Today in History

1777
article of Confederation,the 1st U.S. Constitution is approved by the Continential Congress
1904
businessman/inventor,King Gillette patents Gillette razor blade
1969
Wendy's hamburger,U.S. fast food chain founded by Dave Thomas opens in Columbus, Ohio
 

Australian History

Sunday, November 16, 1919. : The first south to north transcontinental flight across Australia occurs.

The first Australian to demonstrate that man could fly was Lawrence Hargrave, who was born in England in 1850, but emigrated to Australia in 1865. Hargrave invented the box kite in 1893, and used it to further his aerodynamic studies. In November 1894, Hargrave linked four of his kites together, added a sling seat, and flew about five metres in the air on a beach near Wollongong, New South Wales. In doing so, he demonstrated that it was possible for man to build, and be transported in, a safe and stable flying machine. His radical design for a wing that could support far more than its own weight opened up opportunities for other inventors to develop the design for commercial purposes.

The first domestic airmail service in Australia commenced in Melbourne in July 1914. Five years later, technology had developed to the point where the first south to north transcontinental flight was made possible. The flight was undertaken by Captain Henry N Wrigley and Sergeant Arthur William Murphy, flying a B.E.2E aircraft. The purpose of the flight was to survey the route for competitors in the first England to Australia air race. Wrigley and Murphy departed Point Cook, Victoria on 16 November 1919 and reached Darwin, Northern Territory on 12 December. It took the pair 46 flying hours to cover the 2,500 miles (4023 km).


Tuesday, November 16, 1920. : Australian airline Qantas is founded.

In 1919, Australia's Federal Government offered a £10,000 prize for the first Australians to fly from England to Australia within 30 days. Two men who sought to take up the challenge were W Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, former Australian Flying Corps officers who had served together at Gallipoli. The venture required substantial funding, and the men's plans were thwarted when a wealthy would-be sponsor died and the money was not released from his estate. However, the setback directed Fysh and McGinness toward another undertaking - that of a regular air service to remote settlements in the outback.

Fysh and McGinness were contracted by the Federal Defence Department to survey part of the original race route by motor car. The arduous journey of almost 2200km from Longreach in northwestern Queensland to Katherine in the Northern Territory in a Model T Ford highlighted the need for transport services for remote communities. After securing financing from another wealthy grazier, Fergus McMaster, the 'Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services', or Qantas, was born. McMaster stated that Qantas was founded in Winton, western Queensland, as that was the location of the only meeting the directors - McMasters, Fysh, McGinness and mechanic, former flight sergeant Arthur Baird - ever had. Papers formally establishing the service were signed in the Gresham Hotel in Brisbane on 16 November 1920. The company, which soon moved its operations to the more central town of Longreach, operated air mail services subsidised by the Australian government from 1922, linking railheads in western Queensland. In 1934, QANTAS Limited and Britain's Imperial Airways, forerunner of British Airways, formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Limited. QEA commenced services between Brisbane and Singapore using deHavilland DH-86 Commonwealth Airliners. In 1935 the first overseas passenger flight from Brisbane to Singapore was operated in a journey which took four days.

Most of the QEA fleet was taken over by the Australian government for war service between 1939 and 1945, and many of these aircraft were lost in action. After the war, QEA experienced severe financial losses, and the airline was taken over by the government under Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley. In 1967, the name was changed to Qantas Airways Limited.

Wednesday, November 16, 1938. : The Waterside Workers' Strike, which earns Robert Menzies the nickname of 'Pig-Iron Bob', begins.

Robert Gordon Menzies entered politics in 1928 after being elected to Victoria’s Legislative Council for East Yarra. After six years in Victorian state politics as Attorney-General and Minister for Railways (1928–34), he was elected to federal parliament as member for Kooyong. From 1935, Menzies was Deputy leader of the United Australia Party under Joseph Lyons, as well as Attorney-General and Minister for Industry.

On 16 November 1938, members of the Waterside Workers' Union at Port Kembla in New South Wales refused to load cargo of pig-iron onto the steamer Delfram. Around 400 tons of pig-iron had already been loaded when the men held a stop-work meeting at 1pm, based on their belief that the pig-iron was not intended for Singapore, as they had been told, but bound for Japan. Japan was already seen a major threat in the Pacific.

In his position as Attorney-General, Menzies was forced to intervene. Reminding the unions that the League of Nations had not imposed trade sanctions against Japan, he threatened to invoke the Transport Workers Act against the unions if they did not load the pig-iron. Due to the ongoing strike action, the steelworks were closed, forcing many workers into unemployment. After a dispute lasting nine weeks and resulting in an estimated cost of £100,000 in lost wages and £3000 for the owners of the Delfram which lay idle at Port Kembla throughout that time, the workers agreed to load the remaining pig-iron. Union leaders met with the Prime Minister and Robert Menzies to settle the terms later that week. The entire incident earned Robert menzies the nickname of "Pig-Iron Bob", which remained with him throughout his political career, and followed him into the history books.

Australian Explorers

Tuesday, November 16, 1824. : Hume and Hovell become the first white men to sight the Murray River.

Hamilton Hume was an Australian-born settler with excellent bush skills. He 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, on 3 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. On 16 November 1824, Hume and Hovell became the first white men to sight and name the "Hume River", though it was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. Hovell recorded in his journal that they arrived suddenly "at a very fine river -at least 200 feet wide, apparently deep... on both sides the land is low and level of a fine alluvial soil, with grass up to our middle. This I named Humes River, he being the first that saw it. In the solid wood of a healthy tree, I carved my name." That river redgum still stands on the banks of the mighty Murray, at Albury in New South Wales.

New Zealand History

Monday, November 16, 1840. : New Zealand becomes a separate colony, no longer administered by New South Wales.

The first known European to sight the islands of New Zealand was Dutch trader and explorer Abel Tasman, who did so in 1642. The next explorer to venture through New Zealand waters was James Cook, who claimed New Zealand for Great Britain. This signalled the start of British occupation of the islands previously occupied only by the Maori.

