<< Nov 20|        HISTORY “4” “2”DAY         |Nov 22 >>
Events, deaths, births, of 21 NOV
[For Nov 21 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1582~1699: Dec 01 — 1700s: Dec 02 — 1800s: Dec 03 — 1900~2099: Dec 04]
ALTERNATE SITES   ALL FOR 20031121     ANY DAY  OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY    ART “4” NOV 21
On a November 21:
2002 Meeting in Prague, the representatives of the 19 NATO countries invite to the alliance Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. They will become members of NATO in May 2004 after their parliaments and those of the present NATO countries ratify the expansion. Three other candidates — Macedonia, Albania and Croatia — are told to wait. NATO also decides to set up a 20'000-strong rapid response force against terrorists and rogue states.
2002 One year after the following notice, there is no more ENE: Enron shares have been delisted and trade for pennies over-the-counter. Today they close at 12 cents. In 2000 Enron was No. 7 on the Fortune 500, claiming $100 billion in revenues which the company attributed largely to energy trading. Enron went bankrupt in December 2001 when investors fled and its access to capital markets dried up after revelations of accounting schemes that hid debt and inflated profits. In the months since, Enron's former auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, was convicted of obstruction of justice for destroying Enron-related documents. The company's former chief financial officer, Andrew Fastow, has been indicted on 78 counts of wire and securities fraud, money laundering and obstruction.
2001 Shares of Enron at new low.
     Shares of beleaguered Enron Corp. plummet another 28% this day even though it reached a critical agreement to extend a $690 million debt payment. Analysts continued to question, however, whether Dynegy Inc.'s planned $8.9 billion acquisition of its larger rival Enron will survive, particularly as some traders are limiting business with Enron because they don't know if more negative revelations are coming.
      While it is unclear how much weaker the wholesale trading business profile is, it is likely that counterparties will continue to closely monitor and limit their exposure to Enron. Enron shares have plunged more than 90% over the previous months following the departure of the company's chief executive and an accounting controversy that eventually caused it to restate its earnings since 1997, eliminating more than $580 million of reported income.
      Its latest round of woes started on 19 November 2001, after Enron filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it would have to repay $690 million in debt by 26 November because of decreased credit ratings. Enron also acknowledged a "reduced level of transaction activity" with the company by trading partners.
      Shares fell 23% on 20 November, then drop another 32% in early trading this day after a report by Goldman Sachs & Co. analyst David Fleischer that questioned whether Enron had enough cash to survive. The filing "raised new issues about liquidity and the ability of the company to even finance itself over the next several months," Fleischer wrote.
     Fleischer said that Enron had burned through $2.5 billion from 30 September to 16 November and said that its cash balance of $1.2 billion is inadequate to meet remaining debt obligations.
      Enron responded later in the day with a statement saying that it had received an extension on the debt payment until mid-December, and also was tapping an additional $450 million line of credit. That news wasn't enough to help Enron's sagging stock price.
      At the close of regular trading this day on the New York Stock Exchange, ENE shares are at $5.01, down $1.98. Enron's all-time trading low is a split-adjusted $3.94 on 27 October 1987. The company traded at a 52-week high of $84.88 on 28 December 2000 and at an all-time high of $90.00 on 21 August 2000.
      Enron's latest round of troubles raises concerns about whether the Dynegy-Enron deal will be pulled off. Dynegy chairman and chief executive Chuck Watson said in a statement he was "encouraged" by the news of Enron's debt extension and its credit agreement, adding that Dynegy was moving ahead with its acquisition. But this week's events suggest that Dynegy might renegotiate the deal. If Dynegy steps away, bankruptcy is highly possible. Shares of Dynegy close this day at $39.76, down $1.94 or 4.5%, on the NYSE. The signs of trader withdrawal lead some analysts to project that Enron will lose 25 cents per share in operating costs for the fourth quarter, instead of a previously expected 25-cent per-share gain. But Dynegy may see an enormous potential value in a healthy Enron trading group, not the type of asset it could acquire out of bankruptcy.
2000 The Florida Supreme Court grants Al Gore's request to keep the presidential recounts going.
1999 US President Clinton, speaking at a conference in Florence, Italy, calls on prosperous nations to help poor countries with Internet hookups, cell phones, debt relief, and small loans.
1995 Balkan leaders meeting in Dayton, Ohio, agree on a peace plan to end 3 1/2 years of ethnic fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1995 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 5000 for the first time.
1995 China jails well-known dissident Wei Jing-sheng and charges him with trying to overthrow the government.
1990 Junk Bond criminal gets 10 years in prison
      US District Judge Kimba Wood sentences Michael R. Milken to a ten-year prison term for various securities law infractions. The sentence topped off an intensive four-year probe into the actions of the former Drexel Burnham chief, who, during the heady days of the '80s, had become one of the financial world's wealthiest and most powerful figures. However, Milken's domain was seemingly built and maintained through corrupt tactics, including insider trading and "stock manipulation." Despite his litany of wrongdoings, some in the financial community were shocked by the severity of Judge Wood's ruling. But, this was a deliberate bit of hardball by Wood, who dangled a reduced sentence in return for Milken becoming a witness in cases against other investment figures.
1991 US President Bush signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, making it easier for workers to sue in job discrimination cases, then tries to calm a storm of controversy by withdrawing a tentative order to end government hiring preferences for Blacks and women.
1991 The UN Security Council chooses Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt to be the new Secretary-General.
1990 Signing of Declaration of "End of Cold war" in Paris.
1990 Junk-bond financier Michael R. Milken, having pled guilty to six felony counts, is sentenced by a federal judge in New York to 10 years in prison (of which he would serve two).
1986 US President Reagan's aides destroy evidence of crimes
     The US Justice Department begins an inquiry into the National Security Council, into what will become known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
      National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, begin shredding documents that would have exposed their participation in a range of illegal activities regarding the sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to a rebel Nicaraguan group. On November 25, North was fired but Hall continued to sneak documents to him by stuffing them in her skirt and boots. The Iran-Contra scandal, as it came to be known, became an embarrassment and a sticky legal problem for the Reagan administration. Only six years earlier, Iran had become an enemy of the United States after taking hostages at the US embassy in Tehran. At the time, President Reagan had repeatedly insisted that the United States would never deal with terrorists. When the revelation surfaced that his top officials at the National Security Council had begun selling arms to Iran, it was a public relations disaster.
