November 19, 1863
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November 19, 1919
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• At the dedication of a military cemetary in Pennsylvania
during the civil war, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one
of the most memorable speeches in American history, the 272 word Gettysburg
Address.
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• The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote
of 55-39, short of the two-thirds majoriy needed for ratification.
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November 20, 1620
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November 20, 1820
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• Peregrine White is born aboard the Mayflower
in Cape Code Bay. He is the first child born of English parents in New England.
White eventually became a captain of militia and lived to the ripe old age of 83.
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• The American whaler Essex is attacked by an 80 ton sperm whale
2,000 miles from the western coast of South America. Herman Melville's
classic novel "Moby-Dick" (1851) was inspired in part
by the story of the Essex.
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November 21, 1877
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November 21, 1980
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• Thomas Edison announces his invention of the
phonograph, a way to record and play back sound. The machine was a stylus on a
tinfoil cylinder, which played back a short song he had recorded, "Mary Had a
Little Lamb".
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• 350 million people around the world tune in to television's
popular primetime drama "Dallas" to find out who shot J.R.
Ewing. The new episode solved the mystery, identifying Kristen Shepard, J.R.'s
sister in-law and his former mistress, as the culprit.
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November 22, 1955
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November 22, 1963
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• Record company RCA announces that it has purchased the
recording contract for Elvis Presley from Sun Records. RCA paid
$35,000 for the contract, a record sum at the time. Presley also received a
$5,000 advance, which he used to buy a pink Cadillac for his mother.
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• President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in
Dallas. Three bullets allegedly were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald,
fatally wounding Kennedy and injuring Texas Gov. John Connally. Kennedy was
pronounced dead 30 minutes later. He was 46.
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November 23, 1936
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November 23, 1980
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• The first issue of the pictorial magazine Life is published.
Publisher Henry Luce meant for the magazine to provide a way
for the American people "to see life; to see the world; to witness great events".
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• About 4,800 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that
devastated southern Italy.
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November 24, 1859
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November 24, 1963
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• British naturalist Charles Darwin published
On the Origin of Species, in which he explained his theory of
evolution through the process of natural selection.
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• In a scene captured on live network television, Dallas
nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded
Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President
Kennedy.
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November 25, 1941
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November 25, 1947
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• Admiral Harold R. Stark, U.S. chief of
naval operations, tells admiral Husband E. Kimmel,
commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, that President
Roosevelt thinks a Japanese suprise attack is a distinct
possibility. But no one expected the target would be Hawaii, which was
attacked 12 days later.
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• Film industry executives announce that 10 directors,
producers, and actors who have refused to testify before the House
Un-American Activities Committee, and name others who allegedly belonged
to the Communist Party, will be fired or suspended. The "Hollywood Ten"
were also jailed and fined for contempt of Congress.
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November 26, 1922
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November 26, 1950
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• In Egypt's Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists
become the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen's
tomb in more than 3,000 years. Tutankhamen's sealed burial chamber held a
gold coffin containing the mummy of the teenage king.
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• China entered the Korean conflict, launching a counter
offensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the United States and
South Korea.
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November 27, 1924
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November 27, 1942
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• New York City's Macy's department
store holds its first Thanksgiving Day parade down a 2-mile stretch of
Broadway. The parade featured large performing platforms that, because
they were attached to specially outfitted automobiles concealed beneath
them, seemed to "float" down the street.
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• During World War II, the French Navy at Toulon scuttled
its ships and submarines to prevent them from falling into the hands of
the Nazis.
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November 28, 1520
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November 28, 1943
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• Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan
reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait
that now bears his name.
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• President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader
Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II.
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November 29, 1947
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November 29, 1964
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• The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling
for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.
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• The U.S. Roman Catholic Church instituted sweeping
changes in the litergy, including the use of English instead of Latin.
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November 30, 1782
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November 30, 1987
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• The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace
articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
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• In an interview broadcast by NBC, Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that his country was engaged in
"Star Wars" related research, but said there were no plans to build a
space based system against nuclear attack.
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December 1, 1959
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December 1, 1980
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• Representatives of 12 countries, including the United
States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a
scientific preserve, free from military activity.
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• The island of Britain is connected with the European
mainland for the first time since the Ice Age when tunnel workers from
England and France meet 40 meters beneath the English channel seabed.
The "Chunnel" was officially opened in May 1994.
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December 2, 1954
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December 2, 1985
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• The U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Senator
Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a
Senator. The condemnation related to McCarthy's controversial
investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. Government,
military, and civilian society.
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• Organized crime bosses Paul Castellano
and Thomas Bilotti are gunned down,
making John Gotti the head of the Gambino crime
family, the most powerful Mafia operation in New York City. Gotti's
success at escaping conviction earned him the nickname
"Teflon Don".
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December 3, 1979
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December 3, 1984
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• Eleven people, ranging in age from 15 to 22, were
killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum,
where the Britsh rock group The Who was performing.
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• One of the worst industrial disasters in history
begins when a pesticide plant located in the densely populated
region of Bhopal in central India leaks a highly toxic cloud into
the air. At least 2,000 people were killed imediately, 600,000
were injured and more than 6,000 have died since.
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December 4, 1839
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December 4, 1943
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• The Whig Party opened a national convention
in Harrisburg, Pa., during which delegates nominated
William Henry Harrison of North Bend Oh. for
President.
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• President Franklin Roosevelt
closes the books on the Depression era Works Projects
Administration. The WPA gave more than 8 million Americans work
on an array of projects, including the construction of 650,000
miles of road and 125,000 public buildings.
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December 5, 1933
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December 5, 1945
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• The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is
ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to
the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America.
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• Five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo bombers take off
from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine
three hour training mission and never return. The bombers flew
over the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where
ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace.
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December 6, 1907
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December 6, 1923
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• In West Virginia's Marion County, an explosion
in a network of mines kills 361 coal miners, the worst mining
disaster in American history. Nationwide, a total of 3,242 miners
were killed in mine accidents in 1907.
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• A presidential address was broadcast on radio
for the first time as President Coolidge
spoke to a joint session of Congress.
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December 7, 1941
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December 7, 1988
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• Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of
the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island
of Oahu, an act that resulted in America's entry into World
War II.
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• A Major earthquake in the Soviet Union
devasted northern Armenia; an estimated 25,000 people died.
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December 8, 1854
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December 8, 1949
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• Pope Pius IX proclaimed the
dogma of the Immaculate conception, which holds that Mary,
mother of Jesus, was free of Original Sin from the moment she
was conceived.
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• The Chinese Nationalist government moved from
the Chinese mainland to Formosa, now called Taiwan, as the
Communists pressed their attacks.
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December 9, 1907
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December 9, 1926
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• Christmas seals went on sale for the first time,
in the Wimington, Del., post office. The proceeds went to fight
tuberculosis.
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• Young clarinetist Benny Goodman,
working hard to raise his family out of poverty in chicago, records
his first solo. Sadly, Goodman's father was hit by a car and killed
on the same day.
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