November Almanac, 2013
c)2013 Almanac using 34 sources, by Susan Curnow Breedlove
The Freezing Moon Month/Gashkadino Gisiss in Ojibwe
11 hlis (Hmong), Noviembre (Spanish), novembre (French), shí yī yuè (Chinese), jūichigatsu (Japanese)
Flower: Chrysanthemum
Birthstone: Topaz (symbolizing fidelity)
November is National American Indian Heritage Month
Quote of the Month selected by students of Mr. Pelini’s 3rd hour class:
“When the power of love, overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Jimi Hendrix, musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, Cherokee as well as African American,
born Nov. 27, 1942.
Friday, November 1 It is also ALL SAINTS DAY OR ALL HALLOWS DAY, a Christian Catholic
observance commemorating the blessed. Sweden observes ALL SAINTS' DAY honoring deceased
friends and relatives. Guatemala celebrates a KITE FESTIVAL of Santiago in Sacatepequez, flying
kites to get rid of evil spirits. Antigua and Barbuda celebrate INDEPENDENCE DAY from Britain in
1981. SAMHAIN, observed in the Wicca/Pagan Northern and Southern Hemispheres, is a Gaelic festival
marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. It is
celebrated from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, which is nearly halfway between the
autumn equinox and the winter solsticeDeepavali ** - Hindu
An earthquake destroyed 75% of Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755.
On this date in 1796, the first school for Blacks in America opened in New York City.
The first Women's Medical School was opened in Boston in 1848 with 12 students.
Grambling University, a historically black (HBCU), public, coeducational university,
located in Grambling, Louisiana, founded in 1901.
The sole woman survivor of the Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights, Charlotte
Woodend, used her right to vote on this day in 1920.
In a special match horse race at Pimlico, Seabiscuit defeated favored War Admiral
before a crowd of 40,000, 1938. (Have you seen the movie Seabiscuit? )
The publication of the Negro Digest began in 1942.
John H. Johnson began the publishing of Ebony Magazine in 1945. He began Jet
Magazine in 1951.
Country and western singer (“Cowboy Man”), Lyle Lovett, born in 1957.
The hockey mask was invented in 1959 by Canadian Jacques Plante.
Former baseball player, Fernando Anguamea Valenzuela, born, Sonora, Mexico, 1960.
Actress (The Sixth Sense), Toni Collette, born in Australia and model, actress (Scary
Movie) Jenny McCarthy born in 1972.
1991-Judge Clarence Thomas formally seated as 106th associate justice of U.S.
Supreme Court, amid opposition by most civil rights groups.
1999 - Chicago Bears Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton succumbs to liver
disease at 45.
This is the peak of duck migration.
Saturday, November 2 Today is DIA DE LOS MUERTOS, the Mexican Day of the Dead, a day to
remember one’s ancestors, observed today and tomorrow. Today is ALL SOULS DAY, a Catholic
observance commemorating those departed.
Frontiersman Daniel Boone was born on this day in 1734.
Edward Mitchell Bannister a well-known landscape painter in the late 1800s and
the first African-American artist to win national recognition, born, 1826. At the
Philadelphia World Centennial of 1876, Edward Bannister was the New England artist to
win a bronze medal. The author of this almanac has had the joy of viewing Bannister’s
paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
Master garden designer and author Gertrude Jekyll is born, 1843. She will transform
horticultural and landscape design.
The Mississippi Plan, a strategy by white Mississippians--who united as never before
during a veritable revolution in voting and political power- takes effect using open force
and violence to control the black vote in the State, 1875.
The first scheduled radio broadcast was made,1920, with results presidential elections.
1954-Charles C. Diggs elected Michigan's first African American congressman.
Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress.k. d. lang was born
in Canada in 1961.
Singer/rapper Nelly (“Just a Dream”), born,1974.
.A law was passed on this day in 1983, designating the third Monday in January as
Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Toni Stone, the first woman to play in Negro Leagues baseball, died in 1996. She was a
native of St. Paul, MN.
2000 - The first crew lives in the International Space Station with astronauts from U.S.
and Russia.
Look at the buds on maples, oaks, and basswood promising the green for next April or May.
Sunday, November 3 DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS. Standard Time resumes at 2 AM. Put your
clock one hour back. The New York City Marathon has been scheduled for today with 48,000 runners
and an estimated attendance of 2,000,000. JAPAN’S CULTURE DAY (Bunka-no-hi) is celebrated today
as a national holiday. It is also PANAMA and DOMINICA'S INDEPENDENCE DAY (from Britain and
Columbia. DEEPAVALAI, a Hindu festival of lights, marks the victory of good over evil. Hindus light
lamps, wear new clothes, exchange sweets and gifts.
John Montague, the 4th Earl of Sandwich of England, invented the sandwich on this day
in 1762 while trying to save time during a 24-hour-long gambling session.
Two significant discriminatory events occurred on this day: In 1883 the U.S. Supreme
Court declared the Indigenous People of the United States as aliens and in 1893, the
U.S. Government passed an act to make entry of Chinese merchants difficult.
Lois Mailou Jones, who enjoyed a consistently successful career as a painter, teacher,
book illustrator, and textile designer, born, 1905. Her art spans three continents: For
more than fifty years, Lois Mailou Jones has enjoyed a consistently successful career as
a painter, teacher, book illustrator, and textile designer. Her art spans three continents:
North America, Europe, and Africa, North America, Europe, and Africa. (d. 1998)
1906 - The SOS international code was adopted. It became widely used after being
implemented during the sinking of the Titantic in 1912.
Famed football player & wrestler Bronko Nagurski, born, 1908. (d. International Falls,
MN, 2003)
Comedienne, actress, Roseanne Barr born in 1953.
Eighty European American Atlanta pastors united against intolerance by signing the
“Manifesto on Racial Beliefs”, 1957.
Public Television made its debut in 1969; today there are 348 PBS stations.
Jesse Jackson announced his candidacy for the office of President of the U.S. in 1983.
Senator Carol Moseley Braun became the first African American woman to be elected
to the U.S. Senate, in 1992. She was the sole African American in the Senate from 1993
to 1999.
Red admiral or comma butterflies may be seen flying on warm days.
Monday, November 4 Today is FLAG DAY in Panama.
Will Rogers, of European American and American Indian heritage, renowned rodeo
artist, actor, humorist, and man of wisdom, was born on this day in 1879. “My
forefathers,” he said, “didn’t come over on the Mayflower, but they met the boat.” Will
Roger’s Day is a state holiday in Oklahoma.
Eileen Jackson Southern an African American musicologist, researcher, author and
teacher, born, 1920, in Minneapolis, where she attended public schools before moving to
South Dakota. She was the first black woman to be appointed a tenured full professor at
Harvard University. She and her husband Professor Joseph Southern founded the first
musicological journal on the study of black music. (d. 2002)
The world’s first fashion show was organized in 1914.
Walter Cronkite, Jr., journalist and TV news man, was born in 1916. (d. 2009)
Actor Art Carney (“The Honeymooners”), born in 1918. (d. 2003)
This is the 79th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, over 3,000
years after the young Egyptian king’s death.
