Today in History – November 9

1857 – The “Atlantic Monthly” first appeared on newsstands and featured the first installment of “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

1872 – A fire destroyed about 800 buildings in Boston, MA.

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt left for Panama to see the progress on the new canal. It was the first foreign trip by a U.S. president.

1911 – George Claude of Paris, France, applied for a patent on neon advertising signs.

1918 – Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II announced he would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.

1923 – In Munich, the Beer Hall Putsch was crushed by German troops that were loyal to the democratic government. The event began the evening before when Adolf Hitler took control of a beer hall full of Bavarian government leaders at gunpoint.

1935 – United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.

1938 – Nazi troops and sympathizers destroyed and looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, burned 267 synagogues, killed 91 Jews, and rounded up over 25,000 Jewish men in an event that became known as Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass.”

1953 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that major league baseball did not come within the scope of federal antitrust laws.

1961 – Major Robert White flew an X-15 rocket plane at a world record speed of 4,093 mph.

1961 – The Professional Golfer’s Association (PGA) eliminated its “caucasians only” rule.

1963 – In Japan, about 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion.

1963 – In Japan, 160 people died in a train crash.

1965 – The great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.

1967 – A Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.

1976 – The U.N. General Assembly approved ten resolutions condemning the apartheid government in South Africa.

1979 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously called upon Iran to release all American hostages “without delay.” Militants, mostly students had taken 63 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4.

1981 – U.S. troops began arriving in Egypt for a three-week Rapid Deployment Force excercise. Somalia, Sudan and Oman were also involved in the operation.

1981 – The Internation Monetary Fund approved a $5.8 billion load to India. It was the highest loan to date.

1982 – Sugar Ray Leonard retired from boxing. In 1984 Leonard came out of retirement to fight one more time before becoming a boxing commentator for NBC.

1984 – A bronze statue titled “Three Servicemen,” by Frederick Hart, was unveiled at the site of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

1989 – Communist East Germany opened its borders, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany.

1990 – Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany.

1992 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin, visiting London, appealed for assistance in rescheduling his country’s debt, and asked British businesses to invest.

1997 – Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) became the first player in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in nine straight seasons. In the same game Sanders passed former Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett for third place on the all-time rushing list.

1998 – A federal judge in New York approved the richest antitrust settlement in U.S. history. A leading brokerage firm was ordered to pay $1.03 billion to investors who had sued over price-rigging of Nasdaq stocks.

1998 – PBS aired its documentary special “Chihuly Over Venice.”

2004 – U.S. First Lady Laura Bush officially reopened Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to pedestrians.

Today in History – November 8

1793 – The Louvre Museum, in Paris, opened to the public for the first time.

1805 – The “Corps of Discovery” reached the Pacific Ocean. The expedition was led by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. The journey had begun on May 14, 1804, with the goal of exploring the Louisiana Purchase territory.

1880 – French actress Sarah Bernhardt made her American stage debut in “Adrienne Lecouvreur” in New York City.

1889 – Montana became the 41st U.S. state.

1895 – Wilhelm Roentgen while experimenting with electricity discovered the scientific principle involved and took the first X-ray pictures.

1910 – William H. Frost patented the insect exterminator.

1923 – Adolf Hitler made his first attempt at seizing power in Germany with a failed coup in Munich that came to be known as the “Beer-Hall Putsch.”

1933 – The Civil Works Administration was created by executive order by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The organization was designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed people in the U.S.

1939 – “Life With Father” premiered on Broadway in New York City.

1942 – The U.S. invaded Morocco and Algeria.

1942 – During World War II, Operation Torch began as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 – During the Korean conflict, the first jet-plane battle took place as U.S. Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shot down a North Korean MiG-15.

1954 – The American League approved the transfer of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team to Kansas City, MO.

1956 – After turning down 18,000 names, the Ford Motor Company decided to name their new car the “Edsel,” after Henry Ford’s only son.

1959 – Elgin Baylor (Minneapolis Lakers) scored 64 points and set a National Basketball Association scoring record.

1965 – The soap opera “Days of Our Lives” debuted on NBC-TV.

1966 – Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.

1966 – Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.

1979 – The program, “The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage”, premiered on ABC-TV. The show was planned to be temporary, but it evolved into “Nightline” in March of 1980.

