History Thread...

[CMRivdogs]

November 22

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-22
 

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is assassinated in 1963 while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible.

First lady Jacqueline Kennedy rarely accompanied her husband on political outings, but she was beside him, along with Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, for a 10-mile motorcade through the streets of downtown Dallas on November 22. Sitting in a Lincoln convertible, the Kennedys and Connallys waved at the large and enthusiastic crowds gathered along the parade route. As their vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository Building at 12:30 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired three shots from the sixth floor, fatally wounding President Kennedy and seriously injuring Governor Connally. Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital. He was 46.

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1718 

Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, is killed off North Carolina’s Outer Banks during a bloody battle with a British navy force sent from Virginia.

Believed to be a native of England, Edward Teach likely began his pirating career in 1713, when he became a crewman aboard a Caribbean sloop commanded by pirate Benjamin Hornigold. In 1717, after Hornigold accepted an offer of general amnesty by the British crown and retired as a pirate, Teach took over a captured 26-gun French merchantman, increased its armament to 40 guns, and renamed it the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 23

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-23

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On November 23, 1936, the first issue of the pictorial magazine LIFE is published, featuring a cover photo of the Fort Peck Dam's spillway by Margaret Bourke-White.

LIFE actually had its start earlier in the 20th century as a different kind of magazine: a weekly humor publication, not unlike today’s The New Yorker in its use of tart cartoons, humorous pieces and cultural reporting. When the original LIFEfolded during the Great Depression, the influential American publisher Henry Luce bought the name and re-launched the magazine as a picture-based periodical on this day in 1936. By this time, Luce had already enjoyed great success as the publisher of Time, a weekly news magazine.

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On November 23, 1940, Romania signs the Tripartite Pact, officially allying itself with Germany, Italy and Japan.

As early as 1937, Romania had come under control of a fascist government that bore great resemblance to that of Germany’s, including similar anti-Jewish laws. Romania’s king, Carol II, dissolved the government a year later because of a failing economy and installed Romania’s Orthodox Patriarch as prime minister. But the Patriarch’s death and peasant uprising provoked renewed agitation by the fascist Iron Guard paramilitary organization, which sought to impose order. In June 1940, the Soviet Union co-opted two Romanian provinces, and the king searched for an ally to help protect it and appease the far right within its own borders. So on July 5, 1940, Romania allied itself with Nazi Germany—only to be invaded by its “ally” as part of Hitler’s strategy to create one huge eastern front against the Soviet Union.

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2002 John Herrington becomes the first American Indian in space when he embarks on a mission to the International Space Station. To honor his Chickasaw heritage, he brings with him an eagle feather and a traditional wooden flute.

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 24

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-24

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On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, a groundbreaking scientific work by British naturalist Charles Darwin, is published in England on November 24, 1859. Darwin’s theory argued that organisms gradually evolve through a process he called “natural selection.” In natural selection, organisms with genetic variations that suit their environment tend to propagate more descendants than organisms of the same species that lack the variation, thus influencing the overall genetic makeup of the species.

Darwin, who was influenced by the work of French naturalist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and the English economist Thomas Malthus, acquired most of the evidence for his theory during a five-year surveying expedition aboard the HMS Beagle in the 1830s. Visiting such diverse places as the Galapagos Islands and New Zealand, Darwin acquired an intimate knowledge of the flora, fauna, and geology of many lands. This information, along with his studies in variation and interbreeding after returning to England, proved invaluable in the development of his theory of organic evolution.

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On November 24, 1807, Mohawk Chief Thayendanegea, also known by his English name, Joseph Brant, dies at his home in Burlington, Ontario. Before dying, he reportedly said, “Have pity on the poor Indians. If you have any influence with the great, endeavour to use it for their good.”

Thayendanegea ranked among Britain’s best commanders during the American War for Independence. He was an educated Christian and Freemason who studied directly with Eleazer Wheelock at Moor’s Indian Charity School, the parent institution of Dartmouth College. His older sister Mary was founding father Sir William Johnson’s common-law wife and also played a significant role in colonial and revolutionary Indian affairs.

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1947 The House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt against 10 Hollywood writers, directors, and producers. These men had refused to cooperate at hearings dealing with communism in the movie industry held by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The “Hollywood Ten," as the men were known, are sentenced to one year in jail. The Supreme Court later upheld the contempt charges.

