Post by farmgal on Nov 24, 2012 21:32:42 GMT -5
November 26 is the 331th day of this leap year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 35 days remaining until the end of the year.
Countdown until Obama should have been leaving Office
www.obamaclock.org/
Days until coming elections:
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1716 The first lion to be seen in America, tamed for exhibition, was exhibited by Captain Arthur Savage at his house in Brattle Street, Boston, Mass. This lion was first advertised for show in The Boston News Letter on 31 Mar 1718, as follows: "All persons having the Curiosity of seeing the noble and Royal Beast the Lyon, never one before in America, may see him at the House of Capt. Arthur Savage near Mr. Colman's Church, Boston." This representative of the "dark continent" was moved in 1720 to the home of Martha Adams. Her newspaper advertisement welcomed anyone at any time, and a sign on her house read "The King of Beasts is to be seen here." In 1726, the lion was shown in the West Indies, in 1727 it was at Philadelphia, Penn., in 1728 it was seen in New York, New Jersey and was last recorded as being in New London, Conn.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion
1776 Peyton Randolph laid to rest at William and Mary, On this day in 1776, the body of Peyton Randolph is returned to Williamsburg, Virginia, for re-interment at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary. Randolph had died on October 22, 1775, at the age of 54, while in Philadelphia representing Virginia in the second Continental Congress.
Born in 1721 to a prominent and influential Virginia family, Randolph graduated from the College of William and Mary before attending law school in London. Upon his return to the colonies, Randolph took up a private practice and was later named attorney general of Virginia. In 1754, Randolph was elected to the House of Burgesses, Virginia's official legislative body. As the colonies grew more in favor of independence from Great Britain, Randolph resigned his post as attorney general in 1766 due to a conflict of interest between serving both the British crown and the people of Virginia in the House of Burgesses.
Randolph continued to work in favor of independence from Great Britain by presiding over Virginia's Committee of Correspondence, which worked to communicate with other colonies to form a united resistance against Britain's parliament, from May 1773 to August 1774. In September 1774, the first Continental Congress was formed in Philadelphia in response to the British enactment of the Intolerable Acts. It was at that first meeting of the Continental Congress that colonists discussed a united resistance to British rule in America.
On September 5, 1774, Randolph was elected by unanimous vote as the first president of the Continental Congress. He resigned as president in October 1774 to attend a meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses but remained a powerful and influential figure within Congress. He returned to Congress in May 1775 and was again elected president, but was forced to resign less than one month later due to his failing health.
Randolph did not live to see America achieve independence, a goal toward which he had worked for most of his adult life. He was initially buried at Christ Church in Philadelphia, but was moved to the cemetery at the chapel of the College of William and Mary one year later.
1778 Captain Cook discovers Maui (Sandwich Islands). Winter weather eventually forced Cook to return South from Alaskan waters. He spotted Maui on November 26, 1778 and mapped the coastline while looking for a suitable harbor before moving on. The mapper was Lt. William Bligh, who would 10 years later command the infamous H.M.S. Bounty. On board the Resolution and the Discovery were Mr. Anderson, the ship's chronicler, who left a handwritten record of the events and John Webber, the ship's artist.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Cook
1784 The Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States established.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolic_Prefecture_of_the_United_States
1789 A national Thanksgiving Day was observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_Day_(United_States)#Thanksgiving_proclamations_in_the_first_thirty_years_of_nationhood
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.
1789 President Washington proclaims a National Day of Thanksgiving. The first American holiday occurred, proclaimed by President George Washington to be Thanksgiving Day, a day of prayer and public thanksgiving in gratitude for the successful establishment of the new American democracy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)
1801 Charles Hatchett announced to the Royal Society in London that he had discovered a new element, which he named columbium (Cb). In 1801, while working for the British Museum in London he analyzed a piece of columbite, a black mineral from New England, found by JohnWinthrop (1606-1676), the first governor of Connecticut, a mineral collector. His grandson sent the specimen decades before to Sir Hans Sloane, who gave it to the museum. Columbite turned out to be a very complex mineral but Hachett discovered that it contained a "new earth" which implied the existence of a new element which he could detect, but not isolate. Rediscovered 40 years later by German chemist, Heinrich Rose, it is now called niobium.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niobium
1825 First college fraternity founded (Kappa Alpha (Union College, NY)) What John Hart Hunter proposed on November 26, 1825 was to take an informal group calling itself The Philosophers and to formalize it using the strongest characteristics of all these existing institutions. It was this synthesis that caught the attention of the college world and exploded into the collegiate fraternity system over the following 75 years.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_Alpha_Society
1832 The first horse drawn American street car in the U.S. began public operation in New York City. Named the John Mason (after its owner, a prominent New York banker) it was equipped with iron wheels and drawn over iron rails laid in the center of the road along 4th Avenue from Prince St to 14th St. Thirty passengers were carried in three non-connecting compartments with 10 seats in each. The fare was 12-1/2 cents. An earlier trip was made 14 Nov 1832 to show the street car to municipal officials carried onboard. (The John Mason was the first horse-drawn streetcar, although horses had been used at an earlier date to pull trains on railroad track lines.) The line prospered, encouraging franchises in other cities.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram#Horse-drawn
1842 The University of Notre Dame is founded.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Notre_Dame
1860 A newspaper print of newly elected President Abraham Lincoln clearly showed the beginnings of a beard. When Lincoln grew a beard after his election, printers rushed to create new, updated images. Newspapers did not have the technology to reproduce the few photographs available to them and instead used engravings made from the photos. One of the most widely adapted was the photograph taken by Matthew Brady just before the Cooper Union address in February 1860.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
1863 American Civil War: Mine Run Union forces under General George Meade position against troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_Run_Campaign
1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26th as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November (since 1941, on the fourth Thursday).