In June 1839, letters patent were issued in London extending the boundaries of New South Wales to include “any territory which is or may be acquired in sovereignty by Her Majesty ... within that group of Islands in the Pacific Ocean, commonly called New Zealand”. In 1839, the British government appointed William Hobson as consul to New Zealand and, prior to Hobson leaving Sydney for New Zealand, the Governor of New South Wales issued a proclamation declaring that the boundaries of New South Wales were extended to include "such territory in New Zealand as might be acquired in sovereignty". New Zealand officially became a dependency of New South Wales when the Legislative Council passed an Act extending to New Zealand the laws of New South Wales, on 16 June 1840. The purpose of this was to ensure New Zealand was administered by the British while the issue of sovereignty over the islands was being asserted.

Five months later, on 16 November 1940, New Zealand officially became a separate colony of the United Kingdom, severing its link to New South Wales, with the ‘Charter for erecting the Colony of New Zealand’.

Born on this day

Tuesday, November 16, 1920. : Colin Thiele, Australian writer and author of 'Storm Boy', is born.

Colin Thiele was born on 16 November 1920, in Eudunda, a small town north of the Barossa Valley in South Australia. After graduating from the University of Adelaide, he served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II. He then became a high school teacher, college lecturer, and principal. Thiele's novels for both children and adults were heavily influenced by his own German-Australian upbringing. A number of his stories won literary awards, and several were made into films or TV series. Among his better-known children's works are "Storm Boy", "Blue Fin", "Sun on the Stubble" and "Magpie Island". In 1977 Thiele was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the highest level of the award, for his services to literature and education.

After retiring from teaching and writing, Colin Thiele lived in Dayboro, Queensland, until his death on 4 September 2006. The Thiele Library at the Magill campus of the University of South Australia is named after him, an honour which predated his death by many years. A life-size detailed statue of Colin Thiele and Mr Percival, the pelican from "Storm Boy", was constructed by sculptor Chris Radford and located in the Eudunda Centennial Gardens. Due to deterioration, the statue required repair, so the decision was made to have it recast in bronze, a process completed the year before Thiele died.
 
World History

Friday, November 16, 1855. : Missionary and explorer David Livingstone becomes the first non-African to sight Victoria Falls in Africa.

David Livingstone was born on 19 March 1813, in Blantyre, Scotland. Initially he studied medicine and theology at the University of Glasgow, but when he was 27 years old, he sailed from Scotland to South Africa as a Christian missionary. Whilst there he spent some time exploring the African interior, becoming one of the first Westerners to make a transcontinental journey across Africa. Livingstone was popular among native tribes in Africa because he quickly learned African languages and had a keen understanding and sympathy for native people and their cultures.

On 16 November 1855, Livingstone first sighted the spectacular Victoria Falls. Upon reaching them, he named them after the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. Known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the "smoke that thunders", the falls are situated on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and are approximately 1.6 kilometres wide and 128 metres high.

Livingstone's lack of contact with the outside world over several years raised concerns for his welfare and prompted the New York Herald to send journalist Henry Morton Stanley to track down the explorer in Africa. On 10 November 1871, Stanley met up with Livingstone, greeting him with the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" The two men explored together briefly but Livingston, weakened from dysentery, died less than two years later, on 30 April 1873.

Monday, November 16, 1959. : The original Broadway production of The Sound of Music opens.

The Sound of Music is a musical with music composed by Richard Rodgers and lyrics written by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on the book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, a memoir written by Maria Augusta von Trapp, published in 1949. Details were changed for the stage Musical: the real Maria von Trapp married Georg von Trapp in 1927 and the family departed Austria by train to Italy before continuing on to London and the US. However, the fictionalised account of the von Trapps’ marriage amid the Anschluss – the annexing of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938 – and their escape on foot over the mountains to Switzerland proved popular in the Musical version.

The Sound of Music was the last musical ever written by Rodgers and Hammerstein as Oscar Hammerstein died of cancer less than a year after the Broadway premiere on 16 November 1959. The original production starred Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel. The London production opened at the Palace Theatre on 18 May 1961. The film version, which popularised songs such as ‘Edelweiss’, ‘Do-Re-Mi’ and ‘My Favorite Things’, was produced in 1965 and starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

Both the stage Musical and the film were award-winning. The Broadway production received nine nominations and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, whilst the film version won five Academy Awards. Since then, the stage production has been revived and adapted in various forms, performed in dozens of countries.
 

16th November

1848 Frédéric Chopin gave his last public performance at London’s Guildhall. He played on, despite illness and an uninterested audience who spent most of the evening in the refreshment areas.

1896 Birth of Oswald Mosley, English politician who was successively a Conservative and Labour Member of Parliament before forming the British Union of Fascists. Provocative marches through the Jewish East End of London prior to the Second World War led to major confrontations. He was interned during the war and later lived in exile in France.

1904 English engineer John Ambrose Fleming received a patent for the thermionic valve (vacuum tube). It drove the expansion and commercialisation of radio broadcasting, television, radar, sound recording, large telephone networks, and analogue and digital computers until the invention of the transistor.

1928 In London, obscenity charges were brought against Radclyffe Hall for her crusading lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness.
 
Nov 16th
1824
5th Ave in NYC is open for business
1969
Pres Nixon becomes the 1st President to attend a regular NFL football game while in office.He saw the Dallas Cowboys defeat Washington Redskins 41-28
2018
An elevator in the John Hancock Center in Chicago falls 84 floors when hoist rope breaks.
all 6 people in the elevator survive with no injuries
 
Australian Explorers

Tuesday, November 17, 1840. : Eyre replenishes his supplies at Fowler's Bay, South Australia, as he prepares to cross the continent to the west.

Edward John Eyre was the first white man to cross southern Australia from Adelaide to the west, travelling across the Nullarbor Plain to King George's Sound, now called Albany. Eyre began the journey with his overseer, John Baxter, and three Aborigines, intending to cross the continent from south to north. He was forced to revise his plans when his way became blocked by the numerous saltpans of South Australia, leading him to believe that a gigantic inland sea in the shape of a horseshoe prevented access to the north.

