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On a 18 November:
2000 George W. Bush's campaign fiercely attacked the hand-recounting of votes in Florida's presidential election, depicting a process riddled with human error and Democratic bias; Al Gore's lawyers defended the effort in papers filed with the state Supreme Court.

1999 Dragging victim's third murderer gets life in prison.
      On 7 June 1998, in Jasper, Texas, three men, Lawrence Russell Brewer Jr., 31, John William "Bill" King, 23, and Shawn Allen Berry, 23, chained James Byrd Jr, a 49-year-old black man, to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him three miles down the road. Byrd was black; his three killers — whose guilt was never really in doubt — were white.
     Byrd, a black Jasper resident, got so drunk at a party that his friends and relatives refused to drive him home. So he walked. When three white men, Berry, Brewer and King, offered him a ride in Berry's primer-gray pickup, he apparently jumped right in. What happened next is hazy, but the four men didn't go home. Instead, they started swilling beer together and smoking cigarettes.
      Eventually, some combination of Berry, Brewer and King tired of the camaraderie and decided to chain their newfound companion by his ankles to the back of their pickup and drag him down a county road. Finally, Byrd's head hit a culvert and split, along with one arm, from the rest of his body. Brewer, Berry and King unchained the body and left it outside the gates of a local graveyard, then went their separate ways. Byrd's buttocks and heels were ground down almost to the bone. He was alive and probably conscious until his head hit the culvert. His last moments couldn't have been anything short of excruciating. Berry later said that he was a horrified bystander, not an active participant. He said that the other men threatened him, saying "the same thing can happen to a nigger lover."
     Brewer and King both had racist tattoos and open ties with a white supremacist group. While they were in jail in Jasper County, Brewer sent King a note proudly boasting that after Byrd's death, "we are bigger stars, or should I say hero of the day, than we ever expected." King first (23 February 1999), and then Brewer (September 1999) were tried and sentenced to death. Berry, who did not have the same racist antecedents as the other two, was sentenced to life in prison (parole possible after 40 years)(18 November 1999).

1998 National Book Award to Charming Billy
Alice McDermott beats out front-runner Tom Wolfe for the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy. McDermott grew up on Long Island, which became the setting for much of her writing. She attended the State University of New York at Oswego, then worked in publishing for a year, hoping to rid herself of the writing bug. Failing that, she went to graduate school at the University of New Hampshire and soon began publishing short stories in women's magazines. Her first novel, A Bigamist's Daughter, came out in 1982. Her second was That Night (1987). McDermott and her husband, a neuroscientist, had three children and lived in San Diego and Pittsburgh before settling in Bethesda. She taught at Johns Hopkins University while continuing to write novels, including At Weddings and Wakes (1992) and Charming Billy (1998).

1997 Five suspected agents for Libya went on trial in Berlin for the 1996 bombing of a nightclub that killed three people.
1997 According to Microsoft executives, some 200'000 certificates of authenticity and 100'000 CD-ROMs have been stolen from Microsoft by armed robbers the previous week at a manufacturing facility in Scotland.

1996 Seven years in prison for conservationist turned parrot smuggler.
      Tony Silva, a world-renowned expert and outspoken protector of exotic birds, is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling operation. Silva was only one of many to be arrested during "Operation Renegade," a three-year international probe into bird smuggling by the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Division of Law Enforcement, although his case was by far the best known.
      Silva's indictment and guilty plea shocked the international community of academic experts, conservationists, zoologists, and collectors interested in exotic birds, most of whom had known and respected him as a benevolent bird lover. Since his childhood, Silva had championed the cause of protecting wildlife. His parents, who had emigrated to the US from Cuba when he was a boy, encouraged his love of birds, thinking it was a good way to keep their son out of trouble. Silva began breeding birds at a young age, and, by his 20s, he had already written hundreds of articles and authored two books on rare parrots. When he was just 30 years old, he was named curator of Loro Park, a wildlife sanctuary in the Canary Islands.
      However, Silva's image greatly changed when he was accused of smuggling 258 hyacinth macaws, valued at a total of $1.4 million, as well as 299 other exotic birds. Hyacinth macaws are extremely rare, having a wild population numbering between only 2000 and 5000. During smuggling operations, many of the birds die. In one instance, only two out of 35 birds survived.
      US District Court Judge Elaine Bucklo, shocked at the brutal treatment of the birds during the smuggling operations, handed down one of the most severe sentences ever imposed for bird smuggling. In addition to the 82-month prison term, she fined Silva $100,000 and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service during a three-year supervised release program after his prison term. During the sentencing, Judge Bucklo said, "The real victims of these crimes were the birds themselves and our children and future generations who may never have the opportunity to see any of these rare birds."
      Silva later claimed that he was set up and had only been trying to protect the birds. In a 1998 interview, he spoke as if he had been on a religious mission to save endangered species: "I thought I could be Noah, that I could save a lot of these things." However, many disagree with Silva's interpretation of the events, citing the evidence from his trial, which included photographs of dead parrots, a book detailing his smuggling operations found at his home, and a taped conversation of Silva saying that he had 50 hyacinth macaws for sale.