The contempt charges stemmed from the refusal of the 10 men to answer questions posed by HUAC as to whether they were or had ever been members of the Communist Party. In hearings that often exploded with rancor, the men denounced the questions as violations of their First Amendment rights. Albert Maltz, Dalton Trumbo, John Howard Lawson, Samuel Ornitz, Ring Lardner, Jr., Lester Cole, Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Edward Dmytryk and Robert Adrian Scott were thereupon charged with contempt of Congress.

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On November 24, 1991, Freddie Mercury, British rock superstar and frontman for the band Queen, died from bronchial pneumonia caused by AIDS.

A virtuoso vocalist known for his flamboyant style and remarkable four-octave vocal range, Mercury announced his AIDS diagnosis to the public just one day before his death, despite knowing his status—and fending off public inquiry—for years.

Mercury had been officially diagnosed in 1987, but is first reported to have sought medical help for the virus in 1982, while his meteoric music career was still in full swing.

 

[oblong]

Mercury's death hit hard.  I remember exactly where I was.  In front of my then girlfriend's house, it was dark out, and I had just parked my car.  THe DJ on WRIF announced it and, to show the difference in times, had to throw out something like "and forget for a moment how he got it...."  Or it was "how he died..."  Either way.  There was definitely some kind of shame qualifier rather than "This sucks, this guy was awesome...."

THe tribute concert rocked.

 

[CMRivdogs]

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“Their wives, their women and children” are promised no such freedom: “let them only consider the difficulty of effecting their efcape, and what they must expect to suffer if they fall into the hands of the Americans…Be not then, ye negroes, tempted by this proclamation to ruin yourselves.” 2/2

 

[CMRivdogs]

I'm learning that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have a very interesting history post French/Indian War into the American Revolution.

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“& the Condition of the Fortifications, Docks, Yards, the Quantity of Artillery & Warlike stores, & the number of Soldiers, Sailors & Ships of War there, & Transmit the earliest Intelligence to General Washington.”

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 25

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-25

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Three days after his assassination in Dallas, Texas, John F. Kennedy is laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was shot to death while riding in an open-car motorcade with his wife and Texas Governor John Connally through the streets of downtown Dallas. Ex-Marine and communist sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald was the alleged assassin. Kennedy was rushed to Dallas’ Parkland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. He was 46.

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1876 

U.S. troops under the leadership of General Ranald Mackenzie destroy the village of Cheyenne living with Chief Dull Knife on the headwaters of the Powder River. The attack was in retaliation against some of the Native Americans who had participated in the killing of Custer and his men at the Little Bighorn.

Although the Sioux and Cheyenne won one of their greatest victories at Little Bighorn, the battle actually marked the beginning of the end of their ability to resist the U.S. government. News of the massacre of Custer and his men reached the East Coast in the midst of nationwide centennial celebrations on July 4, 1876. Outraged at the killing of one of their most popular Civil War heroes, many Americans demanded an intensified military campaign against the Native Americans.

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On November 25, 1783, nearly three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution, the last British soldiers withdraw from New York City, the last British military position in the former Thirteen Colonies. After the last Redcoat departed New York, U.S. General George Washingtonentered the city in triumph to the cheers of New Yorkers. The city had remained in British hands since its capture in September 1776.

Four months after New York was returned to the victorious Patriots, the city was declared to be the capital of the United States. In 1789, it was the site of Washington’s inauguration as the first U.S. president and remained the nation’s capital until 1790, when Philadelphia became the second capital of the United States under the U.S. Constitution.

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 26 1787

President Washington issued the first Thanksgiving Proclamation

https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789

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By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

Washington issued a proclamation on October 3, 1789, designating Thursday, November 26 as a national day of thanks. In his proclamation, Washington declared that the necessity for such a day sprung from the Almighty’s care of Americans prior to the Revolution, assistance to them in achieving independence, and help in establishing the constitutional government.

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 27

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-27/pope-urban-ii-orders-first-crusade

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On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of “Deus vult!” or “God wills it!”

Born Odo of Lagery, Urban was a protege of the great reformer Pope Gregory VII. Like Gregory, he made internal reform his main focus, railing against simony (the selling of church offices) and other clerical abuses prevalent during the Middle Ages. Urban showed himself to be an adept and powerful cleric, and when he was elected pope in 1088, he applied his statecraft to weakening support for his rivals, notably Clement III.

