November 24th
 

Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury (real name Farouk Bulsara) died today in 1991


Abel Tasman discovered Van Diemen's land, later renamed Tasmania, today in 1642


Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published in 1859. It caused HUGE controversy for years to come.


In 1871, The National Rifle Association was incorporated


Today in 1874, Joseph Farwell Glidden patented barbed wire


This day in 1963, Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's accused assassin, in the garage of Dallas police headquarters

For all (any?) of you who still follow this thread-ful of interesting & inane guff (:)) . server problems prevented any post yesterday, and absence from my loved one (& my OWN P.C.) will likely prevent any today, too.

So, if anyone out there has some amusing little date-stamped anecdotes to share (STEPH?!?!) please, feel free!!

DM

November 26th

1832: Public streetcar service began in New York City. The fare: 12 1/2 cents

1942: The movie Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman, premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.

On Nov. 27, 1973, the Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who'd resigned.

November 27th
 

The French navy scuttled it's ships in Toulon harbour in 1942, to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis.


In 1841, the thirty-five survivors of the slave-ship 'Amistad' finally return to Africa.


In 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will, which established the Nobel Prize.


New York's Pennsylvania Station opened today in 1910


Playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65 this day in 1953


In 1970, Pope Paul VI was attacked at the Manila airport by a Bolivian painter disguised as a priest

November 28th
 

In 1942, nearly 500 people died in a fire that destryoed the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston


In 1520, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan passed through the strait which bears his name to the Pacific ocean


William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway today in 1582


In 1919, American-born Lady Astor became the first woman to take a seat in the British Parliament


Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met in Tehran for their first meeting during World War II on this day in 1942


Today in 1964 the U.S. spacecraft Mariner 4 launched—on its way to the first successful mission to Mars.

On Nov. 29, 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

November 29th
 

At Sand Creek, Colorado, in 1864, Major Chivington's Militia attacked the Cheyenne encampment there, massacring over 400 people, many of them chidren. His explanation for this atrocity later... "Nits make Lice!"


Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels in 1924 before he could complete his opera "Turandot


Commander Richard E. Byrd and a crew of three became the first to fly over the South Pole today in 1929


The Beatles released I Want to Hold Your Hand in Great Britain today in 1963


Also today, in 1963, President Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy


Actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82, in 1986


Beatle George Harrison died of cancer today in 2001.

November 30th
 

Oscar Wilde's last words, "One or other of us HAS to go!", were uttered to the wallpaper in a Paris hotel in 1900


In 1894, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase was tried for political bias


Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married in 1940


Barbados became independent of Great Britain today in 1966


In 1974 the fossilized remains of a female human ancestor named Lucy (after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) were found in Ethiopia.


The Brady Bill, requiring a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, is signed today in 1993


In 1995, President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president to visit Northern Ireland


Finally........


Today is Saint Andrews day, a celebration of the Patron Saint of Scotland!! (of Russia too, but we don't talk about that!!)


Slainte, everybody!

DM

1696 St. John's, Newfoundland - Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville takes St. John's with Bonaventure; troops loot and burn on the other side of the peninsula.

1782 Britain signs agreement recognizing US independence

1803 Spain cedes her claims to Louisiana Territory to France

1981 Porn star John Holmes arrested on fugitive charges

On Dec. 1, 1959, representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.

December 1st
 

Today is, as many of you will probably know, is World AIDS Day!


The 1824 presidential election between John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, and Henry Clay was turned over to the House of Representatives due to the lack of an electoral-vote majority


Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes appeared for the first time in print in the story "A Study in Scarlet" today in 1887


Today in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her front-section bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.


Representatives from more than 150 countries gathered at a global warming summit in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, and over the course of ten days forged an agreement to control the emission of greenhouse gases.

On Dec. 2, 1954, the Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R Wis., for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."

December 2nd
 

"Official" Lunatic the Marquis de Sade died today in 1814. (He probably enjoyed it, too!! :))


Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor of France in Paris by Pope Pius VII in 1814.


In 1823 President James Monroe outlined his famous doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere


In 1859 Abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry


The first controlled nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated at the University of Chicago today in 1942


Today in 1970 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established


Barney B. Clark became the first person to receive an artificial heart in a transplant operation carried out today in 1982


A combined Protestant and Catholic cabinet convened for the first time in Northern Ireland today in 1999.