1959: The American dramatic film Ben-Hur, arguably the best of Hollywood's biblical epics, had its world premiere; it later won an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards.



And I have never even seen it! lol

 

On This Day In History
November 18, 1863
President Lincoln travels to Gettysburg

On November 18, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to deliver a short speech the following day at the dedication of a cemetery of soldiers killed during the battle there on July 1 to July 3, 1863. The address Lincoln gave in Gettysburg became one of the most famous speeches in American history.

Lincoln had given much thought to what he wanted to say at Gettysburg, but nearly missed his chance to say it. Shortly before the trip, Lincoln’s son, Tad, became ill with a fever. The president and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln were no strangers to juvenile illness: They had already lost two sons to disease. Prone to fits of hysteria, Mary Lincoln panicked when her husband prepared to leave. However, Lincoln felt the opportunity to speak at Gettysburg and present his defense of the war was too important to miss, so he boarded a train and headed to Pennsylvania.

Despite his son’s illness, Lincoln was in good spirits during the journey. He was accompanied by an entourage that included Secretary of State William Seward, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Interior Secretary John Usher, Lincoln’s personal secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay, several members of the diplomat corps, some foreign visitors, a Marine band, and a military escort.

When Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg, he was handed a telegram that lifted his spirits: Tad was feeling much better. Lincoln enjoyed an evening dinner and a serenade by the Fifth New York Artillery Band before he retired to finalize his famous Gettysburg Address.

 

18 Nov 1941
Five large Japanese carrier submarines, each containing midget submarines, departed from Kure Naval Base, Japan for Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, Joseph Rochefort's US Navy cryptanalytic team reported no Japanese carrier movement.
Japan requested Germany to not conclude a separate peace with any common enemies of the two countries, but did not share its plans to attack the United States should negotiations fail.

18 Nov 1944
Patton's US Third Army entered Germany in full force. US Third Army's US XX Corps surrounded Metz, France. Metz was one of Patton's most difficult obstacles in moving from France to Germany, in part due to supply chain issues.

 

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania, honoring the fallen heroes of that decisive battle with the Gettysburg Address, which would become one of the most famous speeches in United States history.

With this brief but powerful speech, Lincoln encapsulated everything that the United States was struggling with during that time, providing a sign of hope for a populace that had grown by and large hopeless.

In its entirety:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. “But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

 

On This Day In History
November 19, 1985
Reagan and Gorbachev hold their first summit meeting

For the first time in eight years, the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States hold a summit conference. Meeting in Geneva, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev produced no earth-shattering agreements. However, the meeting boded well for the future, as the two men engaged in long, personal talks and seemed to develop a sincere and close relationship.

The meeting came as somewhat of a surprise to some in the United States, considering Reagan’s often incendiary rhetoric concerning communism and the Soviet Union, but it was in keeping with the president’s often stated desire to bring the nuclear arms race under control. For Gorbachev, the meeting was another clear signal of his desire to obtain better relations with the United States so that he could better pursue his domestic reforms.Little of substance was accomplished. Six agreements were reached, ranging from cultural and scientific exchanges to environmental issues. Both Reagan and Gorbachev, however, expressed satisfaction with the summit, which ended on November 21.

The next summit was held in October 1986 in Reykjavik and ended somewhat disastrously, with Reagan’s commitment to the Strategic Defense Initiative (the so-called “Star Wars” missile defense system) providing a major obstacle to progress on arms control talks. However, by the time of their third summit in Washington, D.C. in 1987, both sides made concessions in order to achieve agreement on a wide range of arms control issues.

 

First Marconi Transmission
1911
NY receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.


Guglielmo Marconi

 

19 Nov 1941

The Japanese embassy in Washington DC, was instructed that, should war be declared with the United States, Japanese public radio broadcast would include the code phrase "higashi no kaze ame" (“east wind rain”), with the Soviet Union "ita no kaze kumori" ("north wind cloudy"), and with the United Kingdom "nishi no kaze hare" ("west wind clear"). This clear preparation for war was intercepted by the Americans.

 

On November 20, 1968, the film 'Head' starring The Monkees opened in the U.S. and was a huge flop, both at the box office and with reviewers.

Co-written (in an apparent drug-fueled haze) by the film's director Bob Rafaelson and actor Jack Nicholson, with an uncredited collaboration from drummer Mickey Dolenz, would be better received decades later as a psychadelic, plotless romp: "a 60s curiosity".

 

On This Day In History
November 20, 1820
American vessel sunk by sperm whale

The American whaler Essex, which hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, is attacked by an 80-ton sperm whale 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America.

The 238-ton Essex was in pursuit of sperm whales, specifically the precious oil and bone that could be derived from them, when an enraged bull whale rammed the ship twice and capsized the vessel. The 20 crew members escaped in three open boats, but only five of the men survived the harrowing 83-day journey to the coastal waters of South America, where they were picked up by other ships. Most of the crew resorted to cannibalism during the long journey, and at one point men on one of the long boats drew straws to determine which of the men would be shot in order to provide sustenance for the others. Three other men who had been left on a desolate Pacific island were saved later.

The first capture of a sperm whale by an American vessel was in 1711, marking the birth of an important American industry that commanded a fleet of more than 700 ships by the mid 18th century. Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick (1851) was inspired in part by the story of the Essex.

 

1910: On this day in 1910, Francisco Madero launched a failed revolt that nonetheless sparked the Mexican Revolution by inspiring hope in such leaders as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who then mobilized their ragged armies.

