This Week in History: Nov. 13-19

Nov 13- 1789: In a letter to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, Benjamin Franklin pens one of his more memorable quotations: “…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” 1940: Walt Disney’s animated classic “Fantasia” premieres at the Broadway Theater in New York City. 1956: The US Supreme Court rules that Alabama’s law enforcing racial segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. 1980: NASA’s Voyager I sends first close-up pictures of Saturn back to Earth. 1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a V-shaped wall containing the names of 57,939 Americans killed in the war (listed by date of birth), is dedicated in Washington, DC.

Nov 14- 1856: American inventor Gail Borden receives a patent for condensed milk. 1889: New York World reporter Nellie Bly sets out to better the fictional 80 days record of Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg. She would succeed, completing her ‘round the world voyage in 72 days, 6 hours. 1896: The power plant built to harness the energy of Niagara Falls begins operating. 1948: Future British King Charles III is born at Buckingham Palace in London, England. Happy 76th birthday Your Majesty! 1994: The first public trains run through the tunnel built beneath the English Channel connecting England and France. The “Chunnel” has proven to be a popular mode of transportation, carrying more than 20 million passengers annually between the two countries.

Nov 15- 1777: After more than a year-and-a-half of debate, the First Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation, establishing a purposely weak national government for the 13 colonies. 1956: Elvis Presley makes his film debut as “Love Me Tender” premieres in American theaters. 1969: An estimated two million Americans participate in the Vietnam War Moratorium protest nationwide. 1995: Indian-born computer architect Ajay Bhatt invents the Universal Serial Bus (USB). 2017: Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Salvator Mundi” sells for $450.3 million at a NY auction, establishing a new sales record for artwork. WOW!

Nov 16- 1776: British troops sieze Fort Washington in Manhattan, dealing a devastating blow to General Washington’s Continental Army, forced to retreat across the Hudson River to New Jersey. 1824: New York City’s Fifth Avenue opens for business, at the time a country road that would become the city’s premiere shopping, residential, and cultural address. Happy 200th Anniversary to a worldwide landmark! 1938: Swiss chemist Albert “Abbie” Hoffman first synthesizes lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) at Sandoz Labs in Basel, Switzerland. (Like groovy, man!) 1960: US marshals escort four 6-year-old African American girls into a previously all-white public school in New Orleans, LA, in the face of promised violent protests and death threats.

Nov 17- 1800: Congress meets for the first time in the partially completed US Capitol. 1869: The Suez Canal opens in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and providing an efficient maritime route for trade among countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. 1970: Engineer Douglas Engelbart receives a patent for the first computer mouse. 2003: 21-year-old Britney Spears becomes the youngest singer to receive a star on Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame.” 2003: Austrian-born bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as the 38th governor of California.

Nov 18- 1307: According to Swiss folklore, archer William Tell uses a crossbow and arrow to split an apple sitting atop his son’s head, forced to undertake the dangerous challenge for refusing to bow to an Austrian official’s hat. (One can only imagine the punishment for REAL crimes!) 1626: St. Peter’s, the world’s largest Christian basilica, is consecrated in Rome, Italy. 1902: Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michton and his wife Rose create the first “Teddy’s Bear,” so-named for a political cartoon depicting President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt sparing a bear cub in the wild, and put the plush bear in the window of their candy shop. The sales of stuffed bears became so brisk that five years later he founded the “Ideal Novelty and Toy Company,” which would become the largest doll-making company in the US. 1978: 918 members of the “Peoples Temple” cult are killed or commit suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, including cult leader Jim Jones. 1999: A 59-foot-tall stack of 5,000 logs, billed as the “world’s largest bonfire,” collapses on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, killing 12 students and injuring dozens more.

Nov 19- 1805: The Corps of Discovery, led by Meriweather Lewis and William Clark, reaches the Pacific Ocean.

NationalParkService.com

1863: President Abraham Lincoln delivers his famous Gettysburg Address at the site of the Civil War’s deadliest battle in Gettysburg, PA. 1953: The Supreme Court rules 7-2 that baseball is a sport, not a business, thus exempt from antitrust laws. 1969: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean are the third and fourth men to walk on the surface of the moon. 1997: The McCaughey septuplets are born in Des Moines, IA and become the first set of seven babies to survive infancy. (Their parents also survived, somehow!)