TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – NOV 10
1493 Christopher Columbus discovers Antigua during his second expedition.
1674 All Dutch-held areas of New York are returned to English control by the treaty of Westminster.
1775 US Marine Corps is created. The elite military force capable of operating on land, sea and air was founded in Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War. A resolution of the Second Continental Congress formed two battalions of Continental Marines that became the forerunners of today’s marine corps.
1801 The U.S. state of Tennessee outlawed the practice of dueling.
1885 German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the world’s first motorcycle
1871 Henry M. Stanley finds Dr. Livingstone at Ujiji near Unyanyembe in Africa.
1879 Little Bighorn participant Major Marcus Reno is caught window-peeping at the daughter of his commanding officer—an offense for which he will be courtmartialed.
1903 The US patent office granted inventor Mary Anderson a patent for automatic windshield wipers – a device that is used to remove or wipe the front and back windshields in automobiles.
1917 Forty-one US suffragettes are arrested protesting outside the White House.
1918 Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air
1938 Kate Smith sings a rendition of Irvin Berlin’s ‘God Bless America’ during a special Armistice Day broadcast which turned the song into an instant hit.
1938 Fascist Italy enacts anti-Semitic legislation.
1951 North American Numbering Plan begins. The plan standardized distance calling and gave phone numbers in cities a fixed 3 digit prefix, also called an area code. This made making long-distance calls faster and easier and without the involvement of an operator
1952 U.S. Supreme Court upholds the decision barring segregation on interstate railways.
1954 The Iwo Jima statue is unveiled at the USMC War Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. The cast bronze memorial is based on the iconic photo of the raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal and President Dwight D. Eisenhower performs the dedication ceremony .
1963 Riots started by high school students broke out all over Coro and Valencia, Venezuela. These acts of violence were started in order to disrupt campaigns for upcoming December elections. The youth was allegedly being exploited by the local Communist party, which many of their teachers were a part of. This was one of many student demonstrations that had taken place within two weeks
1969 The PBS children’s program Sesame Street debuts.
1971 Two women are tarred and feathered in Belfast for dating British soldiers, while in Londonderry, Northern Ireland a Catholic girl is also tarred and feathered for her intention of marrying a British soldier.
1973 Israel declared not ready to Sign Middle East Peace Document . This treaty, which included a six-point plan, would require further discussion on the part of the Israelis before a decision would be made.
1973 Newspapers in North Dakota report that over 35 copies of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” are burned. Many residents felt that the book was too pessimistic and it was not appropriate for school-aged children.
1975 The iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald breaks in half and sinks at the eastern end of Lake Superior–all 29 crew members perish.
1975 The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution that equated Zionism with racism. The resolution was repealed in December of 1991.
1980 CBS News anchor Dan Rather claimed he had been kidnapped in a cab. It turned out that Rather had refused to pay the cab fare.
1982 In Washington, DC, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to visitors. 1982 Leonid Brezhnev the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union dies of a heart attack while in office.
1986 President Ronald Reagan refuses to reveal details of the Iran arms sale.
1989 Germans begin demolishing the Berlin Wall
1993 John Wayne Bobbitt was acquitted on the charge of marital sexual assault against his wife who sexually mutilated him. Lorena Bobbitt was later acquitted of malicious wounding her husband.
1993 The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Brady Bill, which called for a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
1995 The writer and human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was executed in Nigeria today despite worldwide pleas for clemency. Nigeria’s military rulers ordered the execution of Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight other dissidents after being found guilty of involvement in four murders
1998 At the White House, “The Virtual Wall” website (www.thevirtualwall.org) was unveiled. The site allows visitors to experience The Wall through the Internet.
2001 President George W. Bush addresses the United Nations to ask for the international community’s help in combating terrorism around the world. He also pledged to take the fight against terrorism to any place where terrorists were harbored.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
