Today in History

3rd November

1534 England's Parliament met and passed an Act of Supremacy which made King Henry VIII head of the English church, a role formerly held by the Pope.

1718 The birth of John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich who gave his name to the Sandwich Islands, and (allegedly) to the 'sandwich' as a result of his reluctance to leave the gaming tables but requiring a quick and easy to eat snack.

1783 The highwayman John Austin was the last person to be publicly hanged at London's Tyburn gallows.

1843 The statue of English Admiral Horatio Nelson was raised to the top of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London. The operation was completed on the 4th when the statue’s two sections were assembled.
 

1838
The Times of India,the world's largest English language daily broad street newspaper is founded
1896
JH Hunter patents the portable weigh scales
1911
Chevrolet offically enters the automobile market as a competitor to the Model T Ford
2014
The 104 storied One World Trade Center opens in NYC,13 yrs after the Sept 11th attacks
 
Australian History

Monday, November 4, 1878. : Police patrols are increased along the Murray River as the manhunt for the Kelly gang intensifies, following the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek.

Ned Kelly, Australia's most famous bushranger, was born in December 1854 in Beveridge, Victoria. Kelly was twelve when his father died, and he was subsequently required to leave school to take on the new position as head of the family. Shortly after this, the Kellys moved to Glenrowan. As a teenager, Ned became involved in petty crimes, regularly targetting the wealthy landowners. He gradually progressed to crimes of increasing seriousness and violence, including bank robbery and murder, soon becoming a wanted man, together with the members of his gang, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.

Following a series of robberies in 1878, police hunts for the Kelly Gang intensified. Whilst attempting to track down the gang, three policemen were murdered at Stringybark Creek on 25 October 1878. The ruthless killing of Constable Lonigan, Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Mounted Constable Michael Scanlon resulted in the Kelly gang being declared outlaws. Two hundred police were brought into the area, while aboriginal troopers with tracking skills were brought down from Queensland.

On Monday, 4 November 1878, police patrols were increased along the Murray River, as the gang had been reported in the Chiltern area. However, the gang remained at large, even managing to rob the National bank in the Victorian town of Euroa of about 2000 pounds early in December.

Tuesday, November 4, 1930. : Australia's greatest racehorse, Phar Lap, wins the Melbourne Cup.

Phar Lap, a giant chestnut thoroughbred gelding, standing 17.1 hands high, is regarded by many to be Australia's and New Zealand's greatest racehorse. A much loved Australian national icon, he was actually born and bred in Timaru, in the South Island of New Zealand, but never raced in New Zealand.

The name Phar Lap was derived from the shared Zhuang and Thai word for lightning. According to the Museum Victoria, medical student Aubrey Ping often visited the track in Randwick, talking with riders and trainers. He had learned some Zhuang from his father, who migrated to Australia from southern China. He reputedly suggested "Farlap" as the horse's name. Sydney trainer Harry Telford liked the name, but changed the F to a Ph to create a seven letter word, and split it into two words, so as to replicate the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.

Phar Lap dominated the racing scene in Australia during a long and distinguished career. In the four years of his racing career, he won 37 of 51 races he entered. During 1930 and 1931, he won 14 races in a row. On 4 November 1930, ridden by Jimmy Pike, Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup. He started as the shortest-priced favourite in the history of the race at odds of 8–11, having finished third in 1929.

Phar Lap died in April 1932. A necropsy revealed that the horse's stomach and intestines were inflamed, and many believed he had been deliberately poisoned. A variety of theories have been propounded through the years. In 2006 Australian Synchrotron Research scientists said it was almost certain Phar Lap was poisoned with a large single dose of arsenic 35 hours before he died, supporting the belief that Phar Lap was killed on the orders of US gangsters, who feared the Melbourne-Cup-winning champion would inflict big losses on their illegal bookmakers.

Phar Lap's heart was a remarkable size, weighing 6.2 kg, compared with a normal horse's heart at 3.2 kg. Phar Lap's heart is now held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. It is consistently the display visitors request most often to see, and pay their respects to the gentle, big-hearted giant of the horse racing world.

Friday, November 4, 1932. : Australia's first Milk Bar is opened.

A milk bar in Australia is a small, local general store, known as a corner store in some places. As well as selling basic groceries and newspapers, early milk bars offered milkshakes, lollies and drinks.

Australia's first milk bar was opened in Martin Place, Sydney, on 4 November 1932. Called the Black and White 4d Milk Bar, it was established by Greek migrant Joachim Tavlaridis who later adopted the name "Mick Adams". The milk bar was famous for its milkshakes and for its mechanical cow. Unlike contemporary businesses with table service, it featured a bar counter with limited seats on one side and milkshake makers and soda pumps on the other, harking back to an American influence. The success of the business had a strong influence in making the term "milk bar" known throughout Australia, and even the United Kingdom.
 

