This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history
is the most important of all the lessons of history.” Aldous Huxley
Nov 16-22, 2020
November 16
1676 – The first colonial prison is organized in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
1914 – The Federal Reserve System formally opens. The “Fed” was created by Congress during the Wilson administration as the central bank of the U.S. to influence monetary policy and regulate banks. The “Fed” is made up of 12 member banks for each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts and has never been audited.
1952 – In the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy first holds a football for Charlie Brown.
1963 – The touch-tone telephone is introduced.
1965 – Walt Disney launches Epcot Center (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). Walt Disney died the following year and Epcot opens in 1982. Watch an animated ride on the EPCOT People Mover with electronic voiceover.
1973 – President Nixon authorizes construction of the Alaskan pipeline. The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977. More than 18 billion barrels of crude oil have been pumped through the pipeline.
1981 – Luke and Laura finally get married on the soap opera “General Hospital.” It is the longest running American soap opera still in production (since 1963). This year it surpassed Guiding Light (1952-2009) as the longest soap opera of all time. Watch the long-awaited wedding ceremony.
2012 – “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” grosses $500 million in the first 24 hours to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time – until “Grand Theft Auto V” pulled in $800 million in the first 24 hours in 2013. It took in $1 billion in just 3 days.
2017 – Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is accused of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement. He resigned in January 2018.
November 17
1800 – Congress holds its first session in the incomplete Capitol building Washington, DC. The building was completed in 1826.
1871 – The National Rifle Association (NRA) is chartered in New York.
1894 – H. H. Holmes, identified as the first American serial killer, is arrested in Boston after being tracked by Pinkerton detectives. Although he confessed to 27 murders, it is believed he is guilty of more than 200 murders. He was hanged in 1896 after being convicted on a single count of murder.
1936 – Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy become an overnight success on radio. The Edgar Bergen/ Charlie McCarthy Show aired until 1956. Edgar Bergen died in 1978 at age 75. Charlie is on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
1967 – Surveyor 6 becomes the first man-made object to lift off from the Moon.
1968 – NBC cuts to the movie “Heidi,” missing the Oakland Raider’s rally in the final two minutes of the football game. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in 9 seconds of play to beat the New York Jets, 43-32 in the “Heidi Bowl.” Watch the news broadcast and the last minute of the game never seen on TV.
1992 – Dateline NBC airs a demonstration showing a General Motors truck blowing up on impact. It was later revealed NBC rigged the test. Watch the test and Dateline NBC’s mea culpa.
1993 – The U.S. House of Representatives approves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
2004 – Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
November 18
1820 – U.S. Navy Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer of Connecticut, age 22, discovers Antarctica.
1872 – American suffragette Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women are arrested after voting on November 5th in Rochester, New York. Anthony was denied a trial by jury and was tried in Federal Court in June of 1873 by newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Ward Hunt. Anthony was not allowed to speak in her own defense until after she was found guilty and ordered to pay a $100 fine. She told the judge she “shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty,” and she never did.
1883 – Standard time zones are formed by the railroads in U.S. and Canada that would provide a uniform schedule for train departures and arrivals. Four times zones were first proposed in 1870 by Charles F. Dowd.
1902 – Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michton names the stuffed bear after President Theodore Roosevelt. The “teddy” bear was nicknamed for the president following a hunting trip in 1902 with Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino in which Teddy Roosevelt refused to kill an old bear tied to a tree.
1928 – The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” starring Mickey Mouse premieres in New York.
1932 – “Flowers & Trees” by Walt Disney Studios receives the first Academy Award for a cartoon. Watch the cartoon at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjnzlj5ihkY
1951 – Chuck Connors (Los Angeles Angels) becomes the first baseball player to ask for an exemption to the major league baseball draft. Connors left baseball to become an actor, including being the star of the television show “The Rifleman” (1958-1963). He also served in the Army during WWII as a tank-warfare instructor, after which he played basketball for the Boston Celtics before turning to baseball.
1961 – President JFK sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
1966 – The U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops changes the rule prohibiting eating meat on Fridays, amending it to apply only during Lent.
1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana (South America), 909 members of the Peoples Temple are murdered or commit suicide under the leadership of American cult leader Jim Jones.
2001 – Phillips Petroleum and Conoco merge into a new company as ‘ConocoPhillips’, the third-largest oil and natural gas company in the U.S.
November 19
1620 – The “Mayflower” reaches Cape Cod and explores the coast. They eventually landed at Plymouth Rock.
1794 – The Jay Treaty is signed with Great Britain. Named for the first Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay, the treaty granted America “Most Favored Nation” status but left many issues from the Revolutionary War unresolved.
1861 – Julia Ward Howe pens “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” as a poem. It was first published in “The Atlantic Monthly” in February 1862. The music was from the song “John Brown’s Body.”