United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization was formed, 1946.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, born, Havana, Cuba, 1953.
Actor Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid), born, 1962.
Rapper, record producer, singer, clothing designer, Sean “Diddy” Combs, born, New
York, 1969.
1988-Bill Cosby announces pledge of $20 million to Spellman College.
2008-Barack Obama becomes the first African American elected president of the United
States.
The white tail deer rut nears its peak. This refers to all behaviors and activities associated with the
breeding season.
Tuesday, November 5 The ISLAMIC NEAR YEAR is observed throughout the world. The "HIJRA"
(Arabic:
hijrah), also Hijrat or Hegira, is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
and his followers from Mecca to Medina between June 21 and July 2 in 622 CE. It continues until
December 3rd. Britain celebrates GUY FAWKES DAY with bonfires and fireworks, commemorating the
capture of the mercenary by that name.
The first president of American Railway Union and the founder of the Social Democratic
Party of America, Eugene Debs, was born in 1855.
U.S. writer, Ida Tarbell, editor of the muckraking journal McClure’s Magazine, which
exposed the political and industrial corruption of the day and emphasized the need for
reform, born in 1857.
Raymond Loewy, inventor, industrial designer (the presidential plane Air Force One,
U.S. Postal Service logo, etc.) was also born on this day in 1893. “Between two products
equal in price, function and quality,” he said, “the better looking will outsell the other.”
Theodore McNeal, an African-American union organizer with the International
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and politician, was born, 1905.
Roy Rogers, known as “King of the Cowboys” and star of an early t.v. show, born, 1912.
Negro History Week was initiated by African American Carter G. Woodson, on this day
in 1926.
Thomas Sully, painter of historical subjects such as Washington Crossing the Delaware
was born in 1926.
Ike Turner, singer (Ike & Tina Review), born in 1931.
The first shattered backboard in NBA history occurred in 1946, by Chuck Connors of
the Boston Celtics.
1956-Popular African-American pianist and singer Nat King Cole's TV show premiered
for NBC.
Tatum O'Neal, actress (Oscar for Paper Moon), born 1963.
Actress Framke Janssen, plays Jean Grey in movies, born In Netherlands, 1965.
Actor Sam Rockwell (“The Green Mile”) was born in 1968.
1968-Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn, New York, becomes first African American woman
elected to Congress.
Jerry Stackhouse, basketball player, was born in 1974.
A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller debuts in NYC, 1981, exposing the institutional
racism of the Army in the 1940's and explores the psychological effects of oppression on
African Americans.
Singer (The Jonas Brothers), Kevin Jonas, born, 1987.
2002-Loa Sanchez is reelected to Congress, and her sister Linda Sanchez is elected to
the House as well, making the pair the first sisters to serve in Congress.
Ants are underground for the winter. Suet feeders attract woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and
more.
Wednesday, November 6 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS DAY is observed in Sweden, honoring that former
king and military leader. (A college in St. Peter, Minnesota, attended by a number of PHHS graduates, is
named Gustavus Adolphus.) This is SAXOPHONE DAY remembering Adolphe Sax of Belgium, inventor
of the saxophone, born in 1814. GREEN MARCH DAY Is observed in Morocco, a day of national pride
and remembrance of the day in 1975 when 350,000 unarmed Moroccan civilians, including both men and
women, marched to demand independence from Spain.
James Naismith, considered the inventor of the game of modern basketball, was born
on this day in 1861.
John Phillip Sousa, composer of stirring marches such as “The Stars & Stripes
Forever,” was born in 1854.
1900-James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson compose African American
national anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
Juanita Hall, an American musical theatre and film actress, born 1901. She is
remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the musicals South
Pacific as Bloody Mary and Flower Drum Song as Auntie Liang.
Actress Sally Fields (Oscars for Norma Rae & Faces in the Heart & Emmy for Sybil),
born 1946.
The oldest program on TV, "Meet the Press," wherein a well-known guest is questioned
on relevant issues Sunday mornings, began in 1947.
RuPaul Andre Charles, best known as simply RuPaul, U.S. actor, drag queen, model, author,
and recording artist, born 1960.
The first TV show with audience participation, "The Phil Donahue Show," premiered in
1974. It was to win 19 Emmy Awards.
Ethan Hawke, actor (Dead Poets Society, Training Day), born 1970.
Actress Thandie Newton (Beloved, Mission Impossible II, Crash), born in 1972, in
Zambia.
Sgt. Farley Simon, a native of Grenada, becomes the first Marine to win the Marine
Corps Marathon (in 1983).
1987-Tania Aebi becomes the youngest U.S. woman to circumnavigate the globe in a
sailboat. She began the solo voyage 2 1/2 years earlier at age 18.
Renowned attorney Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, dies, 1989. (b. 1898) She was
the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in the U.S., the first woman to
receive a law degree from the U. of Penn. Law School, and was the first National
President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
The first black woman mayor of a major U.S. city, Sharon Pratt Dixon (now Kelly) is
elected, Washington DC, 1990.
Today is the half point of autumn. Tundra swans migrate overhead, especially above the Mississippi
River.
Thursday, November 7 Bangladesh commemorates a coup of 1975 with SOLIDARITY DAY.
On this day in 1775, Lord Dunmore, British Royal Governor of Virginia, issued a
proclamation promising freedom to those enslaved who would join the British
forces in the Revolutionary War. It is not clear how many enslaved persons served with
the British, but at least 100,000 ran away to freedom during this war.
Enslaved revolt on slave ship ‘Creole,’ 1841.
Marie Sklodowska Curie, Polish chemist and physicist who received the Nobel Prize for
physics jointly with her husband for the discovery of the element radium, was born on this
day in 1867.
This is the 1874 anniversary of the Republican symbol, an elephant, in a satirical
cartoon of Thomas Nast in the Harper's Weekly magazine.
The Canadian Pacific Railroad completed transcontinental tracks across its nation in
1885. That company now owns SOO Lines just north of PHHS.
Isamu Noguchi, prominent Japanese American artist, landscape architect, known for his
modern furniture, sculpture, and public works, whose artistic career spanned six
decades, born, 1904. (d. 1988)
Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell ("Clouds" "The Circle Game"), born, 1943.
Mary Travers, composer, singer (Peter, Paul & Mary), born in 1937. (d. 2009)
Dr. Alexa Irene Canady-Davis, the first African American woman in the United States to
become a neurosurgeon. born, 1950.
“Face the Nation” began its television premiere, 1954.
U.S. Supreme Court prohibited segregation in recreational facilities in Baltimore, 1955.
Parker Posey, actress (The House of Yes), born in 1968.
Actor, ("I'll Fly Away"), Jeremy London, born in 1972.
In 1980, James Abourezk became the first Arab American U.S. Senator.
1989-L. Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected as governor in U.S.
since Reconstruction. (State of Virginia).
Continent sized windstorms were discovered in 1991 by the space shuttle Discovery.
1999-Professional golfer Eldrick "Tiger" Woods is the first golfer to win four consecutive
tournaments since Ben Hogan in 1953.
This is the time of the peak migration of mallard ducks.
Friday, November 8 THE ESSENCE OF MOTOWN LITERARY JAM is held in Detriot, Michigan.
nd
(Annually, the 2 weekend of Nov.)