Following this fruitless attempt, Eyre regrouped at Streaky Bay, on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. He then travelled to past where Ceduna is today, reaching Fowler's Bay on 17 November 1840. Here, he replenished his food and water supplies from the government cutter 'Waterwitch'. He had to choose between attempting another northward trek, or heading west, which had never before been attempted. Eyre chose to go west, finally reaching Albany in an epic journey of courage and determination.
 
World History

Wednesday, November 17, 1869. : The Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red seas, is formally opened to shipping traffic.

The Egyptian pharaohs were the first to conceive the idea of linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. During the Pharaonic age, a canal was dug linking the two seas, but neglect through the centuries saw it gradually filled it again. It was not until November, 1854, that French engineer Ferdinand De-lesseps managed to sign a concession with the Egyptian government to dig the Suez Canal, establishing an international company for its management.

Over 2.4 million Egyptian workers were involved in the digging of the canal; over 125,000 lost their lives during the construction. The Suez Canal was opened for navigation on 17 November 1869. Currently, it transports around 14% of the total world trade, 26% of oil exports and 41% of the total goods and cargo destined for ports in the Arab Gulf. Prior to its construction, shipping was required to go south of the Cape of Good Hope.

Tuesday, November 17, 1970. : The first computer mouse is patented by Douglas Engelbart.

Douglas C Engelbart, born on 30 January 1925, was an American inventor. In collaboration with William English, he invented the computer mouse. The first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface, in 1964. Engelbart's computer mouse was patented on 17 November 1970, under the name "X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System". Calling it a mouse because of its tail-like cable, it was simply a hollowed-out wooden block with two metal wheels and a single push button on top. It was designed to select text and manipulate it, such as moving it around. Engelbart's invention was revolutionary for changing the way computers worked, from specialised machinery that only trained scientists could use, to user-friendly tools that almost anyone could use.

Sunday, November 17, 2002. : The most recent spectacular show of the Leonids meteor shower is observed.

The Leonids meteor shower is a spectacular display of shooting stars that occurs annually between November 12 and 23, tending to peak on November 17 each year. They are associated with the comet Temple-Tuttle, and are presumed to be comprised of particles ejected by the comet as it passes by the sun each November. The meteor shower gained its name from the fact that it appears in or near the constellation of Leo. Roughly following a 33-year cycle in greatest visibility, some of the most spectacular displays have been seen in mid-November 1698, 1799, 1833, 1866, 1966 and, most recently, on 17 November 2002.
 
17th November

1810 Sweden declared war on its ally Britain during the Napoleonic Wars to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever took place! The declaration of war was the result of an ultimatum by France to the Swedish government that France and its allies would declare war against Sweden if Sweden did not meet the French demands to declare war on Britain, confiscate all British ships and seize all British products. The war existed only on paper, and Britain was still officially allowed to station ships in the Swedish port of Hanö and trade with the Baltic nations.

1880 The first three women to graduate in Britain received their Bachelor of Arts degrees at London University.

1882 The Royal Astronomer witnessed an unidentified flying object from the Greenwich Observatory. He described it as a circular object, glowing bright green.

1919 King George V proclaimed Armistice Day, later to be known as Remembrance Day.
 
1800
U.S. Congress held its 1st meeting in a partially completed Capitol building in Washington,DC
1855
physician/explorer,David Livingstone becomes the 1st European to see Victoria Falls in what is now known Zambia and Zimbabwe
1970
computer scientist,Douglas Englebart receives patent for 1st computer mouse
 
Australian History

Sunday, November 18, 1838. : The first group of German-Prussian Lutherans sponsored by wealthy Scottish businessman, George Fife Angas, arrives in South Australia.

In the 1800s, under King Friedrich Wilhelm III, German/Prussian Lutherans suffered religious persecution. Friedrich Wilhelm was an autocratic king who believed he had the right to create his own state church from the two main Protestant churches - the Lutheran church and the smaller Reformed church - in a united Prussian state church. This would effectively remove the right of Lutherans to worship in a way of their choosing. Penalties for non-adherance to the state religion were severe. Many Lutherans immigrated to Australia to escape the persecution.

Thanks to wealthy Scottish businessman and chairman of the South Australian Company, George Fife Angas, a deal was struck by Pastor August Kavel to start a new Lutheran settlement in South Australia. The first group of 21 Lutherans under Angas's sponsorship arrived on the ship 'Bengalee' on 18 November 1838, followed two days later by the main group on the 'Prince George'. They first settled at the town of Klemzig. Many more ships followed over the next three years.


Tuesday, November 18, 1879. : One of Australia's youngest bushrangers, a fifteen-year-old member of Captain Moonlite's gang, is shot and killed.

Augustus Wernicke was one of Australia's youngest bushrangers, and part of Captain Moonlite's gang. Captain Moonlite, aka Andrew George Scott, became a bushranger upon his release from gaol, eight years after robbing the bank at Mount Egerton, Victoria. He recruited several other gang members, among them 15-year-old Wernicke, and walked to New South Wales, hoping to find employment at Wantabadgery Station, well known for its hospitality.

Being in the grip of a severe drought, and also having changed hands, Wantabadgery could offer them nothing. In desperation, Moonlite took 35 people hostage. In the resultant shootout with police on 18 November 1879, gang members James Nesbitt and Augustus Wernicke, together with Constable Bowen, were all shot dead. Moonlite and the surviving gang members were tried and charged with the murder of Constable Bowen. Moonlite himself was hanged on 20 January 1880 at Darlinghurst Court.
 
World History

Monday, November 18, 1861. : The words to the famous "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" are first penned.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;"

This begins the "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", a well-known hymn which has become symbolic of patriotism in the USA. The hymn originated as a campfire spiritual, based on a melody written by William Steffe in 1856. The original lyrics were entitled "Canaan's Happy Shore" or "Brothers, Will You Meet Me?"

Shortly before Civil War broke out in the US, Thomas Bishop, who joined the Massachusetts militia, wrote new lyrics called "John Brown's Body", referring to the famous abolitionist, and the song became one of his unit's walking songs. After Bishop's battalion was sent to Washington DC at the outbreak of the war, Julia Ward Howe, accompanied by Reverend James Freeman Clarke, heard the song during a public review of the troops outside Washington on Upton Hill, Virginia. Clarke suggested Howe write new lyrics for the fighting men's song.

