1618 The Third Synod of Dort convened. The opposition of Arminius to the Augustinian and Calvinistic doctrines on predestination had given rise to a bitter controversy. The doctrine of absolute predestination was maintained by the synod, and Arminianism was condemned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synod_of_Dort
1775 American Revolutionary forces capture Montreal. In September 1775 Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery set out with this small army from Ticonderoga with the objective of taking Montreal. To form a second prong to the invasion, Washington detached a force of 1,100 under Col. Benedict Arnold to proceed up the Kennebec River, across the wilds of Maine, and down the Chaudiere to join with Montgomery before Quebec. Montgomery, advancing along the route via Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the Richelieu River, was seriously delayed by the British fort at St. Johns but managed to capture Montreal on November 13. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/american-revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Montgomery
1789 Benjamin Franklin wrote his "death and taxes" quote. On November 13, 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to French scientist and author Jean-Baptiste Leroy. Franklin noted that "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Two hundred years later, 21st century Americans still pay taxes. We scorn every April 15 as "tax day," but few of us realize that our national income tax program is relatively new. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
1789 First presidential tour concludes. George Washington, inaugurated as the first president of the United States in April, returns to Washington at the end of his first presidential tour.
For four weeks, Washington traveled by stagecoach through New England, visiting all the northern states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution. Washington, the great Revolutionary War hero and first leader of the new republic, was greeted by enthusiastic crowds wherever he went. Major William Jackson, who was Washington's aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War, accompanied the president, along with a private secretary and nine servants, including several slaves. The group traveled as far north as Kittery, Maine, which was still a part of Massachusetts at the time.
1830 Oliver Wendell Holmes publishes "Old Ironsides" Holmes first important poem, Old Ironsides (1830), was a protest against the scrapping of the fighting ship Constitution. A collection of his witty occasional poems was published in 1836. In 1857 he began to contribute to the Atlantic Monthly (which he named) the famous series of Breakfast-table sketches, which were collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). His "Old Ironsides" poem was first published in the Boston Daily Advertiser after Holmes had been angered to learn that the Constitution, the U.S. frigate that had served in the Tripolitan War (1800-1815) and was especially important in the War of 1812, had been declared unseaworthy and was to be broken up and sold. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution
1843 Mt Rainier in Washington State erupts. Stated Brevet Captain J.C. Fremont: "... Wherever we came in contact with the rocks of these mountains, we found them volcanic, which is probably the character of the range; and at the time, two of the great snowy cones, Mount Regnier and St. Helens, were in action. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Raini...._current_threat
Motto: In Your Light We Shall See the Light
1844 Ohio Wesleyan University, named after John Wesley (1703–1791), founder of Methodism, opened as a Methodist-related but nonsectarian institution, with a College of Liberal Arts for male students. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Wesleyan_University
1861 McClellan snubs Lincoln. President Lincoln pays a late night visit to General George McClellan, who Lincoln had recently named general in chief of the Union Army. The general retired to his chambers before speaking with the president.
This was the most famous example of McClellan's cavalier disregard for the president's authority. Lincoln had tapped McClellan to head the Army of the Potomac—the main Union Army in the East—in July 1861 after the disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run. McClellan immediately began to build an effective army, and he was elevated to general in chief after Winfield Scott resigned on October 31. McClellan drew praise for his military initiatives but quickly developed a reputation for his arrogance and contempt toward the political leaders in Washington. After being named to the top post, McClellan began openly to cavort with Democratic leaders in Congress and show his disregard for the Republican administration. To his wife, he wrote that Lincoln was "nothing more than a well-meaning baboon," and Secretary of State William Seward was an "incompetent little puppy."
Lincoln made frequent evening visits to McClellan's house to discuss strategy. On November 13, Lincoln, Seward, and Presidential Secretary John Hay stopped by to see the general. McClellan was out, so the trio waited patiently for his return. After an hour, McClellan came in and was told by a porter that the guests were waiting. McClellan headed for his room without a word, and only after Lincoln waited another half-hour was the group informed of McClellan's retirement to bed. Hay felt that the president should have been greatly offended, but Lincoln casually replied that it was "better at this time not to be making points of etiquette and personal dignity." Lincoln made no more visits to the general's home. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._McClellan
1865 US issues first gold certificates. Gold certificates were authorized under the Act of March 3rd, 1863, but unlike the United States Notes also authorized, they apparently were not printed until 1865. They did not have a series date, and were hand-dated upon issue. "Issue" meant that the government took in the equivalent value in gold, and the first several series of Gold Certificates promised to pay the amount only to the depositor, who was explicitly identified on the certificate itself. The first issue featured a vignette of an eagle uniformly across all denominations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_certificate
1875 Harvard-Yale game is first college football contest with uniforms. Aside from being the first game in what became one of the most famous series in college football, the 1875 Harvard-Yale encounter saw the first uniforms worn in an American football game. Yale wore dark trousers, blue shirts, and yellow caps. Not to be outdone in sartorial splendor any more than in the score, Harvard showed up in crimson shirts, stockings, and knee breeches.