1864 Charles L. Dodgson sent "Alice’s Adventures Underground" to Alice Liddel. Charles L. Dodgson, whose pen name was Lewis Carroll, sent a handwritten manuscript to Alice Liddel. The manuscript was titled "Alice's Adventures Underground". It was an early Christmas present to the 12-year-old girl. Later, the manuscript was renamed "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass".
1867 The first U.S. patent for a refrigerated railroad car was issued to J.B. Sutherland of Detroit, Michigan (No. 71,423). This described an insulated car with double walls, double roof and double floor with the space between filled with sawdust, felt or other suitable material. Ice chambers at each end of the chamber would carry about 800 pounds of ice. Hanging flaps were designed to maintain air circulation such that warmer air moving upward would then flow through the ice chamber, and thus cooled, be returned to the body of the car. Iron pipes mounted under the roof were installed for hooks carrying meat, or other edibles. Matting was positioned between the inner sliding door and outer door to keep the car as air-tight as possible.
1872 The Great Diamond Hoax, one of the most notorious mining swindles of the time, is exposed with an article in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin.
Fraudulent gold and silver mines were common in the years following the California Gold Rush of 1849. Swindlers fooled many eager greenhorns by "salting" worthless mines with particles of gold dust to make them appear mineral-rich. However, few con men were as daring as Kentucky cousins Philip Arnold and John Slack, who convinced San Francisco capitalists to invest in a worthless mine in the northwestern corner of Colorado.
Arnold and Slack played their con perfectly. They arrived in San Francisco in 1872 and tried to deposit a bag of uncut diamonds at a bank. When questioned, the two men quickly disappeared, acting as if they were reluctant to talk about their discovery. Intrigued, a bank director named William Ralston tracked down the men. Assuming he was dealing with unsophisticated country bumpkins, he set out to take control of the diamond mine. The two cousins agreed to take a blindfolded mining expert to the site; the expert returned to report that the mine was indeed rich with diamonds and rubies.
Joining forces with a number of other prominent San Francisco financiers, Ralston formed the New York Mining and Commercial Company, capitalized at $10 million, and began selling stock to eager investors. As a show of good faith, Arnold and Slack received about $600,000-small change in comparison to the supposed value of the diamond mine. Convinced that the American West must have many other major deposits of diamonds, at least 25 other diamond exploration companies formed in the subsequent months.
Clarence King, the then-little-known young leader of a geographical survey of the 40th parallel, finally exposed the cousins' diamond mine as a hoax. A brilliant geologist and mining engineer, King was suspicious of the mine from the start. He correctly deduced the location of the supposed mine, raced off to investigate, and soon realized that the swindlers had salted the mine--some of the gems he found even showed jewelers-cut marks.
Back in San Francisco, King exposed the fraud in the newspapers and the Great Diamond Hoax collapsed. Ralston returned $80,000 to each of his investors, but he was never able to recover the $600,000 given to the two cousins. Arnold lived out the few remaining years of his life in luxury in Kentucky before dying of pneumonia in 1878. Slack apparently squandered his share of the money, for he was last reported working as a coffin maker in New Mexico. King's role in exposing the fraud brought him national recognition--he became the first director of the United States Geological Survey.
1888 A late season hurricane brushed the East Coast with heavy rain and gale force winds. The hurricane passed inside Nantucket and over Cape Cod, then crossed Nova Scotia. (David Ludlum)
1895 Russell Penniman received a patent for transparent photographic film.
1895 Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association formed. Founded in 1895, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) was an unincorporated, voluntary organization of sugar plantation owners in the Hawaiian Islands. Its objective was to promote the mutual benefits of its members and the development of the sugar industry in the islands. It conducted scientific studies and gathered accurate records about the sugar industry.
1896 Snow and high winds hit the Northern Plains and the Upper Mississippi Valley, with a Thanksgiving Day blizzard across North Dakota. The storm was followed by a severe cold wave in the Upper Midwest. The temperature at Pokegama Dam MI plunged to 45 degrees below zero. (David Ludlum)
1896 Amos Alonzo Stagg of U Chicago creates the football huddle. In 1880, nearly two years before President William Rainey Harper even opened classroom doors, he hired Amos Alonzo Stagg as athletic director and head football coach. Harper had hoped that football on the Midway would put the University of Chicago on the map as a top institution, and in large part his efforts paid off. Stagg invented a number of strategic mainstays, including the "T" formation, the huddle, the center snap, the lateral pass, and man-in-motion plays. Games drew not only students but also people from around the city and the rest of the Midwest.
1898 A powerful early winter storm batters the New England coast on this day in 1898, killing at least 450 people in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
It was Thanksgiving Day when strong winds, in excess of 40 miles per hour, began blowing from the Atlantic Ocean across the New England coast. This was followed, in short order, by gales from the other direction. Equally strong winds roared across upstate New York from the west.
Blizzard conditions disrupted the entire area. Transportation became impossible; some trains were halted by 20-foot snow drifts. Communication was interrupted as the wind and snow brought down telephone and telegraph lines. In some towns and villages, residents were forced to dig tunnels through the snow from their front doors to the streets. In New York City, 2,000 workers attempted to clear the key streets and avenues.
