TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: NOVEMBER 14 2021
1666 Samuel Pepys reports on 1st blood transfusion (between dogs)
1680 Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680 (Kirch’s Comet/Newton’s Comet)
1812 As Napoleon Bonaparte’s army retreats form Moscow, temperatures drop to 20 degrees below zero
1832 1st streetcar (horse-drawn) (John Mason) debuts in NYC; fare 12c rode on 4th Avenue between Prince & 14th Sts
1851 Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick is published in New York
1889 Nellie Bly set out to beat Jules Verne’s fictional Phileas Fogg’s time of 80 days to travel around the world. She did it in 72.
1896 Power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation
1908 Albert Einstein presents his quantum theory of light
1910 Lieutenant Eugene Ely, U.S. Navy, becomes the first man to take off in an airplane from the deck of a ship. He flew from the ship Birmingham at Hampton Roads to Norfolk.
1921 The Cherokee Indians ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review their claim to 1 million acres of land in Texas.
1922 BBC begins daily radio broadcasts from the 2LO transmitter at Marconi House
1934 : The most ambitious slum clearance in New York City has been agreed today by the PWA ( Public Works Administration ) and New York City with 20 acres on a 12 square block area in Williamsburg identified for the building of low cost housing and is estimated that it will house 2,500 families in two and three story apartment complexes when completed
1935 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth after its new constitution was approved. The Tydings-McDuffie Act planned for the Phillipines to be completely independent by July 4, 1946.
1957 After years of speculation about a Mafia National Crime Syndicate controlling gambling, casinos and narcotics countrywide the existence of the Syndicate is confirmed when law enforcement officials raid Mafia boss Joseph Barbara home in Apalachin, New York, where 100 Mafia crime bosses from the United States, Canada and Italy have gathered to socialize and resolve the Mafia affairs .
1961 President Kennedy increases the number of American advisors in Vietnam from 1,000 to 16,000.
1972 Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike.
1973 The value of gold dramatically decreased on the London market. This occurrence happened in reaction to the decision made by the United States and Europe to do away with the two-tier gold standard. Investors lost millions of dollars as a result.
1979 US President Jimmy Carter freezes all Iranian assets in the United States in response to Iranian militants holding more than 50 Americans hostage.
1991 America is demanding that Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi hand over Libyan intelligence officers indicted in the US on 193 charges over the Pan Am flight 103 Lockerbie bombing in December 1988.
1994 U.S. experts visited North Korea’s main nuclear complex for the first time under an accord that opened such sites to outside inspections.
1995 Budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress forces temporary closure of national parks and museums; federal agencies forced to operate with skeleton staff.
2001 Northern Alliance fighters take control of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
2003 The most distant object ever found in our solar system, named Sedna, was discovered by astronomers at the Mount Palomar Observatory.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