1875 National Bowling Association organized in NYC. Bowling was a very popular sport in New York City in the middle of the nineteenth century. A newspaper said there were more than 400 alleys in the city in 1850. It then declined for a time. One reason may have been that the larger pins made it too easy. The prevalence of gambling was another factor. Bowling, like billiards, was considered semi-respectable, at best. When nine clubs from New York City and Brooklyn formed the National Bowling Association (NBA) in 1875, one of its purposes was to standardize rules. Just as important, though, the clubs wanted to eliminate gambling among their members. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling#History
1900 Baltimore Orioles (now NY Yankees) enter baseball's American League. The National League rejects the American League as an equal, declaring it an outlaw league outside of the National Agreement, thus inaugurating a state of war. This follows the AL's announcement two days ago tht it has made arrangements to go into Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Two weeks later the AA makes it a 3-way battle.
1916 British statesman expresses criticism of war effort On November 13, 1916, the British statesman Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, better known as the fifth Marquess of Lansdowne, writes a memorandum to the British cabinet questioning the direction of the Allied war effort in World War I.
Born in 1845, Lord Lansdowne held various positions in the British government over the course of his career, including governor-general of Canada, viceroy of India, secretary of state for war during the Boer Wars and foreign secretary. In this last position, Lansdowne signed an alliance agreement with Japan (1902) and in 1904 negotiated the Anglo-French "Entente Cordiale" with his French counterpart, Theophile Delcasse. Having switched his allegiance from the Liberal to the Conservative Party before becoming war secretary, Lansdowne became leader of the opposition party in the House of Lords after a Liberal victory in 1906.
In 1915, with the country at war, Lansdowne was named a minister in the newly formed coalition government of Prime Minister H.H. Asquith. By the following year, with the Allies locked in a bloody stalemate with Germany on the Western Front and reeling from a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire, Lansdowne began to openly question the direction of the British war effort. "No one for a moment believes we are going to lose this war," he began his memo of November 13, 1916, "but what is our chance of winning it in such a manner, and within such limits of time, as will enable us to beat our enemy to the ground and impose upon him the kind of terms which we so freely discuss?"
Though he was immediately attacked by his colleagues in the cabinet--Sir William Robertson labeled him one of the "cranks, cowards, and philosophers, some of whom are afraid of their own skins being hurt"--Lansdowne was not alone in his pessimism. None other than David Lloyd George--the secretary of war, who would become prime minister the following year--admitted to a dinner companion less than a week later that he was "very depressed about the war." For his part, Lansdowne remained vocal about his misgivings. He was not given a post in the Conservative-dominated Lloyd George cabinet in 1917, but continued his work in the House of Lords.
In November 1917, Lansdowne published a letter in the Daily Telegraph reiterating his arguments for a negotiated peace. "We are not going to lose this war," Lansdowne repeated, "but its prolongation will spell ruin for the civilized world, and an infinite addition to the load of human suffering which already weighs upon it...We do not desire the annihilation of Germany as a great power ...We have no desire to deny Germany her place among the great commercial communities of the world." Though he was again lambasted by his British critics, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was said to have been "impressed" with Lansdowne's arguments. They came to nothing, however, and as became clear through post-war research, even if the British establishment had agreed to pursue peace negotiations, Germany in 1917 would never have accepted peace based on the antebellum status quo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petty....bsequent_career
1921 "The Sheik," starring Rudolph Valentino, is released. The Sheik was a 1921 silent movie produced by Famous Players-Lasky, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres and Adolphe Menjou. It was based on the bestselling romance novel The Sheik by Edith Maude Hull. The Sheik proved extremely popular with female movie goers and helped established Valentino as the top male movie star and sex symbol of the day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheik_(film)
1927 The Holland Tunnel opened for vehicular traffic as the first twin tube subaqueous vehicular tunnel in the U.S. It joined Jersey City, N.J. and New York City, N.Y. The day before, after an opening ceremony, in the next hour 20,000 people walked the 9,250 feet length of the tunnel from shore to shore, of which 5,480-ft runs under the river. Named after its engineer, Clifford Holland, the tunnel carries 1,900 vehicles per hour. The air in the tubes is changed 42 times an hour, at the rate of 3,761,000 cubic feet per minute. The first subaqueous highway single tube tunnel in the U.S. was the 1,520-ft long Washington Street Tunnel beneath the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois, which was first authorized 17 Jul 1866, though it did not carry automobile traffic until 1911. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Tunnel
