On November 7, 1983, a home-grown terrorist group detonates a bomb in the U.S. Capitol building. A little after 10:30pm, the Washington Post news desk received a recorded message; the speaker claimed to represent the Armed Resistance Movement and warned that a bomb would go off in the Capitol in retaliation for U.S. military involvement in Lebanon and Grenada. Moments later, a blast rocked the second floor of the Senate Chamber, not far from the office of Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd. The explosion occurred about an hour after a reception broke up in that part of the building. No one was hurt, but there was significant damage to the chamber and its trappings, including the official portrait of legendary Senator Daniel Webster (it was restored). Six members of the ARM would eventually be arrested; only two were convicted. That portion of the Capitol building is no longer open to the public. On November 7, 1910, Phillip Oren Parmalee flies a Wright Brothers Model B Flyer (below) from Dayton, OH to Columbus, 65 miles away, delivering 200 pounds of silk to a department store there. It is the first time a flight is made solely for the delivery of freight, and Parmalee makes the journey in 57 minutes, a world speed record at the time. Parmalee was personally trained to fly by the Wrights to help demonstrate their planes, and was especially active in military demonstrations. He's credited with being the first pilot to drop a bomb from a plane, pilot of the first plane to drop a parachutist, and conducting the first military reconnaisance flight. He crashed and died during a demonstration in June, 1912. On November 7, 1874, Harper's Weekly publishes a drawing by its famed political cartoonist Thomas Nast, depicting the Democratic Party donkey driving other "political animals" into panic. A commentary on the party's uproar over rumors that Republican incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant would seek a third term in office, the cartoon gives birth to the elephant as symbol of the Republican Party (Nast drew his famed image of a kicking donkey now associated with the Democrats 4 years earlier, but the donkey had been used to symbolize the Democrats as far back as 1837). Nast was famed for his cynical portrayals of politics throughout his career, so much so that some think the word "nasty" is derived from his name (its origins actually go back to the 1400's).
On November 11, 1982, NASA's fledgling Space Shuttle program becomes "operational." The first four launches of the first reusable space craft, Columbia, had been for testing and evaluating its various systems. For STS-5, Columbia gets down to business, flying a 4-man crew (the largest crewed space mission by any nation to that date) into orbit to launch two communications satellites. The 5-day mission also had a negative first: for the first time, an EVA is cancelled due to technical problems, as malfunctions were found in the EVA suits of both mission specialists. On the night of November 11 (and into the following morning), 1942, the British Royal Navy cripples the Italian navy at anchor. The Brits had been drawing up plans to deal with the powerful Italian fleet in the event of war in the Meditteranean for years. In history's first engagement of aircraft carrier-based planes against a surface fleet, the HMS Illustrious launched 21 biplanes armed with torpedos against the Italian First Squadron - 33 ships, including 6 battleships and 7 heavy cruisers - at their anchorage in the port city of Taranto. It was a decisive victory for the British; although no ships were sunk or damaged beyond recovery, they inflicted severe damage to 3 battleships, a heavy cruiser and 2 destroyers, at a cost of only two planes. Over the next several months, the Japanese military would visit Taranto to study the battle; the British success at attacking ships in a shallow harbor from the air would ultimately convince them the Pearl Harbor raid was feasible.
On November 12, 1944, the British Royal Air Force sinks the mighty German battleship Tirpitz. Although it survived for 3 years longer, the Tirpitz, like her sister ship the Bismarck, (modifications over her lifetime increased her tonnage, making her the largest battleship ever built by a European nation) had a short military career. She would only fire her main battery in an offensive role during one engagement. Most of her wartime career was spent at anchor, pinned down at various locations by either RAF or Royal Navy attacks. In late summer of '44, the RAF spotted the Tirpitz anchored in a fjord off Norway, and made repeated attempts to sink her. They finally succeeded on 11/12/44, as heavy bombers hit her with multiple "Tallboy" bombs, causing an explosion that capsized her. More than a thousand of her crew were lost. On November 12, 1912, the bodies of Robert F. Scott and his expedition of 4 are found on the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. An officer in the Royal Navy, Scott and Earnest Shackelton had jointly set the record for the southernmost march in 1901 (left photo), coming within 500 miles of the South Pole. The two ended their partnership in 1907 and Scott went it alone on a second attempt at the Pole with an 8-man team of his choosing. Scott and 4 others left their base ship Terra Nova on 11/1/1910, leaving written instructions for the remaining 3 men on where to meet them with provisions on the return march. What we know of Scott's last days comes from the journals found with his body. The team reached the South Pole on January 17, only to find they had been beaten there by Roald Amundsen's expedition by less than 5 weeks. Disheartened, the team turned back, only to miss their rendezvous with the others. Its estimated Scott had died on March 29, more than 7 months before his body was found. The frozen team was in possession of fossil evidence that proved Antarctica was once forested, and connected to the other continents. (right photo shows the memorial the search party erected over the tent where the bodies were found) On November 12, 1970, the Oregon Highway Division (infamously) blows up a whale. The 8-ton sperm whale had washed up on a beach near Florence, OR sometime before, and its carcass was beginning to rot. Attempts to push it back into the ocean failed, so the OHD (which had jurisdiction over Oregon's beaches) decided the easiest way to dispose of it would be to reduce it to smaller pieces. OK, but how to reduce? OHD decided the best way would be with a half ton of dynamite. Big mistake. Huge. The resulting explosion threw whale parts as far as a quarter of a mile, showering spectators, damaging cars (including a brand new one owned by the engineer who set the charges) frightening away the gathering scavenger birds officials hoped would at least help clean up the mess, and leaving an odor that lingered for weeks. KATU-TV was on hand to capture "one of Oregon's most infamous moments."
I've often wondered many things, what it would be like to stand at the North or South pole isn't one of them! What a horrible way to go The whale story is amazing, had seen that before!
I'd heard it too, knew I had to put it here as soon as I saw the date because I could attach the news story.
On November 13, 1901, the Caister lifeboat Beauchamp is lost. Stationed at Caister-on-sea in Norfolk, England, the Beauchamp had been part of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (England's Coast Guard) since 1891, a 36 foot long oared boat with a 10 foot beam. During what would later be called the "Great Storm of 1901," members of Beauchamp's crew (13 in all, many related by marriage or descendents of the crew's 78-year old commander, James Haylett) observed distress flairs being launched from the nearby light ship. In the pounding storm, it took nearly two hours to launch the boat, and the crew attempted to row for nearly an hour before the sea forced them back ashore, capsizing the Beauchamp (right photo). Nine of her crew were killed. In the subsequent inquiry, Haylett was asked why they persisted in the futile rescue attempt. He gave a flowery, noble answer that reporters condensed to a simple phrase: Caister men never turn back. "Never Turn Back" is now the motto of the RNLI. On November 13, 1940, Walt Disney Productions' animated musical anthology Fantasia premieres in NYC. Fantasia's beginnings come from The Sorcerer's Apprentice, an animated short Disney produced featuring Mickey Mouse and a classical music soundtrack. The studio soon realized the film would not recoup its cost if released as a short, and decided to expand on the idea with a series of short stories rooted in classical music. The Philadelphia Orchestra with its famed conductor Leopold Stokowski was recruited for the soundtrack, which was recorded in stereo, a previously unused technique in sound recording for film. Music critic Deems Taylor appeared on camera before each segment, acting as Master of Ceremonies. Fantasia failed to profit on its opening release, as the outbreak of WWII denied Disney the chance to show the film in Europe. It has been re-released multiple times in the decades since, and is now the 23rd highest grossing film of all-time, and ranked the 5th best animated film of all time by the American Film Institute. In 1990, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. (Below: part of the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence)
Got sidetracked by an unexpected project yesterday, so didn't get to post. I'll throw this one in though: On November 14, 1943, Chicago Bears QB Sid Luckman throws for an NFL record 7 TD passes in a single game. In a 56-7 win over the New York Giants, Luckman completed 21 of 32 passes for 433 yards (the first 400 yard passing day in NFL history) and throws TD's to 5 different receivers. The 7 TDs remains a single-game NFL record, though its been duplicated 6 times, most recently by the Saints' Drew Brees (also against the New York Giants) in 2015. In the '43 season, 13.9% of Luckman's passes went for touchdowns, an NFL record to this day, as his career touchdown-to-completion percentage of 7.9%
On November 15, 1943, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the German SS, orders that gypsies are to be treated "on the same level as Jews and put in concentration camps." Gypsies are a nomadic offshoot of the Roma people, who migrated from the Indian sub-continent into eastern Europe in the 13th or 14th centuries (the word is considered a racial slur by many Romas). The result is a near-genocide; gypsies were often shot on sight by the Nazis, and few who actually made it into the camps survived. In the Nazi puppet state of Croatia alone, about 25,000 were killed, nearly the entire population in the country. Its estimated anywhere from 200,000 to 1.5 million gypsies died in eastern Europe during WWII. (Gypsies awaiting deportation from Germany in 1940) On November 15, 1969, nuclear submarines collide at sea. At a depth of about 200 feet in the Barents Sea, the K-19 (left), a Russian nuclear missile submarine, collided with the USS Gato, an American attack sub. Though the Gato was relatively undamaged and continued its patrol without interruption, the K-19's bow was damaged badly enough that her captain ordered an emergency surfacing, and the boat limped back to port without loss of life. It was just one of several incidents involving K-19, which had been considered a bad luck boat by Soviet sailors since the bottle of champagne failed to break against her hull during her christening. The most famous incident, a 1961 reactor failure that resulted in 23 deaths, was chronicled in the 2002 film "K-19: The Widowmaker." ("Widowmaker" was never a nickname for the boat, but after the reactor failure, her crew nicknamed her "Hiroshima.") On November 15, 1959, Herb Clutter, a Kansas farmer, is killed in his home along with his wife Bonnie, and teenaged children Nancy and Kenyon. All four were tied up and shot in the head with a shotgun; Herb's throat was cut as well. Six weeks later, Richard Hickock (left) and Perry Smith - both Kansas State Prison parolees - were arrested in Las Vegas and charged with the crimes. Investigators learned that Hickock's former cellmate had worked as a farmhand for the Clutters, and told Hickock that Clutter kept a large amount of cash in a safe in the house. The home invasion, robbery and murders did not go as Hickock and Smith planned; despite several hours ramsacking the house, no safe was ever found. After killing the family (the Clutters also had two adult children who lived out of state), they made off with about $50, a portable radio and a pair of binoculars. Hickock and Smith were both sentenced to death and hanged in April, 1965. The crime was extensively researched by author Truman Capote (with help from "To Kill A Mockingbird" author Harper Lee) who's subsequent book "In Cold Blood" is the second best-selling true crime novel of all time.
On November 18, 1307, William Tell fires the first shot for Swiss independence. A noted mountain guide and archer with a crossbow, Tell was arrested for failing to show proper respect to Gessler, the Hapsburg governor in Tell's canton of Uri. He was brought before Gessler, who ordered he and his son be put to death but, noting Tell's fame, promised to free both if Tell could shoot an arrow off his son's head at a distance of 120 paces. Tell was successful, but Gessler noticed he tucked a second arrow in his belt before making the critical shot. Tell said the second arrow was for Gessler if his son had been injured. Gessler furiously ordered Tell imprisoned, but he escaped and later used the second arrow on Gessler as promised. News of Tell's feat spread and sparked his countrymen to revolt against the Hapsburgs. Great story, but - despite the esteem with which Tell is still held by the Swiss to this day - historians believe it is fictional, and question whether Tell existed at all. On November 18, 1985, 35 American newspapers publish the new comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for the first time. The strip follows Calvin, a hyperactive, mischevious boy, along with Hobbes, who is seen as a stuffed tiger when anyone besides Calvin appears in a panel, but is alive when the two are alone (when asked, Watterson was always vague as to whether Hobbes was meant to be truly alive or just a product of Calvin's vivid imagination). Running until the end of 1995, Calvin and Hobbes is one of the most successful comic strips of all time, having been published in 2,400 papers worldwide at its height. Compilations in book form have sold more than 45 million copies. (First strip, dated 11/18/85)
On November 19, 1493, Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage of discovery to the "New World", sets foot on an island called Boriken by its natives. Columbus would christen the island San Juan Bautista, after John the Baptist. He spent two days there replenishing his fresh water supply before departing to check on sailors who had stayed on Hispanola following his first voyage. San Juan Bautista would eventually be renamed Puerto Rico. On November 19,1955, the first edition of the National Review is published. The weekly magazine was the brainchild of William F. Buckley Jr., an independently wealthy (his father struck it rich in oil) conservative journalist who felt there was a need for a journal that espoused solely conservative views (despite there being a number of newspapers and magazines at the time that either leaned right or gave a fair amount of space to right wing viewpoints). The National Review continues today in print and online, and though its circulation has never reached six figures, is still seen as one of the most prominent conservative outlets in media. On November 19, 1969 during a World Cup qualifying match, famed Brazilian futbol player Pele' scores the thousandth goal of his career. Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento (he once said he had no idea what his nickname "Pele'" meant; a popular story is that he was given it as a schoolboy after he was heard mispronouncing the name of a popular goalkeeper named Bile'), Pele' would score 1,279 goals in his professional career, nearly one per game and a world record. Credited with giving soccer the nickname "The Beautiful Game," he is the only player in history to have been part of 3 World Cup championship teams, and was voted Player of the (20th) Century by two international football organizations. The first international black sports star, Pele' was for a time the world's highest-paid athlete. In 1999 he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympics Committee and was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. Pele' died in 2022 at age 82.
