November 29th is

Electronic Greetings Day

National Square Dance Day

National Lemon Cream Pie Day

International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People *

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MORE! Gertrude Jekyll, C.S. Lewis and Afet İnan, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Albania – Dita e çlirimit
(Liberation Day)

Liberia – William V. Tubman’s Birthday *

Vanuatu – National Unity Day
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On This Day in HISTORY

561 – King Chlothar I of the Merovingian dynasty dies at Compiègne; his four sons
share the rule of the Frankish Kingdom, leading to fratricidal wars

618 – Battle of Qianshuiyuan: after a stalemate lasting over 60 days, Marshal Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty launches an all-out attack, and scores a decisive victory over General Zong Luo of the Qin, which ends the Qin dynasty

Li Shimin

903 – Battle of Hama: Muhammad ibn Sulayman of the Abbasid Caliphate eliminates the Qarmatians, whose religion mixed Shia Islam with elements of Zoroastrianism, from the western Syrian desert, opening the way for the reconquest of the Tulinids, the first independent dynasty to rule Islamic Egypt after they broke away from the central authority of the Abbasid dynasty in 868

1394 – The Korean monarch Yi Seong-gye moves the capital from Kaesŏng ton Hanyang, today called Seoul

1530 – Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, once adviser to England’s King Henry VIII, dies

1729 – The Natchez Revolt: French commander Sieur de Chépart orders the White Apple Natchez to vacate their village so he can use the land for a new tobacco plantation. This was the last of a series of insults to the White Apple Natchez, so their chiefs sent emissaries to the Yazoom, Koroa, Illinois, Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes to join them in driving out the French. Messages were also sent inviting African slaves on nearby French plantations to join the rebellion. On November 29, the Natchez forces attacked, destroying the entire French colony at Natchez, including Fort Rosalie. They held the fort against the French until January 1730, when a Choctaw force attacked and captured the fort, surprising the French when they demanded ransoms for the French who had been held captive by the Natchez

1762 – Pierre André Latreille born, French zoologist and Catholic priest; imprisoned during the French Revolution, he was released after recognizing a rare beetle species, Necrobia ruficollis, he found in his cell; for his work on arthropod systematic and taxonomy, he was acclaimed as the foremost entomologist of his time

1777 – San Jose, California, is founded as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe by José Joaquín Moraga, the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California

1781 – Aboard the British slave ship Zong, water supplies run low due to extreme overloading of the ship. The crew murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea, so a claim can be made for cargo insurance under the “general average” provision that a captain who jettisons part of his cargo in order to save the rest can claim for the loss from his insurers. The insurance company refuses to pay, and the case goes to the British courts, becoming widely publicized, which helps further the cause of eliminating the slave trade

1797 – Gaetano Donizetti born, Italian opera composer

1799 – A. Bronson Alcott born, American philosopher, teacher, author, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate; a pioneer in education reform who focused on conversing with his students, and opposed physical punishment; his experiences teaching at the Temple School in Boston were published in two books, Conversations with Children on the Gospels, and Records of a School. Alcott was a friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a notable figure in transcendentalism. He was author Louisa May Alcott’s father

1803 – Christian Doppler born, Austrian physicist; discoverer of the Doppler effect

1807 – Peninsular War: John VI of Portugal flees with his court from Lisbon as Napoleonic forces advance toward the city, moving Portugal’s court to Brazil

1832 – Louisa May Alcott born, author, abolitionist and feminist; served as nurse in Civil War; best known for her book Little Women

1843 – Gertrude Jekyll born, British horticulturalist, designer described as a “premier influence in garden design,” artist, photographer and author; created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the U.S., and contributed over 1,000 articles to magazines like Country Life and The Garden; frequently designed gardens for projects of English architect Edwin Lutyens; she was one of the first garden designers to pay major attention to the progression of colour and textures which created the experience of the garden; her 15 books, such as Colour in the Flower Garden, were widely read