Boston was perhaps worst hit by the storm. Approximately 100 ships were blown ashore from the city's harbor and another 40 were sunk. About 100 people died when a Portland-based steamer sank near Cape Cod. Bodies and debris filled the harbors and nearby beaches.
The storm is thought to have killed at least 450 people, though due to the wide extent of the storm and the poor record-keeping of the time, it is impossible to determine exactly how many people died.
1909 Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New York by 8 Jewish young men.
1911 In France, the Nieuport IV G monoplane piloted by American Charles Weymann won the first contest of military aviation. In these trials, it outperformed seven other French manufacturers who were given a list of requirements. The aircraft and engine must be French, able to fly a roundtrip of 300 km without stopover, carrying a 300 kg payload, at a minimum of 60 km/h (in no wind), and capable of making a landing on or takeoff from a plowed field. It must also be transportable by road and by rail and able to be dismounted for storage or remounted in less than 30 min. The Army, however, deciding on the value of an earlier model, ordered 12 of the Nieuport II N monoplanes with Rhone 80-hp engine to form a fleet (early 1913) at Rheims.
1913 Phi Sigma Sigma is founded at Hunter College in New York City.
1917 The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.
1922 Toll of the Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor (The Gulf Between was the first film to do so but it was not widely distributed).
1931 First U.S. “cloverleaf” appears on the cover of the Engineering News-Record. The first cloverleaf interchange to be built in the United States, at the junction of NJ Rt. 25 (now U.S. Rt. 1) and NJ Rt. 4 (now NJ Rt. 35) in Woodbridge, New Jersey, is featured on the cover of this week's issue of the Engineering News-Record. (By contrast, a piece on the under-construction Hoover Dam was relegated to the journal's back pages.)
With their four circular ramps, cloverleaf interchanges were designed to let motorists merge from one road to another without braking. They worked well enough—and became so ubiquitous as a result—that writer Lewis Mumford once declared that "our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf." But many of the older cloverleaves were not built to handle the volume and speed of traffic they now receive, and many have been demolished and rebuilt.
Many people associate cloverleaf interchanges first of all with Southern California, which is famous for its loops and tangles of freeways. But it was an engineer from Maryland, Arthur Hall, who patented the cloverleaf in 1916, and it was an engineer from New Jersey, Edward Delano, who—inspired by a picture he saw in a magazine of a cloverleaf in Argentina—built the U.S.'s first one in Woodbridge. The intersection was a tricky one, since both highways were so heavily traveled: Rt. 25 carried Philadelphia traffic from Camden to Jersey City and Rt. 4 ran from New York City all the way down the Jersey Shore. About 60,000 cars used the interchange each day. Turning from one busy road onto the other was usually difficult and frequently disastrous. The cloverleaf solved this problem: Drivers could merge by looping to the right under an overpass, joining the traffic stream without stopping or making a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic.
These circular ramps move cars from one road to the other fairly efficiently, as long as the roads aren't too busy—but once traffic speed and volume increases, cloverleaves can be just as dangerous as the intersections they replaced. The Woodbridge interchange, for instance, had no merge lanes, so it forced motorists to stop without warning or to plunge directly into highway traffic. Many thousands of fender-benders were the result. It was "the Model T of cloverleafs," said a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). "It worked well at one time, but it's beginning to reach the end of its usefulness." As a result, it's getting a facelift: the NJDOT plans to replace the sprawling cloverleaf with a more compact, diamond-style interchange that will eliminate both the dangerous merges and the associated gridlock.
1933 Thousands of people in San Jose, California, storm the jail where Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes are being held as suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, the 22-year-old son of a local storeowner. The mob of angry citizens proceeded to lynch the accused men and then pose them for pictures.
On November 9, Brooke Hart was abducted by men in his own Studebaker. His family received a $40,000 ransom demand and, soon after, Hart's wallet was found on a tanker ship in a nearby bay. The investigative trail led to Holmes and Thurmond, who implicated each other in separate confessions. Both acknowledged, though, that Hart had been pistol-whipped and then thrown off the San Mateo Bridge.
After Hart's body washed ashore on November 25, a vigilante mob began to form. Newspapers reported the possibility of a lynching and local radio stations broadcast the plan. Not only did Governor James Rolph reject the National Guard's offer to send assistance, he reportedly said he would pardon those involved in the lynching.
On November 26, the angry mob converged at the jail and beat the guards, using a battering ram to break into the cells. Thurmond and Holmes were dragged out and hanged from large trees in a nearby park.
The public seemed to welcome the gruesome act of vigilante violence. After the incident, pieces of the lynching ropes were sold to the public. Though the San Jose News declined to publish pictures of the lynching, it condoned the act in an editorial. Seventeen-year-old Anthony Cataldi bragged that he had been the leader of the mob but he was not held accountable for his participation. At Stanford University, a professor asked his students to stand and applaud the lynching. Perhaps most disturbing, Governor Rolph publicly praised the mob. "The best lesson ever given the country," said Governor Rolph. "I would like to parole all kidnappers in San Quentin to the fine, patriotic citizens of San Jose."
1940 Xavier Cugat and his orchestra recorded "Orchids in the Moonlight" on the Columbia label. "Rumba King" Xavier Cugat was the first bandleader to front a successful Latin orchestra in the United States. Affectionately known as ''Cugie,'' he was largely responsible for popularizing Latin music among North American audiences.
