Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Materialism "Our economic system must create men who fit its needs; men who cooperate smoothly; men who want to consume more and more." — Erich Fromm
Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Fuzzy Math "Did the Reagan tax cuts cause the deficits of the 1980's? Not at all. In fact, government revenue nearly doubled during the Reagan years." {If this is true then the spending tripled causing the deficits.} — Sean Hannity, Let Freedom Ring, NY: Reganbooks, HarperCollins, 2002, pp. 222-223.
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From Politics "If it has got four legs and isn't a chair, if it has two wings and isn't a plane, and if it swims and isn't a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." — Prince Philip
{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}
NASA ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY
Expansive Comet Holmes
Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT
Click picture to go to NASA APOD site for full explanation
EVENTS
● 164 B.C.E. - Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. Events commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
● 235 - Anterus is elected Pope.
● 479 - Chinese philosopher Confucius dies.
● 1272 - Following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward becomes King of England.
● 1620 - Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (11 November, O.S.).
● 1694 - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet) born, Paris. At 65 he spent all of three days writing "Candide."
● 1775 - First performance of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Duenna at Covent Garden Theatre, London.
● 1783 - France - Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois Laurant d'Arlandes make the first flight in a balloon, becoming the first men to fly -- period. They flew nearly six miles around Paris in 25 minutes reaching an altitude of about 300 feet. Benjamin Franklin was a spectator.
● 1784 - James Armistead is cited by French General Lafayette for his valuable service to the American forces in the Revolutionary War. Born into slavery 24 years earlier, had worked as a double agent for the Americans while supposedly employed as a servant of British General Cornwallis.
● 1789 - North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
● 1791 - Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte is promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic.
● 1801 - "Federal Bonfire Number Two," a mysterious fire swept the offices of the Department of Treasury, destroying books and papers, after Democratic-Republicans demanded proof that the expenditures of Timothy Pickering, the recently replaced Federalist Secretary of War, could be properly accounted for.
● 1817 - Infuriated by Seminole resistance, General Edmund Gaines orders 250 soldiers to attack and destroy the Seminole village of Fowltown.
● 1831 - Silk workers' strike in Lyon, France district de la Croix Rousse. The whole city rises in insurrection when Nationale guard kills several workers.
● 1861 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war.
● 1866 - Birth of Egyptian pan-Africanist Duse Mohammed Effendi.
● 1870 - Birth of anarchist Alexander Berkman, Vilna, Russia.
● 1877 - Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound.
● 1894 - Port Arthur massacre: Port Arthur, Manchuria falls to the Japanese, a decisive Japanese victory of the First Sino-Japanese War.
● 1897 - Birth of Mollie Steimer. Russian-American-Jewish-Mexican anarchist and labor agitator. Her militant activities got her deported from both the U.S. in 1921 (after getting 15 years of prison for publishing a leaflet opposing the landing of U.S. troops in Russia), and Russia (1923). Escaped a Nazi internment camp and fled to Mexico.
● 1905 - Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", is published in the journal "Annalen der Physik". This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc².
● 1916 - The HMHS Britannic sinks in the Aegean Sea after an explosion from an unknown object, killing 30 people.
● 1918 - Ten days after Armistice, two German ammunition trains explode in Hamont, Belgium; 1,750 die.
● 1920 - Bloody Sunday during the Anglo-Irish War
● 1922 - Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first woman United States Senator.
● 1922 - Ricardo Flores Magen, Mexican anarchist, author, dies at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas, USA. His remains returned to Mexico, where they rest at the Rotunda of Illustrious Men in Mexico City and he has a city named after him.
● 1927 - Columbine Mine Massacre: Striking IWW coal miners were attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed in civilian clothes.
● 1929 - Birth of Marilyn French. American author, famous for her feminist novels. In her works she underlines that U.S. culture is founded on contempt for women, as examined in her study "The War Against Women" (1992).
● 1942 - The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the highway was not usable by general vehicles until 1943, however).
● 1945 - Two hundred thousand United Auto Workers strike against General Motors.
● 1953 - Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the "Piltdown Man" skull, held to be one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax.
● 1962 - Ceasefire by China in Sino-Indian border conflict.
