November 3rd is

Cliché Day

Homemaker’s Day

Jellyfish Day

Public Television Day *

National Sandwich Day

U.S. Daylight Savings Ends *

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MORE! Mable John, John Barry and Mazie Hirono, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Argentina – Buenos Aires: Dark Curiosities,
Last Tales of Hallow’s Eve

Cambodia – Phnom Penh:
Phnom Penh Classical Music Festival

Dominica – Independence Day

East Timor – Mothers Day

Ecuador – Cuenca: Independence Day

France – Nantes: Les Utopiales,
International Science-Fiction Festival

Germany – Frankfurt:
Inclusive Play & Sports Festival

India – Jodhpur: Heritage Music Festival

Japan – Bunka no Hi (culture day)

Maldives – Victory Day

Micronesia – Independence Day

Panama – Separación de Panamá de Columbia *
(Independence from Columbia in 1903)

Qatar – Doha: Qatar International Art Festival

Samoa – Arbor Day

United Arab Emirates – Flag Day

United Kingdom – London: Battle of Ideas 

Vietnam – Thăng Long Imperial Citadel:
Monsoon Music Festival

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 39 – Lucan born, Roman poet

644 – Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, is assassinated by a Persian slave in Medina

1333 – Chronicler and banker Giovanni Villani records major damage in Florence Italy when the River Arno floods

1493 – Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean

1500 – Benvenuto Cellini born, Italian master goldsmith, artist and sculptor

Perseus, by Benvenuto Cellini

1507 – Leonardo DaVinci is commissioned by Lisa Gherardini’s husband to paint her portrait, which will come to be known as the Mona Lisa

1534 – English Parliament passes the first Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII head of the Anglican Church, supplanting the pope and the Roman Catholic Church

1560 – Annibale Carracci born, Italian artist, a pioneer of the Baroque style

Self-portrait by Annibale Carracci

1631 – The Reverend John Eliot arrives in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first Protestant minister to dedicate himself to converting American Indians to Christianity

1689 – Jan Josef Ignác Brentner born, Czech Bohemian composer of the Baroque period; many of his works have been lost

1783 – The American Continental Army is disbanded

1793 – French playwright, feminist and abolitionist Olympe de Gouges  (Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne – Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizeness – 1791) is guillotined for her opposition to the execution of Louis XVI, and a poster which demands a plebiscite so the people could choose between a unitary republic, a federalist government or a constitutional monarchy

1793 –Stephen F. Austin born, principle founder of Texas; Austin is named for him

1794 – William Cullen Bryant born, American poet; one of the first American poets to be well-known in Europe as well as at home; “Thanatopsis”

1801 – Vincenzo Bellini born, Italian opera composer; best known for Norma

1801 – Karl Baedeker born, German publisher whose guidebooks set the standard for reliably informing tourists on routes, transport, accommodation, restaurants, tipping, what sights to see, walks and prices; introduced the star rating system

1817 – The Bank of Montreal, Canada’s oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal

1838 – The Times of India, the world’s largest circulated English language broadsheet daily is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce

1839 – The first Opium War between China and Great Britain erupts

1845 – Edward Douglass White born, American jurist; Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1910-1921); formulated the Rule of Reason standard of antitrust law

1856 – Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo born, Spanish scholar and historian, whose  interest was the history of ideas; five-time nominee for Nobel Prize in Literature

1867 – Giuseppe Garibaldi and his followers are defeated in the Battle of Mentana and fail to end the Pope’s Temporal power in Rome (they win 3 years later)

1868 – John Willis Menard, the first African American elected to the U.S. Congress, is never seated because of an electoral challenge

1877 – Carlos Ibáñez del Campo born, President of Chile (1927-1931 and 1952-1958)

1878 – Bangalore Nagarathnamma born; Indian singer, cultural and feminist activist, history scholar, patron of the arts and a third-generation courtesan.  She was a Carnatic singer, a vocal  musical tradition of southern India, one of the two main subgenres of Indian classical music. She built a temple over the Samadhi of the Carnatic singer Tyagaraja at  Thiruvaiyaru and helped establish the Tyagaraja Aradhana festival in his memory.  Within a male dominated festival, she was pushed to ensure that women artists were given equal participation. She was among the last practitioners of the devadasi tradition in India.  A devadasi was a girl who was dedicated to the worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. Devadasis were temple prostitutes. In addition to taking care of the temple and performing rituals, these women also learned and practiced classical Indian artistic traditions, and had high social status. They had children by high officials or priests, who were then also taught the music and dance that were an essential part of temple worship.  Nagarathnamma was the first president of the Association of the Devadasis of Madras Presidency. She also edited and published books on poetry and anthologies, and was a linguist who held religious discourses in Kannada, Telego, Tamil and Sanskrit