World History

Saturday, November 4, 1922. : The entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb is discovered.

Egypt's King Tutankhamen was the son of King Akhenaten, who lived from 1353 to 1337 BC. He was born around 1347 BC and died in his late teens. His tomb lay undiscovered for over 3300 years until a team of British archaeologists, led by Howard Carter, discovered a step leading to the tomb on 4 November 1922. The step was hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI, in the Valley of the Kings. Twenty-two days later, Carter and his crew entered the tomb itself, eventually discovering a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins, fitted within each other. Inside the final coffin, which was made out of solid gold, was the mummified body of King Tutankhamun.

The tomb also contained hundreds of objects, elaborately decorated and covered in gold, that the Egyptians believed would be needed by the king in his afterlife. These rich artifacts are now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The walls of the burial chamber were painted with scenes of his voyage to the afterworld. The find was considered particularly significant, not only for the remarkable preservation of the mummy and the treasures, but for the fact that most of the Egyptian kings' tombs were believed to have already been found.

Sunday, November 4, 1956. : Soviet troops invade Hungary in a massive dawn offensive.

Hungary had been subjected to Soviet occupation since 1944. On 23 October 1956, a group of students began a peaceful demonstration in Budapest, demanding an end to Soviet occupation and the implementation of "true socialism". This was the beginning of the Hungarian Uprising. The next day, commissioned officers and soldiers joined the demonstration on the streets of Budapest, pulling down the statue of Stalin. On October 25, the Soviets responded by firing on the protestors in Parliament Square with tanks. Newly elected Hungarian leader Imre Nagy promised the Hungarian people independence and political freedom, and the demonstrations increased in response.

On 4 November 1956, Soviet troops invade Hungary in a massive dawn offensive. Over 1000 tanks rolled into Budapest, and troops were deployed throughout the country. Nagy appealed to the UN and Western governments for protection, but his pleas were largely ignored as other crises occupied the attention of the west. Thousands of Hungarians were killed and injured, and the demonstrations were quelled. Nagy and others involved in the uprising were captured, secretly tried and executed in June 1958. It was not until 1991, with the collapse of communism across Europe, that Soviet troops finally withdrew from Hungary.

Saturday, November 4, 1995. : Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated.

Yitzhak Rabin was born on 1 March 1922. He was the first Israeli-born Prime Minister of Israel, and the fifth Prime Minister, serving first from 1974 until 1977 and again in 1992 until his death in 1995. Even though Israel and Jordan had long maintained good relations in secret, theoretically the two countries were in a state of war. Rabin was instrumental in negotiating formal peace with Jordan. He and Jordan's King Hussein formally made peace at a ceremony in Wadi Araba on the Israeli-Jordanian border, on 26 October 1994. Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to create peace in the Middle East.

On 4 November 1995, Rabin was shot three times at close range by a gunman as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv. The gunman, extreme right-wing activist Yigal Amir, was quickly arrested, and ultimately received a life sentence in prison. The day on which Rabin died was designated a national memorial day in his honour, and many public places now bear his name.
 
Nov 4th
1846
Benjamin Palmer patents the artifical leg
1922
archeologist,Howard Carter discovers the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt
1979
Iran Hostage Crisis begins with 500 Iranian students seizing the U.S. Embassy, taking/holding 90 hostages for 444 days
2008
Barak O'Bama becomes the 1st Africian American elected U.S. Pres.He defeated Sen.John McCain{R,AZ}
 
4th November.

1884 The birth of Henry George (Harry) Ferguson, Irish engineer and inventor who is noted for his role in the development of the modern agricultural tractor, for becoming the first Irishman to build and fly his own aeroplane, and for developing the first four-wheel drive Formula One car, the Ferguson P99.

1890 The Prince of Wales travelled by the underground electric railway from King William Street to the Oval to mark the opening of what is now the City Branch of the Northern Line. It was the first electrified underground railway system

1900 Britain's first driving lessons were given, in London.

1909 The first flight of a pig takes place at Leysdown, Kent. Lord Brabazon of Tara took the pig for a flight of about 4 miles from Shellbeach airfield on the Isle of Sheppey.
 
Australian History

Monday, November 5, 1804. : Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson lands in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in order to begin a new settlement in the north.

Tasmania was first discovered by Abel Tasman in November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

In 1804, Lieutenant-Governor David Collins moved most of the members of the settlement he had founded at Port Phillip Bay, but which had faltered due to unsuitable conditions, across Bass Strait. He established the settlement of Sullivan Cove, which was later renamed Hobart Town, on the Derwent River.