● 1962 - SALT II disarmament talks open, Geneva, Switzerland.
● 1962 - The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral cease-fire in the Sino-Indian War.
● 1963 - JFK would go to sleep for the last time before his death. George H. W. Bush, working for the CIA would sleep in Dallas that night.
● 1964 - Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.
● 1964 - The Verrazano Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (at the time it was the world's longest suspension bridge).
● 1967 - Exorcism of the Pentagon, Washington D.C. march - 50,000. Two hundred fifty arrested including Norman Mailer.
● 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."
● 1968 - A portrait of Frederick Douglass appears on the cover of Life magazine. The cover story, "Search for a Black Past," is the first in a four-part series of stories in which the magazine examines African-Americans, a review of 50 years of struggle, with interviews of a young Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, Eldridge Cleaver, Dick Gregory, and others.
● 1969 - Fifty U.S. commandos stage a daring helicopter raid on North Vietnam's Sontay Prison Camp, 23 miles from Hanoi, in an attempt to rescue POW's, only to discover that the camp had been evacuated three weeks before.
● 1969 - Senate turns down first U.S. Supreme Court nominee (Nixon's) since 1930 (Johnson's lame duck appointment of Abe Fortas the year before never came up for a vote.), Clement Haynsworth, Jr. Haynsworth was widely criticized as a segregationist, but he failed to win Congressional approval only after it was revealed he bought 1,000 shares of Brunswick Corp. stock after he voted on a decision affecting the company, but before the decision was announced.
● 1969 - The first ARPANET link is established.
● 1969 - US President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, DC on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under terms of the agreement, the US is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
● 1970 - Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast - A joint Air Force and Army team raids the Son Tay prison camp in an attempt to free American POWs thought to be held there.
● 1971 - Indian troops partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas) defeated the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.
● 1973 - Eighteen minute gap discovered in subpoenaed tape of Watergate conversations made by President Richard Nixon three days after the Watergate break-in. White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig later attributed The Gap to "sinister forces." He would know. Nixon would blame his secretary.
● 1974 - The Birmingham Pub Bombings by the IRA killed 21 people. The Birmingham Six were sentenced to life in prison for this and subsequently acquitted.
● 1974 - U.S. Freedom of Information Act passed over Pres. Ford's veto. (Ford was fearing the 18 minute gap would get out.)
● 1977 - Minister of Internal Affairs Hon Allan Highet announced that 'the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional anthem 'God Save the Queen' and the poem 'God Defend New Zealand', written by Thomas Bracken, as set to music by John Joseph Woods, both being of equal status as national anthems appropriate to the occasion'.
● 1979 - The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set alight, killing four.
● 1980 - A deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). 87 people are killed and more than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.
● 1980 - Lake Peigneur drained into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe drilled into the Diamond crystal salt mine; water flowing down into the mine eroded the edges of the hole. The whirlpool created sucked the drilling platform, several barges, houses and trees thousands of feet, to the bottom of the dissolving salt deposit.
● 1981 - Four hundred thousand demonstrate in Amsterdam against cruise missiles.
● 1984 - TransAfrica's Randall Robinson, congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy, and U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Mary Frances Berry arrested at a sit-in at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. Their demonstration against apartheid spreads to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and elsewhere, involving such notables as Jesse Jackson, Arthur Ashe, Harry Belafonte, and Stevie Wonder. Their efforts play a large part in the passage of the Antiapartheid Act of 1986, imposing economic sanctions against South Africa. Berry, meanwhile, would go on to notoriety 15 years later as the hack Clinton appointee whose oversight of the Pacifica Network would turn that venerable community-based bastion of radio free speech into just another tightly controlled tool of corporate media parasites.
● 1985 - DA drops all charges against 138 students arrested at Biko Hall sit-in, Univ. of California-Berkeley.
● 1985 - United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard is arrested for spying (he was caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison).
● 1986 - Iran-Contra Affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
● 1987 - Cuban prisoners at a detention center in Oakdale, Louisiana riot and take control when the U.S. announces reactivation of a 1984 agreement allowing Cuba to take back 2,000 "undesirables" in the U.S. A federal prison in Atlanta was commandeered two days later. The Oakdale standoff ended November 29 with release of hostages; the Atlanta crisis was resolved December 4 after the government agreed to grant a fair review of each Cuban's case.