1979 – U.S. Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Mac Mathias (R-MD) introduced legislation to provide a site on the National Mall for the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1980 – Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California announced that they had discovered a 15th moon orbiting the planet Saturn.

1981 – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek asserted that Egypt was “an African State” that was “neither East nor West”.

1985 – A letter signed by four American hostages in Lebanon was delivered to The Associated Press in Beirut. The letter, contained pleas from Terry Anderson, Rev. Lawrence Jenco, David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland to President Reagan to negotiate a release.

1990 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered more troop deployments in the Persian Gulf, adding about 150,000 soldiers to the multi-national force fighting against Iraq.

1991 – The European Community and Canada imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an attempt to stop the Balkan civil war.

1992 – About 350,000 people rallied in Berlin against racist violence.

1993 – Five Picasso paintings and other artwork were stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, Sweden. The works were valued at $52 million.

1997 – Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.

2000 – In Florida, a statewide recount began to decide the winner of the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

2000 – Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report that absolved the government of wrongdoing in the 1993 seige of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.

2001 – The “Homage to Van Gogh: International Artists Pay Tribute to a Legend” exhibit opened at the Appleton Museum of Art in Florida.

2009 – The game Angry Birds Star Wars was released.

Today in History – November 2

1721 – Peter the Great (Peter I), ruler of Russia, changed his title to emperor.

1776 – During the American Revolutionary War, William Demont, became the first traitor of the American Revolution when he deserted.

1783 – U.S. Gen. George Washington gave his “Farewell Address to the Army” near Princeton, NJ.

1867 – “Harpers Bazaar” magazine was founded.

1883 – Thomas Edison executed a patent application for an electrical indicator using the Edison effect lamp (U.S. Pat. 307,031).

1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted into the union as the 39th and 40th states.

1895 – In Chicago, IL, the first gasoline powered car contest took place in America.

1917 – British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour expressed support for a “national home” for the Jews of Palestine.

1920 – The first commercial radio station in the U.S., KDKA of Pittsburgh, PA, began regular broadcasting.

1921 – Margaret Sanger’s National Birth Control League combined with Mary Ware Denetts Voluntary Parenthood League to form the American Birth Control League.

1930 – Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1930 – The DuPont Company announced the first synthetic rubber. It was named DuPrene.

1937 – The play “I’d Rather be Right” opened in New York City.

1947 – Howard Hughes flew his “Spruce Goose,” a huge wooden airplane, for eight minutes in California. It was the plane’s first and only flight. The “Spruce Goose,” nicknamed because of the white-gray color of the spruce used to build it, never went into production.

1948 – Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the U.S. presidency. The Chicago Tribune published an early edition that had the headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” The Truman victory surprised many polls and newspapers. (Illinois>

1959 – Charles Van Doren, a game show contestant on the NBC-TV program “Twenty-One” admitted that he had been given questions and answers in advance.

1960 – In London, the novel “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” was found not guilty of obscenity.

1962 – U.S. President Kennedy announced that the U.S.S.R. was dismantling the missile sites in Cuba.

1963 – South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem was assassinated in a military coup.

1966 – The Cuban Adjustment Act allows 123,000 Cubans to apply for permanent residence in the U.S.

1979 – Joanna Chesimard, a black militant escaped from a New Jersey prison, where she’d been serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.

1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

1984 – Velma Barfield became the first woman to be executed in the U.S. since 1962. She had been convicted of the poisoning death of her boyfriend.

1985 – The South African government imposed severe restrictions on television, radio and newspaper coverage of unrest by both local and foreign journalists.

1986 – The 12-by-16-inch celluloid of a poison apple from Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”” was purchased for $30,800.
Disney movies, music and books

1986 – American hostage David Jacobson was released after being held in Lebanon for 17 months by Shiite Muslims kidnappers.

1989 – Carmen Fasanella retired after 68 years and 243 days of taxicab service in Princeton, NJ.

1992 – Magic Johnson retired from the NBA again, this time for good because of fear due to his HIV infection.

1993 – The U.S. Senate called for full disclosure of Senator Bob Packwood’s diaries in a sexual harassment probe.

1993 – Christie Todd Whitman was elected the first woman governor of New Jersey.

1995 – The play “Sacrilege” opened.