In that same year, the British Government appointed Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson as Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land and instructed him to form a settlement at Port Dalrymple in the north of Van Diemen's Land. This was to further offset French interest in the island. Paterson arrived at Outer Cove on 5 November 1804 with a detachment of soldiers and seventy-five convicts. He initially established the site at Western Arm, which he named York Town, but two years later he formed a new settlement on the present site of Launceston.

Monday, November 5, 1956. : The ABC's first television broadcast commences.

John Logie Baird first demonstrated the television in 1926. Although the United States introduced television broadcasts in 1928, and the UK in 1936, it was another decade before steps were made to bring the medium to Australia. In 1950, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced a gradual introduction of television in Australia, commencing with a launch of an Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) station, as the Broadcasting Act 1948 prohibited the granting of commercial television licences. Three years later his government amended the Broadcasting Act to allow for commercial television licences. Test transmissions commenced in Sydney and Melbourne in July 1956, and at 7:00pm on 16 September 1956, Australia's first TV broadcast was made by TCN Channel 9 in Sydney.

The inaugural ABC television station was ABN2 Sydney. The first broadcast was on 5 November 1956, and commenced with the ABC logo, and presenter Michael Charlton, whose father Conrad had introduced Australians to ABC radio in 1932. Charlton announced: "Hello there, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and children. This emblem that you've just seen is tonight the symbol of a historic occasion - the opening of the national television service, which, of course, is YOUR television service. And we hope that tonight, and in the weeks and years to come, that you're going to see and enjoy a lot more of it on ABN2 - ABN Channel 2. My name is Michael Charlton, and I'm your host here tonight."

Shortly afterwards, Charlton invited Prime Minister Robert Menzies to launch ABC Television. The first news bulletin was then read by ABC radio newsreader James Dibble, who became the senior ABC television newsreader. The ABC then followed two weeks later with a transmission in Melbourne.

Friday, November 5, 2010. : It is reported that the world's oldest ground-edge tool has been discovered in northern Australia.

Australia has come to be regarded as the home of one of the world's oldest races. On 5 November 2010, the Monash University online news site reported that a Monash university archaeologist, with a team of international experts, had uncovered the oldest ground-edge stone tool in the world.

The discovery was originally made back in May 2010 at Nawarla Gabarnmang, a large rock-shelter in Jawoyn Aboriginal country in southwestern Arnhem Land in Australia's far north. The tool appeared to be a stone-age axe, a significant tool in aboriginal communities. Axes were believed to carry the ancestral forces from the quarry from which they originated, providing a vital spiritual and cultural link through trade between aboriginal groups.
 
World History

Saturday, November 5, 1605. : Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up the English Houses of Parliament.

Guy Fawkes (later also known as Guido Fawkes) was born on 13 April 1570, in Stonegate, York, England. He embraced Catholicism while still in his teens, and later served for many years as a soldier gaining considerable expertise with explosives; both of these events were crucial to his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

From 1563, legislation evolved which demanded citizens recognise the King as Supreme Governor of the Church. Refusal to submit was punishable by death. The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt by a group of Catholic extremists to assassinate King James I of England, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in one hit by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening. A group of conspirators rented a cellar beneath the House of Lords and filled it with 2.5 tonnes of gunpowder. However, one of the conspirators, who feared for the life of fellow Catholics who would have been present at parliament during the opening, wrote a letter to Lord Monteagle. Monteagle, in turn, warned the authorities. Fawkes, who was supposed to have lit the fuse to explode the gunpowder, was arrested during a raid on the cellar early on the morning of 5 November 1605. Fawkes was tortured into revealing the names of his co-conspirators. Those who were not killed immediately were placed on trial, during which they were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered in London. Climbing up to the hanging platform, Fawkes leapt off the ladder, breaking his neck and dying instantly.

November 5 came to be known as Guy Fawkes Day. At dusk, citizens across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow up Parliament and James I.

Monday, November 5, 1928. : Mount Etna, Sicily, erupts and destroys the town of Mascali, but all inhabitants are evacuated safely.

Mount Etna is the largest volcano on the east coast of Sicily, an island off Italy. Etna stands about 3,320 m high with a basal circumference of 140 km, and covers an area of 1190 km². As one of the most active volcanoes in the world, it is in an almost constant state of eruption, but is not regarded as being dangerous.

On 5 November 1928, Mount Etna erupted, and the resultant lava flow largely destroyed the town of Mascali on the eastern side of the volcano. However, prior to its destruction, the town's inhabitants had time to be systemically evacuated, with the help of the military. An entirely new town was rebuilt by 1937.

Tuesday, November 5, 1935. : Parker Brothers releases the board game 'Monopoly'.

