Today is National Nachos Day! Nachos have a cool origin story. From Mexico News Daily:
“They say necessity is often the mother of invention. In the case of nachos, that certainly seems to be the case.
I’d never thought about nachos being ‘invented,’ but indeed they appeared in public for the first time in 1940 at a hotel restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Requested by a regular patron for a “different” snack, maître d’ Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Anaya went into the kitchen, looked around and threw together three simple ingredients — freshly made corn totopos (tortilla chips), Colby cheese and pickled jalapeños. He heated it in the broiler, and voila! History was made.
Nachos have become the town’s claim to fame. Since 1995, the International Nacho Festival has been celebrated annually in October. While the original Nacho has passed away, his family proudly keeps his name and fame alive and is actively involved in the festival.
Why did Nacho’s original recipe use Colby cheese? Apparently, it was given out at food banks by the U.S. government during and after World War II, when many were struggling. Piedras Negras is just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, and families routinely shared products from both sides. In fact, Colby cheese was called queso relief.”
That article linked above has some pretty innovative Nacho recipes, and National Nacho Day shouldn’t be a day for same ol’ same ol’! Get crazy with it!
It’s also National Saxophone Day, as well as Color the World Orange Day — which is a communist dog whistle in my opinion.
Speaking of communism, it’s also a day to talk about how war is bad for the climate and quitting your job. “Celebrate by exploring your options.”
Now let’s get onto today’s history…
In Government…
As discussed last week, the beginning of November is a time for elections, so election history will be in focus again this week. Also, tomorrow is Election Day in the US, so get out there and vote in person!
Today is the five year anniversary of the 2018 midterms, an election widely considered to be a dry run for 2020. Some interesting historical moments in that election:
AOC became the youngest congressperson ever elected at 29.
Jared Polis became the country's first openly gay male governor.
Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) became the first Muslim in the House.
Democrats retook control of the House of Representatives.
Record 19 black female judicial candidates were all elected in Harris County, Texas.
Colorado voted to abolish slavery as a form of punishment in state constitution.
Sharice Davids (D-KS) and Deb Haaland (D-NM) become the first Native American women in the House.
That’s a lot of firsts for one midterm election! In Presidential elections, we had some big moments on November 6:
1860: 16th President Abraham Lincoln
1861: Confederate President Jefferson Davis
1888: 23rd President Benjamin Harrison
1900: 25th President William McKinley
1928: 31st President Herbert Hoover
1940: 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1956: 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower
1984: 40th President Ronald Reagan
2012: 44th President Barack Obama
In other notable elections, Ted Kennedy was elected as the first Democratic Senator for Massachusetts in 1962, and in 2012, Elizabeth Warren became that state’s first female Senator. She is also a Democrat.
Finally, also in 2012, Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) became the first disabled woman and first person born in Thailand to be elected to the House. She was elected to the US Senate in 2017. Duckworth is disabled due to her military service.
From Vogue:
“On November 12, 2004, then-36-year-old Captain Tammy Duckworth was flying a Black Hawk to her base in Iraq, some 50 miles north of Baghdad. The mission had been routine, a grocery run, as she later described it, though nothing about that time or place was routine. Attacks on the base were so common, its residents had nicknamed it ‘Mortaritaville.’ … The rocket-propelled grenade that pierced the Plexiglas floor of the cockpit near her feet exploded in a burst of flame, but it did not cause the helicopter to combust. Clinging to consciousness, Duckworth tried to use her legs to land but found the normally responsive $6 million piece of machinery sluggish. Then she passed out. After her copilot landed, he took one look at Duckworth’s blackened face, her slumped-over torso, the blood gushing from her lower body, and assumed she was dead. Black Hawks travel in pairs, and a second helicopter had landed nearby, so they needed to move quickly. The crew evacuated the living and the wounded and then used precious moments to retrieve what they thought was Duckworth’s corpse. And that, for her, has made all the difference. ‘I am no hero,’ she says. ‘The guy who carried me out of there? He’s the hero.’”
In other US History, in 1865, the last Confederate combat unit surrendered – it was the only Confederate ship to have circumnavigated the globe, according to the National Archives. Allegedly, it sank or captured 37 vessels, but eventually the Shenandoah was sold to the Sultan of Zanzibar and renamed El Majidi.
