On This Day In History
November 26, 1922
Archaeologists enter tomb of King Tut

In Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen’s tomb in more than 3,000 years. Tutankhamen’s sealed burial chambers were miraculously intact, and inside was a collection of several thousand priceless objects, including a gold coffin containing the mummy of the teenage king.

When Carter first arrived in Egypt, in 1891, most of the ancient Egyptian tombs had been discovered, and the majority of these had been hopelessly plundered by tomb raiders over the millennia. However, Carter was a brilliant excavator, and in the first years of the 20th century he discovered the tombs of Queen Hatshepsut and King Thutmose IV. Around 1907, he became associated with the Earl of Carnarvon, a collector of antiquities who commissioned Carter to supervise excavations in the Valley of the Kings. By 1913, most experts felt there was nothing in the Valley left to be uncovered. Carter, however, persisted in his efforts, convinced that the tomb of the little-known King Tutankhamen might still be found.

King Tutankhamen was enthroned in 1333 B.C. when he was still a child. He died a decade later at the age of 18 and thus made only a faint impression on the history of ancient Egypt. In the 13th century B.C., Tutankhamen and the other “Amarna” kings were publicly condemned, and most records of them were destroyed–including the location of Tutankhamen’s tomb. A century later, in the 12th century B.C., workers building a tomb for Ramses VI inadvertently covered Tutankhamen’s tomb with a deep layer of chips, further protecting it from future discovery.

After World War I, Carter began an intensive search for Tutankhamen’s tomb and on November 4, 1922, discovered a step leading to its entrance. Lord Carnarvon rushed to Egypt, and on November 23 they broke through a mud-brick door, revealing the passageway that led to Tutankhamen’s tomb. There was evidence that robbers had entered the structure at some point, and the archaeologists feared they had discovered yet another pillaged tomb. However, on November 26 they broke through another door, and Carter leaned in with a candle to take a look. Behind him, Lord Carnarvon asked, “Can you see anything?” Carter replied, “Yes, wonderful things.”

It was the antechamber of Tutankhamen’s tomb, and it was gloriously untouched. The dusty floor still showed the footprints of the tomb builders who left the room more than 3,000 years before. Apparently, the robbers who had broken into Tutankhamen’s tomb had done so soon after it was completed and were caught before moving into the interior chambers and causing serious damage.

Thus began a monumental excavation process in which Carter carefully explored the four-room tomb over several years, uncovering an incredible collection of several thousand objects. In addition to numerous pieces of jewelry and gold, there was statuary, furniture, clothes, a chariot, weapons, and numerous other objects that shed a brilliant light on the culture and history of ancient Egypt. The most splendid find was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins nested within each other. Inside the final coffin, made out of solid gold, was the mummified body of the boy-king Tutankhamen, preserved for 3,200 years. Most of these treasures are now housed in the Cairo Museum.

 

26 Nov 1941
Six Japanese fleet aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku departed Hitokappu Bay, Kurile Islands, Japan in preparation for the upcoming Pearl Harbor attack.
At Pearl Harbor, Joseph Rochefort told his superiors that his cryptanalytic team had detected Japanese fleet movements and that the Japanese warships were seemingly staging for actions in the South Pacific.
US intelligence detected Japanese troop movements in Indochina. In response, US Secretary of State Cordell Hull submitted the final proposal to Japanese diplomats for readjustment of US-Japanese relations, demanding the Japanese to withdraw all troops from China and Indochina, and with the full expectation that the Japanese were not going to entertain this demand in any way.

26 Nov 1944
In the aftermath of the Leyte Gulf invasion, the remaining elements of the U.S. Third Fleet, including the fleet carrier USS Wasp (CV-18), departed the area. Wasp set sail for Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands as US Army Air Forces took over the responsibility of providing air cover for troops operating on Leyte.

26 Nov 1945
Douglas MacArthur confirmed that the Emperor of Japan would not be forced to abdicate the throne.

 

On November 27, 1978, George Moscone, the mayor of San Francisco, and Harvey Milk, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, were shot and killed inside City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White.

That day, Moscone had planned to announce that Milk had replaced White on the Board. White had initially resigned, but asked Moscone to reverse his resignation. The mayor agreed at first, but then reneged. Reports say that he chose to award the seat to Milk, who was gay, as a progressive sign of diversity.

White avoided metal detectors at City Hall by climbing in through a basement window, went to Moscone's office where he shot and killed the mayor. He then went to his old office and murdered Milk.

At his trial, White's defense team argued that his mental state at the time of the murders was one of diminished capacity due to depression and was therefore incapable of premeditating the murders, and thus was not legally guilty of first-degree murder. Forensic psychiatrist Martin Blinder testified that White exhibited several behavioral symptoms of depression, including the fact that White had gone from being highly health-conscious to consuming sugary foods and drinks. Area newspapers famously dubbed it the 'Twinkie Defense.'

