What Happened This Day In History - November 30

Today in History

November 30
1782		The British sign a preliminary agreement in Paris, recognizing American independence.
1838		Mexico declares war on France.
1861		The British Parliament sends to Queen Victoria an ultimatum for the United States, demanding the release of two Confederate diplomats who were seized on the British ship Trent.
1864		The Union wins the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
1900		The French government denounces British actions in South Africa, declaring sympathy for the Boers.
1900		Oscar Wilde dies in a Paris hotel room after saying of the room’s wallpaper: "One of us had to go."
1906		President Theodore Roosevelt publicly denounces segregation of Japanese schoolchildren in San Francisco.
1919		Women cast votes for the first time in French legislative elections.
1935		Non-belief in Nazism is proclaimed grounds for divorce in Germany.
1945		Russian forces take Danzig in Poland and invade Austria.
1948		The Soviet Union complete the division of Berlin, installing the government in the Soviet sector.
1950		President Truman declares that the United States will use the A-bomb to get peace in Korea.
1956		The United States offers emergency oil to Europe to counter the Arab ban.
1961		The Soviet Union vetoes a UN seat for Kuwait, pleasing Iraq.
1974		India and Pakistan decide to end a 10-year trade ban.
1974		Pioneer II sends photos back to NASA as it nears Jupiter.
1979		Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope in 1,000 years to attend an Orthodox mass.
1981		Representatives of the US and USSR meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to begin negotiations on reducing the number of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe.
1982		Thriller, Michael Jackson’s second solo album, released; the album, produced by Quincy Jones, became the best-selling album in history.
1993		US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (better known as the Brady Bill) into law.
1994		MS Achille Lauro, a ship with long history of problems including a 1985 terrorist hijacking, catches fire off the coast of Somalia.
1995		Operation Desert Storm officially comes to an end.
1998		Exxon and Mobil oil companies agree to a $73.7 billion merge, creating the world’s largest company, Exxon-Mobil.
2004		On the game show Jeopardy! contestant Ken Jennings loses after 74 consecutive victories. It is the longest winning streak in game-show history, earning him a total of over $3 million.
2005		John Sentamu becomes Archbishop of York, making him the Church of England’s first black archbishop.
Born on November 30
1667		Jonathan Swift, English satirist who wrote Gulliver’s Travels.
1835		Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), American writer best remembered for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
1874		Winston Churchill, British prime minister during and after World War II.
1874		Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.
1912		Gordon Parks, photographer.
1915		Brownie McGhee, singer and guitarist.
1924		Shirley Chisholm, first African-American congresswoman, a representative for New York.
1929		Joan Ganz Cooney, television executive, founder of the Children’s Television Workshop and mastermind behind Sesame Street.
1929		Dick Clark, television host; (American Bandstand, 1957-87; Pyramid game show); beginning in 1972 and continuing into the 21st century he hostedDick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on television.
1930		G. Gordon Liddy, chief operative for the "White House Plumbers" (July-September 1971) during Richard Nixon’s administration, he organized and oversaw the Watergate burglaries of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. He served nearly 52 months in federal prison.
1936		Abbie Hoffman, political and social activist; co-founded the Youth International Party (Yippies); he became a symbol of the counterculture era.
1937		Sir Ridley Scott, English film director and producer; (Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise) won a Best Picture Oscar for Gladiator (2000).
1955		Billy Idol (William Broad), punk rock musician; member of Generation X band.
1962		Bo Jackson, the only pro athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports (football and baseball); ESPN named him the greatest athlete of all time.