1996 A 16-year CIA veteran and onetime station chief Harold J. Nicholson is arrested for spying as he tries to board a plane at Washington's Dulles International Airport. He is charged with selling top secrets to the Russians for more than $120'000. (Nicholson later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison; for cooperating with investigators he was spared a life sentence)

1996 Hand-held computers introduced
Four hardware makers present hand-held computers at an electronics show on this day in 1996. The computers were all designed to run Microsoft Windows CE, an operating system introduced at the show the previous day. The machines offered remote and wireless connections for checking e-mail and surfing the Web and allowed users to synchronize data with Windows programs. By 1999, the market for hand-held computers had grown to an estimated 5.7 million units, nearly fifty% greater than 1998 sales, according to the research firm Dataquest.

1995 With no relief in sight from a budget impasse that forced a partial federal shutdown, the House rebel against Republican leaders during a raucous Saturday session and vote to oppose formally adjourning the chamber until Monday. (Republican leaders put the chamber into recess anyway.)
1994 The US Commerce Department announces that the trade deficit was $10.3 billion during the previous September. In the 1980s, the US's trade deficit had become a multi-billion-dollar problem.
1994 Palestinian police open fire on Islamic militants outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip, provoking riots that kill at least 14 people and injured 200.
1993 South Africa's ruling National Party and leaders of 20 other parties representing blacks and whites approved a new national constitution that provides fundamental rights to blacks.
1991 The Lebanese Shiite Moslem faction of the Islamic Jihad free hostages Church of England envoy Terry Waite and US professor Thomas Sutherland, dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut.
1990 Saddam offers to free an estimated 2000 men held in Kuwait
1990 US President Bush begins a series of meetings in Paris with allied leaders aimed at solidifying support for his Persian Gulf policies.
1990 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II, who says that all possible efforts should be made to avoid war in the Persian Gulf.

1987 US Congress issues Iran-Contra Affair report
      The congressional committee on the Iran-Contra affair issues their final report, stating that President Ronald Reagan failed in his constitutional duty as president and bore "the ultimate responsibility" for the wrongdoing of his aides, who are said to have "subverted" the rule of law on a number of occasions. The Iran-Contra affair first became public in late 1986, when it was revealed that members of the Reagan administration, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the armed forces were illegally selling arms to Iran for two purposes: to help secure the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian groups, and to raise funds for the illicit support of the Contras in their guerrilla war against Nicaragua's Communist government. Revelations about the Iran-Contra connection cause outrage in Congress, which in 1983 had passed the Boland amendments prohibiting the Defense Department, the CIA, or any other government agency from providing military aid to the Contras. In December 1986, Lawrence E. Walsh was named special prosecutor to investigate the matter, and over the course of the investigation thirteen top White House, State Department, and intelligence officials are found guilty of charges ranging from perjury to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Although President Reagan is heavily implicated in the final congressional report, neither he nor Vice President George Bush is directly indicted in the subsequent criminal trials.
     After nearly a year of hearings into the Iran-Contra scandal, the joint Congressional investigating committee issues its final report. It concluded that the scandal, involving a complicated plan whereby some of the funds from secret weapons sales to Iran were used to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, was one in which the administration of Ronald Reagan exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law." Naming several members of the Reagan administration as having been directly involved in the scheme (including National Security Advisor John Poindexter and deceased CIA Director William Casey), the report stated that Reagan must bear "ultimate responsibility." A number of government officials were charged and convicted of various crimes associated with the scandal.
      A minority opinion by some of the Republican members of the committee contained in the report argued that the hearings had been politically motivated. They also suggested that while Reagan administration officials might have used poor judgment, the ultimate end-continuing the fight against the leftist regime in Nicaragua-was a worthy goal.
      The differences in opinion, while partially reflective of partisan biases, were also evidence of a question that had plagued US policy makers since the early days of the Cold War: in the battle against communism, were the ends more important than the means?