White was sentenced to 7 years for manslaughter, served 5 and was released. Two years later, he committed suicide.



Milk (left) and Moscone (right):

 

1973: The US Senate votes 92-3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Richard Nixon's vice president. He succeeds Spiro Agnew, who had resigned after pleading no contest to tax evasion. Ford will serve as vice president for less than a year before succeeding Nixon as president, after he resigns in the fallout from the Watergate scandal, thus making Ford the only U.S. president to not be elected to either the Presidency or the Vice Presidency.

 

On This Day In History
November 27, 1954
Accused spy Alger Hiss released from prison

After 44 months in prison, former government official Alger Hiss is released and proclaims once again that he is innocent of the charges that led to his incarceration.

One of the most famous figures of the Cold War period, Hiss was convicted in 1950 of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury. Specifically, Hiss was judged to have lied about his complicity in passing secret government documents to Whittaker Chambers, who thereupon passed the papers along to agents of the Soviet Union.

Upon his release, Hiss immediately declared that he wished to “reassert my complete innocence of the charges that were brought against me by Whittaker Chambers.” He claimed that his conviction was the result of the “fear and hysteria of the times,” and stated that he was going to “resume my efforts to dispel the deception that has been foisted on the American people.” He was confident that such efforts would “vindicate my name.”

Some observers remained skeptical of Hiss’s protestations. Senator Karl Mundt felt that further investigation of the matter would probably be a waste of time, unless Hiss decided “to come clean and tell the whole story.” Chambers issued a brief statement in which he declared that the “saddest single factor about the Hiss case is that nobody can change the facts as they are known…They are there forever. That is the inherent tragedy of this case.”

The controversy over the facts in the Hiss case is also here forever. It remains a highly charged issue. His defenders argue that Hiss was a victim of the Red Scare that swept through the U.S. during the 1940s and 1950s. Others are equally adamant in maintaining his guilt, claiming that documents released from Soviet archives strongly support the case that Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union.

 

On this day in history, November 27, 1924, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade is held in NYC
Iconic parade in New York City has been held every single year since except during World War II.

The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924 — called the Macy's Christmas Parade — featured floats inspired by nursery rhymes, such as this "Little Miss Muffet" float.

 

26 Nov 1941

Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo rejected the American counter-proposal for peace.

US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold Stark warned commanders of Pacific and Asiatic Fleets that attacks on Malaya, the Philippine Islands, and the Dutch East Indies were now a possibility. In turn, US Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall warned the US Army Hawaii and Philippine Departments that attacks on Malaya, the Philippine Islands, and the Dutch East Indies were now a possibility.

At Pearl Harbor, CINPAC Admiral Husband Kimmel met with Joseph Rochefort in the late afternoon to discuss possible moves Japan might take should Japan and the United States continue to head toward a military conflict. Rochefort's crypto intelligence believed that the main Japanese thrust would be toward the South Pacific, and the Hawaiian Islands did not seem to be in direct danger for now. Contrary to this, American radio intelligence analysts stationed in the Philippine Islands reported their suspicion that the Japanese warships detected to have been recently moved into the Marshall Islands were likely to take actions eastward rather than southward. Also, they concluded that the main Japanese carrier force was still in Japan rather than in the Marshall Islands.

The US Pacific carriers prepare for war with USS Enterprise loading Marine fighter aircraft to be ferried to Wake Island.

 

November 27, 1942

Jimi.Hendrix was born in Seattle.

 

On November 28, 1720 the trial of infamous female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny began. Found guilty, they were both convicted and sentenced to death, but because they were both pregnant, their executions were postponed. Anne Bonny was eventually freed; Read died in prison.

Many of their fellow pirates did not know they were women. Dressed in men's clothes, they fought side-by-side with other pirates. In the Caribbean, Ann Bonny and Mary Read served with Captain 'Calico' Jack Rackham.



Eventually, several movies were made of their exploits:






Yeah - those aren't about them, but c'mon - lady pirates!

 

1582
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway

 

On This Day In History
November 28, 1919
Lady Astor becomes MP

American-born Nancy Astor, the first woman ever to sit in the House of Commons, is elected to Parliament with a substantial majority. Lady Astor took the Unionist seat of her husband, Waldorf Astor, who was moving up to an inherited seat in the House of Lords.

Born in Danville, Virginia, in 1879, she was the daughter of a former Confederate officer who became a wealthy tobacco auctioneer. She married Robert Gould Shaw II, a Bostonian, in 1897, and they had one son before divorcing in 1903. Soon after, she visited England, where she met and fell in love with Waldorf Astor, the great-great-grandson of the American fur trader John Jacob Astor. In 1906, they married. Nancy Astor became an influential society hostess, presiding at the Astor country estate of Cliveden. The “Cliveden set,” as the Astors’ social clique became known, came to exercise considerable political influence in a number of fields, especially foreign affairs.

