November 28 is:
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
See our page at Thanksgiving for tidbits of history about Thanksgiving!
National French Toast Day
French toast was not invented in France. In fact, French toast was around long before France even existed as a country.
The earliest reference to French toast dates all the way back to 4th century Rome.The name for French toast in France is “pain perdu”, which means “lost bread.”
November 28, 1520 – The first navigation of the Magellan Strait, to the south of mainland South America, was completed by Ferdinand Magellan and his crew.
Birthday of William Blake, (November 28, 1757), English poet, painter and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.
Second Continental Congress formally established U.S. Navy in 1775.
Publication of Federalist Paper #13: Advantage of the Union in Respect to Economy in Government written by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton looks at the cost of supporting several confederacies vs the economy of supporting one federal government. He speculates that, if the states should form their own unions, there would be two – North and South based on geographical and commercial considerations. Each would have to support its own defense and bureaucracy.
Olympia formed as capital of Washington Territory in 1853.
1861 – Confederate Congress officially admitted Missouri to Confederacy
1925 – The Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance.
1942 Fire destroyed the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston, killing nearly 500 people.
1943 – World War II: Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy.
“Hopalong Cassidy” premiered on TV in 1948.
Red Planet Day to commemorate the first launch in 1964 of Mariner 4, the first spacecraft to obtain and transmit close range images of Mars.
1972 – Last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems are guillotined at La Santé Prison. The chief executioner was André Obrecht. Buffet was already serving a life sentence in prison. During a prison riot, Buffet and Bontems slit the throats of two hostages. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder, but as Buffet’s accomplice was condemned to death anyway).
Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn were made Honorary Citizens of the United States on November 28, 1984.
Losing a football game may have saved the lives of some college players.
In 1942 Boston College was unbeaten and had only archrival Hoy Cross to beat to insure a
trip to the Sugar Bowl. (Remember back then there were only 4 major bowl games).
To the surprise of all, Holy Cross pulled the year’s biggest upset, winning, 55-12.
So distraught were the B.C. players they CANCELED their celebration for a perfect season ending win which they had scheduled for—the Coconut Grove Night Club.
Nearly 500 people lost their lives in that fire that burned down the club.