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On November 27, 1703, an unusual storm system finally dissipates over England after wreaking havoc on the country for nearly two weeks. Featuring hurricane strength winds, the storm killed somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people. Hundreds of Royal Navy ships were lost to the storm, the worst in Britain’s history.

The unusual weather began on November 14 as strong winds from the Atlantic Ocean battered the south of Britain and Wales. Many homes and other buildings were damaged by the pounding winds, but the hurricane-like storm only began doing serious damage on November 26. With winds estimated at over 80 miles per hour, bricks were blown from some buildings and embedded in others. Wood beams, separated from buildings, flew through the air and killed hundreds across the south of the country. Towns such as Plymouth, Hull, Cowes, Portsmouth and Bristol were devastated.

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Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle.

After the government convicted Custer of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier that year in a military court, it suspended him from rank and command for one year. Ten months into that punishment, in September 1868, General Philip Sheridan reinstated Custer to lead a campaign against Cheyenne Indians who had been making raids in Kansas and Oklahoma that summer. Sheridan was frustrated by the inability of his other officers to find and engage the enemy, and despite his poor record and unpopularity with the men of the 7th Cavalry, Custer was a good fighter.

Hailed as the first substantial American victory in the Indian wars, the Battle of the Wa****a helped to restore Custer’s reputation and succeeded in persuading many Cheyenne to move to the reservation. However, Custer’s habit of charging Native American encampments of unknown strength would eventually lead him to his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

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After 44 months in prison, former government official Alger Hiss is released and proclaims once again that he is innocent of the charges that led to his incarceration.

One of the most famous figures of the Cold War period, Hiss was convicted in 1950 of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury. Specifically, Hiss was judged to have lied about his complicity in passing secret government documents to Whittaker Chambers, who thereupon passed the papers along to agents of the Soviet Union.

Upon his release, Hiss immediately declared that he wished to “reassert my complete innocence of the charges that were brought against me by Whittaker Chambers.” He claimed that his conviction was the result of the “fear and hysteria of the times,” and stated that he was going to “resume my efforts to dispel the deception that has been foisted on the American people.” He was confident that such efforts would “vindicate my name.”

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 28

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-28/magellan-reaches-the-pacific

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After sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic.

On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sea route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. In command of five ships and 270 men, Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Rio de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarters at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.

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On November 28, 1914, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) reopens for bond trading after nearly four months, the longest stoppage in the exchange’s history.

The outbreak of World War I in Europe forced the NYSE to shut its doors on July 31, 1914, after large numbers of foreign investors began selling their holdings in hopes of raising money for the war effort. All of the world’s financial markets followed suit and closed their doors by August 1.

 

 

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The Grand Ole Opry, one of the longest-lived and most popular showcases for western music, begins broadcasting livefrom Nashville, Tennessee on November 28, 1925. The showcase was originally named the Barn Dance, after a Chicagoradio program called the National Barn Dance that had begun broadcasting the previous year.

Impressed by the popularity of the Chicago-based National Barn Dance, producers at WSM radio in Nashville decided to create their own version of the show to cater to southern audiences who could not receive the Chicago signal. Both the Grand Ole Opry and the National Barn Dance aired on Saturday nights and featured folk music, fiddling, and the relatively new genre of country-western music. Both shows created a growing audience for a uniquely American style of music and were launching grounds for many of America’s most-loved musicians–the singing cowboy Gene Autry got his first big break on the National Barn Dance. The WSM producers recognized that Americans were growing nostalgic for the rural past, so all live performers at the Grand Ole Opry were required to dress in period costumes and adopt old-time names.

The four-and-a-half-hour Grand Ole Opry program became one of the most popular broadcasts in the South, and like its Chicago cousin, helped make country-western an enduring part of the popular American musical landscape.

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On November 28, 1973, approximately 2,000 Detroit auto workers, led by Arab Americans, walk off their jobsat Chrysler’s Dodge Main plant, demanding that the leadership of their union, the United Auto Workers (UAW), divest from Israel. The strike, which was organized by the union’s recently formed Arab Workers Caucus, was centered around an event taking place that same day in Detroit: Leonard Woodcock, the president of UAW, was set to receive a humanitarian honor from a Zionist organization, B’nai B’rith International.