1987 Sony buys CBS Records
After an intense two-month courtship, Sony Corp. struck a deal to acquire CBS Records. For $2 billion, the Japanese electronics giant snagged the world's biggest record company and label of hit-making heavyweights such as Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson. The deal also included CBS's global array of manufacturing plants and subsidiary companies, as well as 10'000 employees and Columbia House, a direct-mail music club. While the acquisition instantly boosted Sony's position in the music industry, it was also the capstone of a major corporate makeover for CBS. During the past year, CBS's new chairman, Laurence A. Tisch, aggressively moved to re-shape the company, selling off non-broadcast affiliates and divisions. Though some may have grumbled about Tisch's decision to peddle the music industry's biggest prize, the infusion of a few billion dollars won praise from Wall Street, as shares of CBS's stock posted a $8.625 gain to close the day at $176.

1987 Used car sold for $1'600'000
A special edition 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO hardtop is sold for $1'600'000 at an automobile auction in Italy, setting a new public auction record. Enzo Ferrari first introduced the GTO in 1954, and public demand for the series was so great that Ferrari was motivated to build its first assembly line. The 250 series, the most popular of which were the Testa Rossa and the GT Spyder, made Ferrari a legend. The 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO was a limited edition variant on the 1962 GTO. The engine featured a 12-cylinder engine with a maximum power output of 290 bhp at 7400 rpm. The 1963 GTO variant featured larger tires and the hardtop design, and was significant because of its release during the 250 GTO's last major year of production.

1984 The Soviet Union helps deliver American wheat during the Ethiopian famine
1983 Argentina announces its ability to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
1976 Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish democracy after 37 years of Franco dictatorship

1970 Nixon appeals to Congress for funds for Cambodia
      President Nixon asks Congress for supplemental appropriations for the Cambodian government of Premier Lon Nol. Nixon requested $155 million in new funds for Cambodia - $85 million of which would be for military assistance, mainly in the form of ammunition. He also asked for an additional $100 million to restore funds taken from other foreign appropriations during the year by "presidential determination" and given to Cambodia. Nixon wanted the funds to provide aid and assistance to Lon Nol to preclude the fall of Cambodia to the communist Khmer Rouge and their North Vietnamese allies.
      Lon Nol was a Cambodian general who had overthrown the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in March 1970. He and his army, the Forces Armees Nationale Khmer (FANK), were engaged in a desperate struggle with the communists for control of the Cambodian countryside. The Nixon administration had initiated a program of aid to Lon Nol in April 1970 with $7.5 million in arms and supplies. This aid did not have an immediate impact as the government forces reeled under heavy communist attacks. Besides trying to get additional funds for more military aid for Cambodia, Nixon also committed US aircraft in direct support of Cambodian government troops and initiated a program whereby US Army Special Forces would train Lon Nol's troops.
      With this US support, Lon Nol was able to successfully withdraw most of his forces (which numbered over 200'000) from the rural areas to the larger urban centers, where they were able to hold out against the communist attacks. The fighting continued, but generally a stalemate prevailed so that neither side gained the upper hand. This situation changed in 1973 after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. Under the provisions of that agreement, the United States withdrew its forces from South Vietnam and both the Cambodians and South Vietnamese found themselves fighting the communists alone.
      Without US support, Lon Nol's forces succumbed to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975. During the five years of bitter fighting, approximately 10% of Cambodia's 7 million people died, but the suffering of the Cambodian people did not end with the communist takeover. The victorious Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh and set about to reorder Cambodian society, which resulted in a killing spree and the notorious "killing fields." During this period, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died from murder, exhaustion, hunger, and disease.

1967 British government devalues pound from US equivalent of $2.80 to $2.40
1966 This is the last required meatless Friday for American Roman Catholics, in accordance with a decree of Pope Paul VI earlier this year and decision of US bishops.

1964 In the largest air assault of the Vietnam war thus far, 116 US and South Vietnamese aircraft fly 1100 South Vietnamese troops into Binh Duong and Tay Ninh Provinces to attack what is believed to be a major communist stronghold. General Nguyen Khanh personally directed the operation, but the troops made only light contact with the Viet Cong.
1964 J Edgar Hoover describes Martin Luther King as "most notorious liar"
1963 The first push-button telephone went into service on this day in 1963. Touch-tone service, first available in two Pennsylvania cities, was available as an option for an extra charge. The phone had ten buttons and was made by Western Electric Manufacturing.

