Today is World Urbanism Day, but rather than celebrate central planning and piling people on top of each other in cities, we are reimagining the first Thanksgiving as Wednesday from the Addams Family.
It’s also National Parents as Teachers Day, which is great considering that homeschooling is on the rise in America. And it’s National Harvey Wallbanger Day, celebrating a fruity and spirited cocktail made with 3 parts vodka, 1 part Galliano and 6 parts orange juice. Learn how to make on with this tutorial from the Rob Report.
Now let’s get onto today’s history…
In Government…
As America comes to terms with the “results” of yesterday’s elections, we have election history to get into today! In 1889, Montana became the 41st state on this day! Happy birthday, Montana!
In 1910, Washington held its first state election in which women could vote and, in the same year in 1938, the first African American woman legislator, Crystal Bird Fauset, was elected in Philadelphia. In 2022, Kathy Hochul became the first elected female governor of the State of New York, after serving as acting Governor in the wake of Andrew Cuomo’s ousting. Also, Sonny Bono was elected to Congress on this day in 1994.
In Presidential elections today:
1864: 14th President Abraham Lincoln (Re-elected)
1892: 24th President Grover Cleveland
1904: 26th President Theodore Roosevelt
1932: 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1960: 35th President John F. Kennedy
1988: 41st President George H. W. Bush
2016: 45th President Donald J. Trump
In other US government history, in 1701, William Penn presented the Charter of Privileges that guaranteed religious freedom in Pennsylvania, and 30 years later in 1731, Benjamin Franklin opened the first library in the North American colonies, also in Pennsylvania.
In 1933, FDR created the Civil Works by executive order in an attempt to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed people in the US. And in 1966, LBJ gave antitrust immunity in football, allowing the AFL-NFL merger.
The first jet-to-jet dog fight in history took place on this day in 1950 when a US aircraft shot down a North Korean jet in the Korean War.
In 2000, Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report showing the government had done no wrong in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas. The government literally never gets held accountable.
Finally, in 2014 former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev warned that tensions between America and Russia over Ukraine have put the world on the brink of a new Cold War. Fun fact, it’s not cold anymore.
In world history today…
1494: Uprising against Piero de' Medici in Florence
1798: Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone was sentenced to death by hanging
1939: Failed Assassination attempt on Hitler
1941: The Albanian Communist Party was founded
1944: 25,000 Hungarian Jews loaned to Nazis for forced labor
1956: UN demanded USSR leave Hungary
1962: Canada's government ordered the nickel changed back to round shape
1964: IMF granted Great Britain credit of $1 billion
1979: The Chilean Communist Party was formed
1997: China diverted the Yangtze to develop the Three Gorges Dam
In Culture…
In 1734, Vincent la Chapelle, a chef for various nobility and royalty, formed a FreeMasons Lodge in the Netherlands. Tune into Culture of Change on Sundays for more about the FreeMasons and our global governors.
In art history, the Louvre in Paris opened to the public for the first time on this day in 1793, and exactly 200 years later in 1993, five Picasso paintings and other artwork valued at $52 million were stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm.
In creepier history, in 1973 the right ear of John Paul Getty III was sent to a newspaper outlet, and the ransom note convinced his father to pay $2.9 million. In 1974 the Earl of Lucan disappeared after his nanny was found murdered in London. He was never heard from again. In the same year, Debi Kent disappeared in Salt Lake City. She was killed by Ted Bundy. Finally, in 1999, Bruce Miller was killed at his junkyard near Flint, Michigan after his wife convinced her lover to kill him. This was considered the world’s first internet murder.
There were many innovations today in history:
1789: Bourbon Whiskey distilled in Bourbon, Kentucky
1895: Electromagnetic radiation detected in a wavelength range (X-rays)
1904: First US patent for a separable electric attachment plug
1910: First US patent for an electrical insect destroyer – a bug zapper
1972: Home Box Office launched
2020: First test of a high-speed levitating pod system
In media, Mutiny on the Bounty premiered in 1935, and The Ten Commandments premiered in 1956. Elton John’s 11th album Greatest Hits was released in 1974 and, in 1990, Chris Isaak released single Wicked Game.
In Death & Destruction…
1520: 100 killed in Stockholm Bloodbath begins
1833: 2 killed when train derails New Jersey
1915: 200 killed when an Austrian-Hungarian submarine torpedoed an Italian liner
1945: 1,550 killed when riverboat sank off Hong Kong
1901: 8 Killed in bloody clashes in Athens
1919: 827 killed in the Eichenfeld massacre
1957: Pan Am Flight 7 disappears between San Francisco and Honolulu
1963: 22 killed when Finnair's Aero Flight 217 crashed
1961: 77 die when Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 crashed
1965: 58 killed in American Airlines Flight 383 crash in Kentucky
1981: 18 killed in Aeroméxico Flight 110 crash
1983: 130 killed in TAAG Angola Airlines Flight 462 crash
1987 11 killed in IRA bomb attack in Northern Ireland
1988: 900 die when earthquake hits China
2013: 11 killed in a car park bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia
2013: 6,000 killed by Typhoon Haiyan
2018: 88 killed in deadliest fire in Californian history, the Camp Fire
2018: 3 killed in Woolsey Fire starts near Thousand Oaks
2020: 50 beheaded in in northern Mozambique
Today’s Birthdays…
1742: Edmond Halley (Halley’s Comet)
1836: Milton Bradley (Monopoly)
1847: Bram Stoker (Dracula)
1900: Margret Mitchell
1947: Minnie Ripperton ("Lovin' You")
1953: John Musker (Moana)
1961: Leif Garrett (Actor)
1966: Gordon Ramsey (Celebrity Chef)
1968: Parker Posey (Actress)
1975: Tara Reid (Actress)
1970: Tom Anderson (Myspace)
1990: SZA (Musician)
Deaths Today…
1887: Doc Holiday (Law man)
1893: Francis Parkman (Oregon Trail)
1969: Dave O'Brien (Reefer Madness)
1978: Norman Rockwell (Artist)
2012: Lucille Bliss (Smurfette)
2020: Alex Trebek (Jeopardy)
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!