Herman Cortes, Spanish explorer, entered the great city of Tinochtitlan (now Mexico
City) on this day in 1519. He was courteously received by the Aztec leader Montezuma
II. Cortes later wiped out the host and his people.
Astronomer and mathematician Edmund Halley, for whom the once-every-generation
appearing comet is named, born. (The comet is next visible in 2061.)
Mount Holyoke became the first college for women in 1837; it continues to be a
women's college today.
Psychiatrist Hermann Rorshach, who showed patients inkblots & asked for their
interpretations, born, 1884.
The X-ray was discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895.
Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, the beginning of Catholic
Charity Services which continues to provide services for those in need, was born on this
day in 1897.
The U.S. novelist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her only book, Gone With the
Wind, Margaret Mitchell, born in 1900.
Esther Rolle, actress (Good Times) was born in 1920. (died in 1999).
Journalist Morley Safer ("60 minutes") was born in 1931.
Crystal Bird Fauset of Pennsylvania is the first African American woman to be elected to
a state legislature in 1938.
Singer Bonnie Raitt (“Sweet Forgiveness”) was born in 1949.
Alfre Woodard, (Down in the Delta, Miss Evers’ Boys, How to Make an American Quilt)
was born in 1953.
Ricki Lee Jones, musician (“Chuck E’s In Love”) born in 1954.
Chef and TV host Gordon Ramsay, born 1966.
Indian Child Welfare Act, a U.S. Federal law that takes precedence over the local
adoption laws of every state and gives Native American Indian Nations and Tribes,
including the Alaskan Aleuts, the right to control adoptions that involve their tribal
members, passed in 1978.
1985-Grace Hopper becomes the first woman promoted to rear admiral In the US Navy.
A computer pioneer, Hopper will create the first A-O compiler, co-invent COBOL, and
coin the term "computer bug." The destroyer USS Hopper will be named for her.
Magic Johnson retired on this day in 1991 due to H.I.V. infection, bringing more
attention to addressing this disease.
The first Muslim politician elected to U.S. Congress, Congressman Keith Ellison from
North Minneapolis, 2006. He borrowed Thomas Jefferson’s Koran from the
Smithsonian to be sworn in.
November is known as the month of clouds, which brings colorful sunrises and sunsets.
Saturday, November 9 CAMBODIA INDEPENDENCE DAY, from European colonizer France,
observed. Tonight is KRISTALLNACHT (CRYSTAL NIGHT) a night of reverence for the Jewish citizens
30,000 who were arrested and 91 killed in 1938. Mobs in Germany destroyed Jewish businesses, giving
this night in 1938 the name from the smashing of glass store windows.
The person called "the first black man of science in the U.S.," surveyor for the plan of the
city of Washington D.C., Benjamin Banneker, born 1731.
Elijah Lovejoy, newspaper publisher and abolitionist, was born in 1802. He died in a fire
started by a mob angry about his anti-slavery views.
Rev. Leonard Grimes, a man born free in 1815, assisted fugitive slaves to escape,
imprisoned and founded a church in Boston, MA.
A Boston fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in 1872.
Ahn Chang-ho, Korean who formed the Hungsa-dan in San Francisco to unite the
groups working for Korean Independence from Japan, was born on this
day in 1878.
Today is the 1883 birth date of William C. Handy, crowned “father of the Blues.”
J. William Fulbright, U.S. Senator who sponsored legislation for international study for
graduate students, faculty and researchers, born in 1905. (d. 1995)
Former U.S. athlete Alice Marie Coachman, born 1921. She specialized in high jump
and was the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
Actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge (Carmen) and whose story has been portrayed
by Halley Berry, born in 1923.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton, born, 1928.
Baseball Hall of Famer Robert "Bob" Gibson, former right-handed pitcher, born, 1935.
This is the anniversary of The Links, Inc. an organization started in 1946 by nine African
American women following WWII “linking” friendship and resources to better the lives of
disadvantaged African Americans. Several Northsiders belong to the group today.
A massive electric power failure to much of northeast U.S. and parts of Canada
affecting 80,000 square miles and 30 million people happened in 1965.
This is the 1984 Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Statue of three
servicemen in D. C.
The Berlin Wall opened in 1989 after 28 years as a symbol of the Cold War.
The National Basketball Association announced the hiring of Dee Kantner and Violet
Palmer in 1997. Palmer is the first woman to officiate in a major league all-male sports
league.
Lakes steam on cold mornings.
Sunday, November 10 Today is SADIE HAWKINS DAY was established in “L’l Abner” comic strip in the
1930s by cartoonist Al Capp. Women & girls are encouraged to ask a dude for a date. Cambodians
th
celebrate BON OM THOOK WATER FESTIVAL through the 12 . Millions teem into Phnom Penh from
the provinces to celebrate the end of monsoon season. Dragon boats race for three days with the king
overseeing. The lighting of the EDMUND FITZGERALD MEMORIAL BEACON is held from noon-6 pm
at the SPLIT ROCK LIGHTHOUSE, Two Harbors, MN. SWEDEN-ST. MARTIN’S DAY, marks the end of
autumn’s work; and SWITZERLAND-MARTINMAS GOOSE DAY.
Martin Luther, monk founder and leader of the Reformation and Protestantism was born
in 1483.
Abolitionist, one of the first British campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade,
Granville Sharpe, born, 1735. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social
injustices, and was a biblical scholar and classicist, and a talented musician.
The Marine Corps celebrates its birth date of 1775.
Great actor Richard Burton (Camelot, Cleopatra, Beckett), born, 1925. (d. 1984)
Head of U.S. Civil Rights Commission under President Reagan, Clarence Pendleton,
born, 1930. (d. at 57 in 1988)
American Indian activist, Oyate Wacinyapin (Works for the People) Russell Means,
Oglala/Lakota, one of the founders of AIM (American Indian Movement) was
born on the Pine River Reservation, in South Dakota in 1939.
The Society for Human Rights was founded in Chicago on this day in 1924. .
Tony Award-winning lyricist (Avida, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar), Time Rice, born,
1944, England.
Tony Award-winning performer, director, and choreographer (Chicago), Ann Reinking,
born, 1949
Area codes were introduced in 1951.
Sinbad, comedian, (Unnecessary Roughness, A Different World), born in 1956. He
talked about the friendly Northsiders he met while in Minneapolis during his
Target Center performance a few years back.
1963-Maria Goeppert-Mayer is the first U.S. woman to win the Nobel Prize for physics.
She is recognized for her discoveries regarding nuclear shell structures.
This is the anniversary (1969) of the Sesame Street television premiere.
The ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald brook in two during a heavy storm and sank in Lake
Superior in 1975 taking 29 lives.
Grammy-award singer, rapper, and actress Eve (born Eve Jihan Jeffers), had first hiphop album by a woman to enter the Billboard 200 at #1, born in 1978.
The Badlands National Park was established in South Dakota in 1978.
1983-Wilson Goode elected, becoming Philadelphia's first African American mayor.
Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in 1983.
Nigerian author and poet Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed in 1995.