● 1988 - Canadian federal election, Canadians re-elect the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney after an election campaign fought mainly over the issue of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement.
● 1989 - Czechoslovakia - One million demonstrators over next week; movement becomes general strike.
● 1990 - Charter of Paris for a New Europe refocusses the efforts of the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europeon post-Cold War issues.
● 1990 - U.S. junk bond king Michael Milken sentenced to 10 years for tax fraud. Resurfaces by end of decade promoting grand new schemes for privatizing education. Hey, if you can't fool the adults...
● 1991 - "The Apple of God's Eye", an undercover investigative journalism piece exposing the fundraising practices of American televangelist Robert Tilton, airs on ABC's Primetime Live newsmagazine show for the first time.
● 1993 - Congress passes North American Free Trade Agreement. Pres. Clinton signs immediately so that the treaty can take effect by the new year.
● 1995 - The Dayton Peace Agreement was initialed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement was formally ratified in Paris, on December 14 that same year.
● 1996 - A propane explosion at the Humberto Vidal shoe store and office building in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 33.
● 2002 - NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.
● 2004 - The island of Dominica is hit by its most destructive earthquake in history; the northern half of the island receives the most damage, especially in the town of Portsmouth. It is also felt in neighboring Guadeloupe, where one person is killed as a result.
● 2004 - The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt.
● 2004 - The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election is held, unleashing massive protests and controversy with regards to the election's integrity.
BIRTHS
● 1495 - John Bale, English churchman (d. 1563)
● 1567 - Anne de Xainctonge, French saint (d. 1621)
● 1692 - Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (d. 1768)
● 1694 - Voltaire, French philosopher (d. 1778)
● 1761 - Dorothy Jordan, British actress (d. 1816)
● 1768 - Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, German theologian (d. 1834)
● 1787 - Samuel Cunard, Canadian-born shipping magnate (d. 1865)
● 1811 - Zeng Guofan, Chinese military (d. 1872)
● 1835 - Hetty Green, American businesswoman (d. 1916)
● 1840 - Victoria, Princess Royal of Great Britain and German Empress (d. 1901)
● 1852 - Francisco Tárrega, father of modern classical guitar (d. 1909)
● 1854 - Pope Benedict XV (d. 1922)
● 1860 - Tom Horn, American gunman (d. 1903)
● 1870 - Joe Darling, Australian cricketer (d. 1946)
● 1870 - Sigfrid Edström, Swedish sports official (d. 1964)
● 1878 - Gustav Radbruch, German law professor (d. 1949)
● 1886 - Harold Nicolson, British diplomat (d. 1968)
● 1897 - Mollie Steimer anarchist agitator (d. 1980)
● 1898 - René Magritte, Belgian painter (d. 1967)
● 1899 - Jobyna Ralston, American actress (d. 1967)
● 1902 - Foster Hewitt, Canadian radio pioneer (d. 1985)
● 1904 - Coleman Hawkins, American musician (d. 1969)
● 1908 - Elizabeth George Speare, American author (d. 1994)
● 1912 - Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (d. 1983)
● 1913 - Roy Boulting, British film director (d. 2001)
● 1916 - Sid Luckman, American football player (d. 1998)
● 1920 - Ralph Meeker, American actor
● 1920 - Stan Musial, American baseball player
● 1921 - Joonas Kokkonen, Finnish composer (d. 1996)
● 1922 - Maria Casares, Spanish-born actress (d. 1996)
● 1922 - Abe Lemons, American basketball coach
● 1924 - Christopher Tolkien, British author
● 1929 - Laurier LaPierre, Canadian journalist, broadcaster and senator
● 1929 - Marilyn French, American feminist writer