Hestercombe Gardens – designed by Gertrude Jekyll

1861 – Spyridon Samaras born, Greek composer noted for his operas, most of which he composed while working in Italy, and the Olympic Anthem, with lyrics by Kostis Palamas, composed for the 1896 Olympic Summer Games in Athens, now also used at opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics since 1960

1864 – The Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado: a militia, led by Colonel John Chivington, kills at least 400 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who had surrendered and were given permission to camp

1873 – Suzan Rose Benedict born, first woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan. Her long academic career was at Smith College: professor (1921-1942), also Dean of Students (1918-1928), Chair of the Mathematics department (1928-1934); member of the American Mathematical Society

1876 – Nellie Tayloe Ross born, first woman U.S. governor (Wyoming) taking over when her husband died (1924-27), also a prohibition and worker’s rights supporter. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed her as director of the U.S. Mint (1933-1953)

1890 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect (1890-1947) in Japan, and the first Diet convenes. The Emperor remains the supreme ruler, but the Prime Minister is the actual head of government

1892 – Almon Brown Strowger patents the rotary dial, making it possible for callers to dial a telephone number themselves instead of depending on an operator

1893 – The Ziqiang Institute is founded in Wuhan, Hubei, China, originally offering four courses: Chinese, Mathematics, Nature, and Business. Now called Wuhan University

1895 – Busby Berkeley born, American musical film director and choreographer

1895 – William V. Tubman * born, Liberian True Whig politician; President of Liberia (1944-1971) regarded as “the father of modern Liberia” because he attracted foreign investment which enabled infrastructure modernization, including paving the streets of the capital, Monrovia, public sanitation, and hospitals, and increased economic stability and opportunity. A literacy program was launched in 1948. He also did much to reduce the social and political differences between Americo-Liberians and indigenous Liberians. He had been appointed as associate justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia (1937-1943); elected to the Liberian Senate (1923-1931 and 1934-1937). Tubman was one of the founders of the African Union in 1961. After he died in 1971, there was increasing political dissent. The People’s Redemption Council, a group of soldiers led by Samuel Doe, took power in 1980, leading to civil wars and violence, which destroyed Liberia’s stability and economic prosperity

1898 – C.S. Lewis born, English writer and scholar

1902 – Essie Parrish born, Kashaya Pomo tribal spiritual and political leader, expert basketweaver, worked with Robert Oswalt to create Kashaya Pomo dictionary, taught language to tribe’s children, advocate for cultural heritage education for Native American children

1908 – Adam Clayton Powell Jr. born, American minister and civil-rights leader; U.S. congressman (D-NY 1945-1970)

1908 – Afet İnan born, Turkish historian and sociologist; she got her teaching qualification in 1922, and was assigned as a teacher at Elmali Girls’ School. After graduating from Bursa Teachers College for Girls in 1925, she taught primary school in Izmir, where she met Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president of Turkey, a strong believer in women’s education and equality. İnan became one of his eight adopted daughters. He arranged for her to study French in Switzerland (1925-1927), and then at the French Lycée Notre Dame de Sion, Istanbul. She was appointed as a secondary school teacher for history. In 1935, İnan went to Switzerland again to the University of Geneva (1936-1938). In 1939, after graduating, she obtained a PhD in sociology. In 1950, she became a professor at the University of Ankara. She was a co-founder and leading member of the Turkish Historical Society. The “Afet İnan Historical Studies Award” is given biennially by the Turkish History Foundation

1910 – Elizabeth Choy born as Yong Su-Moi, Singaporean WWII hero who served in the Singapore Volunteer Corps, where she was nicknamed “Gunner Choy” and also volunteered as a Medical Auxiliary Service nurse; with her husband, she smuggled money, clothing, medicine and messages to British POWs interned by the Japanese in Changi Prison; they were both arrested, imprisoned and tortured, but survived

