November 18......

November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 43 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 326 - The old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.

● 1095 - Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont. Summoned to plan the First Crusade, it was attended by over 200 bishops. Among its official policies, the Council decreed that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem made every other penance superfluous.

● 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull Unam sanctam ("The One Holy"). It was the first papal writing to decree that spiritual power took precedent over temporal power, and that subjection to the Pope was necessary to salvation.

● 1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.

● 1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.

● 1477 - William Caxton produces Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, the first book printed on a printing press in England.

● 1493 - Christopher Columbus first sights what is now Puerto Rico.

● 1626 - In Rome, the newly completed St Peter's Basilica was consecrated by Urban VIII. St. Peter's is presently the largest church in Christendom, with a length of 619 feet.

● 1686 - Charles Francois Felix operates on King Louis XIV's anal fistula after practicing the surgery on several peasants.

● 1803 - the Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere.

● 1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica.

● 1865 - Samuel L. Clemens published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under the pen name "Mark Twain" in the New York "Saturday Press."

● 1866 - English devotional writer Katherine Hankey, 32, penned the verses that we sing today as the hymn, "I Love to Tell the Story."

● 1872 - Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting.

● 1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.

● 1886 - Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States, died in New York at age 56.

● 1903 - The newly independent country of Panama, whose secession from Colombia over the previous two weeks was engineered by the U.S. and guaranteed by its warships, grants the U.S. a permanent and perpetual lease to the Panama Canal with the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty. Later when President Jimmy Carter negotiated a return of the Zone it was said “we stole it fair and square.”

● 1904 - General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup.

● 1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.

● 1906 - Birth of George Wald, anti-war activist, Nobel physician, New York City.

● 1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of José Santos Zelaya.

● 1910 - Hundreds of suffragists march on House of Commons, London, with reinforcements arriving to replace the "fallen" and arrested. Protesting government inaction on Conciliation Bill, they are brutally repulsed by Bobbies, leading to a public outcry.

● 1916 - Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, calls off the Battle of the Somme in the Somme River region of France after nearly five months of mass slaughter. The massive Allied offensive, which began at 7:30 A.M. on July 1, 1916, amounted to a total gain of just 125 square miles along the Western Front, at a cost of over 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action. German casualties were over 650,000.

● 1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.

● 1918 - Conference of Organisations Anarchistes d'Ukraine (N.A.B.A.T.) held, inspired by Voline.

● 1918 - Brazil - Major strike wave breaks out in Rio involving over 6,000 workers and a plot to overthrow the government. Prominent are the textile, metal, and construction workers.

● 1919 - Printers refuse to print anti-IWW ad in Seattle Post-Intelligencer by threatening to strike.

● 1919 - In an eerie foreshadowing of fast track authority, Pres. Woodrow Wilson urges Congress to accept no compromises on Versailles Treaty, with League of Nations Covenant. As a result, while 3/4 of the Senate favored League membership the Treaty was defeated.

● 1919 - Domela Ferdinand Nieuwenhuis dies. Elected to office in Amsterdam, as a socialist, in 1891 before giving up politics to adopt the anarchism of Bakunin. An ardent proponent of the general strike and an organizer of the congresses of antimilitarists in Amsterdam. In 1914, faithful to the libertarian ideal, he opposed the "Manifesto of the 16" (anarchists favoring Allies in World War I), and signed, with Emma Goldman, Malatesta, etc., a proclamation opposing the war.

● 1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses 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."

● 1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

● 1929 - Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area.

● 1936 - Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.

● 1936 - Union organizing in General Motors plants begins with Atlanta sit-down strike.

● 1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

● 1939 - Birth of Margaret Atwood, Ottawa, Canada. Poet, novelist, and critic noted for her Canadian nationalism and her feminism.

● 1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.

● 1942 - "The Skin of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder opened on Broadway.

● 1942 - Holocaust: German SS carry out selection of Jewish ghetto in Lviv, western Ukraine, arresting 5.000 "unproductive Jews". All get deported to Belzec death camp.

● 1943 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 air crew.

● 1943 - Holocaust: Aktion Emtefest: Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lviv, western Ukraine, murdering at least 6.000 surviving Jews. German SS leader Fritz Katzman declares Lviv (Lemberg) to be Judenfrei (free from the Jews).

● 1945 - Birth of Cherokee Nation chief and Native American leader Wilma Mankiller.

● 1951 - Chuck Connors (Los Angeles Angels and former Chicago Cubs) became the first player to oppose the major league draft. Connors later became the star of the television show "The Rifleman." He also holds the distinction of being the first player in the NBA to shatter a backboard.

● 1959 - William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" premiered at Loew's Theater in New York City's Times Square.

