United States History: November 23 II

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Births

1749 Edward Rutledge (d 1800) American politician and youngest signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. He later served as the 39th Governor of South Carolina.

On this day in 1749, Edward Rutledge, one of South Carolina's representatives to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, is born in Charleston.

Contrary to the majority of his Congressional colleagues, Rutledge advocated patience with regard to declaring independence. In a letter to John Jay, one of New York's representatives who was similarly disinclined to rush a declaration, Rutledge worried whether moderates like himself and Jay could "effectually oppose" a resolution for independence. Jay had urgent business in New York and therefore was not able to be present for the debates.

Rutledge was the son of a physician who had emigrated from Ireland. Edward's elder brother John studied law at London's Middle Temple before returning to set up a lucrative practice in Charleston. Edward followed suit and studied first at Oxford University before being admitted to the English bar at the Middle Temple. He too returned to Charleston, where he married and began a family in a house across the street from his brother's. As revolutionary politics roiled the colonies, first John, then Edward served as South Carolina's representative to the Continental Congress. Neither Rutledge brother was eager to sever ties with Great Britain, but it fell to Edward to sign the Declaration of Independence to create the appearance of unanimity and strengthen the Patriots' stand. At age 26, Edward Rutledge was the youngest American to literally risk his neck by signing the document.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Rutledge

1803 Theodore Dwight Weld (d 1895), an architect of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years, from 1830 through 1844. Weld played a role as writer, editor, speaker, and organizer. He is best known for his co-authorship of the authoritative compendium, American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, published in 1839. Harriet Beecher Stowe partly based Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Weld's text and it is regarded as second only to that work in its influence on the antislavery movement. Weld remained dedicated to the abolitionist movement until slavery was ended by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Dwight_Weld

1804 Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States (d. 1869)
On this day in 1805, Franklin Pierce, America's 14th president, is born in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

Pierce, described by biographers and contemporaries as a personable and sincere young man, worked as a lawyer before winning a seat in the New Hampshire state legislature in 1828, while his father served as New Hampshire's governor. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1832 and fought in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), for which he received military honors.

As president, Pierce facilitated the acquisition of the territories that now make up the states of Arizona and New Mexico through the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. He also improved trade relations with Canada in exchange for greater U.S. fishing rights along the continent's North Atlantic coast. However, he is best remembered for his endorsement of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether they would allow slavery or outlaw the practice. Foreshadowing the brutal Civil War that was soon to come, the territories erupted in sectarian violence after the act's passing. Pierce's failure to stem the fighting and his role in the Ostend Manifesto fiasco of 1854 (a secret plan to start a war with Spain in order to annex Cuba) proved to be his political undoing. Members of his own Democratic Party refused to re-nominate him for president in the election of 1856, popularizing the slogan "anybody but Pierce."

In 1834, Pierce had married Jane Means Appleton and the couple had three sons. The first, Franklin, died in infancy; a second, Frank Robert, died at age four from typhus; and their third son, Benny, was killed in a train wreck from which Pierce and his wife narrowly escaped. The string of tragedies led Pierce to drinking. He also suffered from chronic nervous exhaustion. By the end of his term, a Philadelphia Enquirer reporter described Pierce as "a wreck of his former self...his face wears a hue so ghastly and cadaverous that one could almost fancy he was gazing on a corpse." Upon leaving office in 1857, Pierce was asked what he would do next; he allegedly replied "there's nothing left [to do] but get drunk." The effects of alcoholism led to his death in 1869 at the age of 65.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Pierce

1809 Henry Lyman in Northampton, Massachusetts, American Baptist missionary murdered in Sumatra (d. 28 June 1834).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lyman_(missionary)

1819 Josiah Dwight Whitney (d 1896) American geologist and chemist, known for his studies of the regional geology of California. Whitney was an independent consulting expert in mining (1849-54) when he was appointed chemist for the state of Iowa and professor of mineralogy at the University of Iowa. He was California State Geologist (1860-1874). His name was given by a California Geological Survey field party to Mount Whitney (1864) in east-central California, the highest summit on the U.S. mainland outside Alaska. The survey was significant for the men it trained and the methods it introduced - notably topographical mapping by triangulation. During his years in California, Whitney was active in promoting the California Academy of Science, and served as a commissioner of Yosemite Park.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Dwight_Whitney

1819 Union General Benjamin Prentiss is born in Belleville, Virginia. Prentiss served in a variety of capacities during the war but is best known for defending Arkansas during the Vicksburg campaign.

Prentiss was raised in Missouri but moved to Quincy, Illinois, at age 22. He joined the Illinois militia, and he was active when tensions arose between the Mormon and Illinois residents of the area after the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, was lynched by a mob.