1863 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his famous “Four score and seven years ago…” address in Pennsylvania dedicating the Gettysburg battlefield. Lincoln was asked to deliver the “concluding remarks” at the dedication ceremony, following the lengthy principal address by Massachusetts Senator Edward Everett. Listen to a recitation of the address with Civil War photographs.
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1919 – The U.S. Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles with the League of Nations by a vote of 55-39. The U.S. signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in 1921.
1950 – U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme commander of NATO in Europe. He was president from 1952-1960.
1980 – CBS-TV bans Calvin Klein’s jeans ad featuring 15-year-old Brooke Shields. Watch the provocative ad.
1997 – Bobbi McCaughey of Des Moines, Iowa, gives birth to septuplets (4 boys and 3 girls) in the first known case where all seven babies were born alive and survive infancy. Today they are 23 years old.
1998 – The U. S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The House of Representatives impeached Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice but he remained in office. President Andrew Johnson was the only other president to endure impeachments proceedings. The impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” was not upheld and Johnson also remained in office.
2002 – The U.S. government takes over of security at 424 airports nationwide through the TSA following the signing of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act by President George W. Bush.
November 20
1866 – The first national convention of the Civil War Veteran’s organization the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) is held.
1947 – “Meet the Press” makes its network TV debut on NBC. The news program is the longest running TV show and still airs weekly.
1959 – WABC fires Alan Freed over the “payola” scandal. Freed accepted gratuities and consultation fees from record companies and promoters. When ABC demanded that Freed sign a prepared oath swearing he never received payments for promoting musical recordings on the air, Freed refused and was fired.
1969 – The Nixon administration announces a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase out of the substance.
1982 – Drew Barrymore hosts Saturday Night Live at age 7, making her the youngest host in SNL history. She has hosted SNL six times. Watch the opening skit with little Drew. Drew Barrymore on SNL
1984 – McDonald’s made its 50 billionth hamburger. They stopped updating their signs after 99 billion were sold in 1994. It is estimated that McDonald’s will sell their 300 billionth hamburger this year. They sell 75 hamburgers every second. McDonald’s estimates that 1 in 8 Americans have worked for the hamburger chain.
1998 – Forty-six states agree to a $206 billion settlement of health claims against the tobacco industry. The industry also agreed to give up billboard advertising of cigarettes.
2014 – Nearly 5 million illegal migrants in the U.S. will have the threat of deportation deferred after President Obama announces sweeping immigration changes.
2017 – Once the world’s largest covered stadium, The Georgia Dome in Atlanta is imploded in 12 seconds 25 years after it was built. Watch the explosions and implosion.
November 21
1871 – Emilio Onra is the first human cannonball.
1959 – Jack Benny (on violin) and Richard Nixon (on piano) play their famed duet during the President’s Ball at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Watch their performance.
1964 – “Verrazano Narrows” opens between Staten Island and Brooklyn as the world’s longest suspension bridge. It was surpassed by the Humber Bridge in England in 1981 and then the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan in 1998.
1974 – Congress passes the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) over President Gerald Ford’s veto. FOIA allows people to request access federal records or information with nine exceptions, such as national security or personnel files.
1980 – It is revealed that Kristin Shepard (played by Mary Crosby) is the person who shot J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman) on the TV show “Dallas.” Several alternate scenes were filmed to keep it secret. Watch the big reveal.
1989 – President George H. W. Bush signs a law banning smoking on most domestic flights.
1995 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 5,000 for first time.
2013 – The Dow Jones closes above 16,000 for the first time.
November 22
1718 – British pirate Edward Teach (“Blackbeard”) is killed off the coast of North Carolina in battle with a boarding party led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
1906 – International Radio Telecommunications Company adopts “SOS” as the new Morse code call for help. . . . – – – . . .
1923 – President Calvin Coolidge pardons German spy Lothar Witzke, who was sentenced to death for his role in the sabotage of installations in the San Francisco shipyards and New York Harbors during WW I.
1963 – President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, et al, in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president the same day.
1977 – The Packet Radio net, SATNET, and ARPANET are connected, sending a message from California to London and back via satellite to Virginia and then the University of Southern California in a demonstration of what would eventually become the Internet.
1984 – Fred Rogers of PBS’ “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” presents a sweater to the Smithsonian Institution. Watch Mr. Rogers don his sweater at the opening of his show.
1985 – In the largest swearing-in ceremonies to date, 38,648 immigrants became citizens of the U.S. after the 12th and final ceremony in two weeks in Los Angeles.
1995 – “Toy Story” is released as the first feature-length film completely created using computer-generated imagery.
1998 – CNN airs a tape of Jack Kevorkian giving lethal drugs in an assisted suicide of a terminally ill patient with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Kevorkian was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder and was paroled in 2005. Kevorkian died from a blood clot and liver cancer in 2011 at age 83.
2008 – YouTube hosts the largest ever live broadcast, YouTube Live.
2016 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 19,000 for the first time, two weeks after Donald Trump is elected president. It closed above 20,000 five days after Trump was inaugurated. The Dow is now over 29,000.
Image from: history.com