● 1964 - J. Edgar Hoover characterized Martin Luther King, Jr., as "the most notorious liar in the country." MLK replies that Hoover "has apparently faltered under the awesome burden, complexities, and responsibilities of his office."

● 1966 - This was the last required meatless Friday for American Roman Catholics, in accordance with a decree made by Pope Paul VI earlier this year.

● 1967 - Moves to curb spread of foot-and-mouth; A ban on the movement of farm animals across the whole of England and Wales came into effect at midnight.

● 1970 - U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.

● 1970 - Singer Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his third wife, Myra Gail, after 12 years.

● 1973 - Radical and wonderful a capella singers "Sweet Honey in the Rock" forms, Washington, D.C.

● 1975 - Eldridge Cleaver returns to U.S. from seven years exile to face charges.

● 1976 - The parliament of Spain approved a bill that established a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

● 1977 - KKK members convicted of 1963 bombing of Birmingham church in which four young black girls were killed.

● 1978 - Jonestown, Guyana - 996 party-goers and Jim Jones find heaven in Kool-Aid shots in mass suicide. (see below)

● 1978 - Jonestown incident: In Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple cult in a mass murder-suicide that claims 918 lives in all, 909 of them at Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Jones died of a bullet wound to the head; whether it was self-inflicted is unknown. It was precipitated by a Congressional visit that resulted in the deaths of the entire Congressional party.

● 1978 - The Blues Brothers appear for the first time on Saturday Night Live.

● 1978 - Farmers plow site of proposed nuclear power station, Torness, Scotland.

● 1982 - Alternative service for conscientious objectors increased from 16 to 20 months, West Germany.

● 1982 - Duk Koo Kim dies unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.

● 1985 - Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, is first published.

● 1985 - Joe Theismann (Washington Redskins) broke his leg after being hit by Lawrence Taylor (New York Giants). The injury ended Theismann's 12 year National Football League (NFL) career.

● 1987 - The U.S. Congress issued the Iran-Contra Affair report. The report said that President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.

● 1987 - King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross St Pancras.

● 1987 - CBS Inc. announced it had agreed to sell its record division to Sony Corp. for about $2 billion.

● 1988 - U.S. President Reagan signed major legislation provided the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.

● 1989 - Protesters demand reform in Bulgaria; More than 50,000 people take to the streets of Sofia in Bulgaria demanding political reform.

● 1989 - Czechoslovakian government starts to crumble - strike at schools, invitations of forbidden speakers, town meetings start; Civic Forum formed.

● 1991 - Parents of reservists demand return of their sons, Kragujevac, Serbia.

● 1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.

● 1991 - After the 3-month siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar is invaded by Serbians

● 1992 - One thousand join memorial run to honor a woman murdered while training for a local marathon, Buffalo, New York.

● 1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate in approving legislation aimed at protecting abortion facilities, staff and patients.

● 1993 - American Airlines flight attendants went on strike. They ended their strike only 4 days later.

● 1993 - Representatives from 21 South African political parties approved a new constitution.

● 1994 - After massive international protest by indigenous and environmental activists, Quebec puts on "indefinite hold" (and later formally cancels) plans to build a massive hydroelectric project on Cree and Inuit land on the eastern shore of James Bay.

● 1994 - Outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip, 15 people were killed and more than 150 wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on rioting worshipers.

● 1996 - A fire occurs in the Channel Tunnel soon after it opens.

● 1997 - Gary Glitter is arrested in the United Kingdom on child pornography charges. He is currently being held in Thailand on similar charges.

● 1997 - The FBI officially pulled out of the probe into the TWA Flight 800 disaster. They said the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747 was not caused by a criminal act. 230 people were killed.

● 1997 - First Union Corp. announced its purchase of CoreStates Financial Corp. for $16.1 billion. To date it was the largest banking deal in U.S. history.

● 1999 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.

● 1999 - In Jasper, TX, Shawn Allen Berry was sentenced to life in prison, sparing him the death penalty, for his role in the racially motivated dragging death murder of James Byrd Jr. John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer both received the death penalty earlier in the year for their roles in the crime.

● 2000 - Hollywood meets Wales in 'wedding of year'; The film world celebrates the celebrity wedding of the year as film star Michael Douglas marries Welsh actress Catherine Zeta Jones.

● 2001 - Phillips Petroleum Co. and Conoco Inc. announced they were merging in a deal that created the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company.

● 2001 - Nintendo released the GameCube home video game console in the United States.

● 2001 - In London, 100,000 march against the U.S./British attacks against Afghanistan.

● 2002 - The oil tanker Prestige capsizes off the coast of Spain, beginning what becomes the biggest environmental disaster in the history of Western Europe.

● 2002 - U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year hiatus, calling on Saddam Hussein's government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction.