When the Mexican War began, Prentiss raised a company of volunteers and served under General Zachary Taylor at Buena Vista. Upon his return to Illinois, he practiced law until the outbreak of the Civil War. He remained active in the militia and rose to the rank of colonel.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Prentiss was placed in charge of Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. In August 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general and charged with protecting the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad across northern Missouri. His brigade was sent to join General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee, and he was elevated to divisional commander. Prentiss fought at Shiloh and was caught in the infamous Hornet's Nest. He and part of his force were captured, and Prentiss spent six months in a Confederate prison. He was exchanged in October 1862 and served on the court-martial of General Fitz-John Porter, who was tried on charges of insubordination during the Battle of Second Bull Run, when he refused to conduct an attack ordered by his commander, John Pope. Porter was found guilty and cashiered from the army, but he said that Prentiss was "supposed unprejudiced, and acted so."

After the Porter case closed, Prentiss commanded the District of Eastern Arkansas at Helena. He sent raids into the interior of the state and recruited escaped slaves into military service. On July 4, 1863, Prentiss's command held off an attack by General Sterling Price, who was trying, belatedly, to rescue the Confederate force inside of nearby Vicksburg, Mississippi. That garrison had already surrendered, but Prentiss emerged as the victor in the Battle of Helena. Despite this success, Prentiss found himself without a command when the Union reorganized the theater after the fall of Vicksburg.

Prentiss requested a leave from the army, citing ill health and family concerns, as his wife had died in 1860 and he had young children. Prentiss spent the rest of his life as a land agent and postmaster in Missouri until he died in 1901.

1859 Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid, but also known by the aliases Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney (d 1881), was a 19th century American frontier outlaw and gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War. According to legend, he killed 21 men, but he is generally accepted to have killed between four and nine.

1864 Henry Bourne Joy (d 1936) President of the Packard Motor Car Company, and a major developer of automotive activities as well as being a social activist.

1879 Theodore Charles Brohm in Addison, Illinois (d. 5 January 1957, Oakland, California). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1903 and served as a pastor in Detroit, Michigan, from 1903 to 1909. He was president of Concordia College (Oakland, California) from 1909 to 1950.

1888 Arthur Adolph "Harpo" Marx (d 1964) American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). Marx frequently used props such as a walking stick with a built-in bulb horn, and he played the harp in most of his films.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpo_Marx

1894 Donald Deskey (d 1989) American industrial designer who helped establish industrial design as a profession. He made inventive use of industrial materials for decorative purposes. Deskey invented a high-pressure laminate known as Weldtex. He designed the familiar goosenecked street lights on commission for New York City in 1958 as a new prototype streetlight standard. He brought a new, modernist look to furniture and interiors, including that of Radio City Music Hall. Deskey package designs for Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson include Tide laundry detergent, Prell shampoo, Crest toothpaste, and other packaged goods that are now firmly embedded in American consumer culture and serve as models of the role that design played in everyday life.

1902 Colonel Aaron Bank (d 2004) officer of the United States Army, and the founder of the US Army Special Forces, commonly called "Green Berets". He is also famous for his exploits as an OSS officer during World War II, parachuting into France to coordinate and activate the French Resistance and organizing an operation intended to capture Adolf Hitler. During his retirement years, Colonel Bank played a quiet but critical role in warning the nation about the risks of terrorism[citation needed] and modern technology and he is largely responsible for the high level of security at U.S. nuclear power plants since the early 1970s.

1920 Wayne Thiebaud American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. His last name is pronounced "Tee-bo." He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work.

1923 Daniel Baugh Brewster (d 2007) Democratic member of the United States Senate, representing the State of Maryland from 1963 until 1969. He was also a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1950–1958, and a representative from the 2nd congressional district of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives from 1959-1963.

1923 Billy Haughton, or William R. Haughton (d 1986) American harness driver and trainer, and one of the most-winning drivers ever. He was one of only three drivers to win the Hambletonian four times, the only one to win the Little Brown Jug five times, and the only one to win the Messenger Stakes seven times. With a career record of 4,910 wins and c. $40 in earnings, he was first in annual winnings twelve times – 1952-59, 1963, 1965, 1967 and 1968 – and in heats won from 1953-58.

1928 Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock (d, 2010) American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello! and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof with Harnick.

1929 Harold Lee "Hal" Lindsey American evangelist and Christian writer. He is a Christian Zionist and dispensationalist author. He currently resides in the Palm Springs area of Southern California.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Lindsey

1934 Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz) American screenwriter and director. His most notable work may be his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974).

