Tidbits of History, November 16

November 16 is:

National Fast Food Day
During the early 1900s, the hamburger was thought to be polluted, unsafe to eat, and food for the poor. Street carts, not restaurants, typically served them.
There are more than 300,000 fast food restaurants in the U.S. alone

From Today in Science
In 1620, the first corn (maize) found in the U.S. by British settlers was discovered in Provincetown, Mass., by sixteen desperately hungry Pilgrims led by Myles Standish, William Bradford, Stephen Hopkins, and Edward Tilley at a place they named Corn Hill. The food came from a previously harvested cache belonging to a local Indian tribe. This corn provided a much needed supply of food which saw the Pilgrims through their first winter in the New World. A commemorative plaque placed on Corn Hill quotes in part “And sure it was God’s good providence that we found this corn for else we know not how we should have done.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky1849 – A Russian court sentenced writer Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group. At the last moment, a note from Tsar Nicholas I was delivered to the scene of the firing squad, commuting the sentence to ten years’ hard labor in Siberia. Dostoevsky’s seizures, which may have started in 1839, increased in frequency in Siberia, and he was diagnosed with epilepsy. On his release, he was forced to serve as a soldier, before being discharged on grounds of ill health. He survived until 1881. Dostoevsky was the author of Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov.

Oklahoma City Oklahoma became the United States 46th state on November 16, 1907

  • Capital: Oklahoma City
  • Nickname: Sooner State
  • Bird: Scissor-tailed flycatcher
  • Flower: Mistletoe
  • Tree: Redbud

See our page Oklahoma for more interesting facts and trivia about Oklahoma.

Trivia:: Although the film, Oklahoma, was initially to have been shot on location in the title state, the producers opted to shoot elsewhere, apparently because the oil wells would be a distraction for exterior scenes. Location shooting was done mostly in Nogales, Arizona. The corn field in the opening number as well as the reprise song, “Surrey With the Fringe On Top” was shot at the historic Canoa Ranch in Green Valley, Arizona. The train station used in the “Kansas City” routine was located in Elgin, Arizona.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music” opened on Broadway in 1959.

Charlie B Rangel convicted of ethics violations Nov 16, 2010In 2010, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel was convicted on 11 of 13 charges related to financial misconduct, prompting fellow lawmakers to censure the 80-year-old New York Democrat. Despite the ethics violations, Rangel was re-elected in 2012 and 2014.

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