TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – NOV 21
164 BC During Maccabbean revolt Judas Maccabaeus recaptures Jersusalem and rededicates the Second Temple, commemorated since as Jewish festival Hanukkah
1620 Leaders of the Mayflower expedition frame the “Mayflower Compact,” designed to bolster unity among the settlers
1789 North Carolina ratifies the Constitution, becoming the 12th state to do it.
1818 Russia’s Tsar Alexander I petitions for a Jewish state in Palestine
1871 Moses Gale patents a cigar lighter
1877 Thomas A. Edison announced the invention of his phonograph.
1906 In San Juan, President Theodore Roosevelt pledges citizenship for Puerto Rican people.
1911 Suffragettes storm Parliament in London. All are arrested and all choose prison terms.
1922 Senator for a day… Georgia’s Rebecca Felton was sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman U.S. Senator (though she only served for one day).
1927 Police turn machine guns on striking Colorado mine workers, killing five and wounding 20.
1949 The United Nations grants Libya its independence by 1952.
1953 “Pitdown Man,” discovered in 1912 proved to be a hoax
1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the air quality act, allotting $428 million for the fight against pollution.
1973 U.S. President Richard M. Nixon’s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, announced the presence of an 18½-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to the Watergate case.
1979 The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was attacked by a mob that set the building afire and killed two Americans.
1980 An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to find out “who shot J.R.” on the CBS prime-time soap opera Dallas. Kristin was the character that fired the gun
1985 US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard arrested for spying and passing classified information to Israel; he received a life sentence on Nov. 1, 1987
1992 U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, issued an apology but refused to discuss allegations that he’d made unwelcome sexual advances toward 10 women in past years.
1995 The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio; the agreement, formally ratified in Paris on Dec. 14, ends the three-and-a-half year war between Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2001 Microsoft Corp. proposed giving $1 billion in computers, software, training and cash to more than 12,500 of the poorest schools in the U.S. The offer was intended as part of a deal to settle most of the company’s private antitrust lawsuits.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