      During the televised Iran-Contra hearings, the public learned that the money received for the arms was sent to support the Contras in Nicaragua, despite Congress' Boland Amendment, which expressly prohibited US assistance to the Contras. Though the communist Sandinistas had been legitimately elected in Nicaragua, the Reagan administration sought to oust them by supporting the Contras, an anti-Communist group. During the Iran-Contra hearings, North claimed that the entire Reagan administration had known about the illegal plan. After admitting that he had lied to Congress, he was convicted of shredding documents, obstruction of justice, and illegally receiving a security fence for his own residence. He received a light sentence of a fine and probation. A year later in July 1990, an appellate court voted 2-1 to overturn his conviction based on the possibility that some of the evidence may have come from testimony that Congress had immunized in their own hearings on the matter. President Reagan and Vice President George Bush maintained that they had no knowledge of the scheme. In fact, in a legal deposition, Reagan claimed to have little memory of anything that happened in the White House in the mid-1980s.
1985 US President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev end a summit meeting in Switzerland. They promise acceleration of arms-reduction talks.
1985 Spy for Israel arrested in US
      Jonathan Jay Pollard, a civilian US Navy intelligence analyst a Jew, is arrested on charges of illegally passing classified US security information about Arab nations to Israel. Pollard, an employee at the Navy intelligence center in Suitland, Maryland, is eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison under the recommendation of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.
      The Israeli government does not make an official objection to the sentencing, and the incident is generally regarded in Israel an unfortunate embarrassment. However, calls for Pollard's release mount in Israel over the next decade, and top Israeli officials complain that Pollard received a far stiffer sentence than other individuals found in the past to have been passing information to "friendly nations." In 1995, Israel awarded Pollard Israeli citizenship. He remained in prison in the US..
1977 1st flight of the Concorde (London to New York)
1975 CIA-Mafia plots to assassinate foreign leaders
      A Senate committee issues a report charging that US government officials were behind assassination plots against two foreign leaders and were heavily involved in at least three other plots. The shocking revelations suggested that the United States was willing to go to murderous levels in pursuing its Cold War policies. The Senate Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Senator Frank Church, alleged that US officials instigated plots to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. In addition, the US officials "encouraged or were privy to" plots that led to the assassinations of Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, General Rene Schneider of Chile, and Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. The attempts against Castro failed, but the other four leaders were killed.
      There was also evidence suggesting US involvement in a number of other assassination plots against foreign leaders. The committee indicated that it had no specific evidence that an American president ever authorized an assassination. However, it went on to declare that "whether or not the President in fact knows about the assassination plots, and even if their subordinates failed in their duty of full disclosure, it still follows that the President should have known about the plots." The Central Intelligence Agency came in for special condemnation for its efforts to recruit Mafia hit men to kill Castro and mercenaries to assassinate Lumumba. In the report's conclusion, the committee declared that, "We condemn the use of assassination as a tool of foreign policy [and] find that assassination violates moral precepts fundamental to our way of life." President Gerald Ford criticized the decision to release the report, claiming that it would do "grievous damage to our country" and would be used by "groups hostile to the United States in a manner designed to do maximum damage to the reputation and foreign policy of the United States
1974 US Congress passes the Freedom of Information Act over President Ford's veto.
1973 Gap found in Watergate tapes
      During the Watergate affair, an eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap is discovered during a subpoenaed recording of an official White House conversation between President Richard M. Nixon and White House staff member H. R. Haldeman. Two months later, an expert testifies before the House Judiciary Committee that the gap was caused by deliberate and repeated erasures. The Watergate affair began when a break-in at the Watergate Hotel by White House officials was uncovered by journalists and the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, and then escalated when President Nixon attempted to use executive privilege as justification for suppressing investigation of the incident. On 16 July 1973, a former White House aide brought the existence of the Watergate tapes to the attention of the Senate committee investigating Watergate, and on 26 July the recordings were subpoenaed. Nixon failed to comply with the subpoena, and on 09 August the Senate committee filed suit against the president.
      Finally, on 23 October, Nixon agreed to turn over the tapes to a District of Columbia court, but when the recordings arrived, several of the key tapes were missing, and an eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap was discovered on another. The White House failed to satisfactorily explain the long silence during a key conversation between Nixon and Haldeman, although an expert later testified that the gap had been caused by intentional erasure. On 24 July the Supreme Court rejected Nixon's claims of presidential privilege as unconstitutional, and ordered him to honor the special prosecutor's subpoenas. On 30 July the same day that the House Judiciary Committee voted the third of three articles of impeachment against him, Nixon finally sent the Watergate tapes to the Capitol. On 05 August transcripts of the recordings were revealed, including a segment in which the president was heard instructing Haldeman to order the FBI to halt the Watergate investigation. Four days later, Richard M. Nixon became the first president in US history to resign. On 08 September, he was pardoned from any criminal charges by his successor, President Gerald Ford.
1970 US planes conduct widespread bombing raids in North Vietnam.
1970 US force raids Son Tay prison camp
      A combined Air Force and Army team of 40 US servicemen — led by Army Colonel "Bull" Simons — conducts a raid on the Son Tay prison camp, 23 miles west of Hanoi, in an attempt to free between 70 and 100 US soldiers suspected of being held there. Planning for the mission — code-named Operation Ivory Coast — began in June 1970. The plan called for Army Rangers to be flown to Son Tay by helicopter and crash-land inside the compound. The plan was for Rangers to pour out of the helicopter and neutralize any opposition while Rangers in other helicopters, landing outside the walls, would break in and complete the rescue operation. At 11:30 p.m. on November 20, the raiding force departed Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. As the force approached the camp, US Air Force and Navy warplanes struck North Vietnamese troop installations and antiaircraft sites in the area. Part of the force initially landed at the wrong compound, but otherwise the mission came off without a hitch. Unfortunately, the Rangers could not locate any prisoners in the huts. After a sharp firefight with the North Vietnamese troops in the area, the order was given to withdraw — 27 minutes after the raid began, the force was in the air headed back to Thailand. The raid was accomplished in a superb manner and all US soldiers returned safely, but it was learned later that the prisoners had been moved elsewhere in July. Despite that disappointment, the raid was a tactical success and sent a message to the North Vietnamese that the United States was capable of inserting a combat force undetected only miles from their capital. Stunned by the raid, high Hanoi officials ordered all US POWs moved to several central prison complexes. This was actually a welcome change — the move afforded the prisoners more contact with each other and boosted their morale.