The majority of blue herons have left to winter in southern U.S., Mexico and Central America.
Monday, November 11 Today, VETERAN’S DAY, is set aside to honor those who have served in the
U.S. armed forces. This is NATIONAL YOUNG READER’S WEEK in the U.S. CANADA observes
REMEMBERANCE DAY. The following countries observe holidays today: ANGOLA, COLOMBIA and
POLAND observe INDEPENDENCE DAY (from Portugal, Spain, and various countries); ENGLANDMARTINMAS, a feast day named after St. Martin, bishop and popular saint of the Middle Ages;
Dostoyevsky Fyodor, Russian novelist (Crime & Punishment) and political revolutionist,
born in 1821.
1872: Suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony is arrested at her home in Rochester, NY, for
having cast a ballot in the presidential election held six days earlier "without having a
lawful right to vote."
Shirley Graham Du Bois an American-born author, playwright, composer, and activist
for African-American and other causes, as well as spouse of noted African-American
thinker, writer, and activist W. E. B. Du Bois, born, 1896.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist (Slaughterhouse Five), born 1922.
Rhythm and blues singer LaVern Baker, born, 1929.
“God Bless America,” written by Irving Berlin, first performed on this day in 1938 by
Kate Smith.
Leonardo Di Caprio, actor (Parenthood, Titanic), born 1974.
The Civil Rights memorial in Montgomery, AL was dedicated in 1989.
This is the anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in 1993.
Ponds and lakes begin to freeze over. Cover your perennials with leaves and straw just as the ground
begins to freeze. Put dirt around the rose stems reaching up to about 6 inches above the ground.
Tuesday, November 12 Baha'i observe the anniversary of the birth of BAHA'U'LLAH, prophet-founder
of the Bahai'i Faith. The TRIPLE CROWN OF SURFING is held today through December 20 in Hawaii.
DIA DEL CARTERO, Postman’s Day, is a day of appreciation for postal carriers in Mexico.
Sor Juna Ines de la Cruz, Mexican woman recognized as the greatest poet of the
Spanish colonies in the Americas, defender of women's right to have an education,
forerunner of feminist movement, was born in 1651.
Baha’u’llah, leader of Bahai faith, was born on this day in 1812.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, woman suffragist and reformer, born in 1815. Stated Stanton
at the 1st Women’s Rights Convention of 1848, “We hold these truths to be self evident
that all men and women are created equal.”
The French sculptor of "The Kiss" and “The Thinker,” Auguste Rodin, born 1840.
This is the 1866 traditional birth anniversary of Sun Yat-sen, heroic leader of China’s
1911 revolution who said, "In order to establish democracy, the principle of equality is
required."
American jazz trumpet player, a leading member of Count Basie’s band, Buck Clayton,
born, 1911. Clayton worked closely with Li Jinhui, father of Chinese popular music in
Shanghai. Some say that his contribution changed the course of music history in China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan.
American civil rights leader, journalist, publisher, and author, Daisy Bates, born, 1912.
best remembered as a guiding force behind one of the biggest battles for school
integration in the nation’s history as in 1957, she helped nine African American students
to become the first to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, who became
known as the Little Rock Nine.
Sigma Gamma Rho, an African American service sorority is organized by Mary Lou
Allison and six other teachers @ Butler University in Indianapolis in 1922.
Madame Lillian Evanti and Mary Cardwell Dawson established the National Negro
Opera Company in 1941.
Nadia Comaneci, Olympic gold medal gymnast, born in Romania in 1961.
Sammy Sosa, baseball player & homerun star, was born on this day in 1968 in the
Dominican Republic.
Figure skater Tonya Harding, born in 1970.
Omari Ismael Grandberry, better known as Omarion, R&B singer, actor, songwriter,
record producer, dancer, and former lead singer of the boy band B2K, born, 1984.
The last of the sandhill cranes head South.
Wednesday, November 13 Today is WORLD KINDNESS DAY.
The first anti-slavery political party, The Liberty Party, was organized on this day in
1839.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (Treasure Island), born in 1850.
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, pioneer open heart surgeon and African American, becomes a
member of the American College of Surgeons in 1913.
This is the anniversary of the Holland Tunnel, first underwater tunnel built in the U.S.,
joining New York, NY and Jersey City, NJ in 1927.
1930- Disney animated feature-length "concert" film milestone, Fantasia, an
experimental film integrating eight magnificent classical musical compositions and
animation, opens.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Hansberry v. Lee that African Americans cannot be
barred from white neighborhoods, 1940.
Actress ("Georgia" in Superfly), Shelia Frazier, born, 1948.
Whoopi Goldberg, comedienne, actress (Oscar for Ghost, Sister Act, The Color Purple),
born in 1949.
Football player Vincent Testaverde was born in 1963.
Carl Stokes became1st African American mayor in U.S., 1967. Late night-talk show &
comedian Jimmy Kimmel, born.
Actress Monique Coleman (High School Musical), born, 1980.
2000-Polar explorers Liv Arneson, of Norway, and Ann Bancroft, from Minnesota, both
former schoolteachers, embark on a 94-day, 1,717-mile ski expedition and become the
first women to cross Antarctica.
The low angle sunlight makes driving difficult in mornings and afternoons.
Thursday, November 14 WINTER LENT begins for those of Orthodox Christian faith. The DAY OF
ASHURA, Islamic holy day is observed. By Islamic tradition, this day commemorates God saving Moses
and the Israelites from Pharaoh in Egypt as they crossed the Red Sea (the Exodus day). India
celebrates CHILDREN'S DAY.
Fifth Chief Justice of the U.S.Roger Brooke Taney, born, 1777. He is most remembered
for delivering the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford case that ruled that African
Americans could not be considered citizens of the United States. (A memorial to Scott
and his wife Harriet is located at Fort Snelling, MN.
Claude Monet, famed French expressionist artist, was born in 1840.
U.S. composer who incorporated American folk music, Aaron Copeland, born in 1900.
Controversial politician, censured by Congress for his accusations and sensational
methods to allege politicians, State Department employees, journalists and members of
the armed forces of being secret communists, Joseph McCarthy, born in 1908. (d. 1957)
US journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner, Harrison Evans Salisbury, born at Minneapolis,
MN, 1908. Salisbury attended Minneapolis North High School and grew up near
Farview Park and Lyndale Avenue North.
Booker T. Washington, noted agriculturist, died in 1915, at Tuskegee, the renowned
African American college which he founded and from which PHHS staff members
Mr. McKey and Mr. Crenshaw graduated.
The first horse-drawn streetcar goes into operation, New York City, 1832.
Yanni, New Age composer, born in Greece in 1954.
Current U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was born in 1954.
Joseph “Run” Simmons, rapper (Run DMC), born Queens, New York, 1964.
Josh Duhamel, actor who plays Captain Lennox in Transformers, born, 1972.
Travis Landon Barker, U.S. American musician, producer, entrepreneur, and the
drummer for the American pop punk band The Misfits, as well as the alternative rock
band +44, the rap rock, born, 1975.
Jazz pianist with the Branford Marsalis Band, Kenny Kirkland, dies In 1998.
2002-Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is the first congresswoman elected House Minority
Leader.