What Happened This Day In History - November 29

Today in History

November 29
1760		Major Robert Rogers takes possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain.
1787		Louis XVI promulgates an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
1812		The last elements of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armee retreats across the Beresina River in Russia.
1863		The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ends with a Confederate withdrawal.
1864		Colonel John M. Chivington’s 3rd Colorado Volunteers massacre Black Kettles’ camp of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek, Colo.
1903		An Inquiry into the U.S. Postal Service demonstrates the government has lost millions in fraud.
1923		An international commission headed by American banker Charles Dawes is set up to investigate the German economy.
1929		Commander Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the South Pole.
1931		The Spanish government seizes large estates for land redistribution.
1939		Soviet planes bomb an airfield at Helsinki, Finland.
1948		The Metropolitan Opera is televised for the first time as the season opens with "Othello."
1948		The popular children’s television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premieres.
1949		The United States announces it will conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
1961		NASA launches a chimpanzee named Enos into Earth orbit.
1962		Algeria bans the Communist Party.
1963		President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Chief Justice Earl Warren head of a commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1967		US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
1972		Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
2007		Armed forces of the Philippines besiege The Peninsula Manila in response to a mutiny led by Senator Antonio Trillanes.
Born on November 29
1803		Christian Doppler, best known for his explanation of perceived frequency variation of sound and light waves, known as the Doppler effect.
1832		Louisa May Alcott, novelist (Little Women).
1895		Busby Berkeley, director (42nd Street).
1898		C.S. Lewis, Christian writer.
1900		Mildred Elizabeth Sisk, aka Axis Sally, Nazi propagandist.
1908		Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and Civil Rights leader.
1911		Konrad Fuchs, German atomic physicist.
1918		Madeleine L’Engle, writer (A Wrinkle in Time).
1919		Joe Weider, Canadian-American bodybuilder and magazine publisher; co-founded the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness and Muscle & Fitness magazine.
1921		Dagmar (Virginia Ruth Egnor) actress, model, television personality (Dagmar’s Canteen, Broadway Open House).
1932		Jacques Chirac, politician; President of France (1995–2007).
1933		John Mayall, singer, songwriter, musician; founder of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers band.
1940		Chuck Mangione, jazz musician, composer ("Feels So Good").
1942		Ann Dunham, mother of Barack Obama, 44th President of the US; she was an  anthropologist specializing in economic anthropology and rural development.
1955		Howard "Howie" Mandel, Canadian comedian, actor (St. Elsewhere), TV host (Deal or No Deal game show), voice actor (Bobby’s World); judge onAmerica’s Got Talent TV show.
1957		Janet Napolitano, politician, lawyer; first woman to serve as US Secretary of Homeland Security (2009-2013).
1973		Sarah Jones, Tony and Obie award-winning playwright, actress, poet (Bridge & Tunnel).

What Happened This Day In History - November 28

Today in History

November 28
1520		Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan, having discovered a strait at the tip of South America, enters the Pacific.
1729		Natchez Indians massacre most of the 300 French settlers and soldiers at Fort Rosalie, Louisiana.
1861		The Confederate Congress admits Missouri to the Confederacy, although Missouri has not yet seceded from the Union.
1868		Mt. Etna in Sicily violently erupts.
1872		The Modoc War of 1872-73 begins in northern California when fighting breaks out between Modoc Chief Captain Jack and a cavalry detail led by Captain James Jackson.
1899		The British are victorious over the Boers at Modder River.
1919		Lady Astor is elected the first woman in Parliament.
1925		The forerunner of the Grand Ole Opry, called the WSM Barn Dance, opens in Nashville, Tennessee.
1935		The German Reich declares all men ages 18 to 45 as army reservists.
1937		Spanish leader Francisco Franco blockades the Spanish coast.
1939		The Soviet Union scraps its nonaggression pact with Finland.
1941		The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise departs from Pearl Harbor to deliver F4F Wildcat fighters to Wake Island. This mission saves the carrier from destruction when the Japanese attack.
1943		Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet at Tehran, Iran, to hammer out war aims.
1944		The first shipment of supplies reach Antwerp by convoy, a new route for the Allies.
1948		Dr. Edwin Land’s first Polaroid cameras go on sale in Boston.
1950		In Korea, 200,000 Communist troops launch attack on UN forces.
1961		Ernie Davis becomes the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.
1963		Cape Canaveral is renamed Cape Kennedy.
1971		The Anglican Church ordains the first two women as priests.
1975		East Timor declares independence from Portugal.
1980		Operation Morvarid (Iran-Iraq War); Iranian Navy destroys over 70% of Iraqi Navy.
1984		Republican Robert Dole is elected Senate majority leader.
1989		Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces it will give up its monopoly on political power.
1991		South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.
2002		Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.
Born on November 28
1628		John Bunyan, English preacher and writer who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.
1757		William Blake, English poet.
1907		Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (The Conformist, Conjugal Love).
1908		Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist.
1916		Vyes Theriault, French-Canadian author.
1929		Berry Gordy, Jr., recording executive.
1944		Rita Mae Brown, novelist.
1962		Jon Stewart, satirist, writer, director, author, television host, comedian; host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central.