This local push for divestment began a month prior to the strike, when UAW workers in Detroit became aware that one of its union locals used member dues to purchase over $300,000 in Israeli bonds—and that, at the national level, their union’s pension portfolio invested almost $1 million in the State of Israel. In response, Arab American workers protested outside the local’s office, demanding the bonds’ liquidation. This action was followed by the formation of the Arab Workers Caucus, which included 70 workers from auto factories across the city.

 

[CMRivdogs]

The harsh new legislation supersedes the Boston Port Act that closed that town to shipping in 1774, and the two Trade Restraining Acts from earlier in 1775 that helped accelerate the crisis between the colonies and mother country into a war. 2/2 https://buff.ly/qNlypnc

[CMRivdogs]

 

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[CMRivdogs]

November 29

Happy Birthday C S Lewis (1898-1963

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-29

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1947 

Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state.

The modern conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine dates back to the 1910s, when both groups laid claim to the British-controlled territory. The Jews were Zionists, recent emigrants from Europe and Russia who came to the ancient homeland of the Jews to establish a Jewish national state. The native Palestinian Arabs sought to stem Jewish immigration and set up a secular Palestinian state.

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1929 

American explorer Richard Byrd and three companions make the first flight over the South Pole, flying from their base on the Ross Ice Shelf to the pole and back in 18 hours and 41 minutes.

Richard Evelyn Byrd learned how to fly in the U.S. Navy and served as a pilot in World War I. An excellent navigator, he was deployed by the navy to Greenland in 1924 to help explore the Arctic region by air. Enamored with the experience of flying over glaciers and sea ice, he decided to attempt the first flight over the North Pole.

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On November 29, 1864, peaceful band of Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe Native Americans are massacred by Colonel John Chivington’s Colorado volunteers at Sand Creek, Colorado.

The causes of the Sand Creek massacre were rooted in the long conflict for control of the Great Plains of eastern Colorado. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 guaranteed ownership of the area north of the Arkansas River to the Nebraska border to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. However, by the end of the decade, waves of Euro-American miners flooded across the region in search of gold in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, placing extreme pressure on the resources of the arid plains. By 1861, tensions between new settlers and Native Americans were rising.

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On November 29, 1967, President Lyndon Johnson announces that Robert S. McNamara will resign as Secretary of Defense and will become president of the World Bank.

Formerly the president of Ford Motor Company, McNamara had served as Secretary of Defense under two presidents, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, from 1961 until 1968. He initially supported U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and encouraged President Johnson to escalate in 1964, but he later began privately to question U.S. policy and eventually advocated a negotiated settlement to the war. In the summer of 1967, he helped draft the San Antonio formula, a peace proposal offering to end the U.S. bombing of the north and asking North Vietnam to join in productive discussions. The North Vietnamese rejected the proposal in October.

Early in November, McNamara submitted a memorandum to Johnson recommending that the United States freeze its troop levels, cease the bombing of the north, and turn over responsibility for fighting the ground war to the South Vietnamese. Johnson rejected these recommendations outright. McNamara subsequently resigned; Johnson adviser Clark Clifford succeeded him.

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On November 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford signs the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142). The landmark measure requires that all children with physical, mental, emotional and learning disabilities have access to “free, appropriate public education” tailored to their needs.

In a statement issued at the signing, Ford expressed support for the bill’s goal but questioned the feasibility of its implementation: “Unfortunately, this bill promises more than the federal government can deliver, and its good intentions could be thwarted by the many unwise provisions it contains… Everyone can agree with the objective stated in the title of this bill—educating all handicapped children in our nation. The key question is whether the bill will really accomplish that objective.”

 

[CMRivdogs]

November 30

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-30

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Once a hall for operettas, pantomime, political meetings and vaudeville, the Folies Bergère in Parisintroduces an elaborate revue featuring women in sensational costumes on November 30, 1886. The highly popular “Place aux Jeunes” established the Folies as the premier nightlife spot in Paris. In the 1890s, the Folies followed the Parisian taste for striptease and quickly gained a reputation for its spectacular nude shows. The theater spared no expense, staging revues that featured as many as 40 sets, 1,000 costumes, and an off-stage crew of some 200 people.