1969 The US Senate votes down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, the first such rejection since 1930.
1969 First ARPANET link
      The first ARPANET link was put into service on this day in 1969. The network connected a computer at the University of California at Los Angeles with one at the Stanford Research Institute. Network computers were also installed at the University of Utah and at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The network was developed by J. C. R. Licklider, Robert Taylor, and other researchers who were working for the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency. The ARPANET evolved into the Internet in the early 1970s, when Dr. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn were commissioned by the federal government to extend the network for military, government, and academic use. 1996 CompuServe folds WOW!
      On 21 November 1996, CompuServe announces that it will shut down its family-oriented service, WOW!, just eight months after it was launched. The company had tried to enter the family market and enhance its computer presence earlier in the year, but it backed off after investing some $70 million in the high-profile launch. The service attracted only about 100'000 subscribers during its short life. 1995 First entirely computer-animated movie Toy Story, the first entirely computer-animated movie, was released on this day in 1995. The movie, produced by Pixar Corp., became one of the year's most successful films. Pixar was run by Apple founder and former chairman Steve Jobs.
1967 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the air quality act, allotting $428 million for the fight against pollution.
1967 "US winning in Vietnam", says top general
      Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of US Military Assistance Command Vietnam, tells US news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing." Having been reassured by the general, most Americans were stunned when the communists launched a massive offensive during the Vietnamese Tet New Year holiday on January 30, 1968. During this offensive, communist forces struck 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 autonomous cities, 64 of 242 district capitals and about 50 hamlets. At one point during the initial attack on Saigon, communists troops actually penetrated the ground floor of the US Embassy. The fighting raged all over South Vietnam and lasted almost until the end of February. Overcoming the initial surprise of the attack, the US and South Vietnamese forces recovered and ultimately inflicted a major military defeat on the communists. Nevertheless, Hanoi won a great psychological victory by launching such a widespread attack after Westmoreland assured the American people that the corner had been turned in South Vietnam. As a result of the unexpected Tet Offensive, many Americans came out forcefully against the war. Even CBS television anchorman Walter Cronkite, widely regarded as the most trusted man in American, publicly questioned US policy in Vietnam.
1967 Phillip & Jay Kunz fly a kite at a record 8500 m
1964 World's longest suspension bridge "Verrazano Narrows" opens (NYC)
1963 US President Kennedy starts out on a visit to Texas
     President John F. Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy, and their party start a Texas trip planned 5 months before by the President, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and John B. Connally, Jr., Governor of Texas. After leaving the White House in the morning, the President flies initially to San Antonio where Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson joins the party and the President dedicates new research facilities at the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. Following a testimonial dinner in Houston for US Representative Albert Thomas, the President flies to Fort Worth where he spends the night. The next day he would go to Dallas and be assassinated.
1953 "Pitdown Man," allegedly discovered in 1912, is proved to be a hoax
1949 The United Nations grants Libya its independence by 1952.
1948 Mindszenty¹s secretary, Monsignor Zahar is arrested by the Communist government in Hungary.
1945 Nuremberg Trial: second day
     The tribunal listens to the beginning of a ten-month barrage of evidence and testimony against twenty-two Nazi war criminals. The Nuremberg trial was conducted by a joint United States-British-French-Soviet military tribunal, with each nation supplying two judges. The four charges drawn up for the trial were: Count 1: Conspiracy to commit the crimes cited in the next three counts. Count 2: Crimes against peace (planning, preparing, starting, or waging aggressive war). Count 3: War Crimes, including violations of laws or customs of war. Count 4: Crimes Against Humanity (murder, extermination, enslavement, persecution on political or racial grounds, involuntary deportation, and inhumane acts against civilian populations). The majority of defendants claimed that they were ignorant pawns of Adolf Hitler or were simply following orders. Among the evidence used against them were the shrunken head of a concentration camp victim used as a paperweight, and pieces of tattooed human skin "fashioned into lampshades and other household articles." The sentencing was handed down by October 1, 1946. Members of the General Staff and High Command were generally acquitted, despite clear and convincing proof of criminal acts. As groups, the SA (Brown Shirts) and Hitler's cabinet were also acquitted, but the secret police groups—the SS, SD, and Gestapo—were declared criminal groups. Some more notable verdicts were as follows: * Herman Goering, Commander of the Luftwaffe. Guilty on all four counts. Sentenced to be hanged, but killed himself a few hours before the execution by drinking poison. * Alfred Jodl, Chief of Operations Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces. Guilty on four counts. Sentenced to be hanged, he requested a soldier's death by firing squad but was refused. He was hanged. * Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi Party racial philosopher and appointed Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories. Aided Goering and Hitler in plundering Jewish art collections and libraries. Guilty on all four counts. Hanged.
1945 General Motors workers go on strike
1942 US Army engineers, working closely with their Canadian counterparts, completed an emergency war measure with the opening of the Alcan Highway, an overland military supply route to the Territory of Alaska. Passing through the Yukon, the more than 1,500-mile roadway connected Dawson Creek, British Columbia with Fairbanks, Alaska and provided Americans and Canadians with an increased sense of security at a time of hostile Japanese activities during World War II.
1938 Nazi forces occupy western Czechoslovakia and declare its people German citizens.
1935 1st commercial crossing of Pacific by plane (China Clipper)
1933 1st US ambassador to USSR, W.C. Bullitt, begins service
1929 Hoover tries to get US economy back on track
      Hoping to pick up the pieces after the stock market's dramatic crash, President Herbert Hoover sat down for two closed-door meetings with the nation's business leaders, as well as trade union representatives. Each session saw the president and respective groups hash out a broad plan for righting the economy and reassuring the panicked public. Two weeks later, both the business and labor factions gave the green light to a general directive that Hoover hoped would help steer the nation away from fiscal turmoil. 1945 Autoworkers Stage Postwar Strike When World War II finally ended, business and labor resumed their own struggle over power, profits and better working conditions. The first blow in the renewed battle was struck on this day in 1945, as the United Auto Workers staged the first postwar strike at the General Motors plant in Detroit, Michigan.
1922 Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia is sworn in as the first woman to serve in the US Senate.
1918 The last German troops leave Alsace-Lorraine, now again part of France.
1913 La justicia de San Petersburgo ordena la destrucción de manuscritos de Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoi.
1913 El congreso mexicano acuerda prestar apoyo al presidente usurpador Victoriano Huerta Ortega en el conflicto planteado entre el gobierno de México y Estados Unidos.
1930 Inauguración de la exposición de pinturas de Benjamín Palencia.
1941 Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial es destituido el general Weygand, gobernador general del África francesa (dependiente del Gobierno de Vichy), por preparar un levantamiento de las colonias norteafricanas a favor del general Charles André de Gaulle.