The popular board game 'Monopoly' is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single seller. The game was developed by Charles B Darrow, but the concept was actually based on a game patented in 1904 by Lizzie J Magie, a Quaker from Virginia. Magie's invention was called the Landlord Game, and was designed to promote her political agenda by demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants.

Darrow developed his own version of the game and patented it in 1935. 'Monopoly' was released on 5 November 1935. It was immediately popular as, during the Depression, people enjoyed the concept of a game in which players could make their fortune, accumulate large sums of money and send other players into financial ruin.
 
5th November

1605 Guy Fawkes was arrested when around 30 barrels of gunpowder, camouflaged with coal, were discovered in the cellar under Parliament. Robert Catesby’s small band of Catholic zealots who planned to blow up James I and Parliament were only arrested after Fawkes revealed their names when tortured on the rack.

1854 Nineteen Victoria Crosses were won in the defeat of the Russians at the Battle of Inkerman.

1912 The appointment of a British Board of Film Censors. They decided on only two classifications - 'Universal' and 'Not Suitable for Children'.

1950 Korean War: British and Australian forces from the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade successfully halted the advancing Chinese 117th Division during the Battle of Pakchon in North Korea.
 
Australian History

Wednesday, November 6, 1861. : Queensland is linked with New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia by telegraph.

Canadian-born Samuel Walker McGowan is credited with bringing the telegraph technology to Australia. Lured by the opportunities opened up by the discovery of gold in Victoria, McGowan arrived in Melbourne in 1853. Although isolated from telegraph technology in America, and limited by lack of equipment and suitable component manufacturing firms in Australia, McGowan succeeded in opening up the first telegraph line in Australia on 3 March 1854. It ran from Melbourne to Williamstown.

The network of telegraph lines quickly spread throughout Victoria, and then to Adelaide, South Australia. In 1861, the first electric telegraph in Queensland was transmitted between Brisbane and Ipswich. Then on 6 November 1861, Brisbane was linked by telegraph to New South Wales, allowing transmission of telegraphs also to Victoria and South Australia.

Saturday, November 6, 1999. : Australia votes against becoming a republic in a national referendum.

Constitutional monarchy vs Republic: the debate has been continuing in Australia for many years. In an effort to settle the matter once and for all, a Constitutional Convention was held in Canberra in February 1998. During the two-week convention, a model for a republic was adopted, which was then presented to the public at a referendum on 6 November 1999. In the final count, the "no" votes led 54.87% to 45.13%. All six states voted against the proposal. Victoria held the narrowest margin of 50.16% to 49.84%. Prime Minister John Howard said the Australian people had clearly rejected the republic proposal. Despite the referendum, however, the debate has continued to dog Australian politics.
 
World History

Thursday, November 6, 1884. : A British protectorate is proclaimed over the southern coast of New Guinea, now part of Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, positioned to the north of Australia. Consisting of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, as well as numerous offshore islands, it shares the island with the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. The country is renowned for being largely unexplored, with ancient tribes still occupying dense jungles in the rugged mountains, while it is also believed that undiscovered flora and fauna species lie in its interior.

The first known European incursions into the island began with the Dutch and Portuguese traders during the sixteenth century. The name 'Papua New Guinea' is a result of the country's unusual administrative history prior to Independence. 'Papua' comes from a Malay word, pepuah, used to describe the frizzy Melanesian hair, while 'New Guinea' is derived from 'Nueva Guinea', the name used by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, who coined the term due to the physical similarities he noted in the people to those occupying the Guinea coast of Africa.

The northern half of the country fell to German control in 1884, and in 1899 the German imperial government assumed direct control of the territory. At this point, the territory was known as German New Guinea. On 6 November 1884, a British protectorate was proclaimed over the southern half, and on 4 September 1888, Britain annexed the territory completely. The southern half then became known as British New Guinea. After the Papua Act of 1905, the British portion was renamed to Territory of Papua. During World War I, Australian troops began occupying the island to defend the British portion. Once the Treaty of Versailles came into effect following World War I, Australia was permitted to administer German New Guinea, while the British portion came to be regarded as an External Territory of the Australian Commonwealth, though in effect still a British possession. The two territories remained separate and distinct as 'Papua' and 'New Guinea'.

Following the New Guinea Campaign of World War II, the two territories were merged as 'Papua New Guinea'. Australia continued to administer the country until it was granted full independence on 16 September 1975. Since independence, the two countries have retained close ties.

Tuesday, November 6, 1962. : The United Nations condemns the policy of Apartheid.

Apartheid was an official policy of racial segregation under which the black majority was segregated and denied political, social and economic rights equal to those given to whites. It commenced in South Africa in 1948, and continued through to the early 1990s.