 

On this day in history, November 20, 1925, Robert F. Kennedy is born in Massachusetts.

The rising political star served as attorney general and senator until his life was tragically cut short on June 6, 1968.




Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and former U.S. attorney general, was born on Nov. 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts.

 

20 Nov 1943

US forces commenced the Gilbert campaign with US Army soldiers invading Makin Atoll and US Marines invading Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Most notably historically, the Battle of Tarawa was the first major invasion under Nimitz's Central Pacific push toward Japan. Despite having the largest fleet to date for an offensive, the death rate was high, in part due to mismanagement of the invasion force. With a high casualty toll, it became controversial as some experts questioned the necessity of it; however, the Navy's push across the Central Pacific would be ultimately very successful and complimentary to MacArthur's concurrent push from the southwest.

 

On Sunday, November 21, 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) operation, organized by Michael Collins, went to numerous Dublin addresses to assassinate the 'Cairo Gang,' a group of undercover British intelligence agents. The IRA killed at least 14 individuals. At least two of the dead were civilians.

The infamous Black and Tans, in a cowardly move against uninvolved civilians, took revenge the same afternoon, attacking spectators at a Gaelic football match in Croke Park, Dublin, killing 14 and wounding 60. They would claim they were fired on first, but numerous witnesses said the the shootings by the Black and Tans were unprovoked and indiscriminate.

The day would forever be remembered as 'Bloody Sunday,' during a time when the activities of the IRA could be viewed as a 'noble' effort.

Michael Collins pictured:

 

21 Nov 1941
Joseph Rochefort's US Navy cryptanalytic team at Pearl Harbor detected the arrival of a Japanese submarine squadron in the Marshall Islands. While Rochefort's crypto analysis was quite good, the Japanese had sent nothing that indicated a direct attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent.

21 Nov 1943
In what was now an entirely defensive stature on the part of Germany, Field Marshal Kesselring was appointed commander of all German forces in Italy and Field Marshal Rommel was placed in command of Atlantic Wall defenses in France.
Controversial journalist Drew Pearson publicized George Patton's "slapping incident" of 3 Aug 1943, stirring controversy from SHAEF to Washington DC, and keeping Patton on the sidelines in England for the initial Overlord invasion of Europe in 1944.

 

Smoking Banned
1989
Law banning smoking on most domestic flights signed by US President George H. W. Bush.

George H. W. Bush

 

On This Day In History
November 21, 1877
Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph

Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound.

Edison stumbled on one of his great inventions—the phonograph—while working on a way to record telephone communication at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. His work led him to experiment with a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, which, to his surprise, played back the short song he had recorded, “MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB”. Public demonstrations of the phonograph made the Yankee inventor world famous, and he was dubbed the “Wizard of Menlo Park.”

Edison set aside this invention in 1878 to work on the incandescent light bulb, and other inventors moved forward to improve on the phonograph. In 1887, Edison resumed work on the device, using the wax-cylinder technique developed by Charles Tainter. Although initially used as a dictating machine, the phonograph proved to be a popular tool for entertainment, and in 1906 Edison unveiled a series of musical and theatrical selections to the public through his National Phonograph Company. Continuing to improve on models and cylinders over the years, the Edison Disc Phonograph debuted in 1912 with the aim of competing in the popular record market. Edison’s discs offered superior sound quality but were not compatible with other popular disc players.

During the 1920s, the early record business suffered with the growth of radio, and in 1929 recording production at Edison ceased forever. Edison, who acquired an astounding 1,093 patents in his 84 years, died in 1931.

 

1934: Ella Fitzgerald goes to New York's Apollo Theater to dance on stage for Amateur Night, but opts to sing instead. She wins the competition with her renditions of Hoagy Carmichael's 'Judy' and the Boswell Sisters' 'The Object of My Affection,' and an American music legend is born.

 

21st Nov:

1945 - On the second day of the Nuremberg war crimes trial, the tribunal began listening to evidence and testimony against 22 Nazi war criminals.

1967 - General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam, told U.S. news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."

1970 - A team of U.S. Air Force and Army soldiers conducted a raid on the Son Tay prison camp west of Hanoi. The goal was to free 70-100 Americans suspected of being held there. The operation was a success except that there were no prisoners located at the camp. (Operation Ivory Coast)

1970 - The U.S. bombed North Vietnam with 200 fighter bombers and 100 support aircraft. It was the heaviest bombing in two years. The attacks were a retaliation for the shooting down of U.S. reconnaissance aircraft.

 

Today, November 22, commemorates the day in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was shot as his open limousine passed through Dealey Plaza. Everyone has heard the many analyses of the event, and viewed the Zapruder film, so we're not going to belabor the details here.

Today, 60 years later, most of the pages detailing the Kennedy assassination investigation are still marked 'Classified' and remain unreleased to the public.

Entertain your own favorite conspiracy theory HERE.
Was it Lee Harvey Oswald, on the 3rd floor of the Book Depository, acting alone?
Was there a gunman on the grassy knoll?
Was it the Mafia?
Was it Cubans?
Was it the CIA?
Was LBJ involved?
Just how 'magic' was that bullet?

Will we ever know anything for certain?

 

1966: While researching a strong, lightweight material for reinforcing car tires, DuPont chemist and researcher Stephanie Kwolek creates a liquid crystal solution five times stronger than steel. Her invention receives a patent, and within five years DuPont will begin creating products with the Kevlar trademark