On the night of 18 November 1861, while staying in her hotel room in Washington, Howe awoke with the new lyrics already in her mind, and wrote them down immediately. They were first published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly of February 1862.

Sunday, November 18, 1928. : Cartoon character Mickey Mouse debuts in 'Steamboat Willie'.

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character who has become a symbol for The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney first created a cartoon character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios. When Disney requested an increased budget to develop the character, he was fired, losing the rights to the cartoon creation which was owned by the company. Mickey Mouse was created to replace Oswald. Originally named Mortimer Mouse, Disney's wife suggested that the name was too pretentious, and Disney came up with Mickey Mouse instead.

During his development, Mickey Mouse appeared in a couple of other cartoons, including 'Plane Crazy' and 'The Gallopin' Gaucho'. The character was not popular as he was initially very similar in appearance and mannerisms to Oswald, so Disney sought to develop the mouse as an entirely separate personality which would distinguish him from Disney's previous work and that of his rivals. "Steamboat Willie", featuring the new and different Mickey Mouse, was first released on 18 November 1928. Although this was not the first Mickey cartoon made or released, it is still considered by some as Mickey Mouse's true debut. "Steamboat Willie" was the first sound-synchronised animated cartoon, and a complete success.


Saturday, November 18, 1978. : Over 900 people mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, South America.

Jim Jones, born on 13 May 1931, was the American founder of the People's Temple, a cult which initially had its roots in San Francisco. After an investigation began into the church for tax evasion, Jones and most of the 1,000 members of the People's Temple moved to a camp deep in the jungle of Guyana, South America. The settlement was named Jonestown.

Relatives and people who had left the organisation told of brutal beatings, murders and a mass suicide plan but were not believed. Allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by Jones caused US Congressman Leo Ryan to lead a fact-finding mission to Jonestown in November 1978. After spending a couple of days interviewing residents, Ryan and his crew left hurriedly on November 18 when an attempt was made on Ryan's life. As they reached the nearby airstrip to depart Jonestown with about twenty cult members who wished to escape, gunmen from the compound arrived and began firing on the planes. Five people were killed, including Ryan, three media representatives, and one of the former cult members. Shortly after this, 914 cult members, including 276 children, drank soft drink laced with cyanide and sedatives in order to commit mass suicide. Jones himself died from an apparently self-inflicted bullet wound to the head.

Monday, November 18, 1985. : Today is Calvin and Hobbes Day, marking the debut of the comic strip.

Calvin and Hobbes is a cartoon strip by cartoonist Bill Watterson. It features a six-year-old boy, Calvin, whose mischievous nature is the bane of everyone around him, and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, which only Calvin sees as real and alive. The characters are named after 16th-century French Reformation theologian John Calvin, and Thomas Hobbes, an English political philosopher from the 17th century. The cartoon's creator intended the naming to be "an inside job for poli-sci majors". Watterson graduated from Kenyon College in 1980 with a degree in political science, and became a political cartoonist for the Cincinnati Post, which then fired him after just three months.
Watterson continued drawing cartoons and experienced numerous rejections for his work. He was encouraged by some interest shown in one of his minor characters who was the younger brother of the main subject: this character became Calvin. The strip was picked up by Universal Press Syndicate, and first published on 18 November 1985.

Calvin and Hobbes enjoyed an immensely successful run, earning Watterson the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society, in the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year category, in both 1986 and 1988. He was also awarded the Humor Comic Strip Award for 1988. Despite his success, Watterson reached the point where he felt he could not develop the strip or the characters according to syndicate constraints any further and, fearing a stalemate, ended Calvin and Hobbes on a high, with the final cartoon being published on 31 December 1995. At this point, the cartoon was appearing in more than 2400 newspapers. Many newspapers around the world continue to run the strip as a weekly feature.

Wednesday, November 18, 1987. : 31 people are killed when a fire breaks out in the London Underground.

The London Underground is a metropolitan railway system in London. With 12 lines and 275 stations, it is one of the largest urban rapid transit systems in the world.

On 18 November 1987, a fatal fire broke out in King's Cross St. Pancras, in the London Underground railway network. The fire was believed to have been caused when a discarded match from a smoking passenger ignited oil, grease and papers in a machine room beneath an old wooden escalator. Smoke was first noticed coming from the escalator at 7:32pm. The London Fire Brigade arrived on the scene at 7.42pm, and three minutes later the flames erupted in a fireball. Station Officer Colin Townsley, who remained in the ticketing hall at the top of the escalator shaft, was killed trying to help passengers escape. Another 30 people were killed in the blaze.

Later investigations uncovered the discarded match. They also revealed that numerous other fires had been ignited in the same way, around the wooden escalators, but had never progressed to the same degree. Other conditions exacerbated the quick ventilation and progression of the fire: among these were particular combination of draughts, caused by an eastbound train arriving at the station while a westbound train was leaving.
 
18th November

1477 Caxton’s book, the Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, was published. It was the first printed book in England bearing a date.

1906 Birth of Sir Alec Issigonis, born in Turkey of a Bavarian mother and a Greek father. He came to Britain in 1922 and made his way slowly in the motor industry, designing the Morris Minor in 1948, the first British car to sell more than a million. In 1959 he had his greatest triumph when he unveiled the Mini Minor ('the Mini') which ten years later became the first British car to sell over two million.

1983 The world's first all-girl sextuplets were born, to Mrs. Janet Walton at Liverpool Maternity Hospital. They were named Hannah, Lucy, Ruth, Sarah, Kate and Jenny.