1941 Amateur tennis champ Bobby Riggs turns pro. The only year he played at Wimbledon, 1939, Riggs won the singles, men's doubles (with Elwood T. Cooke), and mixed doubles (with Alice Marble). Riggs was also the U. S. national singles champion in 1939. After losing in the finals to Don McNeil in 1940, Riggs won the singles title again in 1941. He and Marble were the mixed doubles champions in 1940.
1941 Yamamoto sends his fleet to Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto's plan was eventually agreed by the Japanese Imperial Staff and the strike force under the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo sailed from the Kurile Islands on 26th November, 1941. The aircraft carriers involved in the attack were: Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, Shokaku, Soryu, and Zuikaku. Two fast battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 9 destroyers, and 3 fleet submarines provided escort for the task force. The carriers had a total of 423 planes, including Mitsubishi Type 0 "Zero" fighters, Nakajima Type 97 "Kate" torpedo bombers, and Aichi Type 99 "Val" dive bombers.
On this day in 1941, Adm. Chuichi Nagumo leads the Japanese First Air Fleet, an aircraft carrier strike force, toward Pearl Harbor, with the understanding that should "negotiations with the United States reach a successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to the homeland."
Negotiations had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia-and to repudiate the Tripartite "Axis" Pact with Germany and Italy as conditions to be met before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation—they just didn't know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway—all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina. As a result of this "bad faith" action, President Roosevelt ordered that a conciliatory gesture of resuming monthly oil supplies for Japanese civilian needs canceled. Hull also rejected Tokyo's "Plan B," a temporary relaxation of the crisis, and of sanctions, but without any concessions on Japan's part. Prime Minister Tojo considered this an ultimatum, and more or less gave up on diplomatic channels as the means of resolving the impasse.
Nagumo had no experience with naval aviation, having never commanded a fleet of aircraft carriers in his life. This role was a reward for a lifetime of faithful service. Nagumo, while a man of action, did not like taking unnecessary risks—which he considered an attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor to be. But Chief of Staff Rear Adm. Isoruku Yamamoto thought differently; while also opposing war with the United States, he believed the only hope for a Japanese victory was a swift surprise attack, via carrier warfare, against the U.S. fleet. And as far as the Roosevelt War Department was concerned, if war was inevitable, it desired "that Japan commit the first overt act."
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
The tradition of celebrating the holiday on Thursday dates back to the early history of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, when post-harvest holidays were celebrated on the weekday regularly set aside as "Lecture Day," a midweek church meeting where topical sermons were presented. A famous Thanksgiving observance occurred in the autumn of 1621, when Plymouth governor William Bradford invited local Indians to join the Pilgrims in a three-day festival held in gratitude for the bounty of the season.
Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga. In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Tuesday, as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution. However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November, that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally.
With a few deviations, Lincoln's precedent was followed annually by every subsequent president--until 1939. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving Day. Considerable controversy surrounded this deviation, and some Americans refused to honor Roosevelt's declaration. For the next two years, Roosevelt repeated the unpopular proclamation, but on November 26, 1941, he admitted his mistake and signed a bill into law officially making the fourth Thursday in November the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day.
1942 The motion picture "Casablanca," Hollywood Theatre in NYC. Reaction to the film at previews before release was described as "beyond belief". It premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on November 26, 1942, to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca; it went into general release on January 23, 1943, to take advantage of the Casablanca conference, a high-level meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt in the city.
1942 World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihaæ in northwestern Bosnia.
1944 World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop on New Cross High Street, United Kingdom, killing 168 shoppers.
1944 World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.
1945 "Bride and Groom" debuted on the NBC Blue network. During each episode of Bride and Groom, host John Nelson, who originally did the '40s radio program, would quiz real-life couples about their relationship. Then they were married on the air. Afterwards, the couple would be showered with prize "gifts" - some silverware, towels, cigarette lighters and bedroom suites. It is estimated that 1,000 newly-wed couples were interviewed on the program before it left the airwaves in 1950.
1949 "Slipping Around" by Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely topped the charts. It was producer Lee Gillette who thought of teaming Wakely up with songstress Margaret Whiting in what proved to be a very successful partnership. Their first song together, the infidelity story "Slippin' Around," set the pattern for their partnership, the effervescent Whiting and the smooth, laid-back Wakely -- who, by that time, was becoming known as the Bing Crosby of country & western music -- balancing each other perfectly. "Slippin' Around" spent 17 weeks at the number one spot on the country charts and a week at the number one pop chart position, and the two had nine subsequent hits together, including "Wedding Bells" and "When You and I Were Young Maggie Blues."
1950 Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River and Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
1958 Maurice Richard scored his 600th career goal for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team -- at Madison Square Garden in New York City
1966 "You Keep Me Hanging On" by the Supremes topped the charts. "You Keep Me Hanging On" was written by the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. They were prolific Motown songwriters responsible for most of The Supremes' hits. It was the Supremes' eighth US #1 hit and came right after "You Can't Hurry Love"
1966 President Charles de Gaulle opened the world's first tidal power station at Rance estuary, in Brittany. La Rance is the most powerful tidal power plant in the world. With its width of 700 metres, it blocks La Rance estuary situated near Saint-Malo (Côtes d'Armor). The operation of the dam is similar to that of run-of-river power plants since its head is also low and there is a substantial flow rate. At high and low tide, the water builds up rapidly on one of the sides of the dam. When the difference in level is sufficient, the gates are opened and the water rushes into the dam. The turbines are reversible so as to be able to operate regardless of the direction of water flow. Each year, the power plant generates 500 million kWh.
