November 20th is

African Industrialization Day *

Universal Children’s Day *

Do Dah Parade Day *

National Absurdity Day

Peanut Butter Fudge Day

Transgender Day of Remembrance *

World Day of Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims *

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MORE! Louis of Valois, Olive Wetzel Dennis and Harry Belafonte, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bhutan – Lhabab Duechen
(Lord Buddha Descending Day)

Brazil – Dia da Consciencia Negra
(Black Consciousness Day)

Germany – Sunday of the Dead

Mexico – Día de la Revolución
(Mexican Revolution Day)

Vietnam – Teacher’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1407 – A truce between John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans is agreed upon under the auspices of John, Duke of Berry – Orléans is assassinated three days later by Burgundy

1695 – Zumbi, last leader of Quilombo dos Palmares, a fugitive community of escaped slaves in colonial Brazil (1605-1694), is killed by the forces of Portuguese Bandeirante (Portuguese fortune hunter/settlers, ‘those who carry the flag’) Domingos Jorge Velho

1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights

1805 –  Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio premieres in Vienna

note: music starts at 1:57 on the video

1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Nanctucket whaling ship Essex, 2,000 miles off South America’s western coast – one of the inspirations for Melville’s Moby Dick

1858 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and educator, is born, first female Nobel Prize laureate in Literature

1885 – Olive Wetzel Dennis is born, American engineer whose railway passenger travel design innovations included: seats that partially reclined; stain-resistant upholstery in passenger cars; larger dressing rooms for women, supplied with free paper towels, liquid soap and drinking cups; ceiling lights that could be dimmed at night; individual window vents (which she patented) to allow passengers to bring in fresh air while trapping dust; and, later, air conditioned compartments

1908 – Alistair Cooke is born in England, British-American journalist and broadcaster, Letter from America, host of PBS Masterpiece Theatre (1971-92)

1910 – Francisco Madero issues Plan de San Luis de Potosi, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, and calling for a revolution to overthrow the government

1917 – Ukraine declared a republic

1936 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange Española, the pro-Franco party in Spain, is executed by a Republican firing squad

1937 – Peter Cook born, British comedian, is born

1938 – Gordon Lightfoot born, Canadian singer-songwriter, is born, “If You Could Read My Mind,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”

1945 – Nuremberg Trials against 24 accused Nazi war criminals start at Nuremberg’s  Palace of Justice

1954 – U.N. General Assembly first promotes observance of Universal Children’s Day *; the Declaration of the Rights of the Child are adopted on this day in 1959, followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989

1957 – Harry Belafonte’s “Mary’s Boy Child” became the first single to sell over a million copies in the U.K.

1962 – The U.S. naval blockade of Cuba set up during the Cuban Missile Crisis is ended

1966 – The Beach Boys hit #1 on the U.K. singles chart with “Good Vibrations”

1969 – Basing their claim on the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Lakota, which provided that all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Native people from whom it was taken, Red Power activists seize control of Alcatraz Island, closed since March 1963, until they are ousted by the U.S. Government in June 1971

1974 – U.S. Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation, whic later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System.

1977 – Pasadena CA holds the first Do Dah Parade, which kicks off the holiday season with an affectionate send-up of the Rose Parade – other cities now have their own parades, but Pasadena’s is the original

1979 – The Kaaba, Islam’s most sacred mosque, at the center of  Al Kaaba Al Musharrafah in Mecca is seized, along with several thousand hostages, by Sunni Muslims during the pilgrimage. The Saudi government gets help from Pakistani special forces in putting down the uprising

1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released

1989 – U.N. General Assembly declares the first African Industrialization Day *

1992 – A fire at Britain’s Windsor Castle causes over ₤50 million in damage

1993 – U.S. Senate Ethics Committee issues a reprimand to California Senator Alan Cranston for “improper conduct” after Lincoln Savings executive Charles Keating contributes $850,000 to voter registration groups closely affiliated with the senator

1998 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares Osama bin Laden “a man without a sin” in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania

1999 – Gwendolyn Ann Smith promotes the first Transgender Day of Remembrance * to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman killed in 1998 – vigils and other events now promoted by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)

2001 –  In Washington, D.C., George W. Bush dedicates the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday

2003 – The Guinness World Records launches Guinness World Record Day; the first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was printed on 1954

2005 – The U.N. adopts World Day of Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims * which originated in Europe in 1995

2007 – The Eagles album Long Road Out of Eden was #1 on the U.S. album chart

2015 – The Grateful Dead concert video Fare Thee Well is released in the U.S.

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Visuals

• Universal Children’s Day icon
• International flags
• Jean sans peur, ‘John the Fearless” Duke of Burgundy
• Olive Wetzel Dennis
• Windsor Castle 1992 west wing fire
•  Transgender Day of Remembrance banner

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