Top online courses in Teaching & Academics Top online courses in Health & Fitness

Jerry Waxman

A protestor celebrates with others for the signing by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh of a document agreeing to step down (AP Photo-Hani Mohammed)

Today in History: November 23

Today in History: November 23:
In 1971, China was seated in the United Nations Security Council.
In 1980, 2500 people were killed by a series of earthquakes in southern Italy.
In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed into the water off the Comoro Islands.
And there’s more.

Continue Reading
Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, 1718 depicting the battle between Blackbeard the Pirate and Lieutenant Maynard in Ocracoke Bay

Today in History: November 22

Today in History: November 22:
In 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was shot during a motorcade in Dallas.
In 1718, English pirate Edward Teach — better known as “Blackbeard” — was killed during a battle off North Carolina.
In 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, California, carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having failed to win reelection to the Conservative Party leadership on the first ballot, announced she would resign.
In 2005, Angela Merkel took power as Germany’s first female chancellor.

Continue Reading
In 1985, U S Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested and accused of spying for Israel

Today in History: November 21

What happened on November 21st in the past?
In 1980 a fire in the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas killed 85 people.
In 1920 it was Bloody Sunday in Dublin, Ireland.
In 1985 Jonathan Pollard was arrested in Washington, DC, for spying.
In 2022 NASA had a space vehicle orbit the moon for the first time in 50 years.
And there’s more.

Continue Reading
Soldiers re-enact a revolution battle as part of Mexican Revolution anniversary celebrations (AP Photo, Marco Ugarte)

Today in History: November 20

Today in History: November 20: On Nov. 20, 1910, Francisco Madero led a revolt against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, marking the beginning of the decade-long Mexican Revolution. In 1945, 22 former Nazi officials went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. In 1947, Britain’s future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey. In 1969, Native American activists began an occupation of Alcatraz Island that would last 19 months. In 1982, the University of California football team defeated Stanford University by scoring a touchdown in a crazy last move of the game. In 1992, fire seriously damaged Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Continue Reading
President Abraham Lincoln makes his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (AP Photo)

Today in History: November 19

Today in History: November 19: On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. In 1959, Ford Motor Company announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel. In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon. In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.

Continue Reading
Steamboat Willie was the first film to feature Mickey Mouse (Creative Commons)

Today in History: November 18

Today in History: November 18: In 1928, “Steamboat Willie,” the first cartoon with synchronized sound as well as the first released of the character Mickey Mouse, debuted on screen at the Colony Theater in New York. In 1978, U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan of California and four others were killed on an airstrip in Jonestown, Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide resulting in the deaths of more than 900 cult members. In 1991, Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut. In 2021, more than half a century after the assassination of Malcolm X, two of his convicted killers were exonerated; a New York judge dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam after prosecutors and the men’s lawyers said a renewed investigation had found new evidence that undermined the case against them.

Continue Reading
About 200,000 people gather in Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution (AP Photo-Peter Dejong, File)

Today in History: November 17

Today in History: November 17. On November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt. In 1989, an estimated 10,000-15,000 Czechoslovakian students demonstrated in Prague against Communist rule. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California. In 2020, President Donald Trump fired the nation’s top election security official, Christopher Krebs, who had refuted Trump’s lies about electoral fraud and vouched for the integrity of the vote.

Continue Reading
Harry Potter fans arrive at a London cinema for a showing of the first Harry Potter film on the day of its general release (AP Photo-Alastair Grant)

Today in History: November 16

Today in History: November 16. In 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of an 800-mile oil pipeline from the Alaska North Slope to the port city of Valdez. In 1988, Benazir Bhutto was voted prime minister of Pakistan, the first woman to be elected to lead a Muslim-majority country. In 2001, the first film in the Harry Potter series, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ debuted in theaters around the world. In 2006, following midterm elections, Nancy Pelosi was nominated by the Democratic caucus to become the first female speaker of the House. In 2018, a U.S. official said intelligence officials had concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Continue Reading
Gen. William Sherman inspects battlements at Atlanta before his March to the Sea during the American Civil War (AP Photo)

Today in History: November 15

Today in History: November 15: On Nov. 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation. In 1806, explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now known as Pikes Peak in present-day Colorado. In 1864, late in the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman began their “March to the Sea.” In 1988 The Palestinian Declaration of Independence formally established the State of Palestine.

Continue Reading