● 1931 - Revaz Dogonadze, Georgian scientist (d. 1985)
● 1931 - Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)
● 1933 - Joseph Campanella, American actor
● 1935 - Fairuz, Lebanese singer
● 1936 - Victor Chang, Australian physician (d. 1986)
● 1937 - Marlo Thomas, American actress
● 1939 - Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian politician
● 1940 - Dr. John, American musician
● 1940 - Richard Marcinko, American author
● 1941 - İdil Biret, Turkish pianist
● 1941 - Juliet Mills, British actress
● 1942 - Afa Anoa'i, Samoan/American wrestler
● 1942 - Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German politician
● 1943 - Phil Bredesen, American politician
● 1943 - Larry Mahan, American rodeo cowboy
● 1943 - Viktor Sidjak, Russian fencer
● 1943 - Jacques Laffite, French former racing driver
● 1944 - Richard Durbin, American politician
● 1944 - Earl Monroe, American basketball player
● 1944 - Harold Ramis, American actor/director
● 1945 - Goldie Hawn, American actress
● 1946 - Jacky Lafon, Belgian actress
● 1948 - George Zimmer, American entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Men's Wearhouse
● 1948 - Alphonse Mouzon, American jazzist
● 1950 - Stephen Geyer, American film & television songwriter
● 1950 - Alberto Juantorena, Cuban athlete
● 1956 - Ed Kaz, American journalist
● 1962 - Steven Curtis Chapman, American musician
● 1962 - Sabine Busch, German athlete
● 1963 - Nicollette Sheridan, British actress
● 1964 - Shane Douglas, American wrestler
● 1965 - Björk, Icelandic singer
● 1965 - Alexander Siddig, British actor
● 1966 - Troy Aikman, American football star
● 1967 - Tripp Cromer, American baseball player
● 1967 - Toshihiko Koga, Japanese Judoka
● 1968 - Alex James, English bassist
● 1968 - Christopher Noxon, American journalist
● 1969 - Ken Griffey, Jr., American baseball player
● 1970 - Justin Langer, Australian cricketer
● 1971 - Michael Strahan, American football player
● 1972 - David Tua, Samoan boxer
● 1973 - Brook Kerr, American actress
● 1973 - Ines Sastre, Spanish model and actress
● 1975 - Chris Moneymaker, American poker player
● 1976 - Daniel Whiston, British ice skater
● 1976 - Martin Meichelbeck, German footballer
● 1977 - Bruno Berner, Swiss footballer
● 1977 - Myles Heskett, Australian musician (Wolfmother)
● 1977 - Jonas Jennings, American Football Player
● 1977 - Tobias Sammet, German singer (Edguy)
● 1979 - Stromile Swift, professional basketball player
● 1979 - Alex Tanguay, Canadian hockey player
● 1979 - Kim Dong Wan, Korean singer (Shinhwa)
● 1979 - Vincenzo Iaquinta, Italian footballer
● 1980 - Hank Blalock, American baseball player
● 1980 - Leonardo González, Costa Rican footballer
● 1981 - Piet Rinke, Zimbabwean cricketer
● 1981 - Jonny Magallón, Mexican footballer
● 1982 - Georgios Kalogiannidis, Greek archer
● 1982 - Ryan Starr, American singer
● 1983 - Jamie Langley, English rugby player
● 1984 - Álvaro Bautista, Spanish motorcycle racer
● 1984 - Jena Malone, American Actress
● 1985 - Jesús Navas, Spanish footballer
● 1992 - Nevada-Tan, Japanese internet culture icon, known for slaying classmate.
DEATHS
● 496 - Pope Gelasius I
● 1361 - Philip I, Duke of Burgundy (plague) (b. 1346)
● 1555 - Georg Agricola, German scientist (b. 1490)
● 1566 - Annibale Caro, Italian poet (b. 1507)
● 1579 - Thomas Gresham, English merchant and financier
● 1652 - Jan Brożek, Polish mathematician, physician, and astronomer (b. 1585)
● 1695 - Henry Purcell, English composer
● 1775 - John Hill, British writer
● 1811 - Heinrich von Kleist, German writer (b. 1777)
● 1844 - Ivan Krylov, Russian fabulist (b. 1769)
● 1881 - Ami Boué, Austrian geologist (b. 1794)
● 1899 - Garret Hobart, Vice President of the United States (b. 1844)
● 1916 - Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria (b. 1830)
● 1922 - Ricardo Flores Magón, Mexican anarchist (b. 1874).