1930 The Rotolactor, invented by Henry W. Jeffries, was housed in the lactorium of the Walker Gordon Laboratory Company, Inc., at Plainsboro, N.J. This was a 50-stall revolving platform that enabled the milking of 1,680 cows in seven hours by rotating them into position with the milking machines. A Rotolactor was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair as part of the "Dairy World of Tomorrow," exhibit in the Borden building. The glass-enclosed revolving Rotolactor platform carried 150 pedigreed cows were washed, dried, and mechanically milked twice daily. A favorite attraction of the Food Zone, the Rotolactor epitomized how technology advanced the production of such a widely-used product as milk. http://www.farmcollector.com/looking-back/the-rotolactor.aspx
1933 The first dust storm of the great dust bowl era of the 1930s occurred. The dust storm, which had spread from Montana to the Ohio Valley the day before, prevailed from Georgia to Maine resulting in a black rain over New York and a brown snow in Vermont. Parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa reported zero visibility on the 12th. On the 13th, dust reduced the visibility to half a mile in Tennessee. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
1937 NBC forms first full-sized symphony orchestra exclusively for radio. The NBC Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra established in 1937 by General David Sarnoff of NBC as a vehicle for conductor Arturo Toscanini. Under Toscanini's direction, the orchestra's first broadcast concert aired from NBC's Studio 8H on Christmas Day, 1937. In addition to weekly broadcasts on the NBC Red and Blue networks, the NBC Symphony Orchestra made many recordings of symphonies, choral music, and operas. Televised concerts began in 1948.
1940 Walt Disney's "Fantasia" released. "Fantasia" was a 1940 motion picture, the third in the Disney animated features canon, which was a Walt Disney experiment in animation and music. The soundtrack of the film consists of eight pieces of classical music, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. Animated artwork of varying degrees of abstraction or literalism is used to illustrate or accompany the concert in various ways.
1941 Congress revises the Neutrality Act On this day in 1941, the United States Congress amends the Neutrality Act of 1935 to allow American merchant ships access to war zones, thereby putting U.S. vessels in the line of fire.
In anticipation of another European war, and in pursuit of an isolationist foreign policy, Congress passed the Neutrality Act in August 1935, forbidding the sale of munitions by U.S. firms to any and all belligerents in any future war. This was a not-so-subtle signal to all governments and private industries, domestic and foreign, that the United States would play no part in foreign wars. Less than two years later, a second Neutrality Act was passed, forbidding the export of arms to either side in the Spanish Civil War.
The original 1935 act was made even more restrictive in May 1937, forbidding not only arms and loans to warring nations, but giving the president of the United States the authority to forbid Americans from traveling on ships of any warring nation, to forbid any U.S. ship from carrying U.S. goods, even nonmilitary, to a belligerent, and to demand that a belligerent nation pay for U.S. nonmilitary goods before shipment--a "cash and carry" plan.
But such notions of strict neutrality changed quickly once World War II began. The first amendment to the act came as early as September 1939; President Roosevelt, never happy with the extreme nature of the act, fought with Congress to revise it, allowing for the sale of munitions to those nations under siege by Nazi Germany. After heated debate in a special session, Congress finally passed legislation permitting such sales. Addressing the prospect of direct U.S. intervention in the war, President Roosevelt proclaimed, also in September 1939, that U.S. territorial waters were a neutral zone, and any hostile power that used those waters for the prosecution of the war would be considered "unfriendly" and "offensive."
Finally, when the U.S. destroyer Reuben James was sunk by a German sub in October 1941, the Neutrality Act was destined for the dustbin of history. By November, not only would merchant ships be allowed to arm themselves for self-defense, but they would also be allowed to enter European territorial waters. America would no longer stand aloof from the hostilities.
1941 World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U 81, sinking the following day.
1942 World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal U.S. and Japanese ships engage in an intense, close-quarters surface naval engagement during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
1942 Five Sullivan brothers lost in Japanese raid. The five Sullivan Brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, were lost in the sinking of the cruiser USS Juneau by a Japanese torpedo off Guadalcanal during World War II in the Pacific. Following their deaths, the U.S. Navy changed regulations to prohibit close relatives from serving on the same ship.