On 6 November 1962, the General Assembly of the United Nations established the UN Special Committee against Apartheid. In adopting a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies, it called on all member states to terminate diplomatic, trade, transport and military relations with the country. This was in the wake of the 1960 massacre of unarmed black demonstrators at Sharpeville near Johannesburg, South Africa. South African police opened fire on a crowd of native South Africans protesting against the pass laws, which required all blacks to carry pass books at all times. This action cultivated a great deal of anti-apartheid support throughout the world, and led to the November 6 resolution by the United Nations.
 
6th November

1638 Birth of James Gregory, Scottish mathematician and astronomer who described the first practical reflecting telescope and contributed towards the discovery of calculus.

1892 Birth of Sir John Alcock, English aviator who flew the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1919 with Sir Arthur Whitten-Brown.

1935 The RAF's first monoplane fighter, the 'Hawker Hurricane' made its maiden flight. Although largely overshadowed by the Spitfire, the aircraft became renowned during the Battle of Britain, and accounted for 60% of the RAF's air victories.

1942 The Church of England relaxed its rule that women must wear hats in church.
 
1917
NYS adopts constiutional amendment giving women the right to vote in state elections
1928
Colonel Jacob Schnick patents the 1st electric shaver
1991
After 'Operation Desert Storm' ended in Feb '91,Iraquai soliders set fire to over 700 Kuwait oil fires
The last one was extinguished on this date
 
Australian History

Thursday, November 7, 1861. : The first Melbourne Cup is run.

The Melbourne Cup is the major annual thoroughbred horse race in Australia. Sometimes referred to as "the race that stops a nation", it is run at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne on the first Tuesday of November each year.

The first Melbourne Cup was run on 7 November 1861, and was attended by a crowd of around 4000. The race was won by Archer out of a field of 17 horses. Legend states that Archer had been walked from Nowra in NSW to the Cup in Melbourne, a distance of around 885 kilometres. However, shipping documents discovered many years later cast doubts upon that popular claim.

By the year 2000, attendance at the racing carnival was up to 120,000. Originally run over a distance of two miles, in 1972 the race was converted to 3200 metres, which is just short of two miles by 18.69 metres, or 61.30 feet.

Tuesday, November 7, 1911. : Australia's Federal Parliament selects the site for the Royal Australian Naval College.

From the time that Australia was first colonised in 1788, up until 1859, Australia's naval defence depended on detachments from the Royal Navy in Sydney. A separate British naval station was established in Australia in 1859, while a Royal Navy squadron, paid for and mainatined by Australia, was maintained in Australian waters through to 1913.

In 1909, the decision was made to establish an Australian Fleet Unit. The first ships comprising this fleet arrived in Australian waters during November of 1910. These Commonwealth Naval Forces became the Royal Australian Navy on 10 July 1911, following the granting of this title by King George V.

On 7 November 1911, the Federal Parliament of Australia selected Captain's Point, Jervis Bay, as the site of the future Royal Australian Naval College. As the Australian Capital Territory was inland, it was determined that the national seat of government needed access to the ocean, so the Jervis Bay Territory was surrendered by New South Wales to the Commonwealth in 1915 under the "Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915".
 
World History

The Mary Celeste was a ship found abandoned off the coast of Portugal in 1872.
Originally named 'The Amazon' when it was first built in Nova Scotia in 1861, the 103-foot, 282-ton brigantine was renamed the 'Mary Celeste' in 1869 after changing hands several times.

On 7 November 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, the ship set sail from New York to Genoa, Italy. A month later, on December 4, it was found adrift and abandoned, yet its cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol was intact. None of the Mary Celeste's crew or passengers was ever found. Theories have abounded as to what happened. The most logical was that the ship was hit by a seaquake, common in the Azores, where the ship would have been at that time. Evidence indicated that the quake had dislodged some of the alcohol barrels, dumping almost 500 gallons of raw alcohol into the bilge. The galley stove shook so violently that it was lifted up from its chocks, perhaps even sending sparks and embers flying. This, mixed with the alcohol fumes, possibly caused the crew and passengers to fear for their safety. They may have taken to the lifeboats, but were unable to catch up to the brig when the quaking subsided. Regardless of the theories, the mystery endures as to why the 'Mary Celeste' was abandoned.

Born on this day

Thursday, November 7, 1867. : Polish scientist Marie Curie is born.

Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska on 7 November 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. She was unique for being one of the most celebrated scientists of all time, achieving her outstanding reputation at a time when her field was dominated almost exclusively by men. Working with her husband, Pierre Curie, her experiments on uranium minerals led to the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium in 1898. In 1903 they shared the Nobel Prize for physics with Henri Becquerel. Curie became the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne University when she took over her husband's position as professor after his death in 1906.