The great snowy owls have now arrived in Minnesota after their migration from their summer nesting
place on the northern tundra of Canada and Alaska.
Friday, November 15 November 15-17 is NATIONAL DONOR SABBATH as observed in U.S. to draw
attention to the need for organs and tissues for transplantation. Japan observes SHICHI-GO-SAN, an
annual children’s festival. BRAZIL'S PROCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC in 1889 is commemorated.
Today is AMERICA RECYCLES DAY.
Hannibal, military leader with African roots, crosses the Alps with elephants and 26,000
troops to defeat Roman troops in 218 B.C.
American educator, temperance activist, author and the first African-American woman
college instructor, Sarah Jane Woodson Early, born, 1825.
Visual artist Georgia O’Keeffe, described as one of the greatest of U.S. artists of the
20th Century was born in 1887 in Wisconsin
Ed Asner, actor (“Lou Grant,” “Roots”), born, 1920.
Ted Berrigan, Cherokee poet, born in 1934.
William Still became the first African American to lead a major orchestra, the Los Angles
Symphony, 1936.
Yaphat Kotto, actor ("Homicide," Blue Collar, Live & Let Die), born 1937.
Acclaimed pianist, musician and conductor, Daniel Barenboim, born, Argentina, 1942.
An order to place all gypsies in concentration camps was issued by Nazi Heinrich
Himmler in 1943.
Fifty tribes met in 1944 to form the National Congress of American Indians.
Sam Waterston, actor (“The Killing Fields,” etc.) born in 1949.
This is the First Black Professional Hockey Player Anniversary, honoring Arthur
Dorrington, who signed a contract with the Atlantic City Seagulls in 1950.
Kevin Eubanks, band leader, (“Tonight Show”), born in 1957.
Actress Lisa Bonet, best known for her role as Denise Huxtable on “The Crosby Show.”,
Born, 1967.
Civil rights activist Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael), best remembered for his phrase
"Black Power," succumbs to cancer in 1998.
Snowshoe hares and weasels have turned white for winter.
Saturday, November 16 Today is UNITED NATION'S INTERNATIONAL DAY OF TOLERANCE.
THAILAND’S ELEPHANT ROUND begins today and continues through Sunday at Surin, including a tugof-war between 100 men and 1 elephant.
American composer, bandleader, "Father of the Blues," William C. Handy, born at
Florence, Alabama in 1873.
Paula Giddings, editor, journalist, author and historian of African American women, is
born, 1947.
Former baseball player Dwight Gooden, born, 1964.
Grammy winner, jazz singer, Diana Krall ("When I Look Into Your Eyes"), born, British
Columbia, 1964.
Lisa Bonet, actress ( “The Cosby Show,” “A Different World”), was born, 1967.
1981-Pam Johnson named publisher of the Ithaca (New York) Journal, becoming first
African American woman to head a daily newspaper.
Professor, diplomat, author, and national security expert, Condoleezza Rice nominated
by U.S. President Bush to be Secretary of State, 2004
Sunday, November 17 GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK is observed worldwide. Guru Nanak Dev
SAHIB’S birthday is observed by those of the Sikh religion. Germany observes VOLKSTRAUERTAG,
Memorial Day of mourning for victims of both world wars. The HINDU calendar observes the birthday of
the founder of Sikhism, GURU NANAK.
John Peter Zenger, colonial printer and journalist who stood up for freedom of the press
in the U.S., born 1697.
Jung Hung, first Chinese graduate of an American university (Yale, 1857) was born on
this day in 1828.
Today marks the day in 1869 that the Suez Canal was opened.
Auto racer turned businessman, Japanese founder of Honda Motor Company, Soichiro
Honda, born, 1906. (d. 1991)
Folk singer and prolific songwriter Gordon Lightfoot ("Early Morning Rain"), born, 1938.
Martin Scorese, director (Mean Streets, The Color of Money, Raging Bull, Goodfellas),
born 1942.
Producer Lorne Michaels (“Saturday Night Live”) and Danny DeVito, actor (“Taxi,”
Twins), born in 1944.
Television, film, and stage actor (Ragtime, In the Heat of the Night), Howard Ellsworth
Rollins, Jr., born, 1950.
Daisy Fuentes, MTV Veejay, co-host of “America’s Funniest Videos," born in Havana,
Cuba in 1966.
Actor and screenwriter Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbauns, The Cable Guy & Starsky
& Hutch), born in 1968.
In 1980, WHMM-TV of Howard University became the first African American public
broadcasting system.
Actors Justin Cooper ("Brother's Keeper," Liar, Liar), and Justin Cooper ("Brother's
Keeper"), born 1988.
Enjoy the full moon tonight. American Indian nations of New England and the Great Lakes call
this the BEAVER MOON as the beavers of November are industriously preparing themselves for
the coming winter. This is also called the Frosty Moon, and as this is also the next full moon after the
Harvest Moon, it can also be referred to as the Hunters' Moon. With the leaves falling and the deer
fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can ride over the stubble, and can
more easily see the fox, also other animals, which have come out to glean and can be caught for a
thanksgiving banquet after the harvest.
Monday, November 18 This is AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK. LATVIA celebrates INDEPENDENCE
DAY and HAITI observes VERTIE'RES BATTLE DAY, commemorating the day in 1803 when Haiti
defeated the French and honoring ex-slave Touissant L’Ouverture who led those stolen from Africa and
enslaved on that island in a successful resistance to Napoleon. REVOLUTION DAY is observed in
MEXICO, celebrating the social revolution launched by Francisco Madero in 1910. Today is OMAN’s
NATIONAL DAY HOLIDAY.
Standard Time was adopted in 1883 on this day.
Howard Thurman, influential American civil rights leader, author of 20 books, educator,
philosopher, and theologian, born, 1900. In 1944 he helped found the first racially
integrated, multicultural church in the U. S. (San Francisco).
John Mercer, U.S. songwriter, singer (“Autumn Leaves,” “You Must Have Been a
Beautiful Baby,” “Jeeper’s Creepers”) born 1909.
Today is the birth day of Mickey Mouse, New York City in 1928.
Leader of the Cherokee Nation from 1985-95, the first woman to become chief of the
Cherokee Nation, Chief Wilma Mankiller, was born in 1945.
On this date, Indiana-born Reverend Jim Jones, leader of the “People’s Temple,” was
reported to have directed the suicides of more than 900 persons in the Jonestown
Massacre, in Guyana, in 1978.
South Africa adopted a new constitution in 1993 following more than 300 years of
colonial rule.
Visitors “flock” to Alma, Wisconsin to see the migrating swans.
Tuesday, November 19 PUERTO RICO observes DISCOVERY DAY. BELIZE celebrates GARIFUNA
DAY, a public holiday honoring the first arrival of Black Carib people from St. Vincent and Rotan in 1823.
Abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth is born between 1797 and
1800, on or near this day.
This is the anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address presented in 1863.
Today marks suffragists’ voting attempt in 1868, testing the 14th Amendment. (172
women from New Jersey, including 4 black women, are tried and denied the right to vote
in the U.S. Presidential election.)