What Happened This Day In History - November 27

Today in History

November 27
43BC		Octavian, Antony and Lepidus form the triumvirate of Rome.
511		Clovis, king of the Franks, dies and his kingdom is divided between his four sons.
1095		In Clermont, France, Pope Urbana II makes an appeal for warriors to relieve Jerusalem. He is responding to false rumors of atrocities in the Holy Land.
1382		The French nobility, led by Olivier de Clisson, crush the Flemish rebels at Flanders.
1812		One of the two bridges being used by Napoleon Bonaparte’s army across the Beresina River in Russia collapses during a Russian artillery barrage.
1826		Jebediah Smith’s expedition reaches San Diego, becoming the first Americans to cross the southwestern part of the continent.
1862		George Armstrong Custer meets his future bride, Elizabeth Bacon, at a Thanksgiving party.
1868		Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer‘s 7th Cavalry kills Chief Black Kettle and about 100 Cheyenne (mostly women and children) on the Washita River.
1887		U.S. Deputy Marshall Frank Dalton, brother of the three famous outlaws, is killed in the line of duty near Fort Smith, Ark.
1904		The German colonial army defeats Hottentots at Warm bad in southwest Africa.
1909		U.S. troops land in Blue fields, Nicaragua, to protect American interests there.
1919		Bulgaria signs peace treaty with Allies at Unequally, France, fixing war reparations and recognizing Yugoslavian independence.
1922		Allied delegates bar the Soviets from the Near East peace conference.
1936		Great Britain’s Anthony Eden warns Hitler that Britain will fight to protect Belgium.
1942		The French fleet in Toulon is scuttled to keep it from Germany.
1950		East of the Choosing River, Chinese forces annihilate an American task force.
1954		Alger Hiss, convicted of being a Soviet spy, is freed after 44 months in prison.
1959		Demonstrators march in Tokyo to protest a defense treaty with the United States.
1967		Lyndon Johnson appoints Robert McNamara to presidency of the World Bank.
1967		Charles DeGaulle vetoes Great Britain’s entry into the Common Market again.
1970		Syria joins the pact linking Libya, Egypt and Sudan.
1973		US Senate votes to confirm Gerald Ford as President of the United States, following President Richard Nixon’s resignation; the House will confirm Ford on Dec. 6.
1978		San Francisco mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay supervisor, assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White.
1978		Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Parti Karkerani Kurdistan, or PKK) founded; militant group that fought an armed struggle for an independent Kurdistan.
1984		Britain and Spain sign the Brussels Agreement to enter discussions over the status of Gibraltar.
1999		Helen Clark becomes first elected female Prime Minister of New Zealand.
2001		Hubble Space Telescope discovers a hydrogen atmosphere on planet Osiris, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.
2004		Pope John Paul II returns relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church.
2005		First partial human face transplant completed Amiens, France.
2006		Canadian House of Commons approves a motion, tabled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, recognizing the Quebecois as a nation within Canada.
Born on November 27
1701		Anders Celsius, astronomer who devised the centigrade temperature scale.
1870		Joe Mack, builder of gasoline-powered delivery wagons which eventually evolved into the Mack Truck Company.
1874		Charles A. Beard, distinguished American historian who wrote History of the United States.
1909		James Agee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (A Death in the Family).
1942		Jimi Hendrix, influential rock musician.
1955		Bill Nye, scientist, educator, TV host; known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, host of the Disney/PBS children’s show of the same name.
1957		Caroline Kennedy, author, attorney, only surviving child of President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline "Jackie" Bouvier; named US Ambassador to Japan (2013– ).
1963		Princess Desiree of Hohenzollern.