● 2002 - The state of New Jersey banned the game Dodgeball from public schools.

● 2003 - High security as Bush visits UK; The US President, George W Bush, is on a state visit to Britain amid the tightest security London has ever seen.

● 2003 - In the UK the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective.

● 2003 - The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.

● 2003 - The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal's CPI(ML).

● 2004 - Bill Clinton's presidential library opened in Little Rock, Ark.; in attendance were President George W. Bush and former presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.

● 2004 - Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales.

● 2004 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.

● 2005 - Robert Blake was found liable for the wrongful death of his wife in a civil trial. The jury has ordered him to pay $30 million.

BIRTHS

● 1522 - Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Flemish general and statesman (d. 1568)

● 1647 - Pierre Bayle, French philosopher (d. 1706)

● 1772 - Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, German prince (d. 1806)

● 1785 - David Wilkie, British artist (d. 1841)

● 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826)

● 1787 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French inventor and photographer (d. 1851)

● 1804 - Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora, Italian general and statesman (d. 1878)

● 1832 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Swedish explorer (d. 1901)

● 1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert, British lyricist for comic operas; collaborated with Sir Arthur Sullivan (d. 1911)

● 1836 - Cesare Lombroso, Italian psychiatrist and founder of criminology (d. 1909)

● 1839 - August Kundt, German physicist (d. 1894)

● 1856 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929)

● 1860 - Ignacy Paderewski, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1941)

● 1861 - Dorothea Dix, American activist (d. 1887)

● 1870 - Dorothy Dix, pseudonym of US journalist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (d. 1951)

● 1874 - Clarence Day, American author (d. 1935)

● 1882 - Jacques Maritain, French philosopher (d. 1973)

● 1883 - Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (d. 1981)

● 1891 - Gio Ponti, Italian architect (d. 1979)

● 1897 - Patrick Blackett, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)

● 1898 - Joris Ivens, Dutch filmmaker (d. 1989)

● 1899 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-born American conductor (d. 1985)

● 1901 - George Gallup, American statistician and pioneering opinion pollster (d. 1984)

● 1906 - Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)

● 1906 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)

● 1907 - Compay Segundo, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) (d. 2003)

● 1908 - Imogene Coca, American actress and comedienne (d. 2001)

● 1909 - Johnny Mercer, American lyricist (d. 1976)

● 1915 - Ken Burkhart, Baseball player (d. 2004)

● 1916 - Amelita Galli-Curci, Italian soprano (d. 1963)

● 1919 - Jocelyn Brando, American actress (d. 2005)

● 1922 - Luis Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan president (d. 1967)

● 1923 - Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to travel in space (d. 1998)

● 1923 - Ted Stevens, U.S. senator, R-Alaska

● 1925 - Gene Mauch, baseball manager (d. 2005)

● 1927 - Hank Ballard, American musician (d. 2003)

● 1931 - Brad Sulllivan, Actor

● 1935 - Rudolf Bahro, German dissident (d. 1997)

● 1939 - Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer

● 1939 - Brenda Vaccaro, American actress

● 1940 - Qaboos ibn Sa’id, Sultan of Oman

● 1941 - David Hemmings, British actor (d. 2003)

● 1942 - Linda Evans, American actress

● 1944 - Susan Sullivan, American actress

● 1944 - Wolfgang Joop, German artist, fashion designer and art collector

● 1946 - Alan Dean Foster, American author

● 1946 - Jacky Ward, Country singer

● 1947 - Jameson Parker, American actor

● 1948 - Andrea Marcovicci, American singer and actress

● 1948 - Jack Tatum, American football player

● 1949 - Herman Rarebell, Rock musician (The Scorpions)

● 1950 - Graham Parker, Singer

● 1950 - Eric Pierpoint, American actor

● 1951 - Justin Raimondo, American author

● 1952 - Delroy Lindo, British actor

● 1953 - Alan Moore, British comic book writer and novelist

● 1953 - Kevin Nealon, Comedian (''Weeds,'' ''Saturday Night Live'')

● 1954 - John Parr, British pop singer

● 1956 - Noel Brotherston, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1995)

● 1956 - Warren Moon, American football player and Hall of Fame member

● 1957 - Seán Mac Falls, Irish-born poet

● 1958 - Laura Miller, Mayor of Dallas, Texas

● 1959 - Jimmy Quinn, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

● 1960 - Elizabeth Perkins, Actress ("Weeds")

● 1960 - Kim Wilde, British singer

● 1962 - Kirk Hammett, American guitarist (Metallica)

● 1962 - Jamie Moyer, baseball player

● 1963 - Dante Bichette, baseball player

● 1963 - Peter Schmeichel, Danish footballer

● 1963 - Len Bias, American basketball player (d. 1986)