1960 The end of the DeSoto car.
The Chrysler DeSoto was a hit even before the first model was built in the summer of 1928. When Walter P. Chrysler announced that his Chrysler Corporation intended to build a mid-priced vehicle boasting six-cylinders, dealerships signed on immediately, and in the first twelve months of production the DeSoto set a sales record that stood for thirty years. The automobile, named after Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, was a large and powerful vehicle marketed to the average American car buyer. The innovative designs of the DeSotos of the 1930s were as daring as their namesake — 1934 saw the introduction of America's first affordable automobile with aerodynamic styling, and the 1937 DeSoto was hailed for its safety innovations. In the late 1930s, lackluster US sales prompted Chrysler to introduce a more conservative line of DeSotos. The large and gracious 1940 DeSoto was advertised as "America's Family Car," and the American family agreed, giving DeSoto its best sales in the first few years after World War II.
During the 1950s, the DeSoto became adventurous again, and the 1955 DeSoto featured power styling to match its powerful engine. By 1956, DeSoto was eleventh in the industry, but the dynamics of its demise were already in motion at Chrysler. Disorganization in the management of the Chrysler Corporation, along with general quality issues in Detroit in the late 1950s, led to several years of popular but flawed DeSotos. In 1958, DeSoto's designers introduced their most flamboyant cars ever, the Firesweeps, Firedomes, and Fireflites, but the public failed to embrace these new models, and all but the Fireflite was dropped in 1959. In 1960, William C. Newberg, the new president at Chrysler, decided to limit the DeSoto program, and the uninspired 1961 DeSoto was doomed for failure. On this day, just two weeks after the 1961 DeSoto was introduced to an uninterested market, Chrysler announced the termination of the DeSoto marquee.

1959 "Ben-Hur," the Biblical movie starring Charlton Heston, has its world premiere in New York. It is based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace
1949 The US Air Force grounds B-29s after two crashes and 23 deaths in three days.

1940 Hitler scolds Italy for failed Greek campaign
Adolf Hitler scolded Count Ciano of Italy for his failed campaign in Greece. Ciano's Italian troops, bolstered by Albanian soldiers, had attacked Greece on October 28. The tough Greek Army had not only repulsed them, but swept through them into Italian-occupied Albania. Italy was humiliated, and Hitler was up in arms. The Fuhrer warned Ciano about the ramifications of Italy's ongoing war with Greece. If Britain were to acquire an air base in Athens as a result of the Greece-Italy conflict, they would be able to bomb vital Romanian oil wells at Ploesti. To prevent this, Germany would have to intervene, which they would not be able to do until mid-March.

1939 The Irish Republican Army explodes three bombs in Picadilly Circus.
1938 Union members elected John L. Lewis as the first president of the recently formed, and newly independent, Congress of Industrial Organizations.

1937 La Cagoule démasquée.
Le journaliste Maurice Pujo revèle à la France ce qu'il appelle " la Cagoule " . C'est un groupe du parti national révolutionnaire d'extrême droite qui a été fondé en 1935 par le polytechnicien Eugène Deloncle. Le public stupéfait apprend que les attentats et les meurtres qui ont ponctué la vie politique depuis deux ans sont leur faits. En 1936, elle s'est associée l'organisation secrète d'action révolutionnaire nationale, qu'on appellera le CSAR, dirigée par le général d'aviation Arthur Duseigneur et son ami le duc Pozzo di Borgo. Leur ambition est simplement de renverser le régime républicain. Ils ont été exécutés Jean-Baptiste Maurice, Dimitri Navachine, Maurice Juif, Lætitia Tonneaux, les frères italiens antifascistes Rosselli. C'est à eux aussi que l'on doit les plasticages de la place de l'Etoile et de l'aéroport de Toussus-le-Noble. C'est à eux encore que l'on doit les bombes qui ont explosé rue de Presbourg, à la Confédération générale du patronat français, et rue Boissière, au siège de l'Union des industries métallurgiques. Les cagoulards sont arrêtés.

1936 Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy recognize Falangist Spanish government of Francisco Franco, fighting to overthrow democracy..
1936 The main span of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is joined.