Marie Curie was awarded a second Nobel prize in 1911, for chemistry, for her work on radium and its compounds. She was then offered the position of Director of the Laboratory of Radioactivity at the Curie Institute of Radium, established jointly by the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute, for research on radioactivity and for radium therapy. Marie Curie died in 1934, ironically from the effects of prolonged exposure to radioactivity.
 
Nov 7th
1786
The oldest U.S. musical organization,Stoughton Music Society was founded
1872
The cargo ship,"Mary Celeste' sails from Staten Island for Genova is mysteriously found abandoned 4 weeks later
1907
Delta Sigma Pi a professional fraternity organized to foster study of business at universities is founded in NYC
1967
Pres Lyndon Johnson signs bill to establish corportation for Public Broadcasting
 
Australian History

Tuesday, November 8, 1836. : The printing press which is to print South Australia's proclamation as a British province arrives in the colony.

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, the only Australian state to have been founded by free settlers, remaining entirely free of convicts during its early history. Adelaide was surveyed and designed by Colonel William Light, first Surveyor-General of South Australia, who also named Holdfast Bay, the site for the earliest landings of pioneers to South Australia.

It was into this port that South Australia's first printing press arrived. On 8 November 1836, Colonial Secretary and Chief Magistrate Robert Gouger arrived aboard the ship 'The Africaine', and settled near the site now referred to as 'The Old Gum Tree' at Glenelg North. Also aboard the 'Africaine' was Robert Thomas, who had arranged transport of the printing press, a Stanhope Invenit No. 200. It was another two days before Thomas and his family disembarked from the 'Africaine', and their luggage, including the press, was offloaded south of the Patawalonga Creek mouth.

Although South Australia was officially proclaimed on 19 February 1836 in England, the proclamation was made on 28 December 1836. Governor Hindmarsh made the announcement at the Old Gum Tree, but the actual proclamation had not yet been printed. On 30 December, Thomas was given orders to prepare for the print run of the proclamation. On 14 January 1837, the first 3 Acts of the new Executive Council of Government were printed, and two days later, 150 sheets were printed - the official "Proclamation Establishment of Government in SA".

Australian Explorers

Monday, November 8, 1824. : Explorers Hume and Hovell become the first Europeans to sight the Australian Alps.

Hamilton Hume, born near Parramatta on 19 June 1797, was an Australian-born settler with excellent bush skills. He developed an interest in exploring when he was sent by Governor Macquarie in 1818 to find an overland route south from Sydney to Jervis Bay. On this occasion, accompanied by ex-convict James Meehan, Hume discovered discovered the rich, fertile land of the Goulburn Plains.

As a grazier, Hume was interested in exploring south of the known Sydney area in order to open up new areas of land, but could not gain Government support for his proposed venture. William Hovell was an English immigrant with little bush experience, a former ship's captain who was keen to assist Hume's expedition financially, and accompany him. The expedition was set up, and Hume and Hovell departed Hume's father's farm at Appin, southwest of Sydney, in early October 1824.

Although the two men argued for most of their journey, and even for many years after their return, the expedition was successful in many ways. Hume and Hovell were the first to discover the "Hume River", though it was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. On 8 November 1824, they became the first known Europeans to see the Australian Alps. Excited by the sight of the beautiful mountains, Hume wrote in his journal "... a prospect came into view the most magnificent, this was an immence [sic] high Mountain Covered nearly one fourth of the way down with snow, and the Sun shining upon it gave it a most brilliant appearance."
 
World History

Monday, November 8, 1920. : The first 'Rupert Bear' cartoon appears in the "Daily Express".

Rupert Bear is the longest running cartoon character in the world. Created by artist Mary Tourtel, Rupert Bear, with his distinctive checked yellow scarf and slacks and bright red jumper, was developed in response to the rise of anthropomorphic characters appearing in other newspapers. Rupert made his debut in British newspaper the Daily Express on 8 November 1920 in a story entitled 'The Adventures of a Little Lost Bear'.

The little bear immediately appealed to readers, and Rupert Bear enjoyed increasing popularity through ensuing decades. The first collection of Rupert cartoons was published as an annual in 1935. By the 1950s, 1.7 million of the Rupert annuals were sold, and even today the Rupert Annual remains one of the top three Annual titles sold worldwide. Possibly Rupert's greatest achievement was when Beatle Paul McCartney developed the animated ‘Rupert and the Frog Song’, a production which won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award.

Wednesday, November 8, 1939. : Nazi leader Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt.

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Austria. In 1921, shortly after Germany's humiliating defeat in World War 1, he became leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party. He then became chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and dictator, or Führer, of Nazi Germany between 1934 and 1945. Hitler was notorious for his heinous massacres of Jews, Romanys and other non-Aryan groups during World War II: these massacres became known as the Holocaust.