1968 Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
1969 The Band received a gold record for the album, "The Band" Music From Big Pink, which featured a painting by Bob Dylan on its cover, began selling -- slowly at first and then better -- and the group played a few select shows. A second album, simply titled The Band, was every bit as good as the first. Dominated by Robertson's writing, it was released in September of 1969, and with it, the group's reputation exploded; moreover, they began their climb out of the shadow of Bob Dylan with songwriting of their own that was every bit a match for anything he was releasing at the time. A pair of songs, "Up on Cripple Creek" and "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down," captured the public imagination, the former getting them onto The Ed Sullivan Show.
1972 Pete Gogolak scores NY Giant record 8 pts after a touchdown
1975 Fred Lynn became 1st rookie to win the MVP. Fred Lynn becomes the first rookie to win MVP honors, taking the American League award. Lynn batted .331 with 21 home runs, 105 RBI, and league-leading figures in runs (103), doubles (47), and slugging (.566).
1983 Heathrow Airport, robbed of 6,800 gold bars worth $38.7 million. On November 26th 1983, six robbers broke into the Brinks Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport. It was supposed to be a relatively easy job, stealing 3 million in cash with the help of an inside man. This all changed when, instead of the cash, they found gold bullion worth 26 million.
1983 "All Night Long (All Night)" by Lionel Richie topped the charts. Richie broke from the Commodores in 1982 and became an even greater success as a solo act, hitting #1 on the pop charts with singles like "Hello" and "All Night Long," and "Say You, Say Me." He also co-wrote, with Michael Jackson, the USA for Africa benefit tune "We Are the World," which was recorded by an all-star cast of popular singers and became a giant hit.
1985 Space shuttle Atlantis makes 2nd flight carries 7. The primary payload of three communications satellites was successfully deployed, one at a time, and a major demonstration of construction techniques to build structures in orbit was successfully accomplished. This activity was filmed by an IMAX large-film camera mounted in the cargo bay.
1986 Iran-Contra scandal: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra
1987 A Thanksgiving Day storm in the northeastern U.S. produced heavy snow in northern New England and upstate New York. Snowfall totals in Maine ranged up to twenty inches at Flagstaff Lake. Totals in New Hampshire ranged up to 18 inches at Errol. Gales lashed the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. A second storm, over the Southern and Central Rockies, produced nine inches of snow at Kanosh UT, and 13 inches at Divide CO, with five inches reported at Denver CO. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1988 Thunderstorms produced severe weather over the Central Gulf Coast States during the late morning and afternoon hours. Five tornadoes were reported in Mississippi, with the tornadoes causing a million dollars damage at Ruleville, and in Warren County. In Utah, the town of Alta was blanketed with 15 inches of snow overnight, and during the day was buried under another 16.5 inches of snow. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1988 Pioneer 6's closest approach to Earth since 1965 launch (1.16 M miles).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_6,_7,_8,_and_9
1989 - A massive storm over the western U.S. produced heavy snow in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The storm produced more than two feet of snow in the higher elevations of northern and central Utah, bringing more than sixty inches of snow to the Alta Ski Resort in the Wasatch Mountains. Winds in Utah gusted to 60 mph at Bullfrog. The storm brought much needed snow to the ski resorts of Colorado, with 19 inches reported at Beaver Creek. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1990 Buffalo Bills become 6th first place NFL team to lose on same weekend
2000 Sec. of State Katherine Harris certified Gov. George W. Bush as winner in the state’s presidential election, 2,912,790 to 2,912,253, a 537-vote margin. Ralph Nader received 97,488 votes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_election_recount
2002 On this day in 2002, President George W. Bush issues a humorous but sincere presidential pardon to a lucky turkey that otherwise might have ended up on someone's Thanksgiving Day dinner table. In doing so, he continued a tradition begun in 1947 when the National Turkey Foundation first presented Thanksgiving turkeys to President Harry S. Truman.
According to the National Turkey Foundation, Truman was given one live turkey and two dressed turkeys the week before Thanksgiving in 1947. Truman donated the live bird to a local farm, where the turkey was guaranteed a long life unmolested by stuffing or gravy.
Likewise, in 2005, Bush accepted the foundation's gift of two live birds, named "Marshmallow" and "Yam," in a White House ceremony. Calling the birds "the people's turkeys," Bush explained that they had earned their names through a democratic process—the public was allowed to vote on names for the birds through the White House website. He quipped that the vote had been so close, "you might say it was neck and neck." Previous votes resulted in names like "Biscuit" and "Gravy;" Bush's 2003 turkeys were patriotically dubbed "Stars" and "Stripes."
According to the White House website, most previously pardoned turkeys had been sent to live on a 1930s-era farm in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 2005, Bush sent Marshmallow and Yam to serve as Grand Marshals for the Disneyland Thanksgiving Day Parade and to live out their years at the Disneyland Resort and Theme Park in Anaheim, California.
Bush and his family later enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal of roast turkey with all the trimmings.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_turkey_pardon
2004 Male Po'ouli (Black-faced honeycreeper) dies of Avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-faced_Honeycreeper
www.todayinsci.com/11/11_26.htm
www.todayinsci.com/11/11_26.htm
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.amug.org/~jpaul/nov26.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_26
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-establishes-modern-thanksgiving-holiday
www.christianhistorytimeline.com/lives_events/birthday/index.php
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1126.htm
There are 35 days remaining until the end of the year.
