November 17th is

Homemade Bread Day

National Baklava Day

Take a Hike Day *

World Prematurity Day *

International Students Day

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MORE! Susan Rice, Anwar Sadat and Benazir Bhutto, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Australia – Sydney: Harbourlife Festival

Azerbaijan – Day of National Revival

Belize – Punta Gorda:
Belize Garifuna Music Festival

Canada – Vancouver: Radicchio Festival

Chile –Vitacura: No Man’s Land Film Festival

Czech Republic and Slovakia –
Freedom & Democracy (Students’ Day *)

Germany – Volkstrauertag
(People’s day of mourning for war dead)

India – Orissa: Martyrs’ Day

Marshall Islands – Presidents’ Day

Macau – Macau Food Festival

Mexico – Ciudad Acuña: Mud Fest

Monaco – Monte Carlo:
Monte-Carlo Jazz Festival

Morocco – Casablanca:
Moonshot Youth Festival

Netherlands – The Hague:
International Whisky Festival

New Zealand – Auckland:
Parnell Festival of Roses

Nigeria – Ikeja: Lagos Green Fest

South Africa – Paarl:
Rhebokskloof Flatrock Festival

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 9 – Vespasian born, becomes the forth Emperor in AD 69, the “Year of the Four Emperors,” and stabilizes the government; founds the Flavian dynasty which rules the Roman Empire for 27 years; these are reported as words he spoke on his deathbed:

794 – Japanese Emperor Kanmu (781-806) changes his residence from Nara to Kyoto; Kanmu travels by carriage in a grand procession to the new capital

1292 – John Balliol becomes King of Scots (1292-1296)

John Balliol and his wife

1511 – Henry VIII of England concludes the Treaty of Westminster, a pledge of mutual aid against the French, with Ferdinand II of Aragon

1558 – Queen Mary I of England dies, and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I

1603 – The trial for treason of English courtier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh opens

1749 – Nicolas Appert born, French chef; “father of canning”

1769 – Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz born, who became Duchess of Saxe-Hidburghausen by marriage; a notable patron of the arts, she brought musicians, painters and poets to the court of  Saxe-Hidburghausen, and was also known for giving half her annual income to the poor and pensioners, and to the education and apprenticeships for children of lower class families. She died in 1818 at age 48, after surviving 12 pregnancies. Seven of her children lived to adulthood

1777 – The U.S. Articles of Confederation are submitted to the states for ratification, a process that will take until March 1, 1781, when Maryland becomes the 13th and final state to ratify

1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius born, German mathematician and theoretical astronomer; discoverer of the Möbius strip, a non-orientable two-dimensional surface with only one side when embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space

1800 – U.S. Congress holds first session in Washington, DC, in the partially completed Capitol building

Unfinished Capitol Building in Washington DC – 1800

1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the Chilean executive Junta

1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him

1839 – Oberto, Giuseppe Verdi’s first opera, debuts at Milan’s La Scala

1854 – Hubert Lyautey born, French Army general and influential colonial administrator; after serving in Indochina and Madagascar, he became the first French Resident-General in Morocco (1912-1925); in 1921, he became a Marshal of France

1856 – U.S. Army builds Fort Buchanan on the Sonoita River (now demoted to a creek) in southern Arizona, to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase

1866 – Voltairine de Cleyre born, American anarchist and Freethought Movement activist; prolific writer, poet and public speaker, who opposed capitalism, the state, marriage, and domination over women’s lives and sexuality by religion

1869 – The Suez Canal opens in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea

Opening of the Suez Canal, 1869– artist’s name unreadable

1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York

1876 – Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March premieres in Moscow, Russia

1878 – Grace Abbott born, American social worker and advocate for the rights of immigrants and for child labor laws; worked at Hull House, wrote weekly articles for the Chicago Evening Post exposing exploitation of immigrants; member of the Women’s Trade Union League; director of the Child Labor Division of the U.S. Children’s Bureau (1917-1919); author of several sociological texts

1880 – The first four British women graduate from London University, with Bachelor of Arts degrees – but their names aren’t listed!

1903 – Russia’s Social Democratic Party splits between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks; Vladimir Lenin is the head of the Bolsheviks, while Julius Martov, a mentor and ally of Leon Trotsky, leads the Mensheviks

1904 – First underwater submarine journey, Southampton, England, to the Isle of Wight

1904 – Isamu Noguchi born, Japanese-American artist and Landscape architect who also designed stage sets for some of Martha Graham’s productions; noted for designing lamps and furniture, which were shown in a catalog of modern furniture designed by Charles Eames. George Nelson, Paul László and Noguchi, considered the most influential body of modern furniture ever produced

Noguchi coffee table

1911 – Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, the first black Greek-lettered organization is founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

1913 – The steamship Louise becomes the first ship to pass through the Panama Canal

1913 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany forbids his officers to dance the Tango while in uniform, describing the dance as “Rinnsteinkind,” (a child of the curbstone)

1916 – Shelby Foote born, American historian and author; The Civil War: A Narrative

1917 – Ruth Aaronson Bari born, American mathematician; graph theory and algebraic homomorphisms; earned her MA at Johns Hopkins University in 1943, but had originally enrolled in the doctoral program; the university suggested that women in the graduate program should give up their fellowships so men returning from WWII could study; she acceded, marrying Arthur Bari, and raising their three children. Bari returned to Johns Hopkins in 1966, where she completed her dissertation on “absolute reducibility of maps of at most 19 regions” at the age of 47. In the early 1970s, she felt that math teachers in the Washington DC public schools were not as prepared as they should be, so she got a grant from the National Science Foundation to create and fund a pilot program for a master’s degree in teaching mathematics

1922 – Siberia votes for union with the U.S.S.R.