1915 – Billy Strayhorn born, American pianist and composer

1915 – Ludu Daw Amar born, Burmese dissident writer and journalist; noted for her  outspoken anti-government views and radical left wing journalism besides her outstanding work on traditional Burmese arts, theatre, dance and music, and several works of translation from English, both fiction and non-fiction; her political activism began during the 1936 university student strike, in which she and her friend M.A. Ma Ohn were the most prominent women student leaders; she and Ludu U Hia, the editor of the university’s magazine, became close during the strike, and were married in 1939. WWII broke out in Burma in1942, they joined the Resistance. Her husband was arrestged briefly, but let go. During this time, she translated several books by Japanese author Hino Ashihei, and Czech author Wanda Wasilewska.   In 1945, her husband launched a fortnightly newspaper called the Ludu Journal, with Amar as assistant editor, noted for their incisive political commentaries and analyses, and so successful it became the Ludu Daily the following year. After Burmese independence from Britain in 1948, the unsettled situation led to government troops dynamiting their press, and regime changes further destabilized the situation. At one point, they and their family were saved from being shot by the intervention of a number of Buddhist monks and their neighbors. Amar traveled in the 1950s to the World Democratic Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, World Peace Conference in Budapest, and 4th World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest. In 1953, her husband was arrested and imprisoned for sedition and spent three years in jail. In 1959, the paper was sealed off by authorities, and wasn’t printed again until over a year later. It was closed down by the military government in 1967. They continued to write, give seminars and remained active in community affairs. Their oldest son joined an underground Communist group, and was killed in a purge, and their second son was sent to prison for his part in student political activities. In 1975, the government invited the couple to speak to university students helping with the reconstruction of the Bagan temples that had been damaged by an earthquake. Her husband died in 1982, but she lived until 2008, dying at age 92

1918 – Madeleine L’Engle born, American Yong Adult author and poet; best known for A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels; 2004 National Humanities Medal

1919 – Pearl Primus born, choreographer, dancer, fused modern dance with African dance. Her debut in 1943 created public demand for African American women in dance; also increased interest in anthropology, which helped preserve African dance tradition

1924 – Italian composer Giacomo Puccini dies before completing his final opera, Turandot, which is finished by Franco Alfano

1924 – Jane Freilicher born, American representational painter, noted for urban and country scenes

In Broad Daylight  by Jane Freilicher – 1979

1926 – Michi Weglyn born, costume designer and author; wrote Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of American Concentration Camps, about WWII internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry

1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard E. Byrd leads the first expedition to fly over the South Pole

1940 – Dame Janet H. Smith born, English judge, called to the Bar in 1972, practicing law before being appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1986; appointed in 1991 by Lancashire County Council to hold a public inquiry into reported abuse of autistic children at Scotforth House. In 1992, she was appointed as a High Court judge and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Probably best known as chair of the Shipman Inquiry, a year-long investigation into British serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman, which concluded that he had murdered at least 215 patients, and possibly as many as 260 people. In 2002, she was the 4^th woman promoted to the Court of Appeal (2002-2011) In 2011, she became the independent assessor for miscarriages of justice compensation for England and Wales.  In 2012, she became Treasurer of Lincoln’s Court Inn, and was also asked by the BBC to lead an inquiry into sexual abuse charges against radio and television personality Jimmy Savile. Her review concluded that he had sexually abused 72 people and raped 8 people, including an 8-year-old, and that BBC staff members who were aware of complaints about his behavior did not pass them on to senior management due to an atmosphere of fear, and a culture of not complaining. She also provided a number of recommendations for reform of the BBC’s internal processes

1942 – Ann Dunham born, American anthropologist who studied the economic and rural development of Indonesia; as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development, she created microcredit programs to address the poverty in rural villages; mother of Barak Obama

1942 – Maggie Thompson born, librarian and editor of the Comic Buyers Guide, Fantasy Empire magazine and Movie Collector’s World newspaper, as well as collector’s price guides for science fiction and fantasy

1943 – Janet Holmes à Court born, Australian businesswoman and philanthropist; a supporter of medical research and the arts