Countdown until Obama should have been leaving Office
www.obamaclock.org/
Days until coming elections:
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion
Born in 1721 to a prominent and influential Virginia family, Randolph graduated from the College of William and Mary before attending law school in London. Upon his return to the colonies, Randolph took up a private practice and was later named attorney general of Virginia. In 1754, Randolph was elected to the House of Burgesses, Virginia's official legislative body. As the colonies grew more in favor of independence from Great Britain, Randolph resigned his post as attorney general in 1766 due to a conflict of interest between serving both the British crown and the people of Virginia in the House of Burgesses.
Randolph continued to work in favor of independence from Great Britain by presiding over Virginia's Committee of Correspondence, which worked to communicate with other colonies to form a united resistance against Britain's parliament, from May 1773 to August 1774. In September 1774, the first Continental Congress was formed in Philadelphia in response to the British enactment of the Intolerable Acts. It was at that first meeting of the Continental Congress that colonists discussed a united resistance to British rule in America.
On September 5, 1774, Randolph was elected by unanimous vote as the first president of the Continental Congress. He resigned as president in October 1774 to attend a meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses but remained a powerful and influential figure within Congress. He returned to Congress in May 1775 and was again elected president, but was forced to resign less than one month later due to his failing health.
Randolph did not live to see America achieve independence, a goal toward which he had worked for most of his adult life. He was initially buried at Christ Church in Philadelphia, but was moved to the cemetery at the chapel of the College of William and Mary one year later.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Cook
1784 The Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States established.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolic_Prefecture_of_the_United_States
1789 A national Thanksgiving Day was observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_Day_(United_States)#Thanksgiving_proclamations_in_the_first_thirty_years_of_nationhood
George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:" Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.
1789 President Washington proclaims a National Day of Thanksgiving. The first American holiday occurred, proclaimed by President George Washington to be Thanksgiving Day, a day of prayer and public thanksgiving in gratitude for the successful establishment of the new American democracy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niobium
1825 First college fraternity founded (Kappa Alpha (Union College, NY)) What John Hart Hunter proposed on November 26, 1825 was to take an informal group calling itself The Philosophers and to formalize it using the strongest characteristics of all these existing institutions. It was this synthesis that caught the attention of the college world and exploded into the collegiate fraternity system over the following 75 years.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_Alpha_Society
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram#Horse-drawn
1842 The University of Notre Dame is founded.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Notre_Dame
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
1863 American Civil War: Mine Run Union forces under General George Meade position against troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_Run_Campaign
1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26th as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November (since 1941, on the fourth Thursday).
1872 The Great Diamond Hoax, one of the most notorious mining swindles of the time, is exposed with an article in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin.
Fraudulent gold and silver mines were common in the years following the California Gold Rush of 1849. Swindlers fooled many eager greenhorns by "salting" worthless mines with particles of gold dust to make them appear mineral-rich. However, few con men were as daring as Kentucky cousins Philip Arnold and John Slack, who convinced San Francisco capitalists to invest in a worthless mine in the northwestern corner of Colorado.
Arnold and Slack played their con perfectly. They arrived in San Francisco in 1872 and tried to deposit a bag of uncut diamonds at a bank. When questioned, the two men quickly disappeared, acting as if they were reluctant to talk about their discovery. Intrigued, a bank director named William Ralston tracked down the men. Assuming he was dealing with unsophisticated country bumpkins, he set out to take control of the diamond mine. The two cousins agreed to take a blindfolded mining expert to the site; the expert returned to report that the mine was indeed rich with diamonds and rubies.
Joining forces with a number of other prominent San Francisco financiers, Ralston formed the New York Mining and Commercial Company, capitalized at $10 million, and began selling stock to eager investors. As a show of good faith, Arnold and Slack received about $600,000-small change in comparison to the supposed value of the diamond mine. Convinced that the American West must have many other major deposits of diamonds, at least 25 other diamond exploration companies formed in the subsequent months.
Clarence King, the then-little-known young leader of a geographical survey of the 40th parallel, finally exposed the cousins' diamond mine as a hoax. A brilliant geologist and mining engineer, King was suspicious of the mine from the start. He correctly deduced the location of the supposed mine, raced off to investigate, and soon realized that the swindlers had salted the mine--some of the gems he found even showed jewelers-cut marks.
Back in San Francisco, King exposed the fraud in the newspapers and the Great Diamond Hoax collapsed. Ralston returned $80,000 to each of his investors, but he was never able to recover the $600,000 given to the two cousins. Arnold lived out the few remaining years of his life in luxury in Kentucky before dying of pneumonia in 1878. Slack apparently squandered his share of the money, for he was last reported working as a coffin maker in New Mexico. King's role in exposing the fraud brought him national recognition--he became the first director of the United States Geological Survey.
1888 A late season hurricane brushed the East Coast with heavy rain and gale force winds. The hurricane passed inside Nantucket and over Cape Cod, then crossed Nova Scotia. (David Ludlum)
1895 Russell Penniman received a patent for transparent photographic film.
1895 Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association formed. Founded in 1895, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) was an unincorporated, voluntary organization of sugar plantation owners in the Hawaiian Islands. Its objective was to promote the mutual benefits of its members and the development of the sugar industry in the islands. It conducted scientific studies and gathered accurate records about the sugar industry.
1896 Snow and high winds hit the Northern Plains and the Upper Mississippi Valley, with a Thanksgiving Day blizzard across North Dakota. The storm was followed by a severe cold wave in the Upper Midwest. The temperature at Pokegama Dam MI plunged to 45 degrees below zero. (David Ludlum)
1898 A powerful early winter storm batters the New England coast on this day in 1898, killing at least 450 people in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
It was Thanksgiving Day when strong winds, in excess of 40 miles per hour, began blowing from the Atlantic Ocean across the New England coast. This was followed, in short order, by gales from the other direction. Equally strong winds roared across upstate New York from the west.
