[KenOC]

On this day, November 12, in 1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

To anybody -- if you're interested in our history, simply enter the date (e.g., "November 12") into Wiki and you'll get a list of things that happened. Select one that you feel is important or interesting, and paste it into this thread as a new post.

 

[KenOC]

This day, 13 November 1947 -- The Soviet Union completed development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles. This is still a popular weapon in schools and elsewhere.

 

[KenOC]

Today, November 14 in 1862: American President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.

 

[KenOC]

November 15, 1864 - American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Sherman's March to the Sea.

I posted on this as well, 10 or 11 hours ago. That post seems to have been deleted. ???

 

[KenOC]

Thanks Taggart. One to many Cuba libres no doubt!

16 November 1904 -- English engineer John Ambrose Fleming receives a patent for the thermionic valve (vacuum tube), giving birth to modern electronics. That is the world we live in today.

 

[KenOC]

Two biggies today, November 17:

1869 -- In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.

1947 -- American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.

 

[KenOC]

November 18, 1926 -- George Bernard Shaw refused to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."

 

[KenOC]

Today, 19 November 1942 -- Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor. Some consider this the beginning of the end for Germany in WW II.

 

[KenOC]

Edward Everett delivered his "Gettysburg Oration" as part of the dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettyburg, PA. Pres. Abraham Lincoln was present and also delivered some brief dedicatory remarks.

(thanks carnola!)

 

[KenOC]

On this day, 20 November 1974 -- The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System. One result is that today you can actually own your own telephone in the US. Some of us are old enough to remember otherwise!

 

[KenOC]

Today, 21 November in 1967 -- Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing." Some years earlier, in 164 BCE, Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restored the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

 

[KenOC]

Today, 22 November 1963 -- In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald is later captured and charged with the murder of both the President and police officer J. D. Tippit. Oswald is shot two days later by Jack Ruby while in police custody.

 

[KenOC]

This day, 23 November 1924 -- Edwin Hubble's discovery that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula within our galaxy, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe, was first published in a newspaper.

 

[KenOC]

Today, November 24 in 1859: Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species."

And in 1971: During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found.

 

[KenOC]

November 25: On this day in 1491 the siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins. Granada falls and the Moors are expelled entirely from Spain the following year. Those suspected of secretly holding to Islam among the forced converts, or Moriscos, are persecuted for many years by the Inquisition. Finally, almost all Moriscos are expelled from Spain in the early 1600s. Ethnic cleansing is nothing new.

 

[KenOC]

On this day, 26 November 1863 -- President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26 as a national Thanksgiving Day in the United States, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November (since 1941, on the fourth Thursday).

 

[KenOC]

On this day, 27 November 1934: Bank robber Baby Face Nelson dies in a shoot-out with the FBI.

 

[KenOC]

Today, 28 November 1814 -- The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

Also, in 1811 Beethoven's "Emperor" Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, premieres at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Well, not so named yet.

 

[KenOC]

1963 - U.S. President Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral would be renamed Cape Kennedy in honor of his assassinated predecessor. The name was changed back to Cape Canaveral in 1973 by a vote of residents.

The cape is now once again Cape Canaveral. But the launch facilities remain the Kennedy Space Center.