● 1924 - Florence Harding, American First Lady (b. 1860)
● 1941 - Henrietta Vinton Davis American elocutionist, dramatist, impersonator, public speaker (b. 1860)
● 1942 - Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (b. 1863)
● 1945 - Robert Benchley, American writer and actor (b. 1889)
● 1953 - Larry Shields, American jazz clarinetist (b. 1893)
● 1957 - Francis Burton Harrison, American political figure (b. 1873)
● 1958 - Mel Ott, American baseball player (b. 1909)
● 1959 - Max Baer, American boxer (b. 1909)
● 1963 - Robert Stroud (The Birdman of Alcatraz), American prisoner (b. 1890)
● 1969 - Mutesa II of Buganda, President of Uganda (1924)
● 1970 - Newsy Lalonde, National Hockey League player (b. 1887)
● 1970 - Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, Indian physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
● 1973 - Thomas Pelly, American politician (b. 1902)
● 1974 - John B. Gambling, American radio talk show host (b. 1897)
● 1980 - Sara García, Mexican actress.
● 1974 - Frank Martin, Swiss composer (b. 1890)
● 1981 - Harry Von Zell, American announcer (b. 1906)
● 1982 - John Hargrave, British Social Credit advocate (b. 1894)
● 1986 - Jerry Colonna, American comic (b. 1904)
● 1986 - Dar Robinson, American film stuntman (b. 1947)
● 1988 - Carl Hubbell, American baseball player (b. 1903)
● 1990 - Dean Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1954)
● 1991 - Sonny Werblin, former owner of the New York Jets (b. 1907)
● 1993 - Bill Bixby, American actor and director (b. 1934)
● 1995 - Peter Grant, British rock manager, actor (Led Zeppelin, Bad Company) (b. 1935)
● 1995 - Noel Jones, British diplomat (b. 1940)
● 1996 - Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1926)
● 1999 - Quentin Crisp, British writer, raconteur and actor (b. 1908)
● 2000 - Emil Zátopek, Czech long distance runner (b. 1922)
● 2001 - Salahuddin of Malaysia, King of Malaysia (b. 1926)
● 2001 - Melanie Thornton, German/American pop singer, former member of La Bouche. (b. 1967)
● 2002 - Hadda Brooks, American jazz singer, pianist, and composer (b. 1916)
● 2005 - Alfred Anderson, last Scottish World War I veteran (b. 1896)
● 2005 - Hugh Sidey, American journalist (b. 1927)
● 2006 - Pierre Amine Gemayel, Lebanese Cabinet minister (assassinated) (b. 1972)
● 2006 - Robert Lockwood Jr., American blues guitarist (b. 1915)
HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES
● Roman Catholic:
● Presentation of Mary
● St. Albert of Louvain
● St. Amelberga
● St. Digain
● St. Gelasius
● St. Heliodorus
● St. Hilary
● St. Honorius
● St. Maurus
● St. Rufus of Rome
● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for November 8 (Civil Date: November 21)
● Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers: the Archangels Gabriel, Raphael Uriel, Salaphiel, Jegudiel, and Barachiel
● Righteous Martha, Princess of Pskov.
● New Martyr Michael the Blessed of Chernigov (1922).
● Repose of Metropolitan Philaret of NYC (1985).
● Brazil - Our Lady of Apresentação (Nossa Senhora da Apresentação) Day, City of Natal only
● Bangladesh - Armed Forces Day in Bangladesh
● World Hello Day
● World Television Day
THIS IS AN ABBREVIATED POST FOR THIS DATE USING ONLY THE FOLLOWING SEVEN SOURCES. A COMPLETE POST IS PLANNED AS SOON AS TIME ALLOWS.
Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.
Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.
Roman Catholic Saint of the Day
Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar
Liberal Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004
Quotes from the Right of the Day taken from Take Them at Their Words: Startling, Amusing and Baffling Quotations from the GOP and Their Friends, 1994-2004 Compiled by Bruce J. Miller with Diana Maio ©2004
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day taken from 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said Edited by Steven D. Price ©2004
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