2014 Benjy, a bull branded gay, was saved by charity donations, including £5,000 from Sam Simon, the co-creator of the Simpsons. Benjy, from County Mayo, Ireland, had been destined for the abattoir after showing more interest in breeding with other bulls than cows. 🐮
 
1626
St Peter's Bascilla in Vatican City,Rome is consecreated replacing an earlier one becomes the world's 1st largest Christian Bascilla
1902
Brooklyn,NY toymaker, Morris Michton names the 'teddy bear' after President Theodore Roosevelt
1928
The 1st successful sound synchronized animated cartoon premiered in NYC. It was Walt Disney's 'Steamboat Willie' starring Mickey Mouse
 
Australian History

Wednesday, November 19, 1834. : Edward Henty establishes an illegal settlement at Portland Bay, Victoria.

Edward Henty is considered to be the founder of Victorian settlement. Born at West Tarring, Sussex, England, in 1809, he came to Van Diemen's Land with his father Thomas in 1832. On 19 November 1834, he landed at Portland Bay on the southwest coast of Victoria, to found a new settlement without official permission. Very few people knew about the settlement, as it was remote from major centres. The first recognition Henty received was when Major Thomas Mitchell, seeking a possible harbour, wandered into the area in 1836 after discovering the rich, fertile farming land of western Victoria. By this time, Henty and his brothers had been established for two years, and were importing sheep and cattle from Launceston.

Tuesday, November 19, 1946. : Australian country music singer Slim Dusty records his first single.

David Gordon "Slim Dusty" Kirkpatrick was born on 13 June 1927 in Kempsey, New South Wales, Australia. The son of a cattle farmer, he was brought up on Nulla Nulla Creek dairy farm. He wrote his first song, entitled "The Way The Cowboy Dies" at age ten and took the name "Slim Dusty" when he was 11.

Slim Dusty wrote his first country music classic "When The Rain Tumbles Down In July" in 1945, when he was just 18, and the following year he signed his first recording contract with the Columbia Graphophone Co. for the Regal Zonophone label. On 19 November 1946, Slim Dusty made his first commercial recording of six songs, which included "When The Rain Tumbles Down In July".

Slim Dusty went on to become Australia's biggest selling recording artist in Australia. Although little-known outside Australia, his fame within his own country is widespread, especially following the 1957 release of his song "The Pub With no Beer". He made a point of singing about real Australians, of telling their stories and capturing the Australian spirit in a way that appealed across the generations. He was the first Australian to receive a Gold Record and the first Australian to have an international record hit. He was the first singer in the world to have his voice transmitted to earth from space when, in 1983, astronauts Bob Crippen and John Young played Slim singing Waltzing Matilda from the space shuttle "Columbia" as it passed over Australia.

Slim Dusty was also one of the first Australians inducted into the Country Music Roll of Renown. During his 60-year career, he was awarded 65 Golden Guitars, more Gold and Platinum Record Awards than any other Australian artist, ARIA (Australian Recording Industry) Awards and induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, video sales Platinum and Gold Awards, an MBE and Order of Australia for his services to entertainment.

When Slim Dusty died on 19 Septmber 2003, he had been working on his 106th album for EMI Records. The album was Columbia Lane - the Last Sessions. It debuted at number five in the Australian album charts and was number one on the country charts on 8 March 2004, going gold after being on sale for less than two weeks.

Australian Explorers

Friday, November 19, 1813. : George Evans departs Sydney to explore the land west of the Blue Mountains discovered by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth.

For twenty-five years since the First Fleet arrived in Port Jackson, the Blue Mountains virtually imprisoned the colony of New South Wales, preventing exploration to the west. Numerous attempts to cross the barrier of the Blue Mountains had failed. In May 1813, three graziers formed an exploration party and succeeded in crossing the mountain range. Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth found rich farming land in the Hartley region. However, further exploration was needed so the colony could expand beyond the Great Dividing Range. George Evans was the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and keen to progress beyond the discoveries made by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth.

On 19 November 1813, Evans left Sydney with a party of five men who were selected for their knowledge of the countryside and its difficult terrain. The party carried provisions for two months. Evans soon reached a mountain which he named Mt Blaxland, the termination of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth's explorations. He continued on through the countryside, eventually reaching what is believed to be the site of present-day Bathurst. Evans reported favourably on the rich pasturelands well-watered by numerous streams flowing through the region, describing the land as surpassing "in beauty and fertility of soil, any he [had] seen in New South Wales or Van Diemen's Land." He returned to Sydney after an expedition that lasted seven weeks, and reported on the viability of settling further west. He advocated building a road which would follow the ridge track determined by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Shortly after this, William Cox was commissioned to build the road to Bathurst.
 
World History

Sunday, November 19, 1493. : Explorer Christopher Columbus lands on Puerto Rico for the first time.

Explorer Christopher Columbus was determined to pioneer a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. In 1492 he set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Marýa, the Pinta, and the Niña. During his journeys, Columbus explored the West Indies, South America, and Central America. He became the first explorer and trader to cross the Atlantic Ocean and sight the land of the Americas, on 12 October 1492, under the flag of Castile, a former kingdom of modern day Spain. It is most probable that the land he first sighted was Watling Island in the Bahamas.

Columbus returned to Spain laden with gold and new discoveries from his travels, including the previously unknown tobacco plant and the pineapple fruit. The success of his first expedition prompted his commissioning for a second voyage to the New World, and he set out from Cýdiz in September 1493. On 19 November 1493, he set foot on an island he had seen only the day before. He named it San Juan Bautista after St John the Baptist, and the town Puerto Rico, meaning "rich port". (The names were later swapped around, with Puerto Rico becoming the name of the island, and San Juan the capital city.) At the time Columbis arrived, the island held a population of around 50,000 Taino or Arawak Indians. The men who greeted him made the mistake of showing him the gold nuggets in the river, and invited him to take as much as he wanted.

Columbus explored Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and various smaller Caribbean islands, and further ensuing explorations yielded discoveries such as Venezuela. Through all this, Columbus believed that he was travelling to parts of Asia. He believed Hispaniola was Japan, and that the peaks of Cuba were the Himalayas of India. Columbus died on 20 May 1506, still believing that he had found the route to the Asian continent.

Monday, November 19, 1703. : The legendary 'Man in the Iron Mask' dies.