Over fifteen attempts were made to assassinate German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler between 1939 and 1945. The attempt on 8 November 1939 was made by George Elser, a swiss carpenter and watch maker who resented the Nazi control over labour unions. Elser placed a time bomb in a pillar behind the podium where Hitler was to give a speech in the Burgerbrau Beer Cellar. It was due to detonate at 9:20am. Hitler, however, ended his speech at 9:12 and departed suddenly. Eight others were killed and 65 wounded when the bomb exploded, but Hitler was nowhere in sight.

Elser was arrested and detained in Sachsenhausen concentration camp for the duration of the war. He was executed on 16 April 1945, shortly before WWII ended.

Sunday, November 8, 1987. : An IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing thirteen.

Enniskillen is the county town of Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, close to the border with the Irish Republic. On 8 November 1987, a bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day service in the town, killing 11 and injuring 63. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declaimed the bombing as "utterly barbaric". Following the attack, the IRA lost much support its cause may have once engendered.

One of those killed was nurse Marie Wilson: her father Gordon Wilson, who was also injured in the attack, went on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. However, the tone of his campaign was one of forgiveness for the perpetrators of the tragedy. Ten years later, on Remembrance Day 1997, Gerry Adams, the leader of the IRA's political wing Sinn Féin, formally apologised for the bombing.

Born on this day

Wednesday, November 8, 1922. : Christiaan Barnard, the South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first open heart transplant, is born.

Christiaan Barnard was born on 8 November 1922, in Beaufort West, South Africa. After studying and practising medicine in South Africa for a number of years, in 1956 he travelled to America to study surgery at the University of Minnesota. It was there that he chose to specialise in cardiology. Upon returning to South Africa, he was appointed cardiothoracic surgeon at the Groote Schuur Hospital in 1958. He also lectured at the University of Cape Town, and in 1961 he was made head of cardiothoracic surgery at the university.

Barnard performed the world's first open heart transplant surgery on 3 December 1967. 55-year-old diabetic and chronic heart disease patient, Louis Washkansky, had his diseased heart replaced with a healthy heart from Denise Darvall, a young woman with the same blood type, who had died in hospital after a car accident. The patient survived the operation, living for eighteen days before succumbing to double pneumonia brought on by the immuno-suppressive drugs he was taking.

Barnard went on to pioneer new techniques, including double transplants, artificial valves and using animal hearts for emergency treatment. Rheumatoid arthritis forced him to retire from surgery in 1983. He died from an acute asthma attack on 2 September 2001.
 
8th November

1605 Robert Catesby, the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, was killed by gunshot, along with other conspirators at Holbeche House, on the border of Staffordshire. He was buried close by but the bodies of Catesby and fellow conspirator Percy were exhumed and decapitated and Catesby's head was placed on the side of the Parliament House.

1656 The birth of Edmond Halley, English astronomer and mathematician best known for the comet named after him and for his work predicting its orbit. He also produced the first meteorological chart.

1958 Melody Maker published the first British album charts.

1965 The bill abolishing the death penalty became law. (England, Scotland and Wales).
 
Australian History

Wednesday, November 9, 1960. : The Red and Green Kangaroo Paw is proclaimed the floral emblem of Western Australia.

The Kangaroo Paw is a type of low-growing shrub native to Western Australia. This unusual plant gained its name by the apparent resemblance of its cluster of unopened flowers to a kangaroo's paw, being long and slender, like the forepaw of a kangaroo.

There are just twelve species of the genus 'Anigozanthos' to which the Kangaroo Paw belongs. Preferring sandy soil, in their native state they are found throughout southwest Western Australia, in the north around Geraldton and on the Swan Coastal Plain near Perth.

The Kangaroo Paw was first collected and described by French botanist Jacques-Julian Houton de Labillardiere near Esperance in 1792. On 9 November 1960, the Red and Green Kangaroo Paw, also known as Mangles' kangaroo paw, was proclaimed as the floral emblem of Western Australia. The announcement was made by Lieutenant Governor of Western Australia, His Excellency The Honourable Sir John Dwyer.


Australian Explorers

Thursday, November 9, 1848. : After a gruelling five-month journey through thick rainforest, Edmund Kennedy finally reaches Weymouth Bay in North Queensland.

Edmund Kennedy was born in 1818 on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands of the English channel. As a surveyor, he arrived in Sydney in 1840 where he joined the Surveyor-General's Department as assistant to Sir Thomas Mitchell. In 1845, he accompanied Mitchell on an expedition into the interior of Queensland (then still part of New South Wales), and two years later led another expedition through central Queensland, tracing the course of the Victoria River, later renamed the Barcoo.