1945 Truman announces inquiry into Jewish settlement in Palestine.
In the last weeks of World War II, the Allies liberated one death camp after another in which the German Nazi regime had held and slaughtered millions of Jews. Surviving Jews in the formerly Nazi-occupied territories were left without family, homes, jobs or savings.
In August 1945, Truman received the Harrison report, which detailed the plight of Jews in post-war Germany, and it became clear to him that something had to be done to speed up the process of finding Jewish refugees a safe place to live.
In late August, Truman contacted British Prime Minister Clement Attlee to propose that Jewish refugees be allowed to immigrate to Palestine, which at the time was occupied by Britain. Attlee responded that he would look into the matter and asked for a joint Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry to examine the complicated issue of integrating Jewish settlers into territory that was home to an Arab majority. Meanwhile, two U.S. senators introduced a resolution in Congress demanding the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
In April 1946, the committee issued its report, which recommended the immigration of 100,000 Jewish refugees to Palestine. Truman wrote to Attlee for his help in moving the repatriation process forward. However, by mid-1946, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had weighed in, bringing up the question of who would control the lucrative oil fields in a region that had the potential for unstable political and cultural relations between Jews and Arabs. Since the threat of communist expansion into politically unstable regions then dictated most of U.S. foreign policy, Truman and Attlee became convinced by their respective military advisors that Jewish communist sympathizers in a new Jewish state might jeopardize the west's access to Middle Eastern oil. The settlement plans were put on hold.
Truman was again inundated with requests for help from the Jewish community. The issue of the establishment of a Jewish state was debated and delayed for another two years even though the newly formed United Nations, which had no enforcement power without the participation of the United States and Great Britain, had decided in favor of a Jewish state by 1946.
1946 Artificial snow from a natural cloud was produced over Mount Greylock, Mass., for the first time in the U.S. An airplane spread small pellets of dry-ice (frozen carbon dioxide) for three miles at a height of 14,000 ft. Although the snow fell an estimated 3,000 feet, it evaporated as it fell through dry air, and never reached the ground. The experiment was carried out by Vincent J. Schaefer of the General Electric Company. Earlier the same year, he had produced snow in a cold chamber, on 12 Jul 1946.
1947 Russia completes development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles
1947 Release date for “Gentlemen's Agreement,” the cinema version of Laura Hobson’s novel that dealt with the issue of anti-Semitism. Moss Hart wrote the screenplay. Daryl Zanuck, who was mistakenly thought to be Jewish produced the movie despite objections from Jewish movie moguls who were afraid of how audiences would react to a movie on this topic. Director: Elia Kazan. Actors: Gregory Peck: Philip Schuyler Green · Dorothy McGuire: Kathy Lacy · John Garfield: Dave Goldman · Celeste Holm: Anne Dettrey. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039416/
1953 Strong southeasterly winds associated with a Pacific cold front reached 70 mph at Sacramento CA to equal their all-time record. The previous record had been established in a similar weather pattern on December 12th of the previous year. (The Weather Channel)
1954 "I Need You Now" by Eddie Fisher topped the charts. After recording "Wish You Were Here" that year, Fisher scored with the biggest year of his career in 1953; both "I'm Walking Behind You" and "Oh! My Pa-Pa" which spent many weeks at the top of the charts. Fisher then gained his own top-rated television programs, Coke Time and The Chesterfield Supper Club. His success continued apace in 1954 with "I Need You Now," and he starred in his first movie, Bundle of Joy, in 1956 -- co-billed with his first wife, Debbie Reynolds.
1956 Supreme Court strikes down segregation of races on public buses. On November 13, 1956 the United States Supreme Court rules that bus segregation is unconstitutional. But Montgomery continues to operate the busses on a segregated basis and Blacks continue the boycott until the court ruling is physically delivered to Montgomery. On December 21 the busses are finally desegregated and the boycott comes to a triumphant end 381 days after it began.
1962 The name of St. Joseph was added to the canon of the Roman Catholic mass. It constituted the first alteration made to this canon since the seventh century.
1964 Bob Petit (St Louis Hawks) becomes first NBAer to score 20,000 points. During his 11-year career, Pettit averaged 26.4 points per game, 16.2 rebounds per game, and 3 assists per game. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team ten consecutive seasons (1955-64). He finished in the top five in points and rebounds 10 consecutive seasons, a feat currently unmatched in NBA history. Petit was voted as the NBA's Most Valuable Player twice (1956 & 1959). He was voted Rookie of the Year in 1955 and won his lone NBA Championship Title in 1958. He was the first NBA player to score over 20,000 points.
