December 11 is:
National “Have a Bagel” Day
Foodimentary.com
The bagel originated in Poland and it was designed for Lent.
Its name derives from the Yiddish word ‘bengal’, meaning ‘ring’ or ‘bracelet’.
The hole in the center of the bagel is for multiple bagels to be threaded onto a dowel, which allows bakers to transport the bagel more easily.
National Noodle Ring Day
Scaling Day or L’Escalade:
L’Escalade, or Fête de l’Escalade (from escalade, the act of scaling defensive walls) is an annual festival held in December in Geneva, Switzerland, celebrating the defeat of the surprise attack by troops sent by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy during the night of 11–12 December 1602. The celebrations and other commemorative activities are usually held on 12 December or the closest weekend.
Publication of Federalist Paper #20: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union written by James Madison in 1787. Federalist Paper #20 is the third written by Madison on the subject of the inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation. In his previous papers he outlined the problems of confederacy which hampered ancient Greece, Germany, Poland, and the Swiss Cantons. In this paper he describes the system in the Netherlands. He concludes that a government under the Articles leads to “imbecility in the government, discord among the States, foreign influence and indignities; a precarious existence in peace and peculiar calamities from war”.
French Revolution : King Louis XVI of France was put on trial for treason by the National Convention in 1792.
Indiana Admission Day (1816) nineteenth state
- Capital: Indianapolis
- Nickname: Hoosier State
- Bird: Cardinal
- Flower: Peony
- Tree: Tulip Tree
- Motto: The crossroads of America
See our page Indiana for more interesting facts and trivia about Indiana.
Marconi sent first transatlantic radio signal, Cornwall to Newfoundland in 1901.
On December 11, 1919, the citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, erected a monument to the Boll Weevil, the pest that devastated their fields but forced residents to end their dependence on cotton and to pursue mixed farming and manufacturing. Measuring an average length of six millimeters (one-quarter inch), the insect entered the United States via Mexico in the 1890s and reached southeastern Alabama in 1915. It remained the most destructive cotton pest in North America for much of the twentieth century.
A congressional report of 2002 found that intelligence agencies before Sept. 11, 2001, were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented that day’s terrorist attacks.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.)(by clicking the Windows Media Player icon button, a midi file will play [if it’s installed on your computer. No music has been embedded.
Per Wikipedia: “Winter Wonderland” is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. A later version of “Winter Wonderland” (which was printed in 1947) included a “new children’s lyric” that transformed it “from a romantic winter interlude to a seasonal song about playing in the snow”. The snowman mentioned in the song’s bridge was changed from Parson Brown to a circus clown, and the promises the couple made in the final verse were replaced with lyrics about frolicking. Singers like Johnny Mathis connected both versions, adding a verse and chorus.
Winter Wonderland
Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We’re happy tonight,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Gone away is the bluebird,
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song,
As we go along,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown
He’ll say: Are you married?
We’ll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you’re in town.
Later on, we’ll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we’ve made,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he’s a circus clown
We’ll have lots of fun with mister snowman,
Until the other kids knock him down.
When it snows, ain’t it thrilling,
Though your nose gets a chilling
We’ll frolic and play, the Eskimo way,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Walking in a winter wonderland,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict demanding that he recant or face excommunication on December 10, 1520.
Birthday of Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830), American poet. One of her best-known poems was
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884. This book is in the public domain and can be read at our site 
Weary Willie Day from the birthday of Emmett Kelly, American clown who created “Weary Willie”
The Petrified Forest National Park was established in Arizona in 1962. Petrified Forest National Park is known for its fossils, especially of fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic period of the Mesozoic era, about 225 million years ago. During this period, the region that is now the park was near the equator on the southwestern edge of the supercontinent Pangaea, and its climate was humid and sub-tropical. What later became northeastern Arizona was a low plain flanked by mountains to the south and southeast and a sea to the west. Streams flowing across the plain from the highlands deposited inorganic sediment and organic matter, including trees as well as other plants and animals that had entered or fallen into the water. Although most organic matter decays rapidly or is eaten by other organisms, some is buried so quickly that it remains intact and may become fossilized.
A Charlie Brown Christmas, first in a series of Peanuts television specials, debuted on CBS in 1965.
American outlaw Jesse James committed his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri in 1869.
1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, was launched. The crew took the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they left the Earth.
In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook became the first European to visit Maui in 1778. He was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
The tomb of Tutankhamun was entered on November 26, 1922. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.
A classic Thanksgiving tradition!
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified Republican George W. Bush the winner over Democrat Al Gore in the state’s 2000 presidential balloting by 537 votes.
Birthday of Jean Francois Marie Arouet (Voltaire), (November 21, 1694) French Enlightenment author, historian and philosopher. Author of “Candide”. Known for his wit and attacks on the established Church. He was a key figure in the European intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment.
In 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia took the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.
Former First Lady Florence Harding died of renal failure on November 21, 1924, at Marion, Ohio, U.S., wife of
1942 – Tweety Bird, aka Tweety Pie, debuted in “Tale of Two Kitties”
1849 – 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.
In 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.
Birthday of Abigail Smith Adams (November 11, 1744), wife of 
Birthday of George Patton, (Nov. 11, 1885), the famous World War II American military officer.
Anniversary of the burial of the Unknown Soldier at the Tomb of the Unknowns in 1921 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The tomb is guarded by soldiers of the United States Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment. The first 24-hour guard was posted on midnight, July 2, 1937. The Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since that time. Inclement weather, terrorist attacks, etc, do not cause the watch to cease.
1887 –
Former President