1995 – The U.S. expelled Daiwa Bank Ltd. for allegedly covering up $1.1 billion in trading losses.

1998 – U.S. President Clinton gave his first in-depth interview since the White House sex scandal to Black Entertainment Television talk show host and political commentator Tavis Smiley on the network’s “BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley.”

2001 – The computer-animated movie “Monsters, Inc.” opened. The film recorded the best debut ever for an animated film and the 6th best of all time.

2003 – In the U.S., the Episcopal Church diocese consecrated the church’s first openly gay bishop.

Today in History – November 1

1512 – Michelangelo’s paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were first exhibited to the public.

1604 – “Othello,” the tragedy by William Shakespeare, was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.

1611 – “The Tempest,” Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.

1755 – At least 60,000 people were killed in Lisbon, Portugal by an earthquake, its aftershocks and the ensuing tsunami.

1765 – The British Parliament enacted The Stamp Act in the American colonies. The act was repealed in March of 1766 on the same day that the Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts which asserted that the British government had free and total legislative power of the colonies.

1800 – U.S. President John Adams became the first president to live in the White House when he moved in.

1848 – The first medical school for women, founded by Samuel Gregory, opened in Boston, MA. The Boston Female Medical School later merged with Boston University School of Medicine.

1856 – The first photography magazine, Daguerreian Journal, was published in New York City, NY.

1861 – Gen. George B. McClellan was made the general-in-chief of the American Union armies.

1864 – The U.S. Post Office started selling money orders. The money orders provided a safe way to payments by mail.

1870 – The U.S. Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations using 24 locations that provided reports via telegraph.

1879 – Thomas Edison executed his first patent application for a high-resistance carbon filament (U.S. Pat. 223,898).

1894 – “Billboard Advertising” was published for the first time. It later became known as “Billboard.”

1894 – Russian Emperor Alexander III died.

1904 – The Army War College in Washington, DC, enrolled the first class.

1911 – Italy used planes to drop bombs on the Tanguira oasis in Libya. It was the first aerial bombing.

1936 – Benito Mussolini made a speech in Milan, Italy, in which he described the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany as an “axis” running between Berlin and Rome.

1937 – “Hilltop House” was aired for the first time on CBS Radio.

1937 – “Terry and the Pirates” debuted on NBC Radio.

1940 – “A Night in the Tropics” was released. It was the first movie for Abbott and Costello.

1944 – “Harvey,” by Mary Chase, opened on Broadway.

1947 – The famous racehorse Man o’ War died.

1949 – In Washington, 55 people were killed when a fighter plane hit an airliner.

1950 – Two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to assassinate U.S. President Harry Truman. One of the men was killed when they tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington, DC.

1952 – The United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

1954 – Algeria began to rebel against French rule.

1959 – Jacques Plante, of the Montreal Canadiens, became the first goalie in the NHL to wear a mask.

1963 – The USSR launched Polyot I. It was the first satellite capable of maneuvering in all directions and able to change its orbit.

1968 – The movie rating system of G, M, R, X, followed by PG-13 and NC-17 went into effect.

1973 – Leon Jaworski was appointed the new Watergate special prosecutor in the Watergate case.

1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged all Iranians to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand their attacks against the U.S. and Israel. On November 4, Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 63 Americans hostage.

1981 – The U.S. Postal Service raised the first-class letter rate to 20 cents.

1985 – In the village of Ignacio Aldama, 22 members of a Mexican anti-narcotics squad were killed by alleged drug traffickers.

1987 – Deng Xiaoping retired from China’s Communist Party’s Central Committee.

1989 – Tens of thousands of refugees to fled to the West when East Germany reopened its border with Czechoslovakia.

1989 – Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced the end of a cease-fire with the Contra rebels.

1993 – The European Community’s treaty on European unity took effect.

1994 – The Amazon.com domain name was registered.

1995 – In Dayton, OH, the Bosnian peace talks opened with the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia present.

1998 – Nicaraguan Vice President Enrique Bolanos announced that between 1,000 and 1,500 people were buried in a 32-square mile area below the slopes of the Casita volcano in northern Nicaragua by a mudslide caused by Hurricane Mitch.

1998 – Iridium inaugurated the first handheld, global satellite phone and paging system.