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was organized in 1874. Over 1 million
strong today, the members educate on potential dangers of the use of alcohol, narcotics,
and tobacco.
Stateswoman, Indira Gandhi, first Prime Minister of India and Prime Minister for four
times until her assassination in 1984, is born in 1917.
Zion National Park established in Utah in 1919.
Roy Campanella “Campy,” one of first black major leaguers, a Brooklyn Dodger, elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame, born in 1921.
Talk show host Larry King, born 1933.
Baseball, basketball and cable TV executive Ted Turner, born, 1938.
The first Presidential library is dedicated in 1939 - F.D. Roosevelt's in N.Y.
Fashion designer, who popularized designer jeans, Calvin Klein, born, 1942.
Ahmad Rashad, sports caster, former Vikings NFL player, born 1949.
The first automatic toll collection machine was in operation in 1954 (New Jersey
Garden State Parkway).
First female shuttle commander, Lieutenant Eileen Collins, and TV journalist Ann
Curry, born 1956, the later in Guam.
Jodie Foster, actress (Oscars for The Silence of the Lambs, Taxi Driver, The Accused),
director (Home for the Holidays), born, 1962.
Legendary Brazilian Pelé has scored 1,000 soccer goals by 1969. By retirement he
scored 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches.
Savion Glover, dancer, choreographer (“Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in “Da Funk”) born
1973.
Retired U.S. gymnast, Kerri Allyson Strug, born, 1977. She was a member of the
Magnificent Seven, the victorious all-around gymnastics team that represented the U.S.
at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and is best remembered for performing the vault despite
having seriously injured her ankle.
Ryan Howard, MVP baseball player of 2008 World Series Winner, The Philadelphia
Phillies, born, 1979.
Michael Stevenson, of Jamaican and Vietnamese descent, was born on this day in
1989. He is a U.S. rapper better known by his stage name Tyga,
1990 - A summit is held a Paris to formally end the Cold War, thus dramatically reducing
conventional weapons in Europe.
Doctors Paula Mahone and Karen Drake, both African American women, head a team
of 40 specialists in the first successful delivery of septuplets, at Carlisle, Iowa, in 1997.
Ring-necked pheasants begin to winter in cattails.
Wednesday, November 20 This is NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT PERSONNEL DAY. Tell
someone on your school’s support staff that you appreciate their being there to guide and assist you.
This is UNITED NATIONS’ UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’S DAY. Today is TRANSGENDER DAY OF
REMEMBRANCE, a day for education and celebration of transgender and gender non-conforming people
and experiences. GERMANY observes BUSS UND BETTAG (Repentance Day, the Wednesday before
the last Sunday of the church year.
1695 - Zumbi dos Palmares, Brazilian leader of 100-year-old rebel slave group, is killed
in an ambush.
This is the anniversary of the first state (New Jersey) ratifying the Bill of Rights in 1789.
Edwin Hubble, born 1889, discovered and developed the concept of an expanded
universe which has been described as the “most spectacular astronomical discovery of
the 20th Century.” The Hubble Space Telescope is named after him.
Howard Seminar (later Howard University) was founded in Washington D.C. in 1865.
Broadcast journalist and author Alfraid Alistair Cooke, born in 1908. (d. 2004)
Actor Ricardo Montalban (“Star Trek II”), born 1920 in Mexico City. (d.2009)
African American scientist Garrett A. Morgan patents the traffic light signal in 1923.
South African writer, political activist and Novel laureate, Nadine Gordimer, born, 1923.
Her writing has long dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South
Africa and she has recently been active in HIV/AIDS causes.
Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. senator and attorney general, shot by assassin in 1968, born
1925.
Actor TV game-show host ("Family Feud") Richard Dawson, born 1932.
Marlo Thomas, star of television's That Girl (1966-1971), is born in 1938.
Joseph Biden, Jr., Vice President of the U.S., born, 1942.
Television journalist and author Judith Woodruff, born, 1946.
In 1962, racial or religious discrimination was legally forbidden in federally funded
housing.
Ming-Na-Wen, actress (“E.R.”), born in 1963 in Macau, China.
Watch for flying squirrels, sighted in Minneapolis, as they visit feeders at night. Grey squirrels are
working on leafy nests.
Thursday, November 21 Today is the annual GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT, celebrating smokefree environments. YULE, once an indigenous midwinter festival celebrated by the Germanic peoples,
absorbed into celebrations surrounding Christmas over time with Christianization, is observed by
Christians.
French philosopher Voltaire, to whom is attributed the statement, “I disapprove of what
you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it,” as born in 1694.
Human’s first free flight (balloon) anniversary of 1783, demonstration over Paris,
France, with Ben Franklin on hand.
Hetty Green, able financier of her own wealth, reported to have been the richest woman
in U.S., born in 1835.
The Sisters of the Holy Family, was founded for African Americans in 1842, some 20
years before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Harpo Marx of famed Marx brothers’ comedy team, screen, and radio for over 30 years,
expert harpist, born in 1893. Prolific inventor, African American, Granville Woods,
patents the "Electric Railway Conduit" the same year.
The first African American graduate of Yale Law School, Pauli Murray, born, 1910. She
became an civil rights advocate, feminist, lawyer, writer, poet, teacher, and ordained
priest.
Hall of Fame baseball player Stanley "Stan the Man" Musial, born, 1920.
Rebecca Felton (D-Georgia), writer and lecturer, becomes the first woman to occupy a
seat in the US Senate, the oldest senator, at age 87, at the first swearing-in, 1922. She
will serve in that position for only one day.
Acclaimed singer Ella Fitzgerald wins Harlem's Apollo amateur night as a shy teenager
in 1934.
Actress ("That Girl") author(Free to Be You & Me) Marlo Thomas born, 1938.
Actress Goldie Hawn (“Laugh In” Oscar for Cactus Flower), born in 1945.
Singer, actress Bjork born B. Godmundsdóttir in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1965.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966.
George (Ken) Griffey Jr., baseball player, born 1969.
The occupation of Alcatraz Island of 19 days by 79 American Indians began as a
means of dramatizing American Indian grievances against the U.S. Federal government,
1969.
1995 - The Dow-Jones Index topped 5,000 mark for the first time.
Northern cardinals arrive at feeders 25 minutes before sunrise.
Friday, November 22 LEBANON observes their INDEPENDENCE DAY from France in 1943. Today
is SAINT CECILIA FEAST DAY honoring Christian saint, patron of music.
Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sails around Africa’s Cape of Hood Hope in 1497.
George Elliot (real name Mary Ann Evans), English novelist (“Silas Mariner”) who took
on a male name in order to achieve publishing acceptance, born 1819.
1859 - Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species is published.
Pianist, composer, arranger, collector, and professor Camille Nickerson, born, 1888.
She was influenced by Louisiana Creole folksongs which she arranged & sang.
Star of "Easy Money," comedian, actor, Rodney Dangerfield, born 1921 (d. October 5,
2004).
The Nation of Islam was founded in Detroit by Elijay Muhammed in 1930.
The China Clipper began regular trans-Pacific mail service in 60 hours in 1935.
Terry Gillman, writer ("Monty Python's Flying Circus"), born in Minneapolis in 1940.