1884 –The first Black-owned, Bantu-language South African newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu (Black Opinion), is published by Thanda Press in King William’s Town. The paper’s first editor, J. Tengo Jabavu, was a moderate political leader, who tried to follow a middle path between the positions of the South African National Native Congress, and the white government’s policies. He was an advocate for education for black South Africans, and believed in equal education for women

J. Tengo Jabavu

1892 – The first automatic telephone, invented by Almon Strowger, goes into service in LaPorte, Indiana

1900 – First U.S auto show opens in Madison Square Garden in NY

1901 – Andre Malraux born, French novelist, first French Minister of Cultural Affairs (1959-1969);  La Condition Humaine (translated as Man’s Fate)

1903 – Following the War of a Thousand Days, a civil war in Columbia, and with “encouragement” from the U. S., Panama separates from Colombia * and proclaims itself the Republic of Panama

1903 – Walker Evans born, American photographer known for his stark photos of America during the Great Depression

 Sharecroppers, Tengle family, Hale County, AL – by Walker Evans 1936

1905 – Loïs Mailou Jones born, influential American artist and teacher, the African-American woman painter best-known in the 1930s-1940s outside the U.S.

Loïs Mailou Jones in her Paris studio, 1930s – Ubi Girl from Tai Region

1906 – Julia Boyer Reinstein born, American historian and teacher; she taught in the history department of the University of Buffalo, became the first town historian of Cheektowaga, New York, and a founder and president of the Erie County Historical Federation, made up of local historical societies in the county. Though she was a lesbian, she accepted a proposal of marriage from Dr. Victor Reinstein in 1942, and they were married until his death in 1984. She and her husband donated the property for the Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve, and built the Anna M. Reinstein Library in Cheektowaga. She made donations to Elmira College, her alma mater, toward establishing a Department of Women’s Studies

1909 – James Reston born in Scotland, American journalist, correspondent, and columnist for the New York Times (1974-1987)

1911 – Louis Chevrolet, French racing driver and automotive engineer, founds the Chevrolet Motor Company with William C. Durant and several investors

Chevrolet Series C classic-six, 1911

1917 – Annapurna Maharana born, Indian pro-independence activist and prominent social and women’s rights advocate, a close ally of Gandhi

1918 – Elizabeth Paschel Hoisington born, U.S. Army officer, one of the first two woman to attain the rank of brigadier general; director of the Women’s Army Corps (1965-1971)

1918 – Poland declares its independence from Russia

1919 – Květa Legátová, born Věra Hofmanová, Czech novelist and short story writer, noted for her collection of interconnected short stories in a fictional village, Želary, which one the Czech State Prize for Literature in 2002, which includes her novella, Jozova Hanule (Joza’s Hanule)

1920 – Oodgeroo Noonuccal born Kathleen Walker, Australian Aborigine activist who campaigned for Aboriginal rights, poet, artist and educator; Queensland state secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and a key figure in the campaign to reform the Australian constitution to give Aborigines full citizenship; first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse

1924 – Violetta Elvin born as Violetta Prokhorova, Russian prima ballerina with the Bolshoi, then Sadler’s Wells Ballet (now the Royal Ballet) in England

1930 – Mable John born, American blues vocalist; first woman signed by Berry Gordy for Motown’s Tamia label

1933 – John Barry born, English-American composer and conductor; best known for film scores, especially the music for the early James Bond films

1935 – Ingrid Rüütel born, Estonian folklorist and philologist; she was Estonia’s First Lady during her husband’s term as President (2001-2006)

1936 – President Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over Alf Landon

1941 – U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Grew warns that the Japanese may be planning a sudden attack on the U.S.