In 1910, Waldorf Astor was elected to the House of Commons as a conservative, and the Astors moved to his constituency of Plymouth. Nine years later, Waldorf’s father died, and he succeeded to his viscountcy and seat in the House of Lords. Nancy Astor decided to campaign for his vacant seat in the House of Commons and ran a flamboyant campaign that attracted international attention. On November 28, 1919, she won a resounding victory in the election and subsequently became the first woman ever to sit in the House of Commons. (She was not, however, the first woman to be elected to the Commons; in 1918 the Irish nationalist Constance Markiewicz was elected as an MP for a Dublin constituency but refused to go to London as a protest against the British government.)

Although regarded as a conservative, Lady Astor took an individual approach to politics, saying, “If you want a party hack, don’t elect me.” Her impassioned speeches on women’s and children’s rights, her modest black attire, and her occasional irreverence won her a significant following. Repeatedly reelected by her constituency in Plymouth, she sat in the House of Commons until her retirement in 1945.

 

On this day in history, November 28, 1925, Grand Ole Opry debuts on WSM radio in Nashville
Guinness World Records proclaimed Grand Ole Opry world's longest running radio broadcast in 2004.


Grand Ole Opry founder George D. Hay, signature whistle under his arm, is pictured with the WSM microphone hanging near his head.

 

28 Nov 1941

The ships of Task Force 8, centered around the United States fleet carrier USS Enterprise, departed Pearl Harbor with Marine Fighter Squadron 211 on the top deck and bound for Wake Island. US Navy Commander W. S. Cunningham relieved US Marine Corps Major James P. S. Devereux as the overall commanding officer on Wake Island.

 

1974: After losing a bet, John Lennon performs three songs with Elton John at New York's Madison Square Garden, including Lennon's hit 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.' It would be one of Lennon's final performances, and his last in front of such a large audience.

 

Titties

 

On November 29, 1963, the UK recording industry reached a milestone: for the first time ever, advance orders of a single surpassed the million unit mark when The Beatles released 'I Want To Hold Your Hand.'

The single would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release had it not been blocked by the group's first million-seller 'She Loves You', their previous UK single. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' stayed at number one for five weeks and remained in the UK top 50 for 21 weeks in total. It was also the band's first U.S. #1 hit after it entered tthe Billboard charts at #45 on January 18, 1964. It reached #1 on February 1.

The song had been recorded on October 17, 1963, and was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track recording equipment.





The group performing the tune on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 (I watched this).

 

On This Day In History
November 29, 1981
Actress Natalie Wood drowns

On November 29, 1981, the actress Natalie Wood, who starred in such movies as Rebel Without a Cause and West Side Story, drowns in a boating accident near California’s Catalina Island. She was 43 years old.

Born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko on July 20, 1938, in San Francisco, California, Wood began her acting career as a child. She gained acclaim for her role as Susan Walker, the little girl who doubts the existence of Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). As a teenager, Wood went on to play James Dean’s girlfriend in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She also earned Best Actress Academy Award nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) with Warren Beatty and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) with Steve McQueen.

Wood’s film credits also include West Side Story (1961), winner of 10 Oscars, in which she played the lead role of Maria; Gypsy (1962), which was based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name and co-starred Rosalind Russell and Karl Malden; The Great Race (1965), with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis; Inside Daisy Clover (1966), with Christopher Plummer and Robert Redford; and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) with Robert Culp, Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon.

Wood was twice married to the actor Robert Wagner (Hart to Hart, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery), from 1957 to 1962 and from 1974 to the time of her death. On the night of November 29, 1981, the actress was with her husband on their yacht “The Splendor,” which was moored off Santa Catalina, near Los Angeles. Also on the yacht was the actor Christopher Walken, who at the time was making the movie Brainstorm with Wood. Neither Wagner nor Walken saw what happened to Wood that night, but it was believed she somehow slipped overboard while untying a dinghy attached to the boat. Her body was found in the early hours of the following morning. Brainstorm, Wood’s final film, was released in theaters in 1983.

 

On this day in history, November 29, 1832, 'Little Women' author Louisa May Alcott is born in Philadelphia
'Little Women,' one of the most enduring tales in American literature, inspired seven Hollywood adaptations.


Circa 1860: American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888).

 

On this day in history, November 29, 2023, mstrman's 10th grandchild is born!
Baby girl, Baily.

 

29 Nov 1941

US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold Stark directed that defense recommendations made by Major Alfred R. Pefley were to be implemented immediately, consisting mostly of the construction of defensive gun positions on various Pacific islands.

US Marine Corps Major Walter L. J. Bayler arrived at Wake Island with a detachment of Marines from Marine Aircraft Group 21 to set up air base communication facilities.

Japanese ambassador in Germany Hiroshi Oshima reported that, on the previous day, Joachim von Ribbentrop had verbally promised a German declaration of war on the United States should Japan and the US enter a state of war.

The second of three US carriers assigned to the Pacific, USS Saratoga, completed a modernization in Bremerton, WA after which she would sail to San Diego to embark her air group.