What Happened This Day In History - November 26

Today in History

November 26
1688		Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands.
1774		A congress of colonial leaders criticizes British influence in the colonies and affirms their right to "Life, liberty and property."
1789		George Washington proclaims this a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new Constitution. This date was later used to set the date for Thanksgiving.
1812		Napoleon Bonaparte’s army begins crossing the Beresina River over two hastily constructed bridges.
1825		The Kappa Alpha Society, the second American college Greek-letter fraternity, is founded.
1863		The first National Thanksgiving is celebrated.
1901		The Hope diamond is brought to New York.
1907		The Duma lends support to Czar in St. Petersburg, who claims he has renounced autocracy.
1917		The Bolsheviks offer an armistice between Russian and the Central Powers.
1922		Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, archeologists, open King Tut’s tomb, undisturbed for 3,000 years.
1938		Poland renews nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union to protect against a German invasion.
1939		The Soviet Union charges Finland with artillery attack on border.
1941		The Japanese fleet departs from the Kuril Islands en route to its attack onPearl Harbor.
1947		France expels 19 Soviet citizens, charging them with intervention in internal affairs.
1949		India becomes a sovereign Democratic republic.
1950		North Korean and Chinese troops halt a UN offensive.
1957		President Eisenhower suffers a minor stroke.
1975		Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme is found guilty of an attempt on President Gerald Ford’s life.
1979		Oil deposits equaling OPEC reserves are found in Venezuela.
1982		Yasuhiro Nakasone is elected the 71st Japanese prime minister.
1983		At London’s Heathrow Airport, almost 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million stolen from Brinks-MAT vault.
1998		Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland’s parliament.
2000		Republican candidate George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida’s electoral votes, giving him enough electoral votes to defeat Democrat Al Gore Jr. for the US presidency, despite losing the popular vote.
2011		NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpost in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.
Born on November 26
1827		Ellen Gould White, founder of the Seventh Day Adventists.
1876		Willis Haviland Carrier, inventor of the first air conditioning system to control both temperature and humidity.
1894		Norbert Weiner, American mathematician, considered the father of automation.
1912		Eric Sevareid, American broadcast journalist for CBS News.
1920		Cyril Cusack, Irish actor.
1922		Charles M. Shultz, American cartoonist who created "Peanuts" starring Charlie Brown.
1924		George Segal, sculptor.
1933		Robert Goulet, singer, actor.
1938		Rich Little, comedian, actor; noted for his ability to impersonate famous personalities.
1939		Tina Turner, singer, dancer , actress ("What’s Love Got to Do with It").
1954		Velupillai Prabhakaran, founder and leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.
1956		Dale Jarrett, NASCAR driver; won 1999 Winston Cup Series championship.