● 1965 - Tim DeLaughter, Rock singer

● 1966 - Jorge Camacho, Spanish poet

● 1968 - Barry Hunter, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

● 1968 - Gary Sheffield, baseball player

● 1968 - Owen Wilson, American actor

● 1969 - Sam Cassell, American basketball player

● 1969 - Duncan Sheik, Rock singer

● 1970 - Peta Wilson, Australian actress

● 1973 - Nic Pothas, South African/English Wicket-keeper

● 1974 - Chloë Sevigny, American actress

● 1975 - David Ortiz, Dominican Major League Baseball player; Boston Red Sox designated hitter

● 1975 - Jason Williams, Basketball player

● 1976 - Jessi Alexander, Country singer

● 1976 - Steven Pasquale, Actor

● 1976 - Martin Bertram, author of Vanity of Vanities

● 1977 - Trent Barrett, Australian rugby league player

● 1977 - Fabolous, American rapper

● 1978 - Damien Johnson, Northern Irish footballer

● 1979 - Fabolous, Rapper

● 1981 - Mike Jones, Rapper

● 1983 - Jon Johansen, Norwegian software developer

● 1984 - Jonathan "Johnny Christ" Seward, American musician (Avenged Sevenfold)

● 1985 - Rex Goudie, Canadian singer

DEATHS

● 1154 - Adélaide de Maurienne, wife of Louis VI of France (b. 1092)

● 1305 - John II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1239)

● 1559 - Cuthbert Tunstall, English churchman (b. 1474)

● 1590 - George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, English statesman (b. 1528)

● 1724 - Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Portuguese naturalist (b. 1685)

● 1785 - Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier and writer (b. 1725)

● 1797 - Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder and merchant (b. 1719)

● 1814 - William Jessop, British civil engineer (b. 1745)

● 1886 - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States (b. 1829)

● 1889 - William Allingham, Irish author

● 1922 - Marcel Proust, French novelist (b. 1871)

● 1941 - Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)

● 1941 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1867)

● 1952 - Paul Eluard, French poet (b. 1895)

● 1962 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)

● 1965 - Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States (b. 1888)

● 1967 - Luis Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan president (b. 1922)

● 1969 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American politician, financier and diplomat, father of three U.S. Senators and one U.S. president (b. 1888)

● 1976 - Man Ray, American artist (b. 1890)

● 1978 - Jim Jones, American cult leader suicide (b. 1931)

● 1978 - Leo Ryan, U.S. Congressman (b. 1905)

● 1979 - Freddie Fitzsimmons, baseball player (b. 1901)

● 1980 - Conn Smythe, NHL coach 1927-1931 (b. 1895)

● 1982 - Duk Koo Kim, Korean boxer (b. 1959)

● 1984 - Mary Hamman, American writer and editor, modern living editor LIFE and eidtor in chief Bride & Home (b. 1907)

● 1986 - Gia Carangi, American model AIDS (b. 1960)

● 1987 - Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist cancer (b. 1934)

● 1991 - Gustáv Husák, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1913)

● 1994 - Cab Calloway, American bandleader (b. 1907)

● 1999 - Paul Bowles, American novelist (b. 1910)

● 2002 - James Coburn, American actor (b. 1928)

● 2003 - Michael Kamen, American composer (b. 1948)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholid Saints
● Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and Paul
● St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne
● St. Odo of Cluny
● St. Anselm
● St. Thomas of Antioch
● St. Hesychius of Antioch
● St. Keverne
● St. Leonard Kimura
● St. Romanus and Barula
● St. Nazarius
● St. Oriculus and Companions
● St. Mawes
● St. Maximus
● St. Mummolus
● Bl. John Shoun

● Roman festivals - day 1 Dios dedicated to the sun god by emperor Licinius

● Anglican:
● Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for November 5 (Civil Date: November 18)
● Martyrs Galacteon and his wife Episteme at Emesa.
● Repose of St. Jonah, Archbishop of Novgorod.
● Apostles Patrobus, Hermas, Linus, Gaius and Philologus of the Seventy.
● St. Gregory, Archbishop of Alexandria.
● Martyrs Domninus, Timothy, Theophilus, Theotimus, Dorotheus, Eupsychius, Carterius, Pamphilius, Agathangelus and Castorus of Palestine.
● Hieromartyr Silvanus, Bishop of Gaza.
● Repose of Blessed Hilarion, recluse of Troekurovo (1853).

● Venezuela - Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá, also known as la Chinita, in the western state of Zulia

● Latvia - Independence Day (1918)

● Albania Independence Day 1912 :

● Haiti : Army Day

● YWCA : World Fellowship Day

● Morocco : Independence Day

● Oman : National Day

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● US : National Children's Book Week Begins ( Monday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Permanent Backlink to Post