On this day in history, November 21st… 1877 : Thomas Edison announced the first of his inventions, the phonograph, a tinfoil cylindrical device that could not only record sounds, but could also re-play the recorded sound. While experimenting with a way to record telephone communications at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison developed a device using a stylus on […]
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On this day in history, November 20th… 1820 : An estimated 80 ton sperm whale attacked and destroyed the whaling ship, Essex, an event that partly inspired the novel Moby Dick. (Read more about this story here) 1873 : The two rival cities occupying the banks of the river Danube, “Buda” on the west-bank and “Pest” on the east-bank, were united to form […]
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On this day in history, November 19th… 1863 : American President Abraham Lincoln, gives the one of the best-known speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address. Around four and a half months prior to the address, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil war took place in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Often described as the turning point in the American Civil war, […]
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On this day in history, November 18th… 1307 : According to the 15th century Swiss chronicle legend, William Tell was made to shoot an apple off his son’s head. The legend goes as follows: an Austrian Vogt (like and over lord or bailiff) by the name Albrecht Gessler first installed a pole in the village square on which he hung his […]
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On this day in history, November 17th… 1558 : Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII, succeeded her half sister, Queen Mary I, to become the new Queen of England and Ireland and began an era that would be known in British history as the Elizabethan Age. For the short 5 years that Queen Mary I was sovereign head, she […]
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On this day in history, November 16th… 1938 : Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann became the first person to invent Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, better known as LSD. Dr. Hofmann first synthesized the drug at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, as part of a research program to find medical derivatives of ergot, a type of fungus found on rye. At that time though, […]
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On this day in history, November 15th… 1859 : An attempt to revive the Olympic Games first took place in Athens, Greece. The ancient Olympic Games were a symbol of ancient Greek traditions and they were always held in Olympia until emperor Theodosius I suppressed the games in 394 AD. While there were many attempts made to revive the Olympic games in the early 19th century, […]
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On this day in history, November 14th… 1851 : Harper & Brothers, New York published Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick” or “The Whale” as a single volume. Inspired by real life white whale called ‘Mocha Dick’, that destroyed over 20 whaling ships and reportedly survived encounters with another 80 or so, Melville wrote the story through the eyes of a wandering sailor Ishmael […]
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On this day in history, November 13th… 1927: A tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting the Island of Manhattan to New Jersey was opened. Originally known as the “Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel” or the “Canal Street Tunnel”, the Holland Tunnel (named after chief engineer, Clifford Milburn Holland) as it is known today was the first of two tunnels built under […]
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On this day in history, November 12th… 1799 : The Leonids meteor shower was the first known meteor shower to be recorded in North America. According to the journal entry on this day, astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass who was onboard a ship off the Florida Keys, wrote “whole heaven appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets, flying in an infinity […]
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On this day in history, November 11th… 1620 : The Mayflower anchors in Cape Cod, Massachusetts (what is now known as Provincetown Harbor), instead of their intended destination of Virginia. The Pilgrims also signed what is known as the ‘Mayflower Compact’. This was the first governing document of the Separatists (who were also known as the Saints, Pilgrims, and Plymouth […]
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On this day in history, November 10th… 1775: Continental Marines, later to be known as the U.S Marine Corps, is founded. During the American Revolutionary War, future President John Adams drafted a resolution for two Battalions of Marines to be raised, which was passed by the Continental Congress on this date. Under the leadership of Captain Samuel Nicholas, the two […]
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On this day in history, November 9th… 1620 : The passengers of the ‘Mayflower’ that departed from England seeking religious freedom, first sighted land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The ‘Pilgrims’ as they were later known as, were English Separatist Protestants who wanted to break free of the Anglican Church of England, during the reign of King James I. They believed in the Word of Jesus […]
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On this day in history, November 8th… 1793 : Paris Opened its doors to one of the world’s largest museums and historic monuments- The ‘Musée du Louvre’ (French) or The Louvre Museum (English). Located on the banks of the River Seine, the museum building was once the ‘Palais du Louvre‘ (Louvre Palace), the former residence of Philip II built in the […]
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On this day in history, November 7th… 1665 : One of the oldest surviving newspapers, ‘The London Gazette’ was first published. At that time, King Charles II and the Royal Courts had shifted base from London to Oxford, to avoid the Great Plague. For fear of contagion, no one was willing to touch or read the newspapers from London. Thus, the […]
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On this day in history, November 6th… 1572 : Wolfgang Schüler observed a Supernova (i.e, a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, caused by a star exploding) in the constellation ‘Cassiopeia’. Although it’s hard to say if the astronomer Schüler was actually the first to observe this phenomenon, dubbed one of the most important events in astronomy, he published Stella Nova (Latin: […]
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On this day in history, November 5th… 1492 : Columbus was among the first Europeans to encounter corn(maize) from the Indians of Cuba. When Columbus landed in Cuba (claiming it for Spain) he had sent two Spanish scouts to explore the interior of the island. According the explorer’s journal that day, the Spanish scouts came back with stories about an amazing […]
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On this day in history, November 4th… 1842 : Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd, at the Edward’s home (her sister’s place) in Springfield, Illinois. Nicknamed Molly, Mary Todd first met Lincoln in 1840 when she was 21 and he was 31. Her family wasn’t too happy about the relationship because of Lincoln’s poverty & lack of political prospects. Nevertheless, she […]
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