred feet from Surveyor 3, a probe sent a few years earlier.  This was a very critical step to prove that they could make precision landings and a tremendous achievement by the trajectory teams and the astronauts. They could trust their software and systems, and pilots.  Apollo 11 over shot its targets so after proving they could land, the next step is proving they could land in specific spots, critical for the geological work.  
 

They did their first EVA the next day. 

listen to the excitement in their voices.  This was my favorite crew because the 3 of them were best friends. 

[romad1]

9 hours ago, oblong said:

Nov 19, 1969.  Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land Apollo 12 on the moon, only a few hundred feet from Surveyor 3, a probe sent a few years earlier.  This was a very critical step to prove that they could make precision landings and a tremendous achievement by the trajectory teams and the astronauts. They could trust their software and systems, and pilots.  Apollo 11 over shot its targets so after proving they could land, the next step is proving they could land in specific spots, critical for the geological work.  
 

They did their first EVA the next day. 

listen to the excitement in their voices.  This was my favorite crew because the 3 of them were best friends. 

Anytime I get sad about the US losing its technology edge (try to buy a US-made drone), I think back to this and to the 1960s era computers and people that got this accomplished. 

[oblong]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

Anytime I get sad about the US losing its technology edge (try to buy a US-made drone), I think back to this and to the 1960s era computers and people that got this accomplished. 

The Gemini spacecrafts were built by McDonnell. During that program one of the astronauts was at a party with “old man McDonnell”.  When asked how things were going the astronaut pointed out a big bottleneck was getting mainframe access to run their software.  McDonnell also owned the biggest bank in St Louis that had one. So he instructed his bank to give NASA priority for their mainframe.  
 

doing what they did with what they had was remarkable.  Heck… it’s hard now. 

[romad1]

21 minutes ago, oblong said:

The Gemini spacecrafts were built by McDonnell. During that program one of the astronauts was at a party with “old man McDonnell”.  When asked how things were going the astronaut pointed out a big bottleneck was getting mainframe access to run their software.  McDonnell also owned the biggest bank in St Louis that had one. So he instructed his bank to give NASA priority for their mainframe.  
 

doing what they did with what they had was remarkable.  Heck… it’s hard now. 

Semi-related but amusing (to me).  I was watching this the other night.  You can see the ginormous computers and test sensors back in use then.   Funny to me was the comment about the nuclear effects of concern to air crew:  "Don't worry about fallout, that is a ground problem."

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 20

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-20
 

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Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis go on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War IIbeginning on November 20, 1945.

The Nuremberg trials were conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, France and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to crimes of war, to crimes against humanity. Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided over the proceedings, which lasted 10 months and consisted of 216 court sessions.

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1820 

The American whaler Essex, which hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, is attacked by an 80-ton sperm whale 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America.

The 238-ton Essex was in pursuit of sperm whales, specifically the precious oil and bone that could be derived from them, when an enraged bull whale rammed the ship twice and capsized the vessel. The 20 crew members escaped in three open boats, but only five of the men survived the harrowing 83-day journey to the coastal waters of South America, where they were picked up by other ships. Most of the crew resorted to cannibalism during the long journey, and at one point men on one of the long boats drew straws to determine which of the men would be shot in order to provide sustenance for the others. Three other men who had been left on a desolate Pacific island were saved later.

 

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On November 20, 1982, the UC Berkeley football team, referred to as Cal, wins an improbable last-second victory over Stanford when they complete five lateral passes around members of the Cardinal marching band, who had wandered onto the field a bit early to celebrate the upset they were sure their team had won, and score a touchdown.

After catching the last pass of the series, Cal’s Kevin Moen careened through the confused horn section and made it safely to the end zone. Then he slammed into trombone player Gary Tyrell. (A photograph from the Oakland Tribune of the jubilant Moen and the terrified Tyrell in the moment just before the collision is still displayed triumphantly all over Berkeley.)

 

[romad1]

26 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

November 20

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-20
 

 

I have a funny about this too....

My coworkers and I were talking Lindberg baby story because my family had a mild connection to Norm Schwartzkopf's dad in the NJ state police back then.   How/why not important. 

Anyway....coworker having to get back to work says "well, now I know something else about the Nuremberg Baby"

Which became a thing the rest of the day where we were talking about a potential movie about the baby so bad he committed war crimes. 

Who was eventually celebrated by Elon Musk.