According to the internet, it’s World Kindness Day. This description made me laugh:
“On November 13th, as part of World Kindness Day, we are encouraged to spread kindness like an infectious cold. We want to share it more than usual because studies show when others observe kindness in action they are more likely to carry out an act of kindness, too.”
Are we spreading kindness like Covid? How can you spread kindness with masks and distances. Will there be vaccines? If it saves one life…
It’s also World Orphans Day and Odd Socks Day, but most importantly, it’s National Hug a Musician Day. Big hugs to my youngest who plays the trombone!
Now let’s get onto today’s history…
In Government…
In 1775, American Revolutionary forces captured Montreal. We didn’t keep it though, because Montreal is obviously part of Canada now.
On the same day in 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote the famous line, “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin may have been a prophet.
Fifty years later, in 1839, the first anti-slavery party in the US convened in NY under the name the Liberty Party. And ten years later, California got its first governor, former slave owner Peter Burnett. According to the ACLU, Burnett was a white supremacist from Tennessee with “a burning passion to create a whites-only American West.” He was a Democrat.
In 1861, Reverend Mark R. Watkinson petitioned the Treasury Department to recognize God on US currency. This is where "In God We Trust" came from, and it continues to adorn our money today – though one must wonder these days which “god” is currently being recognized. Four years later, in 1865, the US issued the first gold certificates. They were mostly used by banks to settle interbank accounts, but they were recalled by the government in 1933.
In 1931, Hattie Caraway (D-AR) was appointed to be the first US woman senator, and in 1932 she became the first woman elected to the Senate as well. Ten years after her election, the draft age in the nation was lowered from 21-18, on this day in 1942.
It’s Merrick Garland (1952) and Greg Abbott’s (1957) birthday today, which they also share with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (1953). It was also on this day in 1956 that the US supreme court ruled that race separation on buses in Alabama was unconstitutional.
Finally in US government history, Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for president on this day in 1979 and, exactly seven years later, admitted that the US was selling weapons to Iran.
In world history today:
1553: Jane Grey and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer accused of high treason
1770: George Grenville British Prime Minister who introduced the Stamp Act died
1856: First chimes of Big Ben ring out over Westminster
1864: Greece adopted new constitution
1887: Bloody Sunday in central London
1994: Sweden agreed to join European Union
1997: UN removed arms inspection teams from Iraq
2012: Three Syrian tanks entered the Golan Heights DMZ in Israel
In Culture…
1718, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, was born in England and, yes, he claims to have invented the sandwich.
From sandwiches to hypnosis, on this day in 1841, James Braid began his study of the subject he eventually named hypnosis after seeing a demonstration of animal magnetism. Animal magnetism is based on the belief in the existence of “a universal magnetic fluid” that is central in the restoration and maintenance of health. Trust the science.
In 1851, the telegraph connection between London and Paris was established, and in 1865, P. T. Barnum's New American museum opened in Bridgeport. Other first on November 13 include:
1875: First college football game with uniforms
1933: First modern sit-down strike in Minnesota
1937: First full-sized symphony orchestra for radio
1946: First artificial snow produced from a natural cloud
1952: First False fingernails sold
1955: First live telecast from non-contiguous foreign country
1987: First condom commercial
2017: First Barbie doll to wear a hijab
In literary history, Robert Louis Stevenson was born on this day in 1850, and in 1902, "Heart of Darkness" was published as a single volume by Joseph Conrad. In 1963, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", premiered on stage in New York. It was adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey.
Disney has some big releases on this day, as Fantasia premiered in 1940, and the stage production of Lion King opened in 1997. And Toy Story 2 was released in 1999.
In other Hollywood and celebrity Whoopi Goldberg (1955) and Jimmy Kimmel (1967) were born on this day, and "GoldenEye" premiered in 1995 — the 17th James Bond film, starring Pierce Brosnan as 007 for the first time.
In 1987, Sonny and Cher performed together for the final time on David Letterman, and Eminem released 'Lose Yourself' in 2002. That’s a wide musical spectrum.
In Death & Destruction…
In 1998, Michel Trudeau — brother of Justin — was lost in a backcountry skiing accident. His body was never found and he was presumed dead. I know of this story because I read Margaret Trudeau’s biography, “Changing My Mind,” and it was heart wrenching reading about her grief at losing her middle son.
November 13 is also a rough day for terror attacks and boating accidents:
1854: 300 killed when "New Era" sinks off New Jersey coast
1901: 9 killed in Caister Lifeboat Disaster off the coast of England
1909: 259 killed in St Paul Mine fire in Illinois
1960: 152 children killed in movie theater fire in Spain
1965: 89 killed when "Yarmouth Castle" burns and sinks off Bahamas
1985: 25,000 killed when Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts in Colombia
1990: 13 killed in the Aramoana Massacre
1993: 12 killed when Chinese MD82 crash landed at Urumqi
2002: Oil tanker “Prestige” sinks off the Galician coast
2007: 4 killed, 6 wounded in explosion in the south wing of the Philippines House of Representatives
2015: 130 killed by terror attacks in Paris
2020: Peter Sutcliffe died in prison from Covid
2022: 6 killed, 81 injured in terror bombing in Turkey
2022: 4 killed in Idaho stabbings
Reminder to be kinder on World Kindness Day!
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!