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November 11th
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Fernando Valenzuela
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1918...At the 11th hour of
the 11th day in the 11th month of 1918,
Germany
signs an armistice to stop
fighting.
World War I
is over.
WWI leaves 9 million
dead and 21 million wounded.
1940...The
US
Congress passes the Burke-Wadsworth Act. This creates the first peace time draft
in the
United States.
It also lowers the draft age to 18 and extends it to age 37.
1981...Los Angeles
baseball
pitcher Fernando Valenzuela wins the
National League Cy Young Award and the Rookie of the Year. He is the first
player
to win both in the same year.
November
12th
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Ellis Island
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1889...Dewitt Wallace, the founder of Reader's Digest magazine, is born in St. Paul,
Minnesota.
After high
school he
works at a
bank and keeps
a card file of his favorite magazine articles. His card file is his
inspiration
for Reader's Digest.
1954...Ellis
Island closes its doors.
Ellis
Island
opened in 1892. From 1892 to 1954 more than 12 million
immigrants enter the
United States through
Ellis Island.
1980...Voyager 1 flies by Saturn. Multiple rings are seen,
as well as three new
moons. Atmosphere is found around Titan, Saturn's
largest
moon.
November
13th
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Robert Lewis Stevenson |
1850...Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure
Island
and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is born in Scotland. Although he
became a great
writer,
in
school
he studied engineering and law.
1945...After Allied Troops liberated one Nazi death camp after
another,
President Harry Truman
announces a panel of inquiry to look into the
settlement of the Jews in Palestine.
1982...The long awaited Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated
in
Washington D.C. The 50,000 plus Americans who died are arranged in order of
death, as opposed to
military rank.
November 14th
Herman Melville
1851... Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, is published. Moby Dick
tells the tale of Captain Ahab and his quest for a giant white
whale.
It is not popular at first, but later becomes a great American Classic.
1970...A jet
plane
carrying the Marshall University
Thundering Herd Football Team from
West Virginia
crashes into a hillside near the
school.
There are no survivors.
1985...A
volcano
erupts in Columbia killing over 20,000 people. Nearby
towns are buried in mud, ice and lava.
November
15th
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Craig Breedlove
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1867...The first stock ticker is unveiled at the
New York
Stock Exchange. It allows up to the minute prices for investors around the
country.
1956...Elvis Presley
makes his big
screen debut in Love Me Tender. The movie premiers in
New York City at the
Paramount
Theater.
1965...Twenty-eight year old Craig Breedlove breaks the 600 mph
barrier driving his vehicle The Spirit of America. The vehicle cost
$250,000.
November
16th
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The Sound of Music |
1957...Notre Dame beats Oklahoma 7-0, ending the Sooners
47 game winning streak. The record still stands as most
consecutive wins by a
college
football team.
1959...The Sound of Music is a success from the very
night of its Broadway Opening. The show gets average reviews, but the quality of
the music by Rogers and Hammerstein was immediately recognized.
1973...President Richard Nixon urges
Congress
to pass Senate Bill 1081. The bill allows construction of an oil pipeline to gain access
to the oil on
Alaska's
north slope.
November
17th
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The "Heidi" Game
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1777...After 16 months of debate,
Congress submits The Articles of Confederation to the states for
ratification.
1968...The Oakland Raiders score two touchdowns in 9 seconds to
beat the New York Jets. However, the fans watching on
television do not get to see the end of the game. When
the
game
goes longer than expected. NBC switches to the children's movie
Heidi. There is a lot of fallout from that blunder, and it goes down as
one of the most notable mistakes of broadcasting on
television.
2003...John Mohamed,
The Beltway Sniper,
is found guilty of the shootings that terrorized the Washington D.C. area.
November
18th
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Sandy Koufax
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1883... American and
Canadian
railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands
of local times.
1966...Los Angeles Dodger pitching ace Sandy
Koufax retires due to arthritis. He is just 30 years old. Sandy Koufax
also gained fame for refusing to
pitch the first game of the1965
World Series
because it fell on the Jewish
holiday
Yon Kippur.
1978...Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass
murder-suicide in Ghana, South Africa. Many willingly drink the poison
punch,
but others are forced do do it at gunpoint.
November
19th
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Gettysburg Address
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1863...
President Abraham Lincoln delivers a memorable speech when he dedicates the
Military
Cemetery at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania.
President Lincoln's famous speech reminded Americans why the Union needed to
fight and win the Civil War.
1969...Brazilian
soccer great Pele scores his 1,000th professional goal. In his career
Pele led Brazil to three World Cup championships.
1975...One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a film about a group
of patients in a mental institution, opens in
theaters across the
United States.
Nurse Ratched becomes a symbol for a cold and heartless person.
November
20th
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Garrett Morgan |
1820...The American whale boat Essex, from Nantucket,
Massachusetts, is
attacked and sunk by an 80-ton sperm
whale off the coast of South America. This incident becomes the inspiration
for the novel Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.
1923...The U.S. Patent Office grants
newspaper man and inventor Garrett Morgan a patent for his three position
traffic signal.
1945...Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis are
tried in Nuremburg,
Germany
for atrocities committed during
WWII.
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