Sports socialist, text book writer on African Americans in sports, Harry Edwards, born
1942.
First black astronaut in space, Guion S. Bluford, Jr., born in 1942.
Billie Jean King, former tennis player, born 1943.
The Humane Society of the U.S. is founded in 1954.
Actress Mariel Hemingway (“Superman IV”) born 1961.
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis ("Anything But Love," A Fish Called Wanda, Halloween) and
children's author, born 1958.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on this date in 1963.
Thomasina Petrus, African American actress, singer, dancer, and entertainer, a
graduate of North High School, Minneapolis, born, 1970.
Barbara Walters, television's first female nightly news anchor, conducts a historic joint
Interview with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar
Sadat, in 1977.
1994 - Jazz musicians Herbie Hancock, Clark Terry, and Joshua Redman perform in a
concert beamed by satellite to sixty schools nationwide.
Sagittarius of the astronomical /astrological zodiac begins.
Saturday, November 23 JAPAN celebrates KINROU KANSHA NO HI/LABOR THANKSGIVING DAY.
Legendary outlaw Billy the Kidd (Henry McCarty), born 1859.
Mexican social realist painter, muralist Jose’ Clemente Orozco, born, 1883. With Diego
Rivera, he was a leader of the artist movement known as Mexican Muralism. In 1947 he
illustrated John Steinbeck’s The Pearl.
Actor known for his portrayal of ghoulish characters (Frankenstein, The Body Snatcher),
Boris Karloff, born in London, England, 1887.
Harpo Marx of popular comedy team, born 1893.
1897-African American inventors J.L. Love received a U.S. patent for the pencil
sharpener while A. J. Beard patented the "Jenny Coupler," still used today to connect
railroad cars.
Emmett Littleton Ashford, first black to officiate a major league baseball game (1960s),
born 1914.
First play-by-play football game broadcast, 1919 (Texas A & M & U of TX).
Henrietta Vinton Davis, school teacher at the age of 15, musician and actor proclaimed
by Marcus Garvey to be the "greatest woman of the (African) race today,” died in 1941.
She has come to be considered the physical, intellectual, and spiritual link between the
Abolitionist Movement of Frederick Douglass and the African Redemption
Movement of the UNIA-ACL and Marcus Garvey.
Comedian, actor Steve Harvey, born 1956.
Yvonne Burke (D-California) becomes the first congresswoman to give birth while in
office.
Miley Ray Cyrus, actress and pop singer who achieved wide fame for her role as Miley
Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana, born in the
U.S., 1992
Dark-eyed juncos like cracked corn or millet seeds scattered on the ground.
Sunday, November 24 NATIONAL FAMILY WEEK, begun in Canada, is also observed in the U.S..
United Kingdom, and Australia. Those of the Sikh faith observe MARTYDOM OF GURU TEGH
BAHADUR. GERMANY observes TOTENSONNTAG (Protestant's remembrance of the dead).
SURINAME observes INDEPENDENCE from Netherlands (1975).
Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, born in 1632. He wrote, "Peace is not an absence
of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."
French painter and designer of posters, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, born 1864.
American musician and composer originator of ragtime music ("Pink Panther"), Scott
Joplin, born 1868.
Editor of the National Review, William Buckley, Jr., born in 1925.
Tsung Dao Lee, Nobel Prize winner for physics in 1957, was born on this day, 1926.
African American physician and politician, Dr. Jean Harris, former mayor of Eden Prairie,
MN, born, 1931. (d. 2001)
1977-Two thousand delegates and twenty thousand visitors attend the National
Women's Conference in Houston, a landmark gathering for the women's movement.
Model, actress Katherine Heigl (Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy), born, 1978.
After nearly 100 years of military presence on the former U.S. colony of the Philippines,
troops leave in 1992.
Rutabagas and parsnips, sweetened by frost, can be dug for eating or stored for winter.
Monday, November 25 WINTER LENT begins for those of Orthodox Christians. Those of the Baha’I
faith observe the DAY OF THE COVENANT. Today is UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR
THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. THE ZIBELEMARIT (ONION MARKET DAY) is
th
celebrated in SWITZERLAND commemorating market right to people granted in 1405. (every 4 Monday
of November) The countries PANAMA celebrates INDEPENDENCE from European colonization on this
day. (from Spain in 1821)
American financier and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who provided the money for
2,500 libraries including the Sumner Library on Olson Highway, born, 1835.
Automotive manufacturer Karl Benz, born 1844.
Cofounder of the Women's Temperance Union, famed as hatchet-wielding smasher of
saloons, Carry Amelia Moore Nation, born in 1846.
Walter Lantz’s cartoon character Woody Woodpecker debuted, 1940.
The ICC prohibited segregation in public vehicles operating in interstate travel and in
their waiting rooms in 1955.
Singer Amy Grant ("Baby, Baby"), and lawyer, editor (George magazine) and John F.
Kennedy Jr., son of 35th US president, born, 1960. (He d.1999 in plane crash)
Sisters Maria, Teresa and Minerva Mirabel, political activists in the Dominican Republic,
assassinated on orders of dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1960.
Former Vikings' player (1990-2001), Chris Carter, born 1965. He currently is a sports
analyst.
Collard greens, sweetened by the frost, may be picked from your garden.
Tuesday, November 26 The DAY OF THE COVENANT is observed by those of the Baha’I faith.
George Washington proclaims Thanksgiving Day, the first U.S. holiday by presidential
Proclamation,1789.
Sarah Moore Grimke, daughter of aristocratic slave-holding family who became an
antislavery worker/leader, was born in 1792.
First U.S. female surgeon in US Army (Civil War) and first and only woman ever to
receive Medal of Honor, Mary Edwards Walker, born in 1832.
The "world's fastest bicycle racer for a twelve-year period, African American Marshall
Walter Taylor, born in 1878. His bicycle is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington D.C.
Evangelist, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth who attempted to petition
Congress to create a “Negro State” on public lands in the west, died on this day in 1883.
Journalist, news interpreter Eric Sevareid, born, 1912. (d. 1992)
Charles Schulz, cartoonist (“Peanuts”) born in Minneapolis, MN in 1922.
Marcus Garvey, Pan-Africanist, is released from Tombs Atlanta Penitentiary.
Impressionist Richard “Rich” Caruthers Little, born in Canada in 1938.
Singer Tina Turner, (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”). born in 1938.
The premiere of television show "The Price is Right" occurred on this day in 1956 with
Bill Cullen as host. (Bob Barker host until 1972, Drew Carey begins In 2007)
Member of basketball Olympic Dream Team II, Shawn Kemp, born in 1969.
1970-Charles Gordone becomes first black playwright to receive the Pulitzer Prize (for
No Place to Be Somebody).
Olympic snowboarder Shannon Dunn, born in 1972.
English pop singer and songwriter.Natasha Anne Bedingfield, born,1981.
Lil' Fizz, American rapper and actor from the U.S., born, 1985. He was best known for
being the youngest member of the boy band quartet, B2K.
Japan agreed to end use of drift nets, cause of widespread destruction of marine life, in
1991.
US Congress approved a bill in 1991 to rename Custer Battlefield National Monument as
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and authorized the construction of a
memorial to the Native Americans who fought and died at the battle know as Custer’s
Last Stand.
Wednesday, November 27
Actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, born, 1940. (d. 1973)
Jimi Hendrix, rock, great guitarist and singer, born 1942. (d. 1970)
Caroline Kennedy Sclossberg, daughter of the late President John F. and Mrs.
Jacqueline Kennedy, born in 1957.
Actress Robin Givens (“Head of the Class,” A Rage in Harlem), born in 1964.
Jaleel White, actor (“Family Matters”), screenwriter, best known for his role as Steve
Urkel, born in 1976.
Charles Johnson awarded National Book Award for fiction for Middle Passage, 1990.
Both houses of Congress approve legislation authorizing $70 billion to FDIC for bank
bailout due to record number of savings and loan failures in 1991.
Thursday, November 28 This is THANKSGIVING DAY in the UNITED STATES with Macy's annual
parade in New York City which began in 1928. This is the NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING for many
NATIVE AMERICANS who do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To
many of them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native Americans, the theft
of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL TURKEY RUN
(annual car show of 1980 and older collector models at Daytona Speedway) is held through December
1st. The lighting of the Christmas tree on NEW YORK CITY’S Rockefeller Center is usually on this date.
Many Jewish communities observe the first day of Hanukkah, which marks the start of HANUKKAH, also
known as Chanukah or Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish observance that remembers
the Jewish people's struggle for religious freedom. ASCENSION OF ABDU’LBAHA begins this evening
for those of Baha’l faith. The country of MAURITANIA celebrates INDEPENDENCE from European
colonization on this day. (from France in 1960).
William Blake, painter and poet,(“Songs of Innocence”), born 1757.
African American painter, artist of realistic WPA murals, and sculptor Charles Alston
(Black Man, Black Woman USA), born 1907.
Sar Choe married Yi Nae-Su in 1910, becoming the first of the 951 picture-brides from
Korea.
Singer, songwriter ("Short People"), composer (film scores Ragtime, The Natural), Randy
Newman, born, 1943.
Bandleader ("Late Night with David Letterman") Paul Shaffer, born Canada,1949.
Writer, comedian ("The Daily Show"), Jon Stewart, born 1962.
Jaleel Ahmad White, actor and screenwriter, best known for his role as Steve Urkel on
the sitcom Family Matters, born 1976, .
Record, motion picture executive and founder of Motown the Record Corporation
Berry Gordy, Jr., born in Detroit in1929. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame in 1988.
Ernie Davis became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy in 1961.
Bishop Gilbert Baker of Hong Kong ordains Joyce Bennett and Jane Hwang as the
first female priests In the Anglican Communion, 1971.
Tremaine Aldon Neverson, better known by his stage name Trey Songz, American
recording artist , (“I Gotta Make It,”) producer and actor, born 1984. His debut album,”
was released in 2005.
Friday, November 29 Today is known to some in the U.S. as BLACK FRIDAY, traditionally the
beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is also BUY
NOTHING DAY, a moratorium on consumer spending. Join the fun as Aitkin, MN hosts its annual world
famous FISH HOUSE PARADE at 1pm. The HOLLIDAZZLE PARADE begins tonight at 6:30 and occurs
st
Saturdays and Sundays, down Minneapolis' Nicollet Avenue up through December 21 , weather
permitting. Keep this date!!! The PATRICK HENRY HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND will be the
th
featured band for Hollidazzle on Saturday, December 14 .
American women’s suffrage, anti-slavery, prison reform leader, Wendell Phillips, born in
1811.
Louisa May Alcott, author of the classic novel Little Women, is born in 1832.
Nellie Tayloe Ross, became the first female governor in the US when her governor
husband died, born,1876. (elected in her own right in Wyoming in 1924).
1890 - First Army-Navy football game, at West Point.
Actor, director Busby Berkeley (Forty-Second Street. Babes in Arms, Take Me Out to
the Ballgame), born 1895.
C. S. Lewis, British scholar, novelist and author, novelist and author (Chronicles of
Narnia), born 1898.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born on this day in 1874.
Politician and civil rights activist Adam Clayton Powell Jr., born 1908.
Author Madeleine L’ Engle, (A Wrinkle in Time) , born in 1918.
Sportscaster Vincent Edward (Vin) Scully, born, 1927.
Joel Coen, producer and screenwriter (Fargo, Burn After Reading), born in Minneapolis,
MN, in 1954.
Howie Mandel, host of Deal or No Deal, born, 1955.
Actor Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Ocean's Eleven), born, 1964.
The United Nations establishes International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
people in 1977.
Model and television personality, and former online columnist for Sports Illustrated,
Jennifer "Jenn" Lynette Sterger, born, 1983.
Czechoslovakia ends one-party Communist rule, 1989.
Saturday, November 30 SAINT ANDREW’S DAY is observed by some Christians. THE PHILIPPINES
commemorates birth of ANDRES BONIFACIO, leader of the 1896 revolt against Spain with Bonifacio
Day. Barbados celebrates their INDEPENDENCE DAY (from colonizer Great Britain in 1966). Today is
Computer Security Day in the U.S. The Virgin Islands celebrate the end of hurricane season.
Clergyman, satirist, and author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, born in Dublin,
Ireland in 1667.
Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, U.S. writer (The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn) was born in 1835.
Famous photographer, author, and filmmaker Gordon Parks (the original Shaft, The
Learning Tree), born in KS in 1912. Parks was sent to St. Paul in his teens when his
mother died, soon finding himself homeless. He worked in clubs on Olson Highway in
North Mpls, bought a pawned camera and discovered he had an artist’s eye for
photography. (d. 2006)
Shirley Chisholm, author and former congresswoman, born in 1924, who has said,
“Defeat should not be the source of discouragement, but a stimulus to keep plotting.”
Actor Robert Guillaume (“Soap,” “Benson”), born 1927.
Television host, entertainer, producer, Dick Clark ("American Bandstand"), born in 1929.
Founder of Children's Television Workshop and of "Sesame Street," Joan Ganz Cooney,
also born the same date.
Mary Harris Jones, “Mother Jones,” crusader for children’s and workers’ rights died on
this day in 1930. Her motto was, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” Her
efforts were instrumental in bringing national attention to the large number of children
who had to work in disastrous factory conditions instead of being allowed to attend
school.
U. S. favorite all-purpose cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, self-published by Irma
Rombauer in 1931.
Abbie Hoffman, political activist who rose to prominence during the 1968 Democratic
National Convention at Chicago and one of the Chicago Seven, born in 1936.
Actor Ben Stiller (“Something About Mary”) born, 1965.
Singer (I Ain't Movin'), Des'ree, ,”) and actress Sandra Oh (Under the Tuscan Sun,
“Grey’s Anatomy”), born 1970.
Baseball player Ivan ("Pudge") Rodriquez, born in Puerto Rico in 1971.
Actress Elisha Cuthbert ("24," "Are You Afraid of the Dark"), born, 1982.
Egyptian construction workers unearthed a statue of Ramses II in the ancient town of
Akhimim, 300 miles south of Cairo, Egypt, in 1991.