Tidbits of History

November 20 is:

National Peanut Butter Fudge Day
The exact origin of fudge is disputed, but most stories claim that it resulted from a bungled (“fudged”) batch of caramels made on February 14, 1886—hence the name “fudge.”

Publication of Federalist Paper #8: The Consequences of Hostilities Between the States written by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton discusses the necessity of a standing army. If the states are not united, stronger states could over-run smaller states; states would need to raise their own military. Hamilton then compares the U.S. to Great Britain which does not require a standing army because it is an island country with a strong navy. The U.S. is similar in that it is isolated from European attacks and state militias would be adequate until a national army could be assembled.

New Jersey became the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights in 1789. The Constitution had taken effect on June 21, 1788.

From Today in Science
In 1866, the first U.S. patent for a yoyo was issued to James L. Haven and Charles Hittrick of Cincinnati, Ohio. Although termed a “Whirligig” or a “Bandalore” in the patent title, it had the familiar construction of a yoyo with two disks “coupled together at their centers by means of a clutch.” It was also the first time rim-weighting to maintain momentum was mentioned in a patent. “It will be observed that the marginal swell … exercises the function of a flywheel.” This patent is important since it shows the first use of patents to protect design improvements in the manufacture of a yoyo. Messrs. Haven and Hettrick were in the business of mass-producing yoyos over a half century before the better known Flores brand.

Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, was born (November 20, 1917) Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Wilkesboro, N.C. His parents were Cornelius Calvin Sale Sr. and Ada Mae Kirdy. When he was ten months old, his mother died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic. In accordance with his mother’s wishes, his father dispersed their children among relatives. Calvin Jr. was adopted by his aunt and uncle, Titus and Vlurma Byrd, who changed his name to Robert Carlyle Byrd and raised him in the coal-mining region of southern West Virginia. Byrd served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959. He served as a United States Senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. In the 1940s, Byrd organized and led a local Klan chapter as its Exalted Cyclops, but he wasn’t a Grand Wizard as his often reported.

Birthday of Robert F Kennedy (November 20, 1925), U.S. Attorney General and Senator from New York. Brother of President John F. Kennedy. He was a Democratic candidate for president in 1968 when he was assassinated.

Birthday of PresidentJoseph Robinette Biden Jr, November 20, 1942, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released in 1985.

November 19 is:

World Toilet Day

International Men’s Day

National Macchiato Day
Macchiato is milk added to freshly brewed espresso.
Macchiatos are known for having more foam, rather than simply hot milk.
Two of the most common variations are: macchiato clado (served hot) and the macchiato freddo (served cold).
When Starbuck’s introduced the ‘Macchiato’ on their menu in 1987 it quickly became one of their most popular beverages on the menu.
Some Italians only drink cappuccinos in the morning and macchiatos in the afternoon.

The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain signed Jay’s Treaty in 1794, which attempted to resolve some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War.

Lewis & Clark reached the Pacific Ocean on November 19, 1805, becoming the first European-Americans to cross the continent.

Birthday of James Abram Garfield, (November 19, 1831) twentieth president of the U.S. Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other. In 1877 he said:

Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature …

On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

1953 – US Supreme Court ruled (7-2) in Toolson v. New York Yankees that baseball is a sport not a business, and therefore not subject to antitrust laws.

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November 18 is:

National Apple Cider Day
Kids were baptized in cider during the 14th century because it was believed that cider was more sanitary than water.
President John Adams drank cider every morning because he believed it promoted good health. Adams lived to 90 years old.
It takes about 36 apples to make one gallon of apple cider.

According to legend, William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head on this date in 1307.

Birthday of Louis Jacques Daguerre (November 18, 1789), French inventor of the “daguerreotype” method of producing permanent pictures.

Mark Twain’s short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was published in the New York Saturday Press. on November 18, 1865. The Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee takes place for a four day weekend, in Angels Camp, CA the third weekend in May every year and is one of California’s longest continually running fairs.

Birthday of Clarence Shepard Day (November 18, 1874), American author of “Life With Father”, a book famous in the late 1930’s, made into a movie in 1947.