1965 The SS Yarmouth Castle burns and sinks 60 miles off Nassau with the loss of 90 lives.
1967 President receives optimistic reports President Lyndon Johnson is briefed on the situation in Vietnam by Gen. William Westmoreland, Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, and Robert W. Komer, the head of the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support program. They painted an optimistic picture that led Johnson to state on television on November 17 that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." Such pronouncements haunted President Johnson and his advisers only two months later, when the communists launched a massive offensive during the Tet New Year holiday in January 1968.
1969 VP Spiro T Agnew accused network TV news depths of bias & distortion.
1969 Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. stage a symbolic March Against Death.
1970 VP Spiro Agnew calls TV executives "impudent snobs"
1971 "Gypsys, Tramps, & Thieves" by Cher topped the charts. "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves," a conscious attempt to emulate Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" was released late in 1971 and became a number one hit and a million-seller. To some listeners, "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" was the epitome of schlocky pop/rock, but the song's subject matter, unusual tempo changes, and an incredibly memorable chorus-hook demonstrated Cher's maturation as an artist?
1971 Mariner-9, the first man-made object to orbit another planet, entered Martian orbit. The mission of the unmanned craft was to return photographs mapping 70% of the surface, and to study the planet's thin atmosphere, clouds, and hazes, together with its surface chemistry and seasonal changes.
1977 After 43 years, Al Capp brought his comic strip, "Li’l Abner", to a conclusion. At its peak, "Li'l Abner" appeared in more than 900 newspapers with a daily readership of 90,000,000. A handful of competing comic strips appeared in more newspapers, but Capp's exposure didn't end in the comic section. His personal celebrity transcended comics, reaching the public and influencing the culture in a variety of media. For many years he simultaneously produced the daily strip, a weekly syndicated newspaper column and a 500-station radio program while maintaining a steady presence on television screens.
1979 Robert Jarvik was granted a patent for an artificial heart.
1979 Ronald Reagan in NY announces his candidacy for President. On November 13, 1979, Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for president in a speech at the New York Hilton stating "To me our country is a living, breathing presence, unimpressed by what others say is impossible, proud of its own success, generous, yes and naive, sometimes wrong, never mean and always impatient to provide a better life for its people in a framework of a basic fairness and freedom."
1981 A powerful cyclone brought high winds to Washington State and Oregon. The cyclone, which formed about 1000 miles west of San Francisco, intensified rapidly as it approached the Oregon coast with the central pressure reaching 28.22 inches (956 millibars). A wind trace from the Whiskey Run Turbine Site, about 12 miles south of Coos Bay in Oregon, showed peak gusts to 97 mph fifty feet above ground level. The wind caused widespread damage in Washington and Oregon, with 12 deaths reported. As much as four feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada Range of northern California. (Storm Data)
1982 Vietnam War Memorial dedicated in Washington DC. The Wall, the first part of the memorial to be erected, was dedicated November 13, 1982. Today 58,249 names are inscribed on the wall. The wall includes the names of deceased and missing. The goal of the memorial was to allow all people to reflect on the price of war and to honor those who served.
1985 Dwight Gooden, youngest 20 game winner, wins Cy Young award. Gooden reached new heights in 1985, winning the Cy Young award with the "pitcher's Triple Crown," leading the NL in wins (24-4), ERA (1.53), and strikeouts (268). His 16 complete games also led the league, and his rising fastball and snapping curve dominated NL hitters. Curveballs are referred to by ballplayers as "Uncle Charley," but Gooden's was called "Lord Charles."
1985 The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.
1986 The state of California put Fricot City on the auction block for $8.8 million. The California town, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento, featured a motel, 20 homes, and two swimming pools to the buyer.
1987 A storm moving off the Pacific Ocean produced rain and gale force winds along the northern and central Pacific coast, and heavy snow in the Cascade Mountains. Cold weather prevailed in the southeastern U.S. Five cities reported record low temperatures for the date, including Asheville NC with a reading of 21 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1988 Low pressure brought rain and snow and gusty winds to the northeastern U.S. A thunderstorm drenched Agawam MA with 1.25 inches of rain in fifteen minutes. Winds gusted to 58 mph at Nantucket MA. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 Thirty-two cities in the central and eastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date as readings warmed into the 70s as far north as Michigan and Pennsylvania. Afternoon highs in the 80s were reported from the Southern Plains to the southern Atlantic coast. Columbia SC reported a record high of 86 degrees, and the high of 71 degrees at Flint MI was their warmest of record for so late in the season. (The National Weather Summary)
1995 A truck-bomb explodes outside of a US-operated Saudi Arabian National Guard training center in Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. A group called the Islamic Movement for Change claims responsibility.