1933 – The U.S. recognizes the Soviet Union

1938 – Gordon Lightfoot born, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist

1939 – Students’ Day * commemorates the execution of nine Czech  students as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations over the death of medical student Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and over 1,200 students are sent to concentration camps 

1942 – Dame Lesley Rees born, British professor and endocrinologist; Dean of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College (Bart’s) from 1989–95, the first and only woman to hold this post; now Emeritus Professor of Chemical Endocrinology at Bart’s; she was the first Director of Education at the Royal College of Physicians in 1997. Her Handbook of Paediatric Nephrology is used by trainees and consultants worldwide. 

1945 – Lesley Abdela born, British expert on women’s rights and representation; adviser in 40 different countries to governments and IGOs (including the UN), NGOs, and the European Commission; broadcast journalist and public speaker; in the 1990 Queen’s Birthday Honours, appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for “services to the advancement of Women in Politics and Local Government”

1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath; the loyalty oath remained mandatory until the rock group The Grateful Dead refused to sign it in 1967, so the Board of Directors made it optional.  The loyalty oath was not removed from the Screen Actors Guild bylaws until July, 1974

1951 – Jack Vettriano born, Scottish painter and philanthropist (featured image at the top is his painting Bluebird at Bonneville)

The Singing Butler, by Jack Vettriano

1955 – Yolanda King born, American activist and actor, oldest child of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr.; acted in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Our Friend, Martin (1999) and Selma, Lord, Selma (1999); supporter and ally of the LGBTQ Community; died at age 51 of complications related to a heart condition, just 16 months after her mother passed away

1956 – Angelika Machinek born, German glider pilot, dramaturge and writer; she was the German gliding champion five times, and broke nine Fédération Aéronautique Internationale gliding world records. She was killed in 2006 at age 49 when her microlight crashed

 1962 – U.S. President Kennedy dedicates Washington’s Dulles International Airport

1964 – Susan Rice born, American public servant; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2009-2013); National Security Advisor (2013-2017); in 2012, she withdrew her name from consideration for Secretary of State after Hillary Clinton retired because of the ongoing Benghazi controversy, saying if she were the nominee, “the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly.”

1965 – Amanda Brown born, Australian singer-songwriter with The Go-Betweens, violinist and composer; noted for film and television soundtracks

1966 – Sophie Marceau born, French actress, director, screenwriter and author; noted for wrting and directing Speak to Me of Love (Parlez-moi d’amour), for which she won the 2002 Montréal World Film Festival Award for Best Director, and Trivial (La disparue de Deauville)

1969 – Rebecca Walker born, American author, feminist and activist; co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation, which supports efforts of young women of color, and queer, intersex, and trans individuals as activists and leaders in their communities

1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat formally accepts an invitation to visit Israel; this sets off a storm of protest, from resignations of the Egyptian Foreign Minister and his deputy to outcries from the Pan-Arab nations, and Palestinian students storming the Egyptian Embassy in Athens

1978 – Rachel McAdams born, Canadian actress and environmental activist; she was a volunteer for the clean-up efforts after Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill, and also participated in the Canada for Haiti telethon in 2010. She is an active participant in the Food & Water First Movement, and narrated the 2014 feature documentary Take Me to the River, on river pollution and what is being done to save iconic rivers, MacAdams has also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity builds in Canada, and worked with the Sunshine Foundation of Canada, the Alzheimer’s Association, and is a member of the creative council of Represent.Us, an anti-corruption organization

1980 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s album Double Fantasy is released

1982 – Empire State Building is added to the National Register of Historical Places

1988 – Benazir Bhutto becomes the first woman leader of an Islamic country

1989 – American Hiking Society begins sponsoring Take a Hike Day * to encourage people to discover the hundreds of miles of hiking trails in our national parks system

1989 – The “Velvet” Revolution: In Czechoslovakia, riot police quell a student demonstration in Prague, sparking an uprising to overthrow the communist government (which succeeds on December 29)

1991 – The Blue Man group debuts at New York’s Astor Place Theatre

1993 – U.S. House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement

1998 – Jewel releases “Spirit” and Whitney Houston releases “My Love is Your Love”

2005 – UNESCO establishes World Philosophy Day *

2008 – Prematurity Day is begun by a coalition of European organizations – in 2011, it becomes World Prematurity Day *; today, there are media campaigns and events in over 60 countries

2010 – Researchers trap 38 antihydrogen atoms, the largest amount of antimatter ever trapped; in order to prove the antihydrogen has actually been trapped, it is quickly released (172 milliseconds) and the subsequent anti-atom annihilations on the detector’s trap walls are detected

2017 – Thousands of Zimbabweans marched in the streets in cities around their country, demanding an end to the rule of 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 and is widely considered a dictator. The demonstrations came several days after the Zimbabwean military, backed by the ruling Zanu-PF party, put Mugabe and his wife, Grace, under house arrest

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