The Man in the Iron Mask has spawned many myths and legends over time. One of the more factual accounts of the unknown French prisoner comes from the journal of Lieutenant Etienne du Junca, an official of the Bastille from October 1690 until his death in September 1706. Du Junca recorded that when a new governor of the Bastille arrived on 18 September 1698, he brought with him a prisoner wearing a black velvet (not iron) mask, and whose name was not disclosed to anyone. The new governor, Bénigne d'Auvergne de Saint-Mars, had kept the masked man in custody since at least the beginning of his own governorship at Pignerol, from 1665.

The masked man was always treated well, and evinced no complaints. When the prisoner died on 19 November 1703, Saint-Mars had the name "Marchialy" inscribed in the parish register. However, spelling of the day being purely as the inscriber perceived it, there was no way to know what the man's name truly was. After his death, stories of the man in the mask became more and more exaggerated. By the time the writer Voltaire had developed the story in 1751, the mask was said to be riveted on, with a "movable, hinged lower jaw held in place by springs that made it possible to eat wearing it." There were even rumours that, after the storming of the bastille in 1789, a skeleton was found with an iron mask still attached. Such stories have been found to be pure fabrication, and more scientific attempts have been used to try to determine the man's name and the reason for his imprisonment: to date, he remains shrouded in mystery.

Tuesday, November 19, 1726. : A young woman is reported to have given birth to over a dozen rabbits.

England's "Mist's Weekly Journal" reported a most unusual story on 19 November 1726.

Twenty-five year old married maidservant Mary Tofts from Godalmin, or Godalming, near Guildford, had suffered a miscarriage some months earlier, after chasing two rabbits while weeding in a field. The story Tofts told was that the incident of pursuing the rabbits created such a longing in her that she became obsessed with rabbits. She miscarried, and began dreaming of rabbits non-stop and craving roast rabbit. Some months later, over the course of two weeks, she "gave birth" to at least 16 rabbits, all of which were stillborn. Doctors of the time explained the rabbit births as being a result of "maternal impressions". They believed that a pregnant woman's experiences could be imprinted directly on the foetus at conception and cause birth defects.

Sir Richard Manningham, the most famous obstetrician in London, and one of the witnesses to the unusual births, later exposed the incident as an elaborate hoax. He found that Tofts had, in fact, inserted all the creatures into her own birth canal and waited for an opportune time to "deliver" them, over a series of days, in front of reputable witnesses. Tofts herself admitted to the hoax on 7 December 1726. The main victim of the scam was probably the medical profession, who suffered a great deal of ridicule for its gullibility.

Thursday, November 19, 1959. : Motor company Ford announces that it is discontinuing the Edsel.

The Ford Edsel was named after Edsel Ford, the only son of the company's founder, Henry Ford. It was introduced in response to market research which indicated that car owners wanted greater horsepower, unique body design, and wrap-around windshields. It took five years for the car to move from mere conception to driveable reality.

By the time the Edsel was ready to be released on the US market amid considerable publicity on "E Day", 4 September 1957, the country was in a recession and consumers were turning to smaller, more economical models. The Edsel ran for three models over three years, and only 110,847 Edsels were produced before Ford announced on 19 November 1959 that it was discontinuing the model. $350 million was lost by the company on the venture.

Wednesday, November 19, 1997. : The world's first septuplets to all survive are born.

The McCaughey septuplets are the world's first set of seven babies birthed who have all survived. They were born on 19 November 1997, to Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey of Carlisle, Iowa. The McCaugheys already had one child, Mikayla, who was conceived with help of the fertility drug, Metrodin. Hoping for a sibling for Mikayla, the McCaugheys again turned to Metrodin. Christian ethics prevented the parents from agreeing to the doctors' suggestions of selective reduction, which involves aborting some of the fetuses to allow the others more room to grow. The babies, born nine weeks prematurely, were named Kenneth, Alexis, Natalie, Kelsey, Brandon, Nathan and Joel. Medical problems have been surprisingly minimal although Alexis, the smallest, suffers from chronic lung disease, and Alexis and Nathan have cerebral palsy. To date, the children are all progressing well.
 
19th November

1960 The first VTOL (vertical take off and landing) aircraft P.1127, made by the British Hawker Siddeley Company was flown, untethered, for the first time. It's first conventional flight, (i.e. a horizontal take off) was on 13th March 1961.

1987 A 1931 Bugatti Royale was sold for £5.5 million at an auction at the Royal Albert Hall, a record at that time for a car.

2012 Father Christmas was left dangling from the ceiling for 30 minutes after his beard became trapped while abseiling inside a Reading shopping centre as part of a Christmas lights switch-on show.
 
Australian History

Saturday, November 20, 1926. : The 1926 Imperial Conference accords Australia the status of self-governing Dominion, of equal status to Great Britain.

Whilst the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia came into effect on 1 January 1901, this did not mean that Australia had achieved independence from Britain. Under colonial federation approved by the United Kingdom, the six self-governing states of Australia merely allocated some functions to a federal authority. Australia was given the status of a Dominion, remaining a self-governing colony within the British Empire, with the Head of State being the British monarch. The Governor-General and State Governors were appointed by the British government, and answered completely to the British government.

At the Imperial Conference of 1926, it was decreed that all Dominions within the British Empire were "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations." Australia and other Dominions such as South Africa, New Zealand and Canada could now conduct treaties and agreements with foreign powers, and manage their own military strategies. Ultimately, the British monarch could only act on the advice of the Australian Government, and the Governor-General was no longer appointed by and answerable to the British monarch.


Australian Explorers

Tuesday, November 20, 1860. : Burke and Wills first reach Cooper Creek.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills led the expedition that was intended to bring fame and prestige to Victoria: being the first to cross Australia from south to north and back again. They set out on Monday, 20 August 1860, leaving from Royal Park, Melbourne, and farewelled by around 15,000 people. The exploration party was very well equipped, and the cost of the expedition almost 5,000 pounds.

Because of the size of the exploration party, it was split at Menindee so that Burke could push ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller party. The smaller group went on ahead to establish the depot which would serve to offer the necessary provisions for when the men returned from the Gulf. On 20 November 1860, Burke and Wills first reached Cooper Creek. From here, they made several shorter trips to the north, but were forced back each time by waterless country and extreme temperatures. It was not until December 16 that Burke decided to push on ahead to the Gulf, regardless of the risks.
 