1998 The discovery of the 1,000th pulsar in our galaxy was announced in a press release by the Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester, using the 64-meter Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, on which a "multibeam" receiver was installed on the telescope in early 1997. This allowed the astronomers from England, Australia, United States, and Italy to find pulsars much faster than before. On average, they found a new pulsar in every hour of observing. By this date, the researchers had found more than 200 pulsars and they expected to find another 600 more before the survey ended. The "multibeam" receiver used consists of 13 hexagonally arranged receivers that allow simultaneous observations.
2001 War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
2005 Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year old British man, is reported as the first person proven to have been "cured" of HIV
2006 The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that sought to condemn an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and demand Israeli troops pull out the territory. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the Arab-backed draft resolution was "biased against Israel and politically motivated."
2008 Lyrics by Paul Simon appears on bookstore shelves. “Lyrics spans his entire career from Simon & Garfunkel’s 1964 debut album through this year’s unrealeased songs ‘Rewrite’ and ‘Hard Times.’”
2010 Egyptian security forces arrested 25 members of a terror cell who allegedly intended to carry out attacks on Israeli tourists in Sinai. The terrorists were residents of the Egyptian cities of El-Arish, Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah, according to the report.
Joined: Mar 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 13,933 Location: Belle Plaine, Minnesota
Re: United States History: November 13 « Reply #1 on Nov 12, 2012, 9:52pm »
Births
354 St. Augustine of Hippo, the greatest theologian of the early church, was born this day in Tagaste, North Africa. His famed writings include The City of God and Confessions. His influence would require books to recount. (d 430)
532 Augustine of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 604)
1504 Philip of Hesse, a leading champion of the Reformation and one of the most important German rulers of the Renaissance, was born in Marburg, Germany (d. 31 March 1567). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_I,_Landgrave_of_Hesse
1809 John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren (d 1870) American inventor of the smooth-bore cannon that was, from its shape, familiarly known as the "soda-water bottle." The shape resulted from a design in which the thickness of metal was varied to match the differences in internal pressure occurring when the cannon was fired. The pressures were determined by boring holes in the walls of the gun and inserting as gauges such objects as pistons or musket balls. He developed the weapons primarily for use on small boats that patrolled the waterways. His iron smoothbores were adopted in 1850 (9-inch gun) and 1851 (11-inch gun). Although designed for use against wooden ships, the iron-clad Monitor class ships carried two of these guns in their turrets, which were replaced by the 15-inch Dahlgrens in 1862. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adolphus_Bernard_Dahlgren
1833 Edwin Thomas Booth (d 1893) 19th century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time. Some theatrical historians consider him the greatest American actor, and the greatest Hamlet, of the 19th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Thomas_Booth
1837 James Thomas Rapier (d 1883) United States Representative from 1873 until 1875. He was one of Alabama's three black congressmen during Reconstruction.
1838 Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. (d 1918) sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was the last president of the LDS Church to have personally known the founder of the Mormon faith, Joseph Smith, Jr., who was the brother of his father Hyrum Smith.
1841 Edward Burd Grubb, Jr. (known as E. Burd Grubb) (d 1913) Union Army regimental commander in the American Civil War who was later appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as United States Ambassador to Spain. He served in three regiments, commanded two of them, and became a brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers. He was also a noted foundryman, business owner and New Jersey politician who was close to Woodrow Wilson.
1814 Joseph Hooker (d 1879) career United States Army officer, fought in the Mexican-American War, and was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Although he served throughout the war, usually with distinction, Hooker is best remembered for his stunning defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. He became known as "Fighting Joe" during the Civil War due to civilian clerical error; however, the nickname stuck.
1854 George Whitefield Chadwick (d 1931) American composer. Along with Horatio Parker, Amy Beach and Edward MacDowell, he was a representative composer of what can be called the New England School of American composers of the late 19th century—the generation before Charles Ives. Chadwick's works are influenced by the Realist movement in the arts, characterized by a down-to-earth depiction of people's lives. Many consider his music to portray a distinctively American style. His works included several operas, three symphonies, five string quartets, tone poems, incidental music, songs and choral anthems. Along with a group of other composers collectively known as the Boston Six, Chadwick was one of those responsible for the first significant body of concert music by composers from the United States. The other five were Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.
