Tidbits of History

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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November 7 is:

This day marks the approximate midpoint of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and of spring in the Southern Hemisphere (starting the season at the September equinox).

National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day

Publication of Federalist Paper #4: Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence written by John Jay. He argues the necessity of maintaining one nation rather than breaking the union into small confederacies. Jay addresses the issue from the point of view of Safety. In the previous article he examined “Just” causes of war. In this paper he looks at “Pretended” causes of war.

But whatever may be our situation, whether firmly united under one national government, or split into a number of confederacies, certain it is, that foreign nations will know and view it exactly as it is; and they will act toward us accordingly. If they see that our national government is efficient and well administered, our trade prudently regulated, our militia properly organized and disciplined, our resources and finances discreetly managed, our credit re-established, our people free, contented, and united, they will be much more disposed to cultivate our friendship than provoke our resentment. If, on the other hand, they find us either destitute of an effectual government (each State doing right or wrong, as to its rulers may seem convenient), or split into three or four independent and probably discordant republics or confederacies, one inclining to Britain, another to France, and a third to Spain, and perhaps played off against each other by the three, what a poor, pitiful figure will America make in their eyes! How liable would she become not only to their contempt but to their outrage, and how soon would dear-bought experience proclaim that when a people or family so divide, it never fails to be against themselves.

Battle of Tippecanoe (November 7, 1811): was fought on November 7, 1811 in Battle Ground, Indiana between American forces led by Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Indian forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, leaders of a confederacy of various tribes who opposed European settlement of the American West. Harrison accomplished his goal of destroying Prophetstown and proclaimed that he had won a decisive victory. He gained the nickname “Tippecanoe”, which was popularized in the campaign song “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” during the presidential election of 1840 which Harrison won, defeating incumbent President Martin Van Buren.

Birthday of Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie (November 7, 1867), Polish-French chemist and physicist, wife of Pierre Curie, both famous for their study of radioactivity.

A ship named Amazon was launched in 1860. Refitted and renamed Mary Celeste, the ship left NY on Nov 7, 1872. It was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Azores Islands, on December 5, 1872.

A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly in 1874, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.

Women’s Suffrage: Women in the U.S. state of Colorado were granted the right to vote in 1893, the second state to do so. (Wyoming was first in 1869.)

Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker) and the Sundance Kid (Harry Alonzo Longabaugh) were reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia in 1908. They were bank robbers and train robbers fleeing the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The picture to the left is referred to as the “Fort Worth Five”, all men from Fort Worth, all outlaws. The two men standing are William “News” Carver and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan. The three sitting are Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, aka “Sundance Kid”; Ben Kilpatrick, aka “Tall Texan”; and Robert Leroy Parker, aka “Butch Cassidy”.

The 1969 movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America in 1944.

Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D Roosevelt, died at age 78 on November 7, 1962.

November 6 is:

National Nachos Day

Birthday of John Philip Sousa, (November 6, 1854), the American band conductor and composer primarily of American military and patriotic marches. Wrote “The Stars and Stripes Forever”, and “Semper Fidelis” .

Nov 6, 1860 – Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th American President;

Nov 6, 1860 – Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy.

Birthday of James Naismith (November 6, 1861), Canadian-American educator who invented the game of basketball. Looking for a way to keep young athletes active indoors during the long New England winters, Naismith developed a game then called “Basket Ball”.

1865-11-06 – CSS Shenandoah was the last Confederate combat unit to surrender after circumnavigating the globe on its cruise that sank or captured 37 vessels. CSS Shenandoah had remained at sea for 12 months and 17 days, traversed 58,000 miles (carrying the Confederate flag around the globe for the only time) and sank or captured 38 ships, mostly whalers, all of them American civilian merchant vessels.

Bolshevik Revolution, also known as the October Revolution and commonly referred to as Red October begins with capture of Winter Palace on November 6, 1917. Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (modern day Saint Petersburg), the capital of Russia, against the Kerensky Provisional Government. For the most part, the revolt in Petrograd was bloodless, with the Red Guards led by Bolsheviks taking over major government facilities with little opposition before finally launching an assault on the poorly defended Winter Palace.

Reagan signed landmark immigration reform bill in 1986. The law aimed to secure the U.S.-Mexico border against illegal crossings with new surveillance technology and a bigger staff. The bill also, for the first time in history, imposed penalties on businesses that knowingly hired or employed unauthorized immigrants. It provided amnesty for immigrants who could prove they had been living in the country without legal approval continuously since January 1, 1982. The final version of the bill was approved in the House of Representatives by a vote of 238 to 173, and in the Senate by a vote of 63 to 24. Representative Charles E. Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat emerged as one of the bill’s staunchest supporters in Congress.

The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the USA in 1986 was an estimated 5 million; in 2020 it was estimated to be 11.1 million. Also called illegal immigrants, undocumented, illegal aliens. No telling what it is now.

November 4 is:

King Tut Day, short for King Tutankhamun of Egypt. On November 4, 1922 – Howard Carter discovered the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb.

National Candy Day

Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois on November 4, 1842.

Birthday of James Fraser (November 4, 1876), American sculptor who designed the Indian head and buffalo on the pre-1938 U.S. nickle and whose sculpture includes statues of Hamilton, General George Patton and others. See Wikipedia for samples of his works.

Birthday of Will Penn Adair Rogers (1879), American humorist, cowboy, vaudeville performer, and author. In 1926 he said:

“America has a unique record. We never lost a war and we never won a conference in our lives. I believe that we could without any degree of egotism, single-handed lick any nation in the world. But we can’t confer with Costa Rica and come home with our shirts on.”

Birthday of former First Lady, Laura Bush (November 4, 1946), wife of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the U.S.; first lady 2001-2009.

Americans taken hostage at US Embassy (Teheran, Iran). Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981). They were released the day President Reagan was inaugurated.

From Today in Science
In 1939, the first air-conditioned automobile was exhibited by its manufacturer, Packard Motor Co. of Detroit Michigan. The public exhibition at the 40th Automobile Show in Chicago, Illinois ran between 4-12 Nov. Air in the car was cooled, dehumidified, filtered and circulated. Heat was provided for use in the winter. The refrigerating coils were located behind the rear seat in an air duct, with heating coils in another compartment of the same duct. The capacity of the unit was equivalent to 1.5 tons of ice in 24 hours when the car was driven at 60 mph. Cadillac followed in 1941. The huge evaporator left little room for luggage in the trunk, and the only way to shut it off was to stop, raise the hood, and remove the compressor belt.

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