1946 Georgi Dimitrov es nombrado primer jefe de Gobierno de la República de Bulgaria.
1949 La ONU acuerda que se otorgue plena independencia a todas las antiguas colonias italianas.
1959 La ONU prohíbe los ensayos nucleares, pese a la oposición francesa.
1962 China anuncia el alto al fuego y la retirada de sus fuerzas a 20 km de la línea de control india de 1959.
1974 La ONU remite la cuestión del Sáhara al Tribunal Internacional de Justicia de La Haya.
1978 El Consejo de la Revolución Argelina asume el poder, ante el estado de coma del presidente Huari Bumedián.
1985 Primera manifestación autorizada por el régimen de Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte en dos años: 500'000 chilenos piden el fin de la dictadura.
1988 El Partido Progresista Conservador del primer ministro canadiense, Martin Brian Mulroney, gana las elecciones legislativas.
1988 Se producen redadas policiales en Madrid contra la secta llamada Iglesia de la Cienciología, que funciona en España bajo los nombres de Dianética y Narconóm.
1991 Butros Butros-Ghali, viceprimer ministro de Egipto, es elegido nuevo secretario general de la ONU.
1994 39 aviones de la OTAN bombardean el aeropuerto bosnio de Udbina en la operación más importante desde la creación de la Alianza.
1884 Carmen Martín Gaite obtiene el Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas.
1995 Los presidentes de Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, Croacia, Franjo Tudjman, y Bosnia, Alija Izetbegovic, firman el acuerdo de paz por el que concluye una guerra de cuatro años que ha causado 250'000 muertos y cuatro millones de desplazados.
1997 Todos los inspectores de la ONU que abandonaron Bagdad, tras la expulsión decretada por Saddam Hussein contra los técnicos de nacionalidad estadounidense, regresan a la capital iraquí.
2000 Ernest Lluch, ministro de Sanidad durante el primer gobierno español socialista (1982-1986), es asesinado en Barcelona por un comando terrorista de la banda ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) .
1911 Suffragettes storm Parliament in London. All are arrested and all choose prison terms.
1907 Cunard liner Mauritania sets a new speed record for steamship travel, 624 nautical miles in a one day run.
1906 In San Juan, President Theodore Roosevelt pledges US citizenship for Puerto Rican people.
1904 Motorized omnibuses replace horse-drawn cars in Paris.
1895 Start of Sherlock Holmes Adventure of Bruce Partington Plans
1892 Le scandale de Panama
      C'est par ces mots écrits dès septembre Edouard Drumont dans La Libre Parole qu'il résume l'affaire de Panama" La plus grande flibusterie du siècle... de l'or, de la boue et du sang ". Dans la nuit du 19 au 20 novembre, le baron Reinach, qui fut un intermédiaire entre la Compagnie de Panama et le monde politique, s'est suicidé. Sa mort met le feu aux poudres. Ce jour la presse se déchaîne et dénonce les " chéquards " et les " panamistes ", dont Clemenceau, parmi d'autres, fait partie ; à la tribune de la Chambre des députés, le royaliste Jules Delahaye accuse sans les nommer 150 députés d'avoir été achetés dans l'affaire de Panama. En septembre 1881, Ferdinand de Lesseps a créé une compagnie pour réaliser le percement de l'isthme qui, à Panama, en Amérique centrale, sépare l'océan Atlantique de l'océan Pacifique. Les difficultés rencontrées lors du percement ont contraint Lesseps à faire appel à de nouveaux fonds. La corruption de députés et de ministres permet à celui-ci d'obtenir un vote favorable pour lancer un emprunt qui l'autorise à rentrer sur le marché des obligations. Plus de 85 000 petits porteurs ont souscrit. Malgré cet apport, en février 1889, la société est mise en liquidation. Les petits épargnants se retrouvent pour la plupart ruinés. Tout est fait alors pour étouffer l'affaire. L'instruction s'est enlisée pendant des mois, des années. Le suicide de Reinach contraint (enfin) le monde politique à constituer une commission d'enquête. Le régime parlementaire est atteint... Mais les beaucoup de politiques d'aujourd'hui sont toujours mélés à d'étranges affaires. Puisse qu'un jour ils feront tous honnêtement leur travail sans aucun intérêt financier personnel.
1877 Edison announces his "talking machine" invention.
— Dépôt du brevet du phonographe: Thomas Édison (1847-1931) se voit accorder le fameux brevet. Ce grand inventeur américain qui totalisera plus de mille brevets d'invention a marqué par son génie la plupart des découvertes modernes, qu'il s'agisse du téléphone de Graham Bell qu'il perfectionne, du microphone ou du cinématographe pour lequel il réalise l'un des premiers types de caméra. On lui doit, entre autres, l'invention en 1880, de la lampe à incandescence à filament de carbone ou ampoule électrique.
— Edison's first great invention
      The American inventor 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.
1864 Confederate General John Bell Hood's Army of the Tennessee sets out from Florence, Alabama, on its Middle Tennessee Campaign
1863 Siege of Knoxville, Tennessee continues
1862 James A. Seddon replaces George W. Randolph as Confederate Secretary of War
1861
1861 Judah P. Benjamin is named Confederate Secretary of War
      Confederate President Jefferson Davis names Judah Benjamin the secretary of war. A Sephardic Jew from South Carolina, Judah Benjamin was an exception to the rule in the Protestant South. As a young man, he moved to New Orleans and lived in a largely Jewish community. He married the daughter of a wealthy Catholic couple, but the marriage was distant — Natalie Benjamin moved to Paris soon after the birth of their daughter and the couple spent little of their fifty-plus-year marriage together.
      Benjamin practiced law and bought a sugar plantation near New Orleans. He became a representative in the Louisiana state legislature in 1842, and he was elected to the US Senate in 1852. While there, he became a close friend of Jefferson Davis, who was then a Mississippi senator. Benjamin resigned during the secession crisis of 1860 and 1861, even before Louisiana officially left the Union. Davis selected Benjamin as the Confederacy's first attorney general, and he quickly became the president's most trusted advisor. After the Battle of First Bull Run, Secretary of War Leroy Walker resigned amid criticism that the Confederate army did not pursue the defeated Yankees. Davis appointed Benjamin to the position.
      Although Benjamin had no military experience, his appointment allowed Davis to dominate Confederate military affairs. Placing his trusted friend in the position of secretary of war ensured that Davis would not be challenged on important military decisions. Benjamin efficiently managed the day-to-day work of the war department, but he began to quarrel with some of the top generals who resented taking orders from a non-military bureaucrat. Benjamin also drew unfair criticism because of his religion — many openly questioned his loyalty because of his Jewish faith.