On a slip at Williamstown, Colony of Victoria (now a suburb of Melbourne, Australia) in 1865
In 1986, President Reagan signed his infamous amnesty / immigration reform bill. We discussed this on October 17, the day the Senate passed the legislation. In 1991, Robert M Gates became the 15th director of the CIA. From the Department of Defense:
“Secretary Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional. During that period, he spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council, The White House, serving four presidents of both political parties. Dr. Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 until 1993. He is the only career officer in CIA's history to rise from entry-level employee to Director. He served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from 1986 until 1989 and as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser at the White House from January 20, 1989, until November 6, 1991, for President George H.W. Bush.”
In world history today, unsurprisingly, there is a lot of totalitarianism:
1879: Canada’s First Thanksgiving Day
1913: Mahatma Gandhi Was Arrested In South Africa For Leading Indian Miners’ March
1917: Red October
1918: Republic Of Poland Proclaimed
1939: Sonderaktion Krakau: 184 Professors Arrested And Deported In Krakow
1949: Greek Civil War Ends In Victory Over Communists After Three Years
1990: Iran Oil Region Suffered A Serious Earthquake
1991: Russia President Boris Yeltsin Outlawed The Communist Party
1991: The Final Kuwaiti Oil Fire Was Extinguished After Set By Retreating Iraquis
2004: Russian-Owned Tanker 'tropical Brilliance' Got Stuck In The Suez Canal
In Culture…
In 1928, Colonel Jacob Schick patented the first electric razor. The name Schick is synonymous with razors nearly 100 years later, so I guess it was a good investment.
In television history, NBC's "Meet the Press" debuted in 1947 and is currently the longest running TV show in the US. In 1990, talk show host and movie star Arsenio Hall received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and, in 2001, "24" premiered on Fox.
This show has expanded the list of movies I need to watch and, in 1968, the psychedelic feature film "Head" premiered. It stars the Monkees and I need to see it. In 1996, "The English Patient" premiered, and I haven’t seen that one either. It won Best Picture in 1997. Finally, British movie star Idris Elba was named "People" magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 2018.
In music history, the first performance by the Sex Pistols took place in London in 1975. Three years later, they had their first appearance in America. In 1990, Whitney Houston released her third studio album, "I'm Your Baby.” It went on to win Billboard Album of the Year in 1991.
Sports history is interesting today as well and, in 1938, the three DiMaggio brothers played baseball together for the first time in a charity all-star game. In 1988, Grete Waitz won her 9th women's NY Marathon title – a record. Her picture pops up so much in daily history feeds, I finally had to pull her into the show!
Finally in sports, in 1961, the US government issued a stamp in honor of the 100th birthday of James Naismith, the inventor of Basketball. He was actually Canadian.
Our final moment in cultural history comes in 2018, when a study published in the journal "Genetics" found that human longevity is less than 10% dependent on genetics. The study was based on the genetic information of 400 million people from Ancestry.com.
Isn’t DNA data from consumer DNA tests being used for regime research a conspiracy theory? Was there consent? Was it informed consent?
In Death & Destruction…
Everybody dies and, at least in what we know, no one knows how they will die. Here’s today’s D&D update:
1942: 12,000 Jews Killed By Nazis In Minsk
1977: 39 Killed When A Dam Burst At Toccoa Falls Bible College In Ga
2002: 12 Killed In A Fire On A Vienna-Bound Train
2004: 6 Killed, 150 Injured When Express Train Collides With Car In England
2005: 25 Killed In The Evansville Tornado In Kentucky And Indiana
2013: 15 Killed By Suicide Bombing In Iraq
2013: 8 Killed And 50 Injured By A Suicide Bombing In Syria
2018: 200+ Mass Graves, Thousands Of Bodies, Discovered In Former Isis Held Areas
2019: 17 Killed When Isis Militants Attack Checkpoint At Tajikistan Uzbekistan Border
2022: 19 Killed In Tanzania Plane Crashed Into Lake, 24 Survivors
Today’s Birthdays…
1913: Vivian Leigh (Actress)
1931: Ike Turner (Abuser)
1941: Art Garfunkel (Paul Simon’s Sidekick)
1955: Kris Jenner (Pageant Mom)
1959: Bryan Adams (Canadian Singer)
1974: Ryan Adams (American Singer)
Deaths Today…
1869: Otis Tufts (Unknown)
1991: Robert Maxwell (Accidental Drowning)
2022: Aaron Carter (Accidental Drowning)
On This Day is published Monday through Friday. Watch the Today’s History podcast weekdays at 12PM ET! Don’t forget to visit bootlegproducts.com and use coupon code MYAMERICA!