1856 Louis Dembitz Brandeis (d 1941) Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Europe. He enrolled at Harvard Law School, graduating at the age of twenty with the highest grade average in the college’s history. Brandeis settled in Boston where he became a recognized lawyer through his work on social causes that would benefit society. He helped develop the "right to privacy" concept by writing a Harvard Law Review article of that title, and was thereby credited by legal scholar Roscoe Pound as having accomplished "nothing less than adding a chapter to our law". Years later, a book he published, entitled Other People's Money, suggested ways of curbing the power of large banks and money trusts, which partly explains why he later fought against powerful corporations, monopolies, public corruption, and mass consumerism, all of which he felt were detrimental to American values and culture. He also became active in the Zionist movement, seeing it as a solution to the "Jewish problem" of antisemitism in Europe and Russia, while at the same time being a way to "revive the Jewish spirit." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_D_Brandeis
1866 Abraham Flexner (d 1959) American educator who played a major role in the introduction of modern medical and science education to American colleges and universities. Founder and director of a progressive college- preparatory school in Louisville (1890-1904), Flexner issued an appraisal of American educational institutions (The American College: A Criticism; 1908) that earned him a Carnegie Foundation commission to survey the quality of the 155 medical colleges in the United States and Canada. His report (1910) had an immediate and sensational impact on American medical education. Many of the colleges that were severely criticized by Flexner closed soon after publication of the report; others initiated extensive revisions of their policies and curricula.
1893 Edward Adelbert Doisy (d 1986) American biochemist who shared the 1943 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (with Henrik Dam) for his isolation and synthesis of vitamin K, a substance that encourages blood clotting (1939), used in medicine and surgery. With the embryologist Edgar Allen (1922-34), he developed assay techniques that facilitated research on sex hormones. Doisy and his associates isolated the sex hormones estrone (theelin, 1929; the first estrogen to be crystallized), estriol (theelol, 1930), and estradiol (dihydrotheelin, 1935). In 1936-39 he isolated two forms of the vitamin, (K1 from lucerne seed and K2 from fish meal, in a pure crystalline form), determined their chemical structures, and synthesized the vitamin
1898 Earl H. Sande (d 1968) American Hall of Fame jockey and thoroughbred horse trainer.
1900 Edward Buzzell (d 1985) American film director whose credits for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer included Honolulu (1939), the Marx Brothers films At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940), the musicals Best Foot Forward (1943) with Lucille Ball and Neptune's Daughter (1949) with Esther Williams, and Easy to Wed, starring Van Johnson, Williams, and Ball.
1904 Henry Codman Potter II (d 1977) American theatrical producer/director and a motion picture director, Beloved Enemy (1936), Wings Over Honolulu (1937), Romance in the Dark, The Cowboy and the Lady, and The Shopworn Angel (1938), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle and Blackmail (1939), Congo Masie and Second Chorus (1940), Hellzapoppin' (1941), Victory Through Air Power (documentary) and Mr. Lucky (1943), The Farmer's Daughter and A Likely Story (1947), You Gotta Stay Happy, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and The Time of Your Life (1948), The Miniver Story (1950), Three for the Show (1955) and Top Secret Affair (1957).
1906 Eva Striker Zeisel (born Eva Amalia Striker) Hungarian industrial designer known for her work with ceramics, primarily from the period after she immigrated to the United States. Her forms are often abstractions of the natural world and human relationships. Work from throughout her prodigious career is included in important museum collections across the world. Zeisel declares herself a "maker of useful things.". Zeisel currently resides in New York where she continues to design furniture as well as glass and ceramic objects.
1908 Comer Vann Woodward (d 1999) preeminent American historian focusing primarily on the American South and race relations. He was considered, along with Richard Hofstadter and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to be one of the most influential historians of the postwar era, 1940s-1970s, both by scholars and by the general public. He was long a supporter of the approach of Charles Beard, stressing the influence of unseen economic motivations in politics. Stylistically, he was a master of irony and counterpoint.
1910 William Bradford "Bill" Huie (d 1986) American journalist, editor, publisher, television interviewer, screenwriter, lecturer, and novelist.
1911 John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil (d 2006) first baseman and manager in Negro league baseball, most notably in the Negro American League with the Kansas City Monarchs. After his playing days, he became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball, and also worked as a scout. In his later years he became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
1934 Garry Kent Marshall American actor, director, writer and producer. His notable credits include creating Happy Days and The Odd Couple and directing Nothing In Common, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Valentine's Day, and The Princess Diaries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Marshall
1935 George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002.
1938 Jean Dorothy Seberg (d 1979) American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including the musical Paint Your Wagon (1969) and the disaster film Airport (1970). She committed suicide at age 40.
1941 David Green founder of Hobby Lobby, an American chain of arts and crafts stores. In 2010, Green was listed as #136 on Forbes' List of The 400 Richest Americans, with a net worth of $2.6 billion.
