November 15th is

America Recycles Day *

I Love to Write Day *

Philanthropy Day *

Rock Your Mocs Day *

Day of the Imprisoned Writer *

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MORE! Mary Byrd, Ronnie Kasrils and Jessica Atsye, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Eastern Orthodox – start of Winter Lent (also called the Nativity Fast)

Austria – Saint Leopold’s Day
(Patron saint of Vienna)

Belgium – The King’s Feast and
German-speaking Community Day

Brazil – Republic Proclamation Day

Canada – Brampton: Winter Lights Festival

Côte d’Ivoire – National Peace Day

India – Jengraimukh: Majuli Music Festival

Japan – Shichi Go San
(Shinto festival for children ages 7, 5 & 3)

Mexico – Santiago de Querétaro:
Festival Cancionistas (songwriters)

New Zealand – Christchurch:
Ngā Mātāiwi Haka Festival

South Africa – Johannesburg:
Festival of Ideas

Sri Lanka – National Tree Planting Day

Turkish North Cyprus – Republic Day

United Kingdom – Cambridge:
Cambridge Jazz Festival

Uruguay – Montevideo: Origins Festival

West Bank and Gaza – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

459 – Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik, Ajaw (ruler) of the Maya city of Palenque (487-501)

Glyph of Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik

565 – Justin II succeeds his uncle, Justinian I, as emperor of the Byzantine Empire

1492 – “We found a man in a canoe going from Santa Maria to Fernandia. He had with him some dried leaves which are in high value among them, for a quantity of it was brought to me at San Salvador” – from Christopher Columbus’ Journal. A few days before meeting canoe man, Arawaks gave him a gift of “certain dried leaves,” along with some fruit – back on the ship, the fruit was eaten, but the leaves were thrown away

1532 – Francisco Pizarro, with a force of only 106 foot-soldiers and 62 horsemen, arrives at Cajamarca, where the last Sapa Inca (emperor) Atahualpa is camped, with his army of 80,000 men

Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru, painted
by John Everett Millais – 1846

1533 – Francisco Pizarro enters Incan capital, Cuzco, to complete the conquest of Peru

1607 – Madeleine de Scudéry born, French writer and salon host; often published her work under her brother’s name; her 10-volume novel Artamène, ou le Grand Cyrus, which contains over two million words, is believed to be the longest novel ever published; acknowledged as the foremost “bluestocking” of Paris in the last half of the 17th century

1708 – William Pitt the elder, first Earl of Chatham, born, British leader of the Whigs during the Seven Years’ War in America (1756-1761); Prime Minister and Lord Privy Seal (1766-1768)

1738 – William Herschel born in Germany, English astronomer and composer

1777 – After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation

1791 – The first U.S. Catholic college, Georgetown University, opens its doors

1806 – Lt. Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains, later named Pikes Peak

1849 – Mary E. Byrd born, American astronomer who used photography to determine cometary positions, and a pioneer in astronomy teaching at the college level, designing a method of teaching Astronomy as a laboratory science combined with field work, and writing one of the first teacher training manuals on the subject; She was the director of the observatory at Smith College (1887-1906), but resigned her position because she disapproved of Smith accepting money from Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller

1852 – Mohamed Tewfik Pasha born, Khedive of Egypt and Sudan (1879-1892); he was a very reluctant ruler, who had never expected to be on the throne, and had inherited a host of financial and political troubles. The people were dissatisfied, his army was disaffected, and nearly all of his advisers were busy intriguing for their own gain. Tewfik Pasha had neither the temperament to be a strong ruler, or the knowledge and experience needed to secure an orderly administration of affairs. After five months of disorder, the British and the French stepped in, with the British Controller-General Evelyn Baring, and the Frenchman Monsieur de Blignieres, attempting, behind the scenes,to bring order to the government. But when the British resorted to bombarding Alexandria to put down a mutiny by the Egyptian army, Tewfik Pasha refused to leave Alexandra, saying, “I am still Khedive, and I remain with my people in the hour of their danger.” He was nearly captured by rebel soldiers, but escaped from his palace through the burning streets of the city to another palace, where the British insisted on a guard of British seamen to protect him. Britain sent Lord Dufferin as the British special commissioner to “guide and advise” him on instituting much-needed reforms

1867 – The first stock ticker is demonstrated in New York City

1873 – Sara ‘Doctor Jo’ Baker born, American physician and medical inspector for the New York City Department of Health, fought against urban poverty and ignorance to save newborns and children; a pioneer in preventative medicine; invented a safe infant formula which helped women return to work and support their families, an eye drop system to prevent infants from becoming blind as a result of transmitted gonorrhea, and safety lessons and licenses for midwives which reduced childbirth fatalities. She said it was more dangerous to be a child in Hell’s Kitchen than it was to be a soldier on the front lines of World War I, as their mortality rate was three times higher; she tracked down Mary Mallon, better known as ‘Typhoid Mary,’ twice.  She was the author of Fighting for Life, a memoir about her crusade to transform New York from an incubator for disease into the “healthiest city on earth.” 

