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
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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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Looking at that picture of apple cider reminds me I need to get some before it’s gone. Of course then I have to get some cinnamon sticks.
I have to stock up too – why do the stores run out every year? I always make multiple batches of Wassail in December – apple cider is the key ingredient in the family recipe. .