This Day in History

[Amnorix]

Today...

[Amnorix]

November 10

1766. The last royal governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter for Queen's College, later Rutgers University. More interesting, relaly, is that Franklin was a steady loyalist throughout, eventually fleeing hte colonies to live in and die in England, despite the fact that his father, Benjamin Franklin, was a leader of the Revolutionary movement.

1865. The Commandant of Andersonville Prison, Henry Wirz, is hanged, becoming the only Civil War soldier to be (officially) executed for war crimes.

1919. The first national convention of hte American Legion is held, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1951. Direct-dial coast-to-coast phone service is begun in the United States.

1975. As noted by Bugeater, the 729 foot-long freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing her entire crew of 29.

[Amnorix]

November 11

1215. The Fourth Lateran Council meets to discuss Transubstantiation, the process by which wine and bread are, by that doctrine, turned into the blood and body of Christ.

(let me pause here to say, and I apologize for the heresy but....ewwwww)

1831. Nat Turner is hanged after inciting a large slave rebellion.

1864. General Sherman cuts the telegraph wires connecting Atlanta to the rest of the Union, prepatory to beginning his March to the Sea.

1918. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year, Germany signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the deadliest conflict (until then) in human history.

1921. The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetary by President Harding.

1926. The "Mother Road", US Route 66, is established.

1940. The Battle of Taranto occurs. This is a strike by the British off aircraft carriers on the Italian fleet stationed at the harbor of Taranto. This is the first aircraft carrier strike on warships in history. It was previously thought that the harbor was too shallow to allow effective torpedo attack, but the British proved them wrong. The Japanese paid close attention to what had happened here and would repeat the strike, with devatating effectiveness, 13 months later, at Pearl Harbor.

[Amnorix]

November 12

1847. Chloroform is used as an anesthetic for the first time.

1892. William "Pudge" Heffelfinger becomes the first professional football player in history when he is paid for his efforts in the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1927. Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, leaving Josef Stalin in undisputed command of the party, and the country. Trotsky will later be assassinated.

1936. The Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

1941. Temperatures around Moscow fall to -12C, or about 10 degrees F, and the USSR begins launching ski unit attacks on the freezing Germans for the first time.

1969. Independent journalist Seymour Hersh breaks a story alleging that American troops committed a massacre at the My Lai village in Vietnam.

1970. An 8 ton beached Sperm Whale is blown up by Oregon authorities using a half ton of dynamite. The result, somehow unexpected, is massive chunks of whale landing on buildings, cars, parking lots and other locations all around the beach. The news reporter on the scene relayed that "the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds."

1998. Daimler-Benz completes its acquisition of Chyrsler Motors. Let me pause to ask...what the HELL were they thinking?

[Amnorix]

November 13.

1002. King Aethelred II orders the killing of all Danes in England.

1841. Scottish surgeon James Braid sees a demonstration of "Animal Magnetism", which will launch his investigation into what he will eventually name hyponotism.

1941. In a grevious blow to the Royal Navy, the HMS Ark Royal, one of England's relative few Aircraft Carriers, is torpedoed by a British U-Boat, sinking the next day.

1947. The Soviet Union completes development of the AK-47, one of the first true modern assault rifles. The "47" used in the name is, of course, named after the year in which it was developed.

[Amnorix]

November 14

1864. Sherman burns Atlanta to the ground, and leaves the city behind as he starts marching East with 60,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry. Contrary to the standard military doctrine of the time, he is completely cut loose from his sources of supply, and must rely entirely on what he brings with him, and what his foragers can find living off the land. Despite his desperate exhortations to keep his supply train as compact as possible, thousands of wagons and horses and other supplies travel with his army.

The buildings in the heart of the city, covering 200 acres of ground, formed a great conflagration; and, while the fire was raging, the bands played, and the soldiers chanted the stirring air and words, " John Brown's soul goes marching on!"

2001. Northern Alliance soldiers take over the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul.

[Amnorix]

November 15


1791. The first Catholic college, Georgetown University, opens its doors.

1943. By order of Hienrich Himmler, Gypsies are categorized along with Jews for placement into concentration camps.

1969. Dave Thomas opens the first Wendy's Restaurant. He names it after his daughter, whose real name was Melinda Lou but whose nickname was Wendy as she couldn't say her own name when she was young. Thomas will eventually appear in over 800 television commercials -- the most in television history -- in support of his chain.

1971. Intel releases the world's first commercial single chip microprocessor.

[Jenson71]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

1918. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year, Germany signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the deadliest conflict (until then) in human history.

Or at least that's when it took effect. If I remember correctly, it was agreed upon early that morning. So there were basically several hours in which you had everyone killing each other for nothing, only because they hadn't gotten the order yet or they didn't want to haul back all the bullets. And so you had several thousand casualties from that.

It's also a moment in time when you see the attachment of symbols to history. The carriage, where Germany and France signed the Armistice, where Germany gave up so much, in just a generation became Hitler's mark of triumph against the French in WWII.

[Amnorix]

November 16

1532. Spanish Conquistadors capture the Inca Emperor Atahualpa. He will be the last of the Inca Emperors.

1914. The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.

1938. LSD is first synthesized by a Swiss chemist, as part of a program seeking treatments for migraines, Parkinson's Syndrome and other disorders.

1940. The Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world. Hundreds of thousands will die from disease and starvation, or being shipped to Nazi death camps, before all is said and done.

1945. The US Army secretly admits 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology. Later, more will be added, including Wernher von Braun, one of the most influential and important rocket scientists of the 20th century, even though he was a member of the Nazi party and an SS officer.

[TimeForWasp]

Oklahoma entered the Union as the forty-sixth state on November 16, 1907. Derived from the Choctaw Indian words "okla," meaning people, and "humma," meaning red, Oklahoma was designated Indian Territory in 1828. By 1880, sixty tribes, forced by European immigration and the U.S. government to relocate, had moved to Oklahoma.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

1941. In a grevious blow to the Royal Navy, the HMS Ark Royal, one of England's relative few Aircraft Carriers, is torpedoed by a British U-Boat, sinking the next day.

[TimeForWasp]

Nov 16



1973
President Nixon signed the bill authorizing the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
2004
President George W. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.

[Jenson71]

Dear fellow history students,

A brisk, but heartfelt and strong plea for the education of history found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010...-antony-beevor

With kind regards,

Jenson71

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Jenson71

Dear fellow history students,

A brisk, but heartfelt and strong plea for the education of history found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010...-antony-beevor

With kind regards,

Jenson71

I tried to read all that, but it was so boring that I couldn't finish it.

[Jenson71]

Originally Posted by Donger

I tried to read all that, but it was so boring that I couldn't finish it.

The comments below the article are interesting, too.

[TimeForWasp]

1973
President Nixon said "I am not a crook."

2003
Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as governor of california.

1800
Congress met in Washington, DC, for the first time.


1968
Night of the "Heidi bowl:" NBC switched from football to movie of Heidi. In the missing 42 seconds, the lagging Raiders scored two touchdowns, defeating the Jets.

1851 - The U.S. Post Office issued a 1-cent carrier stamp to make it easier to pay fees for delivering and collecting letters. It was the first postage stamp to depict an American eagle; and the last to make it easier to pay the fees