1929 Large quake in Atlantic breaks Transatlantic cable in 28 places
1926 Pope Pius XI encyclical On the persecution of the Church in Mexico

1925 New Evidence exculpates Sacco and Vanzetti
of the murders in South Braintree, Mass., on April 15, 1920, of F.A. Parmenter, paymaster of a shoe factory, and Alessandro Berardelli, the guard accompanying him, in order to secure the payroll that they were carrying.
      On 05 May Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists who had immigrated to the United States in 1908, one a shoemaker and the other a fish peddler, were arrested for the crime. On May 31, 1921, they were brought to trial before Judge Webster Thayer of the Massachusetts Superior Court, and on July 14 both were found guilty by verdict of the jury. Socialists and radicals protested the men's innocence.
      Many people felt that there had been less than a fair trial and that the defendants had been convicted for their radical, anarchist beliefs rather than for the crime for which they had been tried. All attempts for retrial on the ground of false identification failed. On Nov. 18, 1925, one Celestino Madeiros, then under a sentence for murder, confessed that he had participated in the crime with the Joe Morelli gang. The state Supreme Court refused to upset the verdict, because at that time the trial judge had the final power to reopen on the ground of additional evidence. The two men were sentenced to death on 09 April 1927.
      A storm of protest arose with mass meetings throughout the nation. Governor Alvan T. Fuller appointed an independent advisory committee consisting of President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, President Samuel W. Stratton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Robert Grant, a former judge. On 03 August 1927, the governor refused to exercise his power of clemency; his advisory committee agreed with this stand.
      Demonstrations proceeded in many cities throughout the world, and bombs were set off in New York City and Philadelphia. Sacco and Vanzetti, still maintaining their innocence, were executed on 23 August 1927.
      Opinion has remained divided on whether Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty as charged or whether they were innocent victims of a prejudiced legal system and a mishandled trial. Some writers have claimed that Sacco was guilty but that Vanzetti was innocent. There is widespread agreement, however, that the two men should have been granted a second trial in view of their trial's significant defects.
      In 1977 the governor of Massachusetts, Michael S. Dukakis, issued a proclamation stating that Sacco and Vanzetti had not been treated justly and that no stigma should be associated with their names.

1918 Latvia declares independence from Russia

1916 British commander ends bloody Battle of Somme
Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, calls off the Battle of the Somme in the Somme River region of France after nearly five months of mass slaughter. The massive Allied offensive began at 07:30. on 01 July 1916, with an intense bombardment of 250'000 British shells along the Western Front, followed by the explosion of mines planted under the German trenches. Before the dust cleared, 100'000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and across no-man's-land. Unfortunately, they were met with a lethal barrage of machine gun fire from the enforced German trenches, which had survived the artillery onslaught. By nightfall, 20'000 British were dead, including 1000 officers, and 40'000 were injured. . It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history.
The next day, both sides settled down to a war of attrition, characterized by ineffectual but costly offensives and the horrendous conditions of trench life. Even Britain's 15 September introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock along the Western Front. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud. On 18 November 1916, Haig ended the Battle of the Somme. The offensive amounted to a total gain of just 320 square kilometers, at a cost of over 600'000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action. German casualties were over 650'000. Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the Western Front eventually contributed to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.

1912 Albania declares independence from Turkey
1912 Cholera breaks out in Constantinople, in the Ottoman Empire.
1909 US invades Nicaragua, later overthrows President Zelaya
1906 Anarchists bomb St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
1905 The Norwegian Parliament elects Prince Carl of Denmark to be the next King of Norway. Prince Carl takes the name Haakon VII.
1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gives US exclusive canal rights in Panama
1901 The second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty is signed. The United States is given extensive rights by Britain for building and operating a canal through Central America.

1894 1st newspaper Sunday color comic section published (NY World)

1883 North American time zones created, needed by railroads.
      Four standard time zones for the continental USA. are introduced at the instigation of the railroads. At noon the US Naval Observatory changes its telegraphic signals correspondingly and American and Canadian railroads begin using the time zones, ending the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times.
      The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America by the 1880s. Since human beings had first begun keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. Even as late as the 1880s, most towns in the US had their own local time, generally based on "high noon," or the time when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days or months to mere hours, however, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Railroad timetables in major cities listed dozens of different arrival and departure times for the same train, each linked to a different local time zone.
      Efficient rail transportation demanded a more uniform time-keeping system. Rather than turning to the federal governments of the United States and Canada to create a North American system of time zones, the powerful railroad companies took it upon themselves to create a new time code system. The companies agreed to divide the continent into four time zones; the dividing lines adopted were very close to the ones we still use today.
      Most Americans and Canadians quickly embraced their new time zones, since railroads were often their lifeblood and main link with the rest of the world. However, it was not until 1918 that Congress officially adopted the railroad time zones and put them under the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