1934 Rita R. Colwell (née Rita Rossi) American microbiologist and as the 11th director of the National Science Foundation (4 Aug 1998), the first woman - and the first biologist since the advent of modern biotechnology - to head the NSF. In the 1960s, she became the first U.S. scientist to create a computer program that analyzed data related to the taxonomic classification of different strains of bacteria. This led to her revolutionary discovery that the strain of cholera bacteria that had been linked to the disease belonged to the same species as benign strains of cholera. With her team of researchers she later found that both the harmless and the disease-causing (toxin-producing) strains were found commonly in estuaries and coastal waters.

1943 Andrew Goodman (d 1964) one of three American civil rights activists murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

1946 Bobby Lee Rush U.S. Representative for Illinois's 1st congressional district, serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is located principally on the South Side of Chicago. It is a minority-majority district and has a higher percentage of African Americans (65%) than any other congressional district in the nation. Rush has the distinction of being the only person to date to defeat President Barack Obama in an election for public office. Rush is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

1950 Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a margin of 66%–33%.



Deaths

1585 Thomas Tallis, in Greenwich, England, composer, (b. ca. 1505).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Tallis
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/t/a/l/tallis_t.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/a/l/l/allprais.htm

1814 Elbridge Thomas Gerry (b 1744) American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was selected as the fifth Vice President of the United States, serving under James Madison, from March 4, 1813, until his death a year and a half later. He was the first Vice President not to run for President of the United States, although this was due to his death rather than being a political decision. Gerry was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who refused to sign the Constitution because it did not then include a Bill of Rights. Gerry later became the ninth Governor of Massachusetts. He is known best for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of aiding the party in power, although its initial ‹g› has softened to /dʒ/ from the hard /ɡ/ of his name.

1846 James Evans, “Apostle of the North,” (b. 18 January 1801, England). He served as a missionary among the Canadian Indians. He invented Cree syllabic characters and translated portions of the Bible and hymnbook into the Cree language.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Evans_(linguist)

1895 Sylvanus Dryden Phelps, hymnist and American Baptist minister, (b. 15 May 1816).
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/p/h/phelps_sd.htm
www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/t/sthydynl.htm

1899 Robert Lowry (b. 12 Mar 1826), American Baptist clergyman and sacred music composer
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/o/w/lowry_r.htm
www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/n/b/nbtblood.htm

1910 Octave Chanute (b 1832) U.S. aeronaut whose work and interests profoundly influenced Orville and Wilbur Wright and the invention of the airplane. Octave Chanute was a successful engineer who took up the invention of the airplane as a hobby following his early retirement. Knowing how railroad bridges were strengthened, Chanute experimented with box kites using the same basic strengthening metod, which he then incorporated into wing design of gliders. Through thousands of letters, he drew geographically isolated pioneers into an informal international community. He organized sessions of aeronautical papers for the professional engineering societies that he led; attracted fresh talent and new ideas into the field through his lectures; and produced important publications.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_Chanute

1958 Johnston McCulley (b 1883) author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and television, and the creator of the character Zorro. Many of his novels and stories were written under the pseudonyms Harrison Strong, Raley Brien, George Drayne, Monica Morton, Rowena Raley, Frederic Phelps, Walter Pierson, and John Mack Stone, among others.

1972 Katherine Elisabeth Wilson (August 19, 1916 – November 23, 1972), better known by her stage name, Marie Wilson, American radio, film, and television actress best known for portraying My Friend Irma.

1992 Roy Claxton Acuff (b 1903) American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful. In 1962, Acuff became the first living person inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.



Christian Feast Day

Alexander Nevsky (Repose, Russian Orthodox Church)

Columbanus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbanus

Felicitas of Rome
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicitas_of_Rome

Pope Clement I (Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and the Lutheran Church)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_I


November 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Feasts

Afterfeast of the Entry of the Theotkos (Great Feast)


Saints

Hierarch Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium (after 394)

Hierarch Gregory, bishop of Agrigentum (680)

St. Sisinius the confessor, bishop of Cyzicus (ca. 325)

Martyr Theodore of Antioch (4th century)




Saint Alexander Nevsky (in schema Alexis) Grand Prince of Novgorod (1263)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Alexander_Nevsky

Hierarch Dionysius I, patriarch of Constantinople (15th century)




Hierarch Metrophanes (in schema Macarius), bishop of Voronezh (1703)




Kostanti-Kakhay (Georgian Orthodox Church)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostanti-Kakhay



Earliest day on which Black Friday can fall, while November 29 is the latest; celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving. (United States)




www.todayinsci.com/11/11_23.htm
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.amug.org/~jpaul/nov23.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_23
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-issue-of-life-is-published
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1123.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/index.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_23_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)