1941 Melvin Leon Stottlemyre, Sr. former Major League Baseball pitcher and pitching coach. He played 11 years in the Major Leagues, all of them with the New York Yankees. After his playing career, Stottlemyre worked as pitching coach with the, New York Mets, Houston Astros, Yankees and Seattle Mariners.
1943 Robert Jay Sigel American professional golfer. He enjoyed one of the more illustrious careers in the history of U.S. amateur golf before turning pro in 1993 when he became a member of the Senior PGA Tour, now known as the Champions Tour.
1947 Joseph Anthony “Joe” Mantegna, Jr. American actor, producer, writer and director. He is best known for his roles in box-office hits such as Three Amigos (1986), The Godfather Part III (1990), Airheads (1994), Forget Paris (1995), Up Close & Personal (1996), and The Simpsons Movie (2007).
1954 Scott McNealy co-founder of Sun Microsystems, the computer technology company he started in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim.
1954 Christopher David "Chris" Noth American actor and poet. He is known for two long-running television roles: as Det. Mike Logan on Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as Mr. Big on Sex and the City. For the latter role, he has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He is currently starring in The Good Wife on CBS.
1955 Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, and talk show host.
1967 James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money. Kimmel is also a television producer, having produced shows such as Crank Yankers and The Andy Milonakis Show.
Deaths
867 Pope Nicholas I (b. ca. 820) and was replaced by Adrian II (at the age of 75).
Title page of one of Abbo of Fleury's tracts showing the word "ABBO". Created between 962 and 986 AD in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire abbey.
1394 Henry the Navigator (b 1394) infante (prince) of the Kingdom of Portugal and an important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire. He was responsible for the early development of European exploration and maritime trade with other continents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator
1829 Sam Patch (b 1800), known as "The Yankee Leaper", became the first famous American daredevil after successfully jumping from a raised platform into the Niagara River near the base of Niagara Falls in 1829. His first jump into the Genesee River raised a disappointing amount of money, so he decided to repeat the stunt one week later on November 13, 1829 (Friday the 13th). This time, he increased the height of the jump to 125 feet by constructing a 25-foot stand. Accounts from the 8,000 present differ on whether he actually jumped or fell, but he did not achieve his normal feet-first vertical entry. A loud impact was heard and he never surfaced. Rumors were passed that he had hidden in a cave at the base of the falls, and was enjoying all the excitement he had created. But his frozen body was found in the ice in Charlotte (Rochester) early the next spring by Silas Hudson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Patch
1883 J. Marion Sims, James Marion Sims (b 1813) was a surgical pioneer, considered the father of American gynecology. Modern historians argue about his legacy as Sims used slaves as experimental subjects.
1952 Margaret Wise Brown (b 1910) prolific American author of children's literature, including the books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Wise_Brown
1953 Herbert Eugene Ives (b 1882) physicist and inventor of transmission of mechanical video pictures. Research into a television process by the AT&T Co. at Bell Laboratories, New York was under the direction of Dr. Herbert E. Ives. On 7 Apr 1927, live images of Commerce Secretary Hoover were transmitted in the first successful long distance demonstration of television, sent from Washington D.C. to New York, over long distance wires. On 27 June 1929 the first public demonstration of color TV showed images are a bouquet of roses and an American flag using a mechanical system was used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington. A two-way video telephone was first demonstrated in 1930 by Ives in New York City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Eugene_Ives
1974 Karen Gay Silkwood (b 1946) American labor union activist and chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee plant near Crescent, Oklahoma, United States. Silkwood's job was making plutonium pellets for nuclear reactor fuel rods. She died under mysterious circumstances after investigating claims of irregularities and wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood
1983 Junior Samples, born Alvin Samples Jr. (b 1926) American comedian best known for his 14-year run as a cast member of the TV show Hee Haw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Samples
1998 Helen Herrick Malsed (b 1910?) American toy inventor who created a number of games and toys, most notably toys based on the already popular Slinky, such as the Slinky Dog and the Slinky Train.
2005 Vine Deloria, Jr (b 1933) American Indian author, theologian, historian, and activist.
2010 Allan Rex Sandage (b 18 Jun 1926) American astronomer. He is best known for determining the first reasonably accurate value for the Hubble constant and the age of the universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Sandage
Christian Feast Day:
Brice of Tours [b]Frances Xavier Cabrini Homobonus [b]John Chrysostom (Western Christianity, Repose) Quintian of Rodez [b]Saints of the Premonstratensian Order [b]Stanislaus Kostka The Hundred Thousand Martyrs of Tbilisi (Georgian Orthodox Church)
November 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople (ca. 407)
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