1863 Siege of Knoxville, Tennessee continues
1861 First session of the Provisional Confederate Congress meets in Richmond, Virginia.
1860 Georgia legislature votes $1'000'000 to arm the state

1820 An American sights Antarctica
US Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer, aboard the Hero, a 13-meter sloop, becomes the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica. Palmer, who discovered the Antarctica peninsula later named Palmer's Peninsula in his honor, did not realize the scope of his discovery. Very little was known about the continent at the time, and there were no recorded sightings before January of the same year, when Russian Thaddeus von Bellingshausen became the first person to sight part of Antarctica. Palmer, only nineteen years old in 1820, was dispatched from sealing grounds in the South Shetlands along with his five crewmen to search for land to the south. In February of 1821, American John Davis, a sealer from Connecticut who had been searching the South Shetlands for seals, arguably became the first person to set foot on the continent when he went ashore at Hughes Bay. In December of that year, Nathaniel Palmer made another important discovery when he found the South Orkney Islands along with British sealer George Powell.

1803 Battle of Vertieres, in which Haitians defeat French
1776 Hessians capture Fort Lee, NJ

1738 Fin de la Guerre de Succession de la Pologne
      Le traité de Vienne met fin à la guerre de la Succession de Pologne. Cinq ans plus tôt, Stanislas Leszczynski avait été élu pour la deuxième fois roi de Pologne. Désavouant ce choix de la Diète polonaise, la tsarine de Russie, Catherine II, et l'empereur d'Allemagne, Charles VI de Habsbourg, envoyèrent des troupes contre lui. Mais Stanislas avait un allié de choix en la personne de son gendre, rien moins que le roi de France Louis XV, qui avait épousé sa fille Marie.
      La guerre se prolongea plus que de raison et, pour en finir, le ministre Fleury imposa sagement au beau-père de Louis XV de renoncer à la Pologne. En échange, Stanislas obtint les duchés de Bar et de Lorraine que la France convoitait depuis plusieurs décennies. François de Lorraine, le gendre de l'empereur, reçut le grand-duché de Toscane en compensation de la cession de son duché à Stanislas. L'infant don Carlos d'Espagne, qui régnait sur la Toscane, obtint la Sicile et Naples, qui formeront le royaume des Deux-Siciles.
      Enfin, le roi de France reconnut — mais du bout des lèvres — la Pragmatique sanction de l'empereur. Celui-ci, qui n'avait pas de fils, prévoyait par cette ordonnance de transmettre le patrimoine des Habsbourg et le titre impérial à sa fille Marie-Thérèse. Stanislas eut à coeur d'embellir sa nouvelle capitale, Nancy, et à sa mort, en 1766, ses duchés de Bar et de Lorraine furent annexés par la France, comme prévu.
La France abandonne la Pologne.
      Il a fallu trois ans de négociations pour que la France, qui a soutenu la cause du roi de Pologne Stanislas Leszczynski, beau-père de Louis XV, accepte enfin de signer le traité Traité de Vienne. Leszczynski renonce au trône de Pologne ; il reçoit les duchés de Lorraine et de Bar, qui reviendront à sa mort au roi de France. François de Lorraine reçoit Parme et la Toscane. L'infant don Carlos d'Espagne obtient la Sicile et Naples, qui formeront le royaume des Deux-Siciles.

1626 In Rome, the newly completed St Peter's Basilica was consecrated by Urban VIII. St. Peter's is presently the largest church in Christendom, with a length of 189 m..
1525 Grebel, Manz and Blaurock, Anabaptist leaders, are sentenced to bread and water in prison.
1497 Bartolomeu Dias discovers Cape of Good Hope

1477 The first English printed book
At his wooden press in Westminster, William Caxton completes a translation by Earl Rivers from the French of Dictes or Sayengs of the Philosophers, the first book to be printed in England. During the early 1470s, the English-born Caxton learned the art of printing in Cologne, Germany, and in 1475, produced the first book ever printed in English, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. In 1476, he returned to England to set up his press in Westminster. Caxton's press, like other early presses in Germany, used printing types that imitated handwriting. Artistically, Caxton was the finest printer of his