World History

Tuesday, November 20, 1821. : A whale attacks and sinks the whaling ship 'Essex', ultimately resulting in the deaths of 13 crewmen.

The 'Essex' was a whaling ship that left Nantucket, Massachusetts, on 12 August 1819, on a voyage to the South Pacific to hunt sperm whales. It was initially fitted out with four smaller whaleboats, but one was lost when hit by the tail fluke of a sperm whale on 16 November 1821. Four days later, on 20 November 1821, the crew of the Essex spotted a pod of whales and the three remaining whaleboats set off in pursuit. Another boat was holed by a whale and returned to the Essex for repairs. During this episode, a larger sperm whale, estimated to have been about 27 metres in length, charged the Essex. The impact knocked some of the crewmen off their feet. The whale charged a second time, putting a hole in the Essex below the water line. The crew of eight which had remained aboard were able to escape in the repaired whaleboat before the Essex capsized.

Some supplies were plundered from the sinking whaling ship. Twenty-one men were then left adrift in three whaleboats. During the long voyage to reach land, three men opted to remain on a small island rather than continue in the boat, and men began to die from dehydration and starvation. Soon, the men found it necessary to resort to cannibalism. By the time they were rescued, only eight men remained out of the original crew. It was this story which inspired author Herman Melville to write "Moby Dick".


Thursday, November 20, 1947. : Princess Elizabeth, who became Elizabeth II, is married to Philip Mountbatten.

Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on 21 April 1926. She was proclaimed queen on 6 February 1952, following the death of her father, George VI. She ascended the throne the following year, on 2 June 1953. Princess Elizabeth was married in westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947 to Prince Philip, who came from Greece's royal family. Prince Philip is Queen Elizabeth's third cousin, as they share Queen Victoria as a great-great-grandmother. He had renounced his claim to the Greek throne and was known simply as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten before being created Duke of Edinburgh before their marriage.

Born on this day

Friday, November 20, 1925. : Robert Kennedy, younger brother of assassinated President John F Kennedy, and who would himself be assassinated, is born.

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy was born on 20 November 1925 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the younger brother of assassinated American President John F Kennedy, and ran JFK's successful Presidential campaign. As Attorney General of the United States under his brother's Presidency, Robert Kennedy played a key advisory role, especially through such crises as the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the escalation of military action in Vietnam and the widening spread of the Civil Rights Movement and its retaliatory violence. He began a nationwide campaign against organised crime, mob violence and labour rackets, but was also heavily involved in civil rights, namely the integration of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, and his support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Soon after President John F Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy left the Cabinet to run for a seat in the United States Senate representing New York. His campaign was successful and he represented New York from 1965 until 1968. In March of 1968 he declared his candidacy for US President in the Democrats. He won the Indiana and Nebraska Democratic primaries, and early in June, he scored a major victory in his drive toward the Democratic presidential nomination when he won primaries in South Dakota and in California. Following his victory celebration at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, in the early hours of 5 June 1968, Kennedy was shot in the head at close range as he left the ballroom through a service area to greet supporters working in the hotel's kitchen.

The assassin was 24 year old Palestinian immigrant Sirhan B Sirhan, now a resident of Los Angeles. Kennedy never regained consciousness and died in the early morning hours of 6 June 1968, at the age of 42. Sirhan confessed to the shooting, claiming he acted against Kennedy because of his support for Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1969, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, which he is still serving. To this day he claims he has absolutely no memory of shooting at Kennedy, but his numerous applications for parole have been denied. It is generally believed that Sirhan fired the shots that hit Kennedy. As with his elder brother John's death, however, many have suggested the official account of Robert Kennedy's murder is inconsistent or incomplete, and that his death was the result of a conspiracy.
 
20th November

1620 The birth of Peregrine White a child of William and Susanna White, Mayflower passengers. He was the first English child born in the Plymouth Colony at Cape Cod Harbour.

1787 Birth of Sir Samuel Cunard, a ship owner born in Nova Scotia who came to Britain in 1838 and, together with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line in 1839. Their first ship, the Britannia, set sail the following year taking 14 days and 8 hours to cross the Atlantic.

1906 Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce formed Rolls-Royce. In 1931, the company bought up Bentley Motors.

1944 World War II: The end of the 'blackout' in London. After five years in the dark, the lights were switched back on in Piccadilly Circus, the Strand and in Fleet Street.

1947 Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (Duke of Edinburgh) at Westminster Abbey. The BBC made the first tele-recording of the event, which was broadcast in the US 32 hours later.
 
Australian History

Saturday, November 21, 1789. : Convict James Ruse is provisionally granted land at Parramatta to establish a working farm.

James Ruse was born on a farm in Cornwall around 1759. At age 22, he was convicted of burglary and, due to severe over-crowding in British gaols, spent over four years on the prison hulks in Plymouth Harbour. He was one of the convicts who was transported in the First Fleet to New South Wales, sailing on the 'Scarborough'.

Governor Phillip was aware of the need to build a working, farming colony as soon as possible. Thus, on 21 November 1789, Phillip selected Ruse to go to Rose Hill (now Parramatta), west of Sydney Town, and establish "Experiment Farm", the colony's first working farm. Ruse was allocated one and a half acres of already cleared ground and assisted in clearing a further five acres. He was given two sows and six hens and a deal was made for him to be fed and clothed from the public store for 15 months. Within a year, Ruse had successfully farmed the site, proving that it was possible for new settlers to become self-sufficient, and to feed a family with relatively little assistance to begin with.

As a result of the success of Ruse's venture, he was granted another 30 acres in March 1791, in the colony's first official, permanent land grant. This was in addition to the area he was already occupying.


Born on this day

Saturday, November 21, 1936. : Victor Chang, Australian heart surgeon and one of the pioneers of modern heart transplantation, is born.