1943 – Sue Miller born, American author of best-selling novels, and short stories. Noted for her novels The Good Mother, While I Was Gone, and The Arsonist

1944 – The first surgery on a human to correct ‘blue baby’ syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock, assisted by Vivien Theodore Thomas

Blaylock and Thomas

1945 – Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is declared, abolishing the monarchy

1947 – The UN General Assembly approves a plan for the partition of Palestine

1947 – Petra Kelly born, German activist, one of the founders of Die Grünen, the German Green Party; campaigned against nuclear weapons, and for peace, protecting the environment and women’s rights; elected to the Bundestag representing Bavaria (1983-1991); murdered in 1992

1952 – U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict

1953 – Jackie French born, prolific Australian author of fiction and nonfiction books, primarily for young readers, including her eight-book nonfiction series Fair Dinkum, which covers over 60,000 years of Australian history

1956 – The musical Bells Are Ringing opens on Broadway

1956 – Yvonne Fovargue born, British Labour politician, Member of Parliament for Makerfield since 2010, served as Opposition Whip in 2011

1956 – Katrin Saks born, Estonian politician; currently vice-chair of the Social Democratic Party; Member of the European Parliament (2006-2009 and 2014); Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs (1999-2002); Member of the Estonian Parliament (2003-2006); Open Estonia Fund project manager (1998-2000)

1957 – Janet Napolitano born, American lawyer, Democratic politician and university administrator; President of the University of California since 2013; U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2009-2013); Chair of the National Governors Association (2006-2007); Governor of Arizona (2003-2009); Attorney General of Arizona (1999-2003); U.S Attorney for the District of Arizona (1993-1997)

1961 – NASA Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space, the spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico

1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

1965 – The Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite Alouette 2

1965 – Lauren Child born, English awarding-winning children’s author and artist; in 2000, she won the Kate Greenaway medal for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, the first book in her Charlie and Lola series

1967 – U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation

1972 – Atari announces release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game

1973 – Sarah Jones born, African American playwright, poet and actress; noted for her one-woman theatre shows, including Bridge & Tunnel, produced Off-Broadway by Meryl Streep, which went on to Broadway and won a Special Tony Award

1974 – A British bill outlawing the Irish Republican Army becomes law

1975 – Bill Gates adopts ‘Microsoft’ as the name of his company

1977 – On the anniversary of the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews, the UN General Assembly calls for an annual observance of an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People *

1982 – In an Emergency Special Session, the U.N. General Assembly adopts resolutions deploring armed intervention in Afghanistan, and calling for the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops

1988 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that rights of criminal defendants are not violated when police unintentionally fail to preserve potentially vital evidence

1989 – In response to a growing pro-democracy movement in Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run parliament ends the party’s 40-year monopoly on power

1994 – The U.S. House passes the revised General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which will implement in U.S. law the Marrakech Agreement, transforming the GATT into the World Trade Organization (WTO)

1996 – A U.N. court sentences Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic to 10 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 1,200 Muslims, the first international war crimes sentence since World War II

1998 – Swiss voters overwhelmingly reject legalizing heroin and other narcotics

1999 – Protestant and Catholic adversaries form a Northern Ireland government.

2004 – The French government announces plans to build Louvre Lens in northern France, a 236,808 square foot museum planned as home for 500-600 works from the Louvre’s reserves

2008 – In China, construction on the Shanghai Tower begins

2012 – UN General Assembly votes to accord non-member observer status to Palestine

2015 – In Colorado, Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains President Vicki Cowart vowed to reopen the Colorado Springs clinic where a gunman, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, fatally shot three people and wounded nine others two day earlier. One of the dead was a police officer responding to the attack, and the other two victims were accompanying friends. All the victims left behind families with young children. The anti-abortion extremist, who had been living in North Carolina, was being held without bond. Authorities in North and South Carolina had previously investigated the shooter numerous times. State psychiatrists would later determine that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial, and he was confined in a Colorado state mental hospital

Shooting damage at Planned Parenthood entrance

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