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Galileo Galilei first begins observing the moon with his telescope on November 30, 1609. He discovers that the surface of the moon is not smooth, as previously thought, but full of mountains and valleys, like Earth.

Galileo was an Italian astronomer and physicist. In 1609, he constructed his own telescope to observe the heavens. Dutch eyeglass makers invented the telescope in 1608, but Galileo improved on their original design significantly. He ground and polished his own lenses to achieve greater magnification, and used his invention to observe the surface of the moon.

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On November 30, 1864, the once proud Confederate Army of Tennessee suffers a devastating defeat after its commander, General John Bell Hood, orders a frontal assault on strong Union positions around Franklin, Tennessee. The loss cost Hood six of his finest generals and nearly a third of his force.

Hood assumed command in late July 1864 while the Confederates were pinned inside Atlanta by the armies of Union General William T. Sherman. Hood made a series of desperate attacks against Sherman but finally relinquished the city in early September. No longer able to wage an offensive against the massive Yankee force, Hood retreated into Alabama to regroup. In early November, he moved north into Tennessee to draw Sherman out of the Deep South. By now, Sherman had enough troops to split his army. He dispatched General George Thomas to the Nashville area to deal with Hood’s threat while he took the rest of the force on his March to the Sea, during which his men destroyed most of central Georgia.

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On November 30, 1876, Yale defeats Princeton, 2-0, in Hoboken, New Jersey in the first collegiate football game played on Thanksgiving. Nearly 1,000 fans attend the game, played in cold, rainy weather. "The friends of both colleges mustered in good force," the New York Times reports. "Several carriages containing ladies were on the ground, and a goodly number of Alumni were there to cheer the contestants."

The football was oval and made of leather, the Times noted, "similar to those used in Rugby Union rules." The game resembled rugby more than a present-day football game.

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1954 

The first modern instance of a meteorite striking a human being occurs at Sylacauga, Alabama, when a meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and into a living room, bounces off a radio, and strikes a woman on the hip. The victim, Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges, was sleeping on a couch at the time of impact. The space rock was a sulfide meteorite weighing 8.5 pounds and measuring seven inches in length. Mrs. Hodges was not permanently injured but suffered a nasty bruise along her hip and leg.

Ancient Chinese records tell of people being injured or killed by falling meteorites, but the Sylacauga meteorite was the first modern record of this type of human injury. In 1911, a dog in Egypt was killed by the Nakhla meteorite.

 

[CMRivdogs]

December 1

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-1

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In Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The successful Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Jr., followed Park’s historic act of civil disobedience.

“The mother of the civil rights movement,” as Rosa Parks is known, was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913. She worked as a seamstress and in 1943 joined the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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General George Washington’s army settles into a second season at Morristown, New Jersey, on December 1, 1779. Washington’s personal circumstances improved dramatically as he moved into the Ford Mansion and was able to conduct his military business in the style of a proper 18th-century gentleman. However, the worst winter of the 1700s coupled with the collapse of the colonial economy ensured misery for Washington’s underfed, poorly clothed and unpaid troops as they struggled for the next two months to construct their 1,000-plus “log-house city” from 600 acres of New Jersey woodland.

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On December 1, 1913, Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to one hour and 33 minutes.

Ford’s Model T, introduced in 1908, was simple, sturdy and relatively inexpensive–but not inexpensive enough for Ford, who was determined to build “motor car[s] for the great multitude.” (“When I’m through,” he said, “about everybody will have one.”) In order to lower the price of his cars, Ford figured, he would just have to find a way to build them more efficiently.

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A fire at a grade school in Chicago kills 87 children and three nuns on December 1, 1958; five more children later died as a result of their injuries.

The Our Lady of Angels School was operated by the Sisters of Charity in Chicago. In 1958, there were well over 1,200 students enrolled at the school, which occupied a large, old building. Unfortunately, little in the way of fire prevention was done before December 1958. The building did not have any sprinklers and no regular preparatory drills were conducted. When a small fire broke out in a pile of trash in the basement, it led to disaster.

 

[CMRivdogs]

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Montgomery's main force of about 300 men bring welcome arms and clothes seized from Montreal to Arnold's ragged men. The general gives a "short, but energetic and elegant speech" praising the performance of Arnold's New Englanders in overcoming many obstacles in their march through Maine. 