What Happened This Day In History - November 25

November 25
2348BC		Biblical scholars have long asserted this to be the day of the Great Deluge, or Flood.
1863		Union ends the siege of Chattanooga with the Battle of Missionary Ridge.
1876		Colonel Ronald MacKenzie destroys Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife‘s village, in the Bighorn Mountains near the Red Fork of the Powder River, during the so-called Great Sioux War.
1901		Japanese Prince Ito arrives in Russia to seek concessions in Korea.
1914		German Field Marshal Fredrich von Hindenburg calls off the Lodz offensive 40 miles from Warsaw, Poland. The Russians lose 90,000 to the Germans’ 35,000 in two weeks of fighting.
1918		Chile and Peru sever relations.
1921		Hirohito becomes regent of Japan.
1923		Transatlantic broadcasting from England to America commences for the first time.
1930		An earthquake in Shizouka, Japan kills 187 people.
1939		Germany reports four British ships sunk in the North Sea, but London denies the claim.
1946		The U.S. Supreme Court grants the Oregon Indians land payment rights from the U.S. government.
1947		The Big Four meet to discuss the German and European economy.
1951		A truce line between U.N. troops and North Korea is mapped out at the peace talks in Panmunjom, Korea.
1955		The Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation in interstate travel.
1963		The body of assassinated President John F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1964		Eleven nations give a total of $3 billion to rescue the value of the British currency.
1986		As President Ronald Reagan announces the Justice Department’s findings concerning the Iran-Contra affair; secretary Fawn Hall smuggles important documents out of Lt. Col. Oliver North’s office.
1987		Typhoon Nina sticks the Philippines with 165 mph winds and a devastating storm surge and causes over 1,030 deaths.
1992		Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia votes to partition the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, beginning Jan. 1, 1993.
2008		Sri Lanka is hit by Cyclone Nisha, bringing the highest rainfall the area had seen in 9 decades; 15 people die, 90,000 are left homeless.
Born on November 25
1844		Carl Benz, pioneer of early motor cars.
1896		Virgil Thompson, American composer (Four Saints in Three Acts, The Mother of Us All).
1910		Alwin Nikolais, choreographer.
1913		Lewis Thomas, physician and author (The Lives of a Cell).
1914		Joe DiMaggio, Hall of Fame baseball star who led the New York Yankees to ten World Series.
1939		Shelagh Delaney, playwright (A Taste of Honey).
1942		Bob Lind, singer, songwriter who was an important influence in the 1960s folk rock movement in the US and UK ("Elusive Butterfly").
1945		Gail Collins, journalist; first woman to serve as editorial page editor of The New York Times.
1953		Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron Corp.; convicted of multiple felony charges in 2006, relating to Enron’s financial collapse.
1960		John F. Kennedy Jr., elder son of US Pres. John F. Kennedy (assassinated three days before JFK Jr.’s third birthday); co-founded George magazine in 1995; died in plane crash, July 16, 1999.
1971		Christina Applegate, actress (Married . . . with Children, Samantha Who? TV series).
1981		Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of US Pres. George W. Bush; she and her sororal twin sister were the first twin children of a US president; presently (2013) a special correspondent to NBC’s Today Show and a contributor to NBC Nightly News.
1986		Amber Hagerman, whose kidnapping and murder in Jan. 1996 led to the development of the AMBER Alert system to notify surrounding communities when a child is reported missing or abducted.

What Happened This Day In History - November 24

Today in History

November 24
1542		The English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss in England.
1859		Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. The first printing of 1,250 copies sells out in a single day.
1863		In the Battle Above the Clouds, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s forces take Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1864		Kit Carson and his 1st Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, attack a camp of Kiowa Indians in the First Battle of Adobe Walls.
1874		Joseph Glidden receives a patent for barbed wire.
1902		The first Congress of Professional Photographers convenes in Paris.
1912		Austria denounces Serbian gains in the Balkans; Russia and France back Serbia while Italy and Germany back Austria.
1927		Federal officials battle 1,200 inmates after prisoners in Folsom Prison revolt.
1938		Mexico seizes oil land adjacent to Texas.
1939		In Czechoslovakia, the Gestapo execute 120 students who are accused of anti-Nazi plotting.
1944		American B-29s flying from Saipan bomb Tokyo.
1949		The Iron and Steel Act nationalizes the steel industry in Britain.
1950		UN troops begin an assault into the rest of North Korea, hoping to end the Korean War by Christmas.
1961		The United Nations adopts bans on nuclear arms over American protests.
1963		Jack Ruby fatally shoots the accused assassin of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, in the garage of the Dallas Police Department.
1977		Greece announces the discovery of the tomb of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
1979		The United States admits that thousands of troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent Orange.
1992		US Congress passes the Brady Bill requiring a 5-day waiting period for handgun sales; the bill is named for Pres. Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was left partially paralyzed by a bullet during an assassination attempt on Reagan.
1995		Ireland votes 50.28% to 49.72% to end its 70-year-old ban on divorce.
2012		A fire at a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills over 110 people.
Born on November 24
1784		Zachary Taylor, general during the Mexican War, 12th President of the United States.
1826		Carlo Collodi, the creator of Pinocchio.
1849		Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden.
1859		Cass Gilbert, architect.
1864		Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, French post-impressionist painter.
1868		Scott Joplin, composer.
1886		Margaret Anderson, editor, founder of The Little Review.
1888		Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People.
1912		Garson Kanin, writer and director (Born Yesterday).
1925		William F. Buckley, Jr., journalist, founder of National Review.
1946		Ted Bundy, serial killer; he confessed to 30 murders between 1974-78, but the total could be much higher.
1948		Spider Robinson, Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author (Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon; Melancholy Elephants); received Robert A. Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in 2008.
1949		Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded Monica Lewinsky’s confidential phone calls about Lewinsky’s affair with then-President Bill Clinton.