      When Roanoke Island fell to the Yankees in March 1862, criticism of Benjamin peaked. Many censured him for not sending men and supplies to the island's garrison. Furthermore, the war was going badly for the Confederates in the West. Davis recognized that the storm of complaints was crippling Benjamin's ability to perform his duty, so he appointed Benjamin secretary of state when Robert M. T. Hunter resigned that position. As the outlook for the Confederacy grew bleaker in 1863 and 1864, Benjamin floated the idea that the South could obtain foreign recognition only by promising emancipation. This radical concept fell on deaf ears until the last weeks of the war.
      When the Confederacy finally collapsed, Benjamin fled with the rest of the Confederate government to Danville, Virginia. When President Lincoln was assassinated, it was discovered that Benjamin had ties to the Surratt family, which was implicated in the conspiracy. Fearing capture and prosecution, Benjamin fled the country. He settled in England and practiced law there, often visiting his wife and daughter in Paris. During the rest of his life, Benjamin rarely spoke of his service to the Confederacy. He died in Paris in 1884.
1837 Thomas Morris of Australia skips rope 22'806 times [Did he practice since childhood, skipping classes at the same time?]
1831 La révolte des canuts
      C'est au cri de " Vivre libre en travaillant ou mourir en combattant "que les insurgés lyonnais les " canuts" [pas les Canus] se révoltent ce jour. Le patronat qui a signé des accords sur un minimum salaires ne sont pas respectés. Les patrons de l'industrie de la soie sont les fautifs de la révolte qui éclate. Les canuts, dont l'immense majorité vient du quartier de la Croix Rousse, s'emparent de Lyon. Les troupes de la garde nationale envoyées contre eux, fraternisent avec les ouvriers. On donne ordre par prudence aux troupes cantonnées à Lyon d'évacuer la ville pour éviter qu'elles ne ralient elle aussi les insurgés. Mais le gouvernement de Casimir-Perier dépêche à Lyon le maréchal Soult et le duc d'Orléans pour réprimer ce que les socialistes nommeront les " Trois glorieuses du prolétariat lyonnais. " On relèvera les corps de 171 ouvriers et aussi ceux de 170 militaires. Il y a 600 arrestations. Les 10 000 ouvriers sont chassés finalement de la ville le 5 décembre. Les salaires minimaux consentis sont déclarés nuls. Casimir-Perier tire les conclusions des événements en ces termes : " Il faut que les ouvriers sachent bien qu'il n'y a de remède à leurs maux que dans la patience et la résignation. " Mais Aristide Bruant donne aux canuts cette chanson d'espoir : " Mais notre règne arrivera / Quand votre règne finira / Alors nous tisserons le linceul du vieux monde / Car on entend déjà la révolte qui gronde. "
1818 Russia's Czar Alexander I petitions for a Jewish state in Palestine
1806 "Blocus continental" contre l'Angleterre, ordonné par un décret signé à Berlin par Napoléon 1er
      Faute de pouvoir battre militairement l'Angleterre, l'empereur tente de l'étouffer économiquement en empêchant ses commerçants de vendre à leurs clients habituels. Il interdit à tous les pays européens de commercer avec elle. Et pour s'assurer de la mise en application du blocus, l'empereur n'hésite pas à envahir les pays récalcitrants. C'est ainsi qu'il sera entraîné dans deux expéditions fatales, en Espagne et en Russie. — Blocus contre les Anglais: L'Angleterre est très coriace. L'empereur ne parvient pas en venir à bout de par les armes. Il choisit donc une autre méthode plus suptile. Il s'agit, pour répondre au blocus mis en place par les Anglais depuis mai, d'interdire l'accès des navires anglais au continent. Pour ce, le décret donné ce jour à Berlin par Napoléon ordonne : " Tout commerce et toute correspondance avec les îles britanniques sont interdits. " En outre, toutes les marchandises qui proviennent d'Angleterre peuvent être saisies et les navires qui auraient fait escale dans un port britannique sont menacés de saisie s'ils viennent à relâcher dans un port du continent.
1789 North Carolina ratifies US Constitution, becomes 12th US state
click for painting by Goya1783 First manned hot air balloon flight
      French inventor Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis François-Laurent d'Arlandes make the first manned hot air balloon flight when they fly over Paris, France, for twenty-five minutes. Their cloth balloon was crafted by French papermaking brothers Jacques Etienne and Joseph Michel Montgolfier, who believed smoke, not hot air, caused balloons to rise. Fueling the balloon's burner with a combination of damp straw, rotting meat, and rags, Rozier and d'Arlandes ascended as high as 1000 meters, before returning safely to earth. The previous month, Rozier was the first human passenger aboard a rising balloon, when he rose 25 meters in a tethered Montgolfier-made balloon, and four months before that, a duck, a rooster, and a sheep each successfully took a ride on a Montgolfier hot air balloon.
— MORE
1638 A General Assembly at Glasgow abolished the episcopal form of church government, adopted the presbyterian form in its place, and gave final constitution to the Church of Scotland.
1620 Mayflower Compact
      There are more than l60 independent nations in the world. Whether dictatorships or democracies, nearly all have written constitutions, but that of the United States is by far the oldest. This is something we can so easily take for granted. But it really marked a pivotal turning point in history and the way nations came to govern themselves.
      How do you suppose the founding fathers ever thought of having a written Constitution? The idea of a written contract between the people and their government came from a tiny band of 50 Christians called Pilgrims that sailed to America in the Mayflower in l620. The Pilgrims believed many of the Church of England's traditions were not Biblical. Since both King James and the state church persecuted all critics as criminals, the Pilgrims became Separatists and fled first to Holland, then to America. They planned to land in Virginia, where they had a charter from the King to govern them, but Atlantic storms carried them far north to Cape Cod. Since their charter was not valid in that region, they needed a new governnment.
      And so on this day, November 20, l620, the Pilgrims drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact. It said: "For the glorie of God and advancement of ye Christian faith, we do... ...covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick...to enact,... and frame... just and equal laws...for the general good of the Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." The compact was modelled after the church covenant that the Pilgrims had drafted and signed in l607 when they had first separated from the English Church and fled to Holland. For the next fifty years, the Mayflower compact served the Pilgrims well, and it became an important precedent for the idea of a written American Constitution at the Convention of l787.
     Le voilier Mayflower arrive en vue du futur Massachusetts.
