This day in history...

On November 9, 1862, General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Union Army of the Potomac, replacing George McLelland. An effective corps commander, Burnside proves to be lacking when it comes to commanding the entire army. In his only major engagement, Burnside will launch an ill-advised attacked against Lee's entrenched army outside Fredericksburg, VA, suffering staggering losses and leading many of his officers to mutiny. Lincoln would remove Burnside from command in January 1863. Perhaps his only legacy is his unusual hairstyle, which (American folklore has it) led to use of the term "sideburns."

 

On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress passes a resolution calling for "two battalion of marines be raised" as landing forces for the new Continental Navy. Captain Samuel Waters is designated to command the new battalions, and he sets up his first recruiting station in Tun Tavern in Philadelphia. Despite figuring in several successful campaigns of the revolution, the marines were disbanded following the war, but reestablished shortly after Congress formally established the U.S. Navy in 1789. Today, the U.S. Marine Corps consists of about 200,000 marines in four divisions, stationed in North Carolina, California, Okinawa, and the Reserve in New Orleans. The Corps has conducted about 300 amphibious assaults in its history. (Tun Tavern, considered the birthplace of the Marine Corps, burned down in 1781.)


On November 10, 1942, Nazi troops occupy the Vichy region of France. The region, making up most of southeastern France and named for a resort town in the region, had been left unoccupied when the country fell to the Germans in 1940, with a puppet government headed by WWI hero General Phillipe Petain. Publicly, Petain expressed loyalty the Nazis. Behind the scenes, he aided the French Resistance and hoped he could keep the region unoccupied by acting as unofficial mediator between the Nazis and the French government in exile. His efforts worked for two years, but became irrelevant as the likelihood of an Allied invasion of Europe through France increased.

On November 10, 1903, the patent office awards U.S. Patent No. 743,801 to Mary Anderson of Birmingham, Alabama for her “window cleaning device for electric cars and other vehicles to remove snow, ice or sleet from the window.” Anderson was inspired the previous winter when, riding on a trolley in NYC, she noticed how much trouble the operator was having seeing through the ice-encrusted glass. She supposedly drew out her first sketch before getting off the trolley. Auto manufacturers, however, told her the device had no practical value. By the time mechanical windshield wipers became standard equipment, the patent had expired, and Anderson never profited from her idea.

 

On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact is signed. Of the 102 Englishmen who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, only 41 were Puritans. The remainder were common folk the Puritans referred to as "strangers." When the Mayflower landed, these strangers revolted. They had sailed with the agreement they would becoming citizens of the Virginia Colony, but when the Mayflower landed in what would become Massachusetts instead, they said the agreement was voided. Its believed Puritan William Brewster wrote the Mayflower Compact, which all of the adult male strangers accepted. Its points included a loyalty oath to the king and a promise to live by Christian values.

On November 11, 1831, Nat Turner, leader of the largest slave revolt in U.S. history, is hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia. In August, Turner and 7 followers had killed their owner and six of his family members. Turner, who believed he was chosen by God to lead the slaves out of bondage, began gathering more followers. Over a two-day period their numbers swelled to about 75, and they attempted to raid an armory in Jerusalem. Local militia crushed the rebellion, but not before about 60 people were killed.


On November 11,1852, The Saturday Evening Gazette published "Rival Painters: A Story of Rome," by Louisa May Alcott. It is her first published work. Alcott will spend the next 15 or so years supporting her family off the proceeds of melodramatic short stories like this one, until she scores her first major success in 1868 with her first novel, 'Little Women."

 

On November 12, 1979, President Jimmy Carter halts the importation of oil from Iran. Eight days before, Muslim radicals invaded the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans captive. Carter worried attacks on American oil assets in the region could be coming, and on advice of the Departments of Energy and Treasury ordered the embargo. Iran was a major source of oil for the U.S. at the time, and it was not long before American drivers began experiences long delays in purchasing gas.


On November 12, 1969, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre. Hersh reported that in March of '68, U.S. soldiers of the Americal Division under Lieutenant William Caffey killed more than 100 Vietnamese civilians in a sweep of a cluster of villages known as My Lai 4. The army's immediate investigation of the incident found no irregularities, but acknowledged the massacre after Hersh's story appeared in more than 30 papers around the country. Twenty-two soldiers were charged, but in the end, only Caffey was convicted, and he served less than 5 years in prison.


On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 departing JFK Airport in New York bound for the Dominican Republic, crashes into a Queens neighborhood shortly after takeoff. 265 people - all 260 on board and 5 on the ground - are killed. Occurring just 2 months after the 9/11 attacks, there was initial fear that the crash was terrorist-related. The FAA concluded however, that the pilot had overreacted to the turbulence from a 747 that had taken off before Flight 587, and the consequential stress caused the tail section of his Airbus 300 to completely shear off the plane.

 

On November 13, 1775, Continental troops under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery take Montreal, Canada, without opposition. Montgomery's forces had laid siege to the city since late August. Already weakened by defending the city against Ethan Allen's New Hampshire militia, and unwilling to expose the city's citizens to a winter siege, British General and Canadian Royal Governor Guy Carleton surrendered Fort St. Jean on the 3rd, leaving the city undefended.


On November 13, 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood is killed in a car accident north of Oklahoma City. Silkwood worked as a technician at a plutonium plant operated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation and had been critical of the plant’s health and safety procedures, taking her complaints to the Atomic Energy Commission in September. A week earlier, Silkwood tested positive for radiation, the test indicating she had come into direct skin contact with plutonium, and may have even ingested some of the material. She was on her way to a meeting with a union representative and a reporter for The New York Times when she was killed, reportedly with a folder full of documents proving Kerr-McGee's negligence. No folder was found in the wreckage of her car, throwing a cloud of suspicion over Silkwood's death. K-M would pay her father a $1.3 million settlement.


On November 13, 1998, President Bill Clinton pays Paula Jones $850,000 to drop a sexual harassment lawsuit. Jones alleged that, as an Arkansas state employee in 1991, then-Governor Clinton had exposed himself to her in a Little Rock hotel room. Jones had been directed to the room by one of Clinton's body guards while attending an official conference at the hotel. The case became part of independent counsel Ken Starr's investigation into the Clinton's pre-Washington financial dealings, and it was in fact during questioning about Jones that Starr suddenly switched the topic to Monica Lewinsky, leading Clinton to perjure himself and open himself to an impeachable charge.