Blizzard conditions disrupted the entire area. Transportation became impossible; some trains were halted by 20-foot snow drifts. Communication was interrupted as the wind and snow brought down telephone and telegraph lines. In some towns and villages, residents were forced to dig tunnels through the snow from their front doors to the streets. In New York City, 2,000 workers attempted to clear the key streets and avenues.
Boston was perhaps worst hit by the storm. Approximately 100 ships were blown ashore from the city's harbor and another 40 were sunk. About 100 people died when a Portland-based steamer sank near Cape Cod. Bodies and debris filled the harbors and nearby beaches.
The storm is thought to have killed at least 450 people, though due to the wide extent of the storm and the poor record-keeping of the time, it is impossible to determine exactly how many people died.
1909 Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New York by 8 Jewish young men.
1913 Phi Sigma Sigma is founded at Hunter College in New York City.
1917 The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.
With their four circular ramps, cloverleaf interchanges were designed to let motorists merge from one road to another without braking. They worked well enough—and became so ubiquitous as a result—that writer Lewis Mumford once declared that "our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf." But many of the older cloverleaves were not built to handle the volume and speed of traffic they now receive, and many have been demolished and rebuilt.
Many people associate cloverleaf interchanges first of all with Southern California, which is famous for its loops and tangles of freeways. But it was an engineer from Maryland, Arthur Hall, who patented the cloverleaf in 1916, and it was an engineer from New Jersey, Edward Delano, who—inspired by a picture he saw in a magazine of a cloverleaf in Argentina—built the U.S.'s first one in Woodbridge. The intersection was a tricky one, since both highways were so heavily traveled: Rt. 25 carried Philadelphia traffic from Camden to Jersey City and Rt. 4 ran from New York City all the way down the Jersey Shore. About 60,000 cars used the interchange each day. Turning from one busy road onto the other was usually difficult and frequently disastrous. The cloverleaf solved this problem: Drivers could merge by looping to the right under an overpass, joining the traffic stream without stopping or making a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic.
These circular ramps move cars from one road to the other fairly efficiently, as long as the roads aren't too busy—but once traffic speed and volume increases, cloverleaves can be just as dangerous as the intersections they replaced. The Woodbridge interchange, for instance, had no merge lanes, so it forced motorists to stop without warning or to plunge directly into highway traffic. Many thousands of fender-benders were the result. It was "the Model T of cloverleafs," said a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). "It worked well at one time, but it's beginning to reach the end of its usefulness." As a result, it's getting a facelift: the NJDOT plans to replace the sprawling cloverleaf with a more compact, diamond-style interchange that will eliminate both the dangerous merges and the associated gridlock.
1933 Thousands of people in San Jose, California, storm the jail where Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes are being held as suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, the 22-year-old son of a local storeowner. The mob of angry citizens proceeded to lynch the accused men and then pose them for pictures.
On November 9, Brooke Hart was abducted by men in his own Studebaker. His family received a $40,000 ransom demand and, soon after, Hart's wallet was found on a tanker ship in a nearby bay. The investigative trail led to Holmes and Thurmond, who implicated each other in separate confessions. Both acknowledged, though, that Hart had been pistol-whipped and then thrown off the San Mateo Bridge.
After Hart's body washed ashore on November 25, a vigilante mob began to form. Newspapers reported the possibility of a lynching and local radio stations broadcast the plan. Not only did Governor James Rolph reject the National Guard's offer to send assistance, he reportedly said he would pardon those involved in the lynching.
On November 26, the angry mob converged at the jail and beat the guards, using a battering ram to break into the cells. Thurmond and Holmes were dragged out and hanged from large trees in a nearby park.
The public seemed to welcome the gruesome act of vigilante violence. After the incident, pieces of the lynching ropes were sold to the public. Though the San Jose News declined to publish pictures of the lynching, it condoned the act in an editorial. Seventeen-year-old Anthony Cataldi bragged that he had been the leader of the mob but he was not held accountable for his participation. At Stanford University, a professor asked his students to stand and applaud the lynching. Perhaps most disturbing, Governor Rolph publicly praised the mob. "The best lesson ever given the country," said Governor Rolph. "I would like to parole all kidnappers in San Quentin to the fine, patriotic citizens of San Jose."
On this day in 1941, Adm. Chuichi Nagumo leads the Japanese First Air Fleet, an aircraft carrier strike force, toward Pearl Harbor, with the understanding that should "negotiations with the United States reach a successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to the homeland."
Negotiations had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia-and to repudiate the Tripartite "Axis" Pact with Germany and Italy as conditions to be met before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation—they just didn't know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway—all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina. As a result of this "bad faith" action, President Roosevelt ordered that a conciliatory gesture of resuming monthly oil supplies for Japanese civilian needs canceled. Hull also rejected Tokyo's "Plan B," a temporary relaxation of the crisis, and of sanctions, but without any concessions on Japan's part. Prime Minister Tojo considered this an ultimatum, and more or less gave up on diplomatic channels as the means of resolving the impasse.
Nagumo had no experience with naval aviation, having never commanded a fleet of aircraft carriers in his life. This role was a reward for a lifetime of faithful service. Nagumo, while a man of action, did not like taking unnecessary risks—which he considered an attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor to be. But Chief of Staff Rear Adm. Isoruku Yamamoto thought differently; while also opposing war with the United States, he believed the only hope for a Japanese victory was a swift surprise attack, via carrier warfare, against the U.S. fleet. And as far as the Roosevelt War Department was concerned, if war was inevitable, it desired "that Japan commit the first overt act."