Victor Peter Chang Yam Him was born in Shanghai, China, on 21 November 1936. Chang's mother died of cancer when he was just twelve years old, and this was a deciding factor in his choice to become a doctor. He came to Australia to complete his secondary schooling in 1953, then studied medicine at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Medical Science with first class honours in 1960, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1962. After further study in England, and becoming a Fellow of both the Royal College of Surgeons and American College of Surgeons, he joined the cardiothoracic team at St Vincent's Hospital in 1972.

Chang was instrumental in raising funds to establish a heart transplant programme at St Vincent's. The first successful transplant under the programme was performed on a 39 year old shearer from Armidale in February 1984, who survived several months longer than he would have otherwise. Arguably, Chang's best-known success was when he operated on Fiona Coote, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, on 7-8 April 1984. Over the next six years, the unit at St Vincent's performed over 197 heart transplants and 14 heart-lung transplants, achieving a 90% success rate for recipients in the first year. To compensate for the lack of heart donors, Chang developed an artificial heart valve and also worked on designing an artificial heart.

Victor Chang was murdered on 4 July 1991, after an extortion attempt on his family. The murder was related to transplant waiting lists. Within less than two weeks, Chiew Seng Liew was charged with the murder, and Jimmy Tan was charged as an accessory. The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, to enable research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart muscle diseases, was launched in honour of Victor Chang on 15 February 1994.
 
World History

Wednesday, November 21, 1877. : Thomas Edison announces his invention of a 'talking machine', which preceded the phonograph.

Thomas Alva Edison was born on 11 February 1847, in Milan, Ohio, USA. Although probably best known for developing the light bulb and the phonograph, Edison was a prolific inventor, registering 1093 patents by the time he died in 1931. On 21 November 1877, Edison announced his invention of a "talking machine", the precursor to the phonograph, which provided a way to record and play back sound.

Edison came upon the invention by accident, whilst trying to find a way to improve the efficiency of a telegraph transmitter. He noticed that the needle could prick paper tape to record a message but the paper did not last for many recordings. This led him to experiment with trying a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder. He then moved on to experimenting with silverfoil which, while more expensive, was smoother and recorded better. Edison experimented with cylinder as well as disc tinfoil phonographs, and in 1878 developed a clockwork motor disc phonograph.

Monday, November 21, 1927. : The Columbine Mine massacre occurs in Colorado, USA.

Throughout history, coal mining towns have suffered the worst of conditions while coal mines themselves have seen some of the lowest safety standards. The situation was no different in North America.

For five decades, tensions on the Colorado coal fields had been high. The mines were marked by frequent strikes and confrontations between miners and mine owners, and the state police. Thirteen years prior to the Columbine Mine massacre, Colorado had been shocked when seventeen workers and family members had been killed by state militia during the Ludlow strike. However, the awareness this raised and the improvement in conditions, were not enough to combat the unrest and subsequent violence that occurred at the Columbine Mine in 1927.

Since the Ludlow incident, the neglect of basic safety measures had resulted in the deaths of over 170 more workers in mines scattered throughout northern Colorado. Action by around 8,700 striking miners had shut down all the coal mines in the region except for the Columbine mine, which was located in a small town called Serene, just north of Denver. The mine had been kept running by 'scab' labour, while militant members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Union who had been arrested were constantly moved from jail to jail to prevent IWW lawyers from accessing them. This did not stop the leaders from organising protests and rallies.

On the morning of 21 November 1927, some 500 miners and their families marched to the north gate of Serene, where they were met by plainclothed but heavily armed state militia who blocked the entrance to the gate, backed up by mine guards inside the town who were also armed. When one of the strike leaders, Adam Bell, approached the gate, he was struck on the head. Supporters rushed to his aid, and chaos broke out. Police attempts to use tear gas were to no avail, and the workers and family members scaled the gate, where they were met with clubs, rifle fire and even machine guns. In all, six strikers were killed, and dozens were injured.

This was not the end of the tensions. Further confrontations occurred for many years afterwards, as the work of the IWW was severely compromised, and no militia or policemen were ever held accountable for the massacre.

Saturday, November 21, 1953. : Piltdown Man, the so-called missing link between ape and man, is declared to be a fraud.

On 18 December 1912, fragments of a fossil skull and jawbone were unveiled at a meeting of the Geological Society in London. These bone fragments, estimated to be almost a million years old, were considered to be evidence of early man. The skull became known as Piltdown Man, and was recognised as the "missing link" between ape and man. The remains, officially named Eoanthropus dawsoni, were supposedly discovered in Piltdown Quarry near Uckfield in Sussex, England, by Charles Dawson, a solicitor and an amateur palaeontologist.

Forty years later, on 21 November 1953, a team of English scientists exposed Piltdown Man as a deliberate fraud. The skull fragments were a mixture of bone parts: the skull belonged to a medieval human, the jaw was determined to be that of an orang-utan, from approximately 500 years ago, and the teeth came from a chimpanzee. It has never been determined whether Dawson himself was the perpetrator of the fraud, as he died in 1916. However, further research on his "discoveries" has determined several dozen of them to be frauds.
 
Nov 21st
1654
Richard Johnson a free black granted 550 acres of land in VA
1946
Pres Harry Truman becomes the 1st President to travel in a submerged submarine
1974
The Freedom of Information Act is passed by Congress over Pres.Gerald Ford's veto
2017
CBS TV host,Charlie Rose is fired over allegations of sexual harrassment by 8 women
 
21st November

1840 Victoria Adelaide Marie Louise, Princess Royal and first child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, was born.

1916 HMHS Britannic, the largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line and sister ship of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic was sunk, with the loss of 30 lives. There were a total of 1,066 people on board, with 1,036 survivors taken from the water and lifeboats, about two hours after the ship sank at 9:07 am. She was the largest ship lost during the First World War.

1918 At the end of World War I, the German Fleet was surrendered to Britain at its northern naval base at Scapa Flow.

1936 The world's first gardening programme, 'In Your Garden, with Mr. Middleton', was broadcast by the BBC.

2003 An acoustic guitar on which the late Beatle George Harrison learned to play, fetched £276,000 at a London auction.
 

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