"It was a cold, lowering day, but the appearance of the General here, gave us warmth and animation," records a soldier. "A few huzzas from our freezing bodies, were returned to the address of the gallant hero. Now new life was infused into the whole of the corps." 

 

[CMRivdogs]

December 2

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-2

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On December 2, 2001, the Enron Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court, sparking one of the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

An energy-trading company based in Houston, Texas, Enron was formed in 1985 as the merger of two gas companies, Houston Natural Gas and Internorth. Under chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay, Enron rose as high as number seven on Fortune magazine’s list of the top 500 U.S. companies. In 2000, the company employed 21,000 people and posted revenue of $111 billion. Over the next year, however, Enron’s stock price began a dramatic slide, dropping from $90.75 in August 2000 to $0.26 by closing on November 30, 2001.

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1804 

In Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Napoleon I, the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in a thousand years. Pope Pius VII handed Napoleon the crown that the 35-year-old conqueror of Europe placed on his own head.

The Corsican-born Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history, rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s. By 1799, France was at war with most of Europe, and Napoleon returned home from his Egyptian campaign to take over the reigns of the French government and save his nation from collapse. After becoming first consul in February 1800, he reorganized his armies and defeated Austria. In 1802, he established the Napoleonic Code, a new system of French law, and in 1804 he established the French empire. By 1807, Napoleon’s empire stretched from the River Elbe in the north, down through Italy in the south, and from the Pyrenees to the Dalmatian coast.

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1823 During his annual address to Congress, President James Monroe proclaims a new U.S. foreign policy initiativethat becomes known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” Primarily the work of Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the Monroe Doctrine forbade European interference in the American hemisphere but also asserted U.S. neutrality in regard to future European conflicts.

The origins of the Monroe Doctrine stem from attempts by several European powers to reassert their influence in the Americas in the early 1820s. In North America, Russia had attempted to expand its influence in the Alaska territory, and in Central and South America the U.S. government feared a Spanish colonial resurgence. Britain too was actively seeking a major role in the political and economic future of the Americas, and Adams feared a subservient role for the United States in an Anglo-American alliance.

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1954. The U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator. The condemnation, which was equivalent to a censure, related to McCarthy’s controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military and civilian society.

What is known as “McCarthyism” began on February 9, 1950, when McCarthy, a relatively obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, announced during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he had in his possession a list of 205 communists who had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a publicity stunt, thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight. Asked to reveal the names on the list, the opportunistic senator named just one official who he determined guilty by association: Owen Lattimore, an expert on Chinese culture and affairs who had advised the State Department. McCarthy described Lattimore as the “top Russian spy” in America.

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On December 2, 1970, a new federal agency opens its doors. Created in response to the dawning realization that human activity can have major effects on the planet, the Environmental Protection Agency heralded a new age of government action on behalf of the environment.

Concerns about pollution and other environmental issues began creeping into the American consciousness in the 1950s and 60s. The 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was a watershed moment for American environmental awareness, as were a major oil spill that affected California beaches and the burning of Ohio’s heavily-polluted Cuyahoga River in 1969.

 

[Screwball]

13 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

December 2

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-2

 

The rest of the Enron story. Excerpt From "The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron" Asshole <---link

Great read by the way. On a conference call (see link for conversation) when pressed to show the books, Jeff Skilling of Enron called analysis Jack Grubman an asshole. The was the beginning of the end of Enron. Ticker ENE. Eventually the accounting firm Arthur Anderson fell along with them. Some were sent to jail (Skilling) (hey!, what a concept) and some died while waiting (Ken Lay) and another main player committed suicide (John Baxter). The whistleblower Sherron Watkins does speaking tours on business ethics. I went to one of her talks, it was excellent.

 

[CMRivdogs]

December 3

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-3

Quote

1818

Illinois achieves full statehood on this day. Though Illinois presented unique challenges to immigrants unaccustomed to the soil and vegetation of the area, it grew to become a bustling and densely populated state.