1947 –Mazie Hirono born, American Democratic politician; current U.S. Senator from Hawaii since 2013; Hawaiian U.S. Representative (2007-2013)

1947 – Siiri Oviir born, Estonian politician and Member of the European Parliament. She had been a prominent member of the Estonian Centre Party until 2012, when she and seven other high-ranking party members left, citing frustration with the lack of openness and transparency of the party’s leaders, and the expulsion of MP Kalle Laanet for his criticism of the leadership

1948 – Lulu born as Marie Lawrie, Scottish pops singer

1949 – Anna Wintour born in England, American journalist and editor; editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1988; a former personal assistant, Lauren Weisberger, wrote the 2003 best seller, The Devil Wears Prada

1953 – Vilma Santos-Recto born, Filipina actress and politician; Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives since 2019; Member of the House for the Batangas 6^th District since 2016, where she served on the Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation until she was removed by the House leadership because of her rejection of re-imposing capital punishment, and is currently vice chair of the Committee on Globalization; she is the first woman to be Governor of Batangas (2007-2016); and the first woman Mayor of Lipa (1998-2007). In the House, she co-authored the SOGIE  Equality bill (Anti-discrimination bill), Magna Carta for Day Care Workers, Maternity  Leave Increase bill, Cancer Awareness bill, expanded Senior Citizens bill, and Post-graduate Education for Teachers bill. Before entering politics, she had a long and very successful career as a Filipina film and television star, beginning as a child actress, and was dubbed the “Star for all Seasons”

1954 – The first Godzilla movie is released

1956 – Cathy Jamieson born, Scottish Labour Party politician, MP for Kilmarnock & Loudon (2010-2015); Minister for Justice in the Scottish Executive (2003-2007); Minister for Education and Young People (2002-2003); Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party (2000-2008)

1957 – The U.S.S.R. launches Sputnick 2, carrying the first animal to enter orbit, a stray dog named Laika – she died within hours from overheating, possibly caused by the failure of the central R-7 sustainer to separate from the payload, but the Soviets never planned for her survival

1960 – The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established by an Act of Congress after a year-long legal battle between local residents and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials wanting to build major regional airport for jet aircraft on the site

1960 – Felix Mounie, leader of Union du Peuple Camerounnais (UPC) in Cameroon, is assassinated, poisoned by a doctor who was a reserve officer of French Intelligence. The UPC had become the major political movement demanding the end of UN trusteeship over Cameroon, and full independence for the country

1962 – Jacqui Smith born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament for Redditch (1997-2010); Britain’s first woman Home Secretary (2007-2009)

1964 – Washington D.C. residents are eligible to vote in a presidential election for the first time

1965 – Ann Scott born, French novelist; noted for her 2000 book Superstars, which has gained a cult following

1969 – Public Broadcasting Day * –  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) forms the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to interconnect public television stations and distribute programming

1970 – Jeanette J. Epps born, American aerospace engineer and NASA astronaut; former Technical Intelligence Officer for the CIA

1973 – NASA launches the Mariner 10 probe toward Mercury

1975 – Good Morning America premieres on ABC-TV

1978 – Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom

1979 – Greensboro massacre: Five Communist Workers Party members are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.

1986 – Iran–Contra affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the U.S. has been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven Americans held hostage by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon

1987 – China tells the U.S. it will stop selling arms to Iran

1992 – Carol Moseley-Braun becomes the first African-American woman elected as a U.S. senator, as a Democrat from Illinois (1993-1999)

1997 – The U.S. imposes economic sanctions on Sudan citing human rights abuses of its own citizens, and material and political assistance to Islamic extremist  groups across the Middle East and Eastern Africa

1997 – South Africa completes destroying its stockpile of anti-personnel mines

2002 – At Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong, 777 people assembled a 58,435 square foot jigsaw puzzle with 21,600 pieces

2005 – Walt Disney Pictures releases Chicken Little, its first completely computer animated film

2007 – The end of Daylight Savings Time * in the U.S is changed from the last weekend of October to the first weekend of November – FALL BACK!

2010 – The Federal Reserve announces a plan to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds over the next eight months in an attempt to boost lending and stimulate economy

2014 – The main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center, One World Trade Center, officially opens

2017 – Donald Trump complained about the limits of executive power as it relates to his desired prosecution of campaign rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. “I’m not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department; I’m not supposed to be involved with the FBI; I’m not supposed to be doing the kinds of things I would love to be doing; and I’m very frustrated by it,” he said in a radio interview. “Why aren’t they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with the dossier and the kind of money?” Trump reiterated that frustration on Twitter Friday, calling an FBI investigation of Clinton “right and proper.” Hillary Clinton has been repeatedly investigated by Congressional committees dominated by Republicans and by the FBI, and every investigation has resulted in no charges being brought against her.

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