November 24th is

Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day

Horse Welfare Day *

National Sardines Day

Eat a Sandwich Day *

Turkey-Free Thanksgiving

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MORE! Charles Darwin, Scott Joplin and Anna Sewell, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and U.S.A.:  Thanksgiving Day

Brazil – Rio de Janeiro:
Honk! Rio

Micronesia – Chuuk
(thanksgiving)

Myanmar – National Day

Samoa – National Women’s Day

USA – New York City NY:
› Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

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On This Day in HISTORY

1429 – By order of Charles VII, Jeanne d’Arc begins the siege of La Charité,
in bad weather, with troops that are underequipped and poorly supplied

1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to reach the island Van Diemen’s Land (later renamed Tasmania)

1762 – First written record of the word ‘sandwich’ in Edward Gibbons’ Journal: ‘I dined at the Cocoa Tree….supping at little tables….upon a bit of cold meat, or a Sandwich.’ – Eat a Sandwich Day *

1835 – The Texas Provincial Government authorizes the creation of a horse-mounted police force called the Texas Rangers (now Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety)

1849 – Frances Hodgson Burnett born, English-American author, The Secret Garden

1853 – ‘Bat’ (William) Masterson is born in Canada, Dodge City lawman, gambler, army scout, buffalo hunter, and journalist

1859 – Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species

1864 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec born, French painter and illustrator

1867 – Scott Joplin born, American pianist and composer

1874 – Joseph F. Glidden patents barbed wire for fencing

1877 – Anna Sewell’s novel Black Beauty is published, which prompts animal welfare reform movements in the U.K. and U.S.A. – Horse Welfare Day *

1903 – Clyde J. Coleman patents an electric self-starter for an automobile

1917 – Nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history until the September 11 attacks in 2001

1922 – Nine Irish Republican Army members are executed by an Irish Free State firing squad. Among them is the author of The Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childers, who had been arrested for illegally carrying a revolver

1932 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (aka the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens

1947 – John Steinbeck’s novel The Pearl is published

1950 – The musical Guys and Dolls opens on Broadway

1962 – The influential British satirical television programme That Was the Week That Was is first broadcast

1963 –  In the first live, televised murder, Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President  Kennedy, is murdered two days after the assassination, by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police department headquarters

1965 – Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seizes power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,declares himself President and rules the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971) for over 30 years, until being overthrown by rebels in 1997

1966 – Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” is released

1969 – NASA’s Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to land on the Moon

1970 – United American Indians of New England organize a National Day of Mourning for Native Americans, held annually on Thanksgiving

1973 – A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany because of the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasts only four months.

1974 – Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed “Lucy” (after The Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression

1983 – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) releases six Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of 4,500 Palestinians and Lebanese held by the Israelis.

1987 – The U.S. and the Soviet Union agree to scrap short- and medium-range missiles, first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons

1995 – In Ireland, voters narrowly approve constitutional amendment legalizing divorce

2013 – Iran signs an interim agreement with the P5+1 countries, limiting its nuclear program in exchange for reduced sanctions

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Visuals

• Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day poster
• International flags
• Tasman’s first map – 1860 copy from Swart
• The Secret Garden illustration by Russell Barnett
• Darwin’s On the Origin of Species – Galapagos finches illustration
• Chilperic, painted by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• John Steinbeck – ‘hour of the pearl’ quote
• Comparing ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis) with human and chimp

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