The prairie lands east of the Mississippi and west of Lake Michigan were inhabited for generations by the Illinois nation, a confederation of Algonquian-speaking Native American tribes. In the late 18th century, white settlers began moving in from the east. Accustomed to the heavily forested lands of states like Kentucky and Tennessee, the early settlers of Illinois did not know what to make of the vast treeless stretches of the prairie. Most believed that the fertility of soil revealed itself by the abundance of vegetation it supported, so they assumed that the lack of trees on the prairie signaled inferior farmland.

 

Quote

On December 3, 1967, 53-year-old Louis Washkansky receives the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.

Washkansky, a South African grocer dying from chronic heart disease, received the transplant from Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old woman who was fatally injured in a car accident. Surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who trained at the University of Cape Town and in the United States, performed the revolutionary medical operation. The technique Barnard employed had been initially developed by a group of American researchers in the 1950s. American surgeon Norman Shumway achieved the first successful heart transplant, in a dog, at Stanford University in California in 1958.

Quote

On December 3, 1979, the last Pacer rolls off the assembly line at the American Motors Corporation (AMC) factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin. When the car first came on the market in 1975, it was a sensation, hailed as the car of the future. “When you buy any other car,” ads said, “all you end up with is today’s car. When you get a Pacer, you get a piece of tomorrow.” By 1979, however, sales had faded considerably. Today, polls and experts agree: The Pacer was one of the worst cars of all time.

Quote

Eleven people, including three high-school students, were killed on December 3, 1979, when a crowd of general-admission ticket-holders to a Who concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, surged forward in an attempt to enter Riverfront Coliseum and secure prime unreserved seats inside. It would be one of the deadliest rock-concert incidents in history.

The general-admission ticketing policy for rock concerts at the Coliseum in the 1970s was known as “festival seating.” That term and that ticketing policy would become infamous in the wake of the 1979 incident. Festival seating had already been eliminated at many similar venues in the United States by then, yet the system remained in place at Riverfront Coliseum despite a dangerous incident at a Led Zeppelin show two years earlier. That day, 60 would-be concertgoers were arrested, and dozens more injured, when the crowd outside the venue surged up against the Coliseum’s locked glass doors.

 

[Screwball]

The Pacer...I was an auto mechanic in 1975 and I can attest they were a POS.

[CMRivdogs]

I remember the Pacer well. Came about the same time as the Gremlin.

While we were dating and early in our marriage my wife had an AMC Hornet. That car was a small tank. She had a close encounter with a tractor trailer (somehow the steering when bananas briefly) fortunately she wasn't hurt. The car was totaled.

Around 1962 my folks bought a 9 passenger Rambler wagon. Nice car, it had an issue when we moved to Virginia from Western PA. It would always break down as we crossed the Mason Dixon line. Never a problem going north

[Screwball]

The Gremlin was a POS too. A buddy had one. He loved it, even though it was broke all the time.

That said, it was a different era. Back then you could work on cars, and preventative maintenance really helped. The cars were similar, but different. Chrysler and AMC were kind of the odd balls. In those days there were big thick manuals on how to fix them. So many times they would explain how to fix something in a detailed way, and then the disclaimer; except Chrysler. Their starters were a POS. So were the front suspension. There was nothing worse to align the front end than a Chrysler, and you always had to replace the ball joints first. They were always bad.

At least someone with some tools could work on them. Not today.

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

I remember the Pacer well. Came about the same time as the Gremlin.

While we were dating and early in our marriage my wife had an AMC Hornet. That car was a small tank. She had a close encounter with a tractor trailer (somehow the steering when bananas briefly) fortunately she wasn't hurt. The car was totaled.

Around 1962 my folks bought a 9 passenger Rambler wagon. Nice car, it had an issue when we moved to Virginia from Western PA. It would always break down as we crossed the Mason Dixon line. Never a problem going north

Oh Lord - those AMCs from that era were some kind of terrible. My BIL bought a Pacer - he had graduated from engineering school and we all told him he clearly wasn't long for being an engineer with choices like that (LOL -  and he wasn't, but he ended up doing very well creating his own business!). My old man bought a hornet - probably because it was cheap - manual steering - about 10 turns lock to lock! Drive it after anything else and you were constantly short on all your turns!

Edited December 3 by gehringer_2

[CMRivdogs]

Didn't AMC have their offices in Southfield back in the day. We moved to the area late 2000, WWJ was and still is on American Dr, or at least last I knew

Edited December 3 by CMRivdogs