November 9
1620: Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sighted land for the first time at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
1961: The X-15 rocket set a speed record of 4,093 mph.
1965: The Northeastern United States and Ontario, Canada, including New York City and Boston, were hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours, affecting 30 million people in 80,000 square miles.
1967: The first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine was published, in New York City.
1998: A U.S. federal judge ordered 37 brokerage houses to pay $1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price-fixing. (This was the largest civil settlement in United States history to date.)
November 10
1919: National Book Week was first observed. The first national convention of the American Legion was held in Minneapolis, Minn. (It ended on Nov. 12.)
1951: Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service in the United States began with the rollout of the North American Numbering Plan.
1958: Jeweler Harry Winston (1896-1978) of New York donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution.
1970: For the first time in five years, an entire week ended with no American combat fatalities in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
1983: Bill Gates (born 1955) of Microsoft Corporation unveiled Windows 1.0. (It received poor reviews.)
1989: German citizens began tearing down the Berlin Wall with sledge hammers and crowbars.
November 11
1804: Sacajawea (1788-1812) joined the Lewis and Clark expedition at Fort Mandan.
1889: Washington was admitted as the 42nd state of the United States.
1921: The Tomb of the Unknowns was dedicated by President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) at Arlington National Cemetery.
1926: The United States Numbered Highway System, including U.S. Route 66, was established.
1938: Kate Smith (1907-1986) first sang “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin (1888-1989) on her CBS radio program.
1992: The General Synod of the Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.
2008: RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) set sail on her final voyage, to Dubai.
November 12
1439: Plymouth, England, became the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.
1602: Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548-1624) landed at, and named, San Diego, California.
1905: Voters in Norway chose monarchy over a republic.
1933: Scotsman Hugh Gray (age unknown) took the first known photos alleged to be of the Loch Ness Monster.
1936: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic.
1956: The largest iceberg on record, 208 x 60 miles, was discovered near Antarctica by the USS Glacier.
1958: A team of rock climbers led by Warren “Batso” Harding (1924-2002) completed the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California.
1980: NASA space probe Voyager I made its closest approach to Saturn and took the first ever close-up images of its rings.
1993: The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event, UFC 1, was held in Denver, Colo.
November 13
1833: Thousands of meteors fell during a shower that lasted several hours over the East Coast of the United States.
1927: The Holland Tunnel opened, becoming the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking to New York City to New Jersey.
1937: Sadie Hawkins Day, where girls ask boys out, was first mentioned in the Li’l Abner daily comic strip by Al Capp (1909-1979).
1940: The animated musical film, Fantasia, by Walt Disney (1901-1966), was first released at New York’s Broadway Theatre.
1956: The U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
November 14
1533: Conquistadors from Spain led by Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) arrived in Cajamarca, Inca Empire, precipitating the destruction of that empire and culture.
1770: Scottish traveler James Bruce (1730-1794) discovered what he believed to be the source of the Nile.
1910: The first instance of an airplane taking flight from a ship occurred when aviator Eugene Burton Ely (1886-1911) took off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia, from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.
1965: The first major battle of the Vietnam War between American and North Vietnamese forces, the Battle of Ia Drang, began.
1967: American physicist Theodore Maiman (1927-2007) received a patent for the world’s first practical, working laser.
1979: President Jimmy Carter (born 1924) issued Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the Iran Hostage Crisis.
November 15
1630: German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler (born 1571), famous for his laws of planetary motion, died in Regensburg, Bavaria (now Germany).
1859: The first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece.
1914: Harry Turner (age unknown) became the first football player to die from game-related injuries in the Ohio League, the predecessor to the National Football League.
1926: The NBC radio network began broadcasting with 24 stations.
1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1969: Dave Thomas (1932-2002) opened the first Wendy’s restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.
1971: Intel released the world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
ON THIS DAY… NOVEMBER 9 – NOVEMBER 15
November 9 – NATIONAL FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH DAY
We take National Chicken
Sandwich Day seriously over here.
November 10 – FORGET ME NOT DAY
Forget Me Not Day has been around since World War I, although it’s often lost in the hustle and bustle of
preparing for Thanksgiving.
November 11 – VETERANS DAY
Veterans Day honors all military veterans, including those still with us.
November 12 – NATIONAL HAPPY HOUR DAY
Life would be dull without it, so, enjoy!
November 13 – SADIE HAWKINS DAY
It’s a day for a bit of gender role reversal, where women become the pursuers of their crushes and ask men out on dates or for a dance.
November 14 – NATIONAL PICKLE DAY
One of the worlds favorite fermented foods.
November 15- NATIONAL DRUMMER DAY
Studies show that drummer’s brains are actually wired
differently, giving them
enhanced problem-solving abilities.