In 1883, American and Canadian railroads instituted five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.

Death of Chester Alan Arthur , twenty-first President of the United States (November 18, 1886). He became President upon the death of James Garfield. Arthur died in New York City at age 57. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness.

In 1926, George Bernard Shaw refused to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying,

“I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”

Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie in 1928, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey’s birthday.

United States President John F. Kennedy sent 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam in 1961.

In 1966, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule forbidding the eating of meat on Fridays.

In Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, including over 270 children.

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November 17 is:

Take a Hike Day

National Baklava Day
Baklava is a rich, sweet dessert pastry made of layers of filo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup, frosting or honey.
Baklava is the ancestor of strudel.
It was brought to Hungary by Turkish invaders in the 16th century.

Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England died on November 17, 1558 and was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth I of England. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.

Publication of Federalist Paper #7: Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States written by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton continues his argument regarding internal threats from dissensions between the States if the country is not united. He raises the issue of Western lands which were ceded to the country – if the country is broken into sections, what is to become of those lands?

Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C., in 1880 in the partially completed Capitol building.

From Today in Science
In 1869, the Suez Canal in Egypt was opened with a ceremony attended by the French Empress Eugénie (wife of Napoleon III). The 100-mile long canal cuts across the Isthmus of Suez, thus linking the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, and providing a direct transportation route for trade between Europe and Asia. Its construction was accomplished by the French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps. As a former French consul to Cairo, de Lesseps had made an agreement (1854) with the Ottoman governor of Egypt, enabling the Suez Canal Company to be formed (1856) with the rights to construct and operate the canal for 99 years. Digging began 24 Apr 1859, by hand, with forced labour. Progress improved with European mechanical dredgers and steam shovels, but was delayed by labour disputes and a cholera epidemic. His later started work on the Panama Canal.

1933 – United States recognized Soviet Union, opening trade.

1934 Lyndon B. Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as “Lady Bird.”

1970 Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse

2003 Britney Spears, at 21 years old, becomes the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

November 12 is:

Chicken Soup for the Soul Day, a celebration of who you are, where you’ve been, where you are going.

National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day

Sebastian Viscaino landed at and named San Diego, California. in 1602.

Birthday of Letitia Christian Tyler (November 12, 1790), wife of John Tyler, First Lady 1841 until her death in 1842. In 1839, she had suffered a paralytic stroke that left her an invalid. As first lady, she remained in the upstairs living quarters of the White House. She made her only public appearance in the White House at the wedding of her daughter, Elizabeth. Letitia and John Tyler had eight children. Two years following her death of another stroke, John Tyler married Julia Gardiner and had an additional seven children.

Jules Leotard perfomed the first flying trapeze circus act in Paris in 1859. He also popularised the one-piece gym wear that now bears his name and inspired the 1867 song “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze”

Leon Trotsky expelled from Soviet CP in 1927; Joseph Stalin became undisputed dictator. Lev Davidovich Bronstein, better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Soviet revolutionary, Marxist theorist and politician whose particular strain of Marxist thought is known as Trotskyism. Trotsky joined the Bolshevik Party a few weeks before the October Revolution, thus immediately becoming a leader within the party, and was one of the leaders of the October Revolution of 1917.

In California, the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic in 1936.

1946 – Walt Disney’s “Song Of South” released in 1946. It was based on the Uncle Remus stories. Introduced the song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” as well as characters Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear. The film received much critical attention for its handling of race. According to Wikipedia:

At the same time, however, some black press had mixed reactions on what they thought of Song of the South. While Richard B. Dier in The Afro-American was “thoroughly disgusted” by the film for being “as vicious a piece of propaganda for white supremacy as Hollywood ever produced,” Herman Hill in The Pittsburgh Courier felt that Song of the South would “prove of inestimable goodwill in the furthering of interracial relations”, and considered criticisms of the film to be “unadulterated hogwash symptomatic of the unfortunate racial neurosis that seems to be gripping so many of our humorless brethren these days.”

Ellis Island closed in 1954 after processing more than 20 million immigrants since opening in New York Harbor in 1892.

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