1881 –Franklin ‘Pierce’ Adams born, American newspaper columnist, radio show personality; Algonquin Round Table member 1920s-1930s; wrote “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” a lament over Chicago Cubs’ “Tinker to Evers to Chance”

1882 – Felix Frankfurter born, American legal scholar; U.S. Supreme Court associate justice (1939-1962)

1887 – Georgia O’Keeffe born, one of America’s foremost 20^th century painters, known for landscapes and oversized, close-up paintings of flowers

Red Poppy, painted by Georgia O’Keeffe – 1927

1887 – Marianne Moore born, influential American poet and translator; in 1952, her book, Collected Poems, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and the National Book Award for Poetry

1889 – The Proclamation of the Republic: Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca declares Brazil a republic as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a non-violent military coup d’état, and Fonseca becomes President and head of the Interim Government

1891 – Averell Harriman born, American statesman; U.S. Ambassador, to the Soviet Union (1943-1946), then to Great Britain (1946); U.s. Representative in Europe during implementation of the Marshall Plan (1948-1950); Ambassador-at-Large and head of the U.S. delegation for the Vietnam War Paris peace talks (1968-1969)

1901 – Miller Reese patents an electrical hearing aid

1915 – WWI: Winston Churchill tenders his letter of resignation as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, leaving office ten days later, to command the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front

Winston Churchill – WWI portrait by John Lavery

1916 – Nita Barrow born, Barbadian nurse, humanitarian activist and politician; first woman Governor-General of Barbados (1990-1995)

1920 – The League of Nations meets for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland

1926 –NBC’s radio network of 24 stations opens with a 4-hour broadcast spectacular

1932 – Petula Clark born, English vocalist, composer and actress; her singing career began at age nine, during WWII, performing for the studio audience at a BBC radio broadcast delayed by a bombing raid; she became part of a WWII troupe entertaining the troops, making hundreds of appearances, often with another child performer, Julie Andrews

1933 – Thailand holds its first election

1934 – Peter Dickinson born, British composer

1938 – Ronnie Kasrils born, South African anti-apartheid activist, member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Due to his activities in South Africa, he fled into exile in 1963, and went on missions in several foreign countries on behalf of the African National Congress (ANC). Appointed by President Nelson Mandela in 1994 as a minister of defense in his Cabinet

1939 – FDR lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC

1940 – Under the first peacetime conscription, 75,000 American men are called to Armed Forces duty

1949 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

1954 – Emma Dent Coad born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament for Kensington since 2017

1955 – The first phase of the Saint Petersburg Metro opens

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his acting debut in the movie “Love Me Tender”

1958 – Lesley Laird born, Scottish politician; Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party since June 2018; Member of the Scottish Parliament for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath since 2017

1959 – The Clutter family of Holcomb KS murdered, which will inspire Truman Capote’s non-fiction book In Cold Blood

1962 – Judy Gold born, American comedian, television writer and producer; won 2 Daytime Emmys for her writing and producing on The Rosie O’Donnell Show

1966 – NASA’s Gemini 12 splashes down in the Atlantic, completing its final mission

1967 – Cynthia Breazeal born, computer scientist known for her pioneering work in social robotics and human-robot interaction; Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Cynthia Breazeal on left

1969 – A peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War is staged by 250,000 protesters in Washington DC

1981 – The first Day of the Imprisoned Writer * is started by PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, to bring attention to writers who are in prison for resisting repression of freedom of expression, and to commemorate those writers who were killed or died in prison because of what they wrote

1983 – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declares independence, but only Turkey recognizes it

1984 – An infant who received a baboon’s heart to replace her own congenitally deformed one dies at a California medical center three weeks after the transplant

1985 – The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald

1986 – The first Philanthropy Day * is proclaimed by Ronald Reagan, sponsored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals

1988 – The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, unilaterally proclaims the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. In 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution making Palestine a non-member observer state in the UN

1990 – David Bowie debuts on Broadway as The Elephant Man

1997 – America Recycles Day * is started by the National Recycling Coalition, and declared by Presidential Proclamation, now a Keep American Beautiful program

2002 – John Riddle starts I Love to Write Day *

2006 – Al Jazeera English launches worldwide

2011 – Rock Your Mocs Day * is started by Jessica Jaylyn Atsye, enrolled with Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, as a day during Native American Heritage Month for all Native peoples to show unity and cultural pride

2011 – Hundreds of police officers in riot gear raid the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City, evicting hundreds of protesters, then demolishing the tent city

2013 – Janet Yellen, President Obama’s nominee to replace Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chair, testifies before the Senate Banking Committee. The Senate confirmed her nomination, and she served as Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018

2016 – The World Meteorological Organization announced at the 22nd annual U.N. Climate Summit, that 2016 is very likely to be the hottest year on record, with an average global temperature of 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels

2018 – The Trump administration’s top environmental official in the Southeast, Trey Glenn, was arrested on criminal ethics charges. Glenn, 47, was accused of trying to help a coal company avoid paying to clean up toxic waste. Before Glenn’s appointment as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Southeastern Regional Office in Atlanta, he and his then-business partner Scott Phillips worked for Drummond, a coal company, trying to stoke opposition to a federal Superfund cleanup in Birmingham, Alabama, which Drummond would be required to help fund. Glenn said the charges “are totally unfounded,” and he vowed to fight them. The EPA declined to comment. Glenn and Phillips were indicted by a Grand Jury, both charged with multiple violations of Alabama’s Ethics Act. Glenn resigned from the EPA after he was indicted

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