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Thursday November 20, 2014

  • Name Your PC Day
  • National Peanut Butter Fudge Day
  • National Bundt Day

  • Universal Children’s Day
  • Revolution Day-Mexico
  • Totensonntag-Germany
  • Africa Industrialization Day
  • Teacher’s Day-Vietnam

  • On This Day
  • 1789 --- New Jersey ratifies the Bill of Rights, becoming the first state to do so. New Jersey's action was a first step toward making the first 10 amendments to the Constitution law and completing the revolutionary reforms begun by the Declaration of Independence

  • 1818 --- Simon Bolivar formally declared Venezuela independent of Spain.

  • 1866 --- The rotary-crank bicycle was patented by Pierre Lallement in Paris, France. The bike, incidentally, was known as the bone shaker.

  • 1873 --- Budapest was formed when the rival cities of Buda and Pest were united to form the capital of Hungary.

  • 1875 --- American writer Henry James publishes his first novel, Roderick Hudson. Earlier in the year, he had publishedTransatlantic Sketches, a book of travel essays, and a short-story collection titled A Passionate Pilgrim.

  • 1888 --- The first U.S. patent for a time clock was issued to Willard Bundy of Auburn, New York (Patent # 393,205).

  • 1923 --- The U.S. Patent Office grants Patent No. 1,475,074 to 46-year-old inventor and newspaperman Garrett Morgan for his three-position traffic signal. Though Morgan's was not the first traffic signal (that one had been installed in London in 1868), it was an important innovation nonetheless: By having a third position besides just "Stop" and "Go," it regulated crossing vehicles more safely than earlier signals had. Morgan, the child of two former slaves, was born 
    in Kentucky in 1877. When he was just 14 years old, he moved north to Ohio to look for a job. First he worked as a handyman in Cincinnati; next he moved to Cleveland, where he worked as a sewing-machine repairman. In 1907, he opened his own repair shop, and in 1909 he added a garment shop to his operation. The business was an enormous success, and by 1920 Morgan had made enough money to start a newspaper, the Cleveland Call, which became one of the most important black newspapers in the nation.

  • 1945 --- Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis go on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II. The Nuremberg Trials were conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, 
    France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to crimes of war, to crimes against humanity. Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided over the proceedings, which lasted 10 months and consisted of 216 court sessions.

  • 1948 --- In what begins as a fairly minor incident, the American consul and his staff in Mukden, China, are made virtual hostages by communist forces in China. The crisis did not end until a year later, by which time U.S. relations with the new communist government in China had been seriously damaged.

  • 1962 --- The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba and the U.S. ended its blockade of the island.

  • 1962 --- President John F Kennedy issues Executive Order 11063, which mandates an end to discrimination in housing. The order, which came during the burgeoning Civil Rights movement prohibited federally funded housing agencies from denying housing or funding for housing to anyone based on their race, color, creed or national origin.

  • 1966 --- The musical "Cabaret," with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, opened on Broadway.

  • 1967 --- The U.S. population passed 200 million, according to the Census Clock at the Department of Commerce.

  • 1967 --- San Jose State College students demonstrate against the Dow Chemical Company, the maker of napalm. Police were sent in, but the students refused to disperse and several protest leaders were arrested. The next day the students defied governor Ronald Reagan's warning against further demonstrations and again staged an anti-Dow demonstration.

  • 1969 --- DDT was banned for residential use as part of a total phase out of its use in the U.S.

  • 1971 --- Isaac Hayes of Memphis, TN got his first #1 hit as the Theme from Shaft began a two-week stay at the top of the charts.
  • 1977 --- Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's parliament.

  • 1982 --- The Cal football team wins an improbable last-second victory over Stanford when they complete five lateral passes around members of the Cardinals’ marching band, who had wandered onto the field a bit early to celebrate the upset they were sure their team had won, and score a touchdown. After catching the last pass of the series, Cal’s Kevin Moen careened through the confused horn section and made it safely to the end zone. Then he slammed into trombone player Gary Tyrell. (A photograph from the Oakland Tribune of the jubilant Moen and the terrified Tyrell in the moment just before the collision is still displayed triumphantly all over Berkeley.)

  • 1985 --- The first version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, was released.

  • 1992 --- Fire erupted at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth's official residence west of London, causing much damage. The queen and Prince Andrew pitched in to help save priceless artworks and other valuables housed in the fortress. The fire burned for 15 hours damaging or destroying nine principal rooms and over a hundred other rooms. It took a million and a half gallons of water to put out the blaze. The next five years would be spent restoring the Castle to its former glory.
  • 1993 --- The U.S. Senate passed the Brady Bill and legislation implementing NAFTA.

  • 2003 --- Phil Spector, the influential, eccentric music producer who worked with a long list of performers including The Righteous Brothers, The Ronettes, Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon and the Ramones, is indicted in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Spector pled not guilty to the charges.

  • Birthdays
  • Robert F Kennedy
  • Robert Byrd
  • Keneshaw Mountain Landis
  • Edwin Hubble
  • Chester Gould
  • Alexandra Danilova
  • Alistair Cooke
  • Kaye Ballard
  • Estelle Parsons
  • Richard Dawson
  • Dick Smothers
  • Duane Allman
  • Joe Walsh
  • Bo Derek

  • 324th Day of 2014 / 42 Remaining
  • Winter Begins in 32 Days
  • Sunrise:6:56
  • Sunset:4:54
  • 9 Hours 58 Minutes

  • Moon Rise:4:58am
  • Moon Set:4:01pm
  • Moon Phase: 3%
  • Next Full Moon December 6 @ 4:27am
  • Full Cold Moon
  • Full Long Nights Moon

During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

  • Tides
  • High Tide: 8:38am/10:04pm
  • Low Tide:2:29am/3:27