In 1848 Kennedy left Rockingham Bay, north of Townsville, with 12 other men to travel to Cape York, intending to map the eastern coast of north Queensland. Dense rainforest and the barrier of the Great Dividing Range made the journey extremely difficult. By the time Kennedy's party reached Weymouth Bay on 9 November 1848, they were starving and exhausted. Kennedy left eight sick men and two horses at Weymouth Bay before continuing on with three white men and a loyal Aborigine named Jacky-Jacky.
 
World History

Wednesday, November 9, 1960. : John F Kennedy becomes the youngest elected president of the United States.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on 29 May 1917. After completing his schooling, and prior to enrolling in Princeton University, he attended the London School of Economics for a year, where he studied political economy. Illness forced him to leave Princeton, after which he enrolled in Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in international affairs in June 1940, then joined the US Navy, only entering politics after WWII.

After declaring his intent to run for President of the United States, Kennedy was nominated by the Democratic Party on 13 July 1960, as its candidate for president. He beat Vice-President Richard Nixon by a close margin in the general election on 9 November 1960, to become the youngest elected president in US history and the first Roman Catholic.

Kennedy's presidential term was cut tragically short when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, 22 November 1963 while on a political trip through Texas.

Tuesday, November 9, 1965. : Northeast America suffers a blackout which affects thirty million people.

Between 5:15 and 5:30pm on 9 November 1965, northeast America suffered a massive power outage. A faulty relay at the Sir Adam Beck Station No. 2 in Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, affected the electricity supply to the northeastern states of the USA and large parts of Canada. The blackout covered 207,000 square kilometres and lasted more than 13 hours. The faulty relay was catalyst to a domino effect as a number of escalating line overloads hit the main trunk lines of the grid, separating major generation sources from load centres, and weakening the entire system as each separated. Power stations in the New York City area automatically shut themselves off to prevent the surges coming through the grid from overloading their turbines.

The 1965 power outage was largely peaceful, with people assisting each other. Subsequent major outages have resulted in looting and riots.

Thursday, November 9, 1989. : The Berlin Wall is opened for the first time since 1961.

Berlin is the capital city of Germany. Following WWII, it was divided into four sectors, with sectors being controlled by the Soviet Union, USA, the UK and France. Whilst the countries initially cooperated, governing the city jointly by a commission of all four occupying armies, tensions began to increase between the Soviet Union and the western allies with the development of the Cold War. The border between East and West Germany was closed in 1952, and movement of citizens between East and West Berlin also became more restricted, particularly as people continued to defect from East Germany via West Berlin. Shoppers from East Berlin tended to make their purchases in the western sector, where goods were cheaper and more readily available. This damaged the Soviet economy, as it was subsidising East Germany's economy.

Overnight on 13 August 1961 the Eastern and Western halves of Berlin were separated by barbed wire fences up to 1.83 metres high. Over the next few days, troops began to replace the barbed wire with permanent concrete blocks, reaching up to 3.6m high. Ultimately, the wall included over 300 watchtowers, 106km of concrete and 66.5km of wire fencing completely surrounding West Berlin and preventing any access from East Germany.

The wall remained as a barrier between East and West until 1989, when the collapse of communism led to its fall. On 9 November 1989, an international press conference began in East Berlin. Huge demonstrations against political repression had been continuing for months. At the conclusion of the peace conference, greater freedom of travel was announced for people of the German Democratic Republic. At midnight, the East German government allowed gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points. In the ensuing weeks, many people then took to the wall with hammers and chisels, dismantling it piece by piece.
 
9th November

1847 In Edinburgh, Dr James Young Simpson delivered Wilhelmina Carstairs while chloroform was administered to her mother, the first child to be born with the aid of anaesthetics.

1888 At 3:30 a.m. in London's Whitechapel, 25-year-old Mary Kelly became Jack the Ripper's last known victim. The 'Ripper' was never caught, but the nature of the murders and of the victims drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End of London and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, unsanitary slums. In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished.

1961 Brian Epstein went to a lunchtime session at The Cavern in Liverpool to see for himself why his record shop was receiving so many requests for records by a group (the Beatles) that had apparently made none. He later became their manager.

1992 Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud set out on their unassisted crossing of the Antarctic. For 97 days they fought pain, starvation and snow blindness until they were eventually airlifted out after completing the first and the longest, unsupported journey in Polar history. They walked more than 1,350 miles across some of the most hostile terrain in the world, averaging more than 14 miles a day at temperatures as low as -45°C.
 
Nov 9th
1620
After months of delays off the English coast,2 months at sea,the Mayflower spots land {Cape Cod,Massachusetts}
1938
Al Capp,cartoonist of'Lil'Abner' creates Sadie Hawkins Day
1944
The Red Cross wins Nobel Peace Prize
1980
Iraqui President/dictator,Saddam Hussein declares 'holy war' against Iran
 

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