November 18th is

Apple Cider Day

GIS Day *

Mickey Mouse Day *

Occult Day

National Vichyssoise Day

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MORE! Michelangelo, Margaret Atwood and Nelson Mandela, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bolivia – Beni:
Anniversary of Beni Festival

Haiti – Vertières Battle Day *

Latvia – Republic Proclamation

Morocco – Independence Day

Oman – National Day

Uzbekistan – Flag Day

Western Sahara – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1307 (Legend) – William Tell shoots an arrow through an apple on his son’s head

1626 – St. Peter’s new Basilica, principally designed by Donato Bramante, Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Michelangelo (dome interior), is consecrated in the Vatican

1787 – Louis Daguerre born, French physicist and photographer, developed the daguerreotype

1803 – Battle of Vertières, * last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, leads to the Republic of Haiti, first black republic in the Western Hemisphere

1836 –  W. S. Gilbert, English playwright and tongue-twisting lyricist, is born

1860 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski born, Polish pianist, composer, and politician

1865 – Mark Twain’s short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is published in the New York Saturday Press

1878 – Soprano Marie Selika Williams becomes the first Black artist to perform at the White House, Washington D.C.

1883 – American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times

1899 – Eugene Ormandy is born, Hungarian-American violinist and conductor

1903 – Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty between the U. S. and Panama, gives the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone

1905 – Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway

1918 – Latvia declares its independence from Russia

1928 – Mickey Mouse is ‘born’ when the animated short Steamboat Willie is released, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks

1938 – Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations

1939 –  Margaret Atwood is born, Canadian author, poet, and critic, The Handmaid’s Tale

1949 – The Iva Valley Shooting occurs after the coal miners of Enugu in Nigeria  strike over withheld wages; 21 miners are shot dead and 51 are wounded by police under the British colonial administration of Nigeria

1955 – Carter Burwell born, American composer, film scores for Fargo, Being John Malkovich, and The Blind Side among many others

1956 – Fats Domino performed “Blueberry Hill” on the Ed Sullivan Show

1961 – U.S. President Kennedy orders 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam

1963 – The first push-button telephone goes into service

1966 – U.S. Roman Catholics no longer required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays

1970 – U.S. President Richard Nixon asks Congress for $155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government

1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple to mass murder–suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan, on a fact-finding mission to Jonestown, is murdered hours earlier by the Peoples Temple members who are escorting him

1988 – U.S. President Reagan signs a bill allowing death penalty for drug traffickers

1991 – Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon release Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland

1993 – U.S. House of Representatives approves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while in South Africa,  21 political parties approve a new constitution, promulgated by President Nelson Mandela, expanding voting rights and ending white minority rule

1999 – First GIS Day * – Geographic Information Systems, which include GPS – founded by Jack Dangermond

. . . . .

                                   . . . . .

2003 – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4–3 in Goodridge v. Department of
Public Health that the state’s ban on same-sex
marriage is unconstitutional, giving the state
legislature 180 days to change the law, making Massachusetts the first U.S. state to grant
marriage rights to same-sex couples

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Visuals

• Hot Apple Cider
• International flags
• St. Peter’s Basilica, dome interior by Michelangelo
• Soprano Marie Selika Williams 
• Margaret Atwood with human race quote
• Photo from ad for first push-button telephone 
• Excerpt from Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health

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