November 26th is

National Cake Day

World Day of Giving *

Small Business Saturday

International Aura Awareness Day

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MORE! Captain Cook, Eugene Ionesco and Tina Turner, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Baha’i – Day of the Covenant

Abkhazia – Constitution Day

Canada – Toronto ON:
Waterfront Spectacle of Lights

Mongolia – Proclamation Day

South Africa – Durban:
Rage Festival

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On This Day in HISTORY

783 – Queen Adosinda, Kingdom of Asturias (now an autonomous community in NW Spain, had not given Asturia an heir before her husband died, so her nephew Alfonso II was proclaimed king. Mauregatus, the illegitimate son of Alfonso I, usurps the throne by force and drives Alfonso II into exile in Álava in Basque territory. Mauregatus sends Adosinda to the monastery of San Juan de Pravia, where she is held until she dies

1716 – The first lion exhibited in America is displayed in Boston MA

1731 – William Cowper born, English poet, anti-slavery advocate and hymnodist

1778 – Captain James Cook is the first European to visit the Hawaiian Island of Maui

1789 – At the request of Congress, U.S. President Washington proclaims a national day of thanksgiving

1792 – Sarah Moore Grimké is born, American writer, anti-slavery and women’s rights activist. As a writer, her strong pioneering arguments against slavery and in support of women’s rights helped advance both movements

1805 – The Pontcysylite Aqueduct, which carries a section of  the Llangollen canal over the valley of the River Dee in NE Wales, officially opens. The longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, it was engineered by Scotsman Thomas Telford, whose nickname was the ‘Colossus of Roads’

1825 – The first U.S. college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, is founded at Union College in Schenectady NY

1832 – Public streetcar service begins in New York City

1842 – The University of Notre Dame begins in a log chapel near what is now South Bend IN, work begins on three additional buildings; later, the first two students arrive

1863 – The first Thanksgiving after Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of an official annual national holiday

1867 – J.B. Sutherland patents the refrigerated railroad car

1912 – Eugene Ionesco is born, Romanian-French Avant-garde playwright, Rhinocéros

1917 – The Sykes-Picot Papers: The Manchester Guardian prints the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement which defined the “spheres of influence” of the UK and France as part of an understanding between their countries and Russia based on the Triple Entente, which was designed to keep the Ottoman Empire in check, and ultimately defeat it

1922 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years

1939 – Tina Turner is born, American singer-actress, now a Swiss citizen

1940 – Xavier Cugat and his orchestra record “Orchids in the Moonlight”

1942 – Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, debuts in NYC

1944 – Jean Terrell born, American R&B singer, replaced Diana Ross as lead singer with The Supremes

1945 – John McVie, British bass guitarist with Fleetwood Mac, is born

1962 – The Beatles record “Please Please Me”

1965 – France becomes the 3rd country to enter space when it launches its first satellite the Diamant-A

1969 – The Band receives a gold record for the album The Band

1970 – The heaviest rainfall ever recorded, 1.5 inches in one minute, deluges Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe

1973 – Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon’s personal secretary, tells a federal court that she is responsible for the 18-1/2 minute gap in a key Watergate tape

1975 – Lynette”Squeaky” Fromme is found guilty by a federal jury in Sacramento CA of attempting  to assassinate U.S. President Ford

1977 – In the UK, the Southern Television broadcast is interrupted for six minutes by a hijacker who claimed to be a representative of an ‘Intergalatic Association’ issuing a sound-only warning that “All your weapons of evil must be removed” and “You have but a short time to learn to live together in peace” – the hijacker was never apprehended

1979 – The International Olympic Committee re-admits China after a 21-year absence

1983 – At Britain’s Heathrow Airport, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million plus diamonds and cash are stolen from the Brink’s-Mat vault – some of the robbery gang were caught and convicted, but most of the gold has never been recovered

1985 – Random House acquires rights to Nixon’s autobiography for $3,000,000

1986 – U.S. President Reagan announces appointments to the Tower Commission, named for former U.S. Senator John Tower (R-TX), to investigate the Iran-Contra affair

1988 – The U.S. denies PLO Chair Yasser Arafat an entry visa for travel to New York to address the UN General Assembly

1990 – The Delta II rocket makes its maiden flight

1992 – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II voluntarily takes her children off the public payroll, and begins paying taxes on her income

2000 – Katherine Harris, Republican Secretary of State in Florida certifies George W. Bush as the winner of Florida’s electoral votes in the midst of controversy over “hanging chads” voting irregularities

1997 – The U.S and North Korea meet at the State Department for high-level discussions for the first time

2011- NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory launches to Mars with the Curiosity Rover

2013 – First annual World Day of Giving * is launched by the MORE Project, focusing on primarily on ending hunger and giving more educational opportunities to children

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Visuals

Assorted cakes

International flags

Church at San Juan de Pravia

Pontcysylite Aqueduct

Antechamber of King Tut’s Tomb – photo by Hulton – Archive/Getty Images

The Delta II rocket maiden flight 1990

NASA promo for the Curiosity Rover and the Mars Science Lab

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