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
The tradition of celebrating the holiday on Thursday dates back to the early history of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, when post-harvest holidays were celebrated on the weekday regularly set aside as "Lecture Day," a midweek church meeting where topical sermons were presented. A famous Thanksgiving observance occurred in the autumn of 1621, when Plymouth governor William Bradford invited local Indians to join the Pilgrims in a three-day festival held in gratitude for the bounty of the season.
Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga. In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Tuesday, as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution. However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November, that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally.
With a few deviations, Lincoln's precedent was followed annually by every subsequent president--until 1939. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving Day. Considerable controversy surrounded this deviation, and some Americans refused to honor Roosevelt's declaration. For the next two years, Roosevelt repeated the unpopular proclamation, but on November 26, 1941, he admitted his mistake and signed a bill into law officially making the fourth Thursday in November the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day.
1942 World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihaæ in northwestern Bosnia.
1944 World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop on New Cross High Street, United Kingdom, killing 168 shoppers.
1944 World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.
1949 "Slipping Around" by Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely topped the charts. It was producer Lee Gillette who thought of teaming Wakely up with songstress Margaret Whiting in what proved to be a very successful partnership. Their first song together, the infidelity story "Slippin' Around," set the pattern for their partnership, the effervescent Whiting and the smooth, laid-back Wakely -- who, by that time, was becoming known as the Bing Crosby of country & western music -- balancing each other perfectly. "Slippin' Around" spent 17 weeks at the number one spot on the country charts and a week at the number one pop chart position, and the two had nine subsequent hits together, including "Wedding Bells" and "When You and I Were Young Maggie Blues."
1950 Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River and Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
1958 Maurice Richard scored his 600th career goal for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team -- at Madison Square Garden in New York City
1968 Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
1972 Pete Gogolak scores NY Giant record 8 pts after a touchdown
1983 Heathrow Airport, robbed of 6,800 gold bars worth $38.7 million. On November 26th 1983, six robbers broke into the Brinks Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport. It was supposed to be a relatively easy job, stealing 3 million in cash with the help of an inside man. This all changed when, instead of the cash, they found gold bullion worth 26 million.
1986 Iran-Contra scandal: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra
1987 A Thanksgiving Day storm in the northeastern U.S. produced heavy snow in northern New England and upstate New York. Snowfall totals in Maine ranged up to twenty inches at Flagstaff Lake. Totals in New Hampshire ranged up to 18 inches at Errol. Gales lashed the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. A second storm, over the Southern and Central Rockies, produced nine inches of snow at Kanosh UT, and 13 inches at Divide CO, with five inches reported at Denver CO. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1988 Thunderstorms produced severe weather over the Central Gulf Coast States during the late morning and afternoon hours. Five tornadoes were reported in Mississippi, with the tornadoes causing a million dollars damage at Ruleville, and in Warren County. In Utah, the town of Alta was blanketed with 15 inches of snow overnight, and during the day was buried under another 16.5 inches of snow. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1988 Pioneer 6's closest approach to Earth since 1965 launch (1.16 M miles).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_6,_7,_8,_and_9
1989 - A massive storm over the western U.S. produced heavy snow in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The storm produced more than two feet of snow in the higher elevations of northern and central Utah, bringing more than sixty inches of snow to the Alta Ski Resort in the Wasatch Mountains. Winds in Utah gusted to 60 mph at Bullfrog. The storm brought much needed snow to the ski resorts of Colorado, with 19 inches reported at Beaver Creek. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1990 Buffalo Bills become 6th first place NFL team to lose on same weekend
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_election_recount
2002 On this day in 2002, President George W. Bush issues a humorous but sincere presidential pardon to a lucky turkey that otherwise might have ended up on someone's Thanksgiving Day dinner table. In doing so, he continued a tradition begun in 1947 when the National Turkey Foundation first presented Thanksgiving turkeys to President Harry S. Truman.
According to the National Turkey Foundation, Truman was given one live turkey and two dressed turkeys the week before Thanksgiving in 1947. Truman donated the live bird to a local farm, where the turkey was guaranteed a long life unmolested by stuffing or gravy.
Likewise, in 2005, Bush accepted the foundation's gift of two live birds, named "Marshmallow" and "Yam," in a White House ceremony. Calling the birds "the people's turkeys," Bush explained that they had earned their names through a democratic process—the public was allowed to vote on names for the birds through the White House website. He quipped that the vote had been so close, "you might say it was neck and neck." Previous votes resulted in names like "Biscuit" and "Gravy;" Bush's 2003 turkeys were patriotically dubbed "Stars" and "Stripes."
According to the White House website, most previously pardoned turkeys had been sent to live on a 1930s-era farm in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 2005, Bush sent Marshmallow and Yam to serve as Grand Marshals for the Disneyland Thanksgiving Day Parade and to live out their years at the Disneyland Resort and Theme Park in Anaheim, California.
Bush and his family later enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal of roast turkey with all the trimmings.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_turkey_pardon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-faced_Honeycreeper
www.todayinsci.com/11/11_26.htm
www.todayinsci.com/11/11_26.htm
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.amug.org/~jpaul/nov26.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_26
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-establishes-modern-thanksgiving-holiday
www.christianhistorytimeline.com/lives_events/birthday/index.php
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1126.htm