     Le Mayflower arrive en vue de Cape Cod, sur la côte sauvage du Massachusets. Ses passagers, les "Pilgrim Fathers" ou Pères Pélerins et d'autres colons, signent un pacte de démocratie et de tolérance dont les principes guident encore la vie étatsunienne.
      Les passagers, au nombre d'une centaine, désiraient s'établir dans la colonie anglaise de Virginie. Ils comprennent qu'ils ont fait fausse route. Comme ils vont débarquer en terre inconnue, ils signent un pacte à l'instigation des «Pilgrim Fathers» (Pères Pèlerins), 35 protestants anglais très pieux qui fuient les persécutions du roi Jacques 1er. Ce pacte connu comme le «Mayflower Compact» édicte les principes qui régiront le futur établissement. Il jette les bases d'une démocratie locale respectueuse des croyances de chacun. La première année est néanmoins très difficile. De nombreux colons succombent à la faim et à la maladie. Les autres ne doivent leur survie qu'aux dindes sauvages et au maïs fourni par les Indiens.
      En novembre 1621, enfin, la communauté organise une journée d'action de grâce. C'est le premier «Thanksgiving Day». Le président Lincoln érigera le «Thanksgiving Day» en fête nationale en 1863.
1361 Jean le Bon réunit définitivement le comté de Toulouse à la couronne.
0695 Willibrord is consecrated bishop by Sergius II. An Englishman he took the gospel to the Friesians of Northern Europe.
0235 St Anterus begins his reign as Pope
TO THE TOP
Deaths which occurred on a November 21:
2002 Bonnie Penner Witherall, 31, US Baptist, shot three times in the head at close range with a 7-millimeter pistol, right inside the door of the Sidon, Lebanon, two-story building that houses both a missionary evangelical church and its Unity Center prenatal clinic of the Christian and Missionary Alliance where she was a volunteer nurse's assistant and which, alone, she had just opened at 07:45 (04:45 UT). Bonnie Witherall was in the habit of gathering Muslim children and preaching Christianity to them while giving them food and toys, which angered the local Muslim leaders. Bonnie and her British-born husband, Gary Witherall, 36 (who forgives the unknown killer[s]), were partner missionaries with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
2000: [>>>] Marina Bazarski, 46; Dikla Zino, 22; Sima Novak, 56; Yafit Ravivo, 13, all four from the Jerusalem neighborhood Ein Ganim; Hodaya Asraf, 13, from Kiryat Menachem; Varga Mirsa, 25, a man tourist from Romania; Ella Sharshevsky, 44, and her son, Michael Sharshevsky, 16; Kira Friedman, 67, and her grandson Ilan Friedman, 8; Hadassah Helena Ben-David; 32; and suicide bomber Na'al Azmi Abu Hilayal, 23, at 07:10 on an Egged bus #20 crowded with soldiers, school kids, and old people, on Mexico Street in Jerusalem's residential Kiryat Menachem neighborhood. 36 persons are injured. Abu Hilail, from the village of Dura south of Mount Hebron, belonged to Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. The Israelis arrest his brother and his father, Azmi, who says: “Our religion says we are proud of him until the day of resurrection. This is a challenge to the Zionist enemies.". — [The Israeli authorities are frustrated, no doubt, that they cannot apply the death penalty to a suicide bomber. They will probably follow up by bulldozing his family's home. They might have considered turning the bomber's remains into dog food, if there had been any remains.]
2002 More than 50 persons stabbed, bludgeoned, or burned by fanatic Muslim mobs rioting in Kaduna, Nigeria, where they had the previous day burned an office of This Day newspaper, which, commenting on Muslim protests against the Miss World pageant to be held on 07 December 2002 in Abuja, had printed on 16 November 2002 an article of Isioma Daniel which included: “What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among” the contestants. Apparently intent on demonstrating that the Prophet would not have taken one wife (or several) from among the indecently burka-less beauties, but would have called for the final solution to religious diversity — the immediate extermination of the infidels — mobs of Muslim hooligans, armed with machetes, axes, guns, rocks, and gasoline, burn four churches and rampage through the streets, attacking anyone they believe to be a Christian. Hundreds of soldiers are deployed, but are unable to restore calm or to enforce a curfew first of 18:00 to 06:00 then round-the-clock. Some 200 persons are seriously injured on this first day. Hordes of young men, shouting "Allahu Akhbar," ignite makeshift street barricades made of tires and garbage, sending plumes of black smoke rising above the city. Some chant, "Down with beauty" and "Miss World is sin." Christian hooligans then try to fight back, burn mosques, and smash windows. Some 200 more persons would be killed and 300 more injured as the riots continue unabated for two more days, spreading briefly to Abuja also, until, on 23 November, the Miss World organizers announce that the pageant will be moved to London. In all at least 22 churches, 8 mosques, and the homes of 4500 persons would be destroyed. Previous riots in Kaduna, a largely Muslim city with a sizable Christian minority, have escalated into religious battles that killed hundreds since civilian government replaced military rule in 1999. Islamic fundamentalist groups have for several months warned of protests against the Miss World pageant, prompting organizers to postpone the finale until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The pageant has also drawn protests from other parts of the world. Contestants from five countries - Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama - are boycotting the event because Islamic courts in Nigeria have sentenced several unmarried women to death by stoning for conceiving babies outside wedlock. Nigeria's government insists none of the judgments will be carried out, although it has refused to intervene directly.
Lundgrem2001 Ottilie Lundgren, 94, of pulmonary anthrax, at 10:32 in Griffin Hospital, Derby, Connecticut, where she had been admitted on 16 November 2001. The source of her infection is a mystery. [< photo]
2000 Itamar Yefet, 18, Israeli of the Netzer Hazani settlement in Gaza, from a gunshot wound to the head received a few hours earlier from a Palestinian sniper.
1999 Quentin Crisp, 90, in Manchester, England, eccentric writer, performer and raconteur best-known for his autobiography The Naked Civil Servant.
1996 Thirty-three persons, by an explosion of leaking gas in a six-story building in San Juan, Puerto Rico.More than 100 are injured.
1980: 87 persons, by fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1979 Two US citizens, by a mob attacking the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1937 Howard E. Coffin, 64, Hudson Motor founder, in gun accident
     Coffin, who founded the Hudson Motor Company along with Joseph L. Hudson in 1909, died from an accidental gunshot wound at Sea Island Beach in Georgia. Coffin served as vice-president and chief engineer of Hudson from 1909 to 1930, and was responsible for a number of Hudson's important automotive innovations, including the placement of the steering wheel on the left side, the self-starter, and dual brakes. Under Coffin's influence the Hudson Essex was introduced in 1919, a sturdy automobile built on an all-steel body that sold for pennies more than Ford's Model T. Coffin's last production year with Hudson was also the company's most prosperous — Hudson production peaked in 1929 with over 300'000 units.
