MILESTONES: November 19, birthdays for Tyga, Calvin Klein, Patrick Kane
ON THIS DAY IN 1863, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Proclamation By The Mayor: ‘The governor of the state, having in accordance with the customs and laws thereof, designated Thursday, the 26th inst., to be a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, and declared the same to be a legal holiday, I respectfully urge upon my fellow citizens a general observance thereof, by the closing of their places of business and the suspension of labor generally … Thanks to the giver of all good that we have been spared the calamities of pestilence, famine, and the immediate presence of desolating war; and prayer to the Arbiter of the destinies of nations, that the rebellion may be speedily suppressed.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1919, the Eagle reported, “London — Great Britain and France are considering whether they are not compelled to proceed with the carrying out of the German Peace Treaty and the operation of the League of Nations independently of the United States, pending the decision of the American Government on its course. It is pointed out that matters are continually arising under the treaty which need immediate attention, such as the operation of the various plebiscite commissions, and it is considered that because of this fact it is no longer possible to delay making the pact operative. The opinion strongly prevails here that Great Britain will not accept any reservations made by the United States Senate which would necessitate the negotiation of a new treaty, as the British Government, it is declared, has every present intention of abiding by the decisions of the Paris conference.
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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “Photographing the human voice and later reproducing it, not as a picture, but as the actual sound of the voice itself, is now a practical accomplishment of science. More than this — the feat is performed in such a manner that the process can be utilized for literally a multitude of purposes. The apparatus has at least a dozen applications. Even a greater number of uses is believed possible and may be added to the list later. The extraordinary machine which does so much is the pallophotophone, which has just been brought to a state of perfection by Charles A. Hoxie of the General Electric Company’s general engineering laboratory at Schenectady, N.Y. The pallophotophone has brought to pass several new and most interesting innovations. It is regarded as the apparatus which will make talking movies a successful reality. The prediction is confidently made that the day is amazingly close when moving pictures with speaking characters will be seen and heard every day in your favorite movie theater.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1925, the Eagle reported, “Cairo, Nov. 19 (AP) — The condition of the mummy of Tutankhamen has been found to be such that it will be impossible to remove it from its gold coffin, Drs. [Douglas] Derry and Saleh Hamdi announced today in a report on the unwrapping of the mummy, which has occupied seven days. The experts announce that the mummy is firmly glued to the bottom of its gold coffin with a dried pitchlike material. It will also be futile to attempt to make X-ray pictures on account of the numerous layers of gold, faience and other materials covering the body to the knees.
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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “A special prayer for all victims of racial and religious persecution, stressing the plight of Jews in Germany, will be offered today and tomorrow by millions of Catholics, Protestants and Jews at religious services throughout America. The supplication, a plea for surcease from ‘cruelty and persecution, imprisonment and exile,’ has been written in connection with the Day of Prayer sponsored by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America and the National Conference of Jews and Christians. Bishop Thomas E. Molloy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has instructed the priests of the diocese to pray for the world’s afflicted, and the directors of the Brooklyn Church and Mission Federation have also endorsed the day of prayer.”
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NOTABLE PEOPLE born this day include television pundit Dick Cavett, who was born in 1936; space shuttle commander Eileen Collins, who was born in 1956; television journalist Ann Curry, who was born in 1956; Olympic sprinter Gail Devers, who was born in 1966; actor Adam Driver, who was born in 1983; actress Terry Farrell, who was born in 1963; actress Jodie Foster, who was born in 1962; dancer Savion Glover, who was born in 1973; baseball player Ryan Howard, who was born in 1979; actor Scott Jacoby, who was born in 1956; actress Allison Janney, who was born in 1959; hockey player Patrick Kane, who was born in 1988; talk show host Larry King, who was born in 1933, fashion designer Calvin Klein, who was born in 1942; actress Glynnis O’Connor, who was born in 1955; actress Kathleen Quinlan, who was born in 1954, sportscaster and former football player Ahmad Rashad, who was born in 1949; actress Meg Ryan, who was born in 1961; Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug, who was born in 1977; baseball, basketball and television executive Ted Turner, who was born in 1938; and ex-chairman of GE Jack Welch, who was born in 1935.
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THE FIRST AUTOMATIC TOLL WAS COLLECTED ON THIS DAY IN 1954. At the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway, motorists dropped 25 cents into a wire mesh hopper and a green light would flash. The first modern toll road was the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which opened in 1940.
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LINCOLN GAVE THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS ON THIS DAY IN 1863. Seventeen acres of the battlefield at Gettysburg were dedicated as a national cemetery. The address that President Lincoln delivered in less than two minutes was later recognized as one of the most eloquent of the English language. Five manuscript copies in Lincoln’s hand survive, including the rough draft begun in ink at the executive mansion at Washington and concluded in pencil at Gettysburg on the morning of the dedication (kept at the Library of Congress).
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THE SAN JUANICO DISASTER HAPPENED ON THIS DAY IN 1984. More than 300 people were killed when a gas truck explosion set off a series of explosions at a butane and liquefied gas storage facility in the Mexico City suburb Tlalnepantla. An area of approximately 60 acres was razed by the blasts and resulting fires. The four storage tanks involved held more than three million gallons of liquefied gas.
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PELE SCORED HIS 1,000TH GOAL ON THIS DAY IN 1969. Playing for the Santos team, legendary Brazilian soccer player Pelé scored his 1,000th goal in competition on a penalty kick against the team Vasco de Gama. Pelé dedicated this emotional and tremendous feat to Brazil’s poor children and its elderly and suffering people. By the time Pelé retired in 1977, he had scored an astounding 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches–a world record that still stands.
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