1927 Five striking Colorado mine workers, machine gunned by police. 20 miners are wounded.
1927 Laurits Regner Tuxen, Danish artist born on 09 December 1853. — MORE ON TUXEN AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1917 Rudolf von Eschwege, German ace , killed over Macedonia when he attacks a booby-trapped observation balloon packed with explosives.
Franz Josef of Austria
1916 François-Joseph 1er, le vieil empereur d'Autriche, en pleine guerre mondiale.
       Monté sur le trône après les révolutions libérales de 1848, il a rénové le vieil empire et l'a transformé en une double monarchie austro-hongroise. Le long règne de cet empereur aux célèbres bacchantes a été jalonné par d'immenses tragédies personnelles. D'abord le suicide de son fils Rodolphe dans le pavillon de Mayerling puis l'assassinat à Genève de son épouse Elisabeth (Sissi). Apprenant l'assassinat à Sarajevo, le 28 Jun 1914, de l'archiduc François-Ferdinand et de sa femme Sophie, "rien ne m'aura donc été épargné", murmure d'un ton las le vieil empereur. Il ne sait pas à ce moment-là que le pire est à venir avec l'entrée de l'Europe dans la Grande Guerre.
      Son successeur, Charles 1er, se montre très vite désireux de sortir son pays du conflit qui l'entraîne vers sa perte. Par son mariage avec la duchesse Zita de Bourbon-Parme, il est très proche des milieux français. Les deux frères de sa femme, Sixte et Xavier, se sont eux-mêmes engagés dans l'armée belge dès le début de la guerre après avoir été rejetés par les Français en raison de leurs liens familiaux avec l'ancienne dynastie des Bourbons.
      Pendant l'année 1917, Charles 1er va donc entamer des pourparlers secrets avec l'Entente franco-anglaise en vue de conclure une paix séparée. Il va utiliser pour cela les services de son beau-frère Sixte. Ces pourparlers vont échouer en raison de la haine que vouent nombre de dirigeants occidentaux à la dynastie des Habsbourg, de l'impossibilité d'un compromis franco-allemand sur l'avenir de l'Alsace-Lorraine, du désir des Italiens et des Roumains de s'approprier quelques lambeaux de l'Autriche-Hongrie, des manigances enfin des Tchèques de l'émigration en faveur de la création d'une "Tchécoslovaquie" indépendante qui reviendrait à démembrer l'empire. Il est permis de rêver à ce qui serait advenu si ces généreuses tentatives avaient abouti; aux morts épargnées et au coup d’Etat communiste évité en Russie.
1909 Feder Severin (or Søren) Krøyer, Danish painter, sculptor and draftsman, born on 23 July 1851. — MORE ON KRØYER AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1899 Garret Augustus Hobart, 55, in Paterson, N.J., 24th US Vice President, serving under President McKinley.
1895 Silvestro Lega, Italian artist born in 1826.. — LINKS — The Folk Song (1867) — The Pergola (1868) — The Betrothed (1869)
1894 Johann Till, Austrian artist born on 19 July 1827.
1874 Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (or: y Carbo?), Spanish painter born on 11 June 1838. — MORE ON FORTUNY AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1855 Charles Dow, a Free Stater from Ohio, gunned down by Franklin Colman, a pro-slavery Missourian, near Lawrence, Kansas.
1849 François-Marius Granet, French artist born on 17 September 1775.
1830 Károly Kisfaludy, 42, Romantic dramatist, the first Hungarian playwright to achieve considerable popular success.
1733 Louis de Boulogne II (or Boullogne), French artist born in 1654.
1717 Jean-Baptiste Santerre, French painter born on 23 March 1651. — MORE ON SANTERRE AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1558 Carlos I, rey de España, en Yuste..
1695 Henry Purcell, compositor inglés del Barroco.
1853 Rufino Cuervo y Barreto, político, estadista y periodista colombiano.
1874 Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, pintor español.
1916 Francisco José I, emperador de Austria-Hungría.
1920 Doce oficiales británicos del servicio de inteligencia, degollados en el llamado "Domingo Sangriento", primera gran ofensiva del IRA.
1936 Emiliano Barral, escultor español.
1946 Eduardo Marquina, poeta y dramaturgo español.
1974: 19 muertos al estallar siete bombas en Birmingham, Inglaterra, atentado, reivindicado por el IRA, que también causa más de 200 heridos.
2000 Ernest Lluch, político español.
1555 Georgius Agricola, 61, mineralogist, in Germany
1624 Jakob Bohme German philosophical mystic
0496 St Gelasius I, Pope who established the Roman Catholic canon of scripture and regulated the mass.
Births which occurred on a November 21:
1970 Ford Mustang Boss 351 car
      The rarest of Ford Mustangs — the Boss 351 — debuted at the Detroit Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. Ford first introduced the Mustang marquee in 1964 and the car was an instant success, appearing on the covers of both Time and Newsweek. The car, known as a "pony car" for its small size, had the appearance of a sports car. However, the Mustang was far more reasonably prized than the average sports car, and it possessed a rare popular appeal that made it one of the greatest automotive success stories of the 1960s. By 1970, the Ford Mustang had grown considerably in size, and the Boss 351 could better be described as a "muscle car" than a "pony car." The car featured a powerful 8-cyclinder engine built on Ford's new "Cleveland" block, and was factory rated at 300 bhp. The Boss 351 was also unquestionably the rarest Mustang ever released — it was manufactured for just a single production year, 1971, and only 1,806 units were made — compared with the 500,000 Mustangs manufactured and sold by Ford in 1965 alone.
1942 Alaska-Canada highway completed
      The US Army Corps of Engineers, working with the Public Roads Administration, complete the Alcan Highway, an overland military supply route to the US territory of Alaska, and a link between airfields in Canada and Alaska. The project was an emergency war measure to provide greater protection for Alaska and northwestern Canada against attack by Japanese forces. Completed in less than ten months, the Alcan Highway, named after an acronym for Alaska and Canada, stretched more than 2400 km from Sawson Creek, British Colombia, to Fairbanks, Alaska. In the following year, the road is improved upon by private contractors, and in 1948, three years after the end of World War II, the entire route is opened to civilian traffic. Today, the Alcan Highway is known as the Alaska Highway.
1929 Marilyn French, novelist and critic (The Women's Room).
1908 Elizabeth G. Speare, writer of historical novels for children.
1907 Jim Bishop, American journalist. He gave new life to great historical moments through his "day" books, including his The Day Christ Died (1957), The Day Lincoln was Shot.
1902 Mijail Andreievich Suslov, ideólogo soviético.
1921 Horacio Sáenz Guerrero, periodista español.
1928 Pepa doncel, obra teatral de Jacinto Benavente y Martínez se estrena en Madrid.
1931 Carlos Murciano González, escritor español.
1941 Julio Anguita González, político y dirigente comunista español.
1964 Se inaugura en Nueva York el "Verrazano Bridge", el mayor puente colgante del mundo, que une Brooklyn y Staten Island.
click for full photo1898 René François Ghislain Magritte, Belgian Surrealist painter who died on 15 August 1967. — MORE ON MAGRITTE AT ART “4” NOVEMBER with links to images.
1888 Adolph Arthur “Harpo” Marx [click on image for full picture >] (comedian, actor: pretend-mute Marx brother; accomplished harpist). The child who had the good sense to never grow up (though he got to be 165 cm tall). With the big, poofy, curly red hair, a top hat, and a horn, the lovable mute was the favorite of the Marx Brothers. Though chasing woman was a favorite routine of his in the movies, Harpo was a devoted father and husband. He adopted the mute routine in vaudeville and carried it over to the films. Harpo was an accomplished self-taught harpist who's musical numbers would many times bring tears to the eyes of the audience of an otherwise hilarious movie. He died on 28 September 1964 after heart surgery.
1863 Arthur Quiller-Couch, writer. QUILLER-COUCH ONLINE: On the Art of Reading: Lectures Delivered in the University of Cambridge, 1916-1917 — On the Art of Writing: Lectures Delivered in the University of Cambridge, 1913-1914 — The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales From the Old French (1910) — editor of The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900 (1919) — The Project Gutenberg Book of English Verse
1854 Benedict XV 258th pope (1914-22)
1821 Jean-Baptiste Robie, Belgian artist who died on 08 December 1910.
1787 Sir Samuel Cunard founder (1st regular Atlantic steamship line)
1785 William Beaumont, pioneer American army surgeon (studied digestion)
1724 Jan Ekels I, Dutch artist who died on 22 November 1781.
click for full portrait1694 François-Marie Arouet “Voltaire”, in Paris to a treasury officer and his wife.

[click on image for full portrait by Quentin de la Tour >]

       He would become a philosopher, historian, poet, dramatist, and novelist
      Voltaire studied law but abandoned it to become a writer. He won success with his plays — mostly classical tragedies at first. He also wrote histories and epic poetry. His writing brought him some measure of success, and his wise investments made him wealthy in his mid-30s.
      However, his epic poem La Henriade, a satirical attack on politics and religion, infuriated the government and landed Voltaire in the Bastille for nearly a year in 1717.
      Voltaire's time in prison failed to quench his satire. In 1726, he again displeased authorities and fled to England. He returned several years later and continued to write plays.
      In 1734, his Lettres philosophiques criticized established religions and political institutions, and he was forced to flee once more. He retreated to the region of Champagne, where he lived with his mistress and patroness, Madame du Châtelet.
      In 1750, he moved to Berlin on the invitation of Frederick II of Prussia and later settled in Switzerland, where he wrote his best-known work, Candide.
      Voltaire died in Paris on 30 May 1778, having returned to supervise the production of one of his plays.

Triomphe de Voltaire, painting by Duplessis

VOLTAIRE ONLINE:
  • Candide
  • L'homme aux quarante écus
  • Lettres philosophiques
  • Micromégas
  • Le monde comme il va
  • La Pucelle d'Orléans (1762)
    		• In English translations:
  • Candide
  • Candide (in English and French)
  • Letters on England
  • Philosophical Dictionary (selected entries)
    • 1643 René-Robert Cavelier de la Salle, à Rouen, dans une riche famille de négociants, le 21 novembre, futur découvreur de la Louisiane.
    1495 John Bale England, bishop / anti-Catholic playwright (Kynge Johan)
    Holidays North Carolina : Ratification Day (1789)
    Religious Observances Orthodox : St Michael the Archangel (11/8 OS) / RC : Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary / La Presentación de Nuestra Señora; Santos: Alejandro, Basilio, Celso, Clemente, Esteban, Honorio y Rufo. / Saint Albert de Louvain est élu évêque de Liège à 25 ans, en 1191. L'empereur d'Allemagne refuse de reconnaître son élection et Albert doit aller plaider sa cause à Rome. A son retour, de passage à Reims, il est assassiné par deux chevaliers allemands à la solde de l'empereur.
    ANSWER: RELATE IT TO THE KALEVALA. (If you don't know what the question was, look in this space on the 22 November page)
    Thoughts for the day : “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our change.”
    “The louder he talked of our honor, the faster we counted his change.”
    “The faster he talked of his honor, the quieter we counted our change.”
    “The feaster talked of his honor, the faster counted our change.”
    “The loader, he talked of his zoner; the fast, the weak haunted arch hinge.”
    "The more the Count honored our talk, the faster we changed."
    "The Moor's talk honored our Count, so we changed the fast.”
    “Most people have the ability to talk faster than they think. The wise don't use it."
    “A concept is stronger than a fact.” —     Charlotte P. Gilman, US lecturer and author (1860-1935) [Is that a fact?]
    “The louder he talked of his concept, the faster we counted our facts.”
    “The louder he talked of his facts, the faster we changed our concept.”
    “The faster the Count changed his concept, the more we talked of our facts.”
    “Vivre, c'est renaître lentement.” —     Antoine de Saint-Éxupéry
    “Vivre lentement, c'est être un légume.”
    “Mourir, c'est renaître vite.”
    “Mourir lentement, c'est une agonie.”
    “Vivre ici-bas, c'est mourir lentement.”
    TO THE TOP
    PLEASE CLICK HERE TO WRITE TO “TODAY IN HISTORY”
    http://www.jcanu.hpg.ig.com.br/history/h4nov/h4nov21.html
    http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/all42day/history/h4nov/h4nov21.html
    http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/history/h4nov/h4nov21.html
    http://f.m.erids.web1000.com/history/h4nov/h4nov21.html
    updated Wednesday 19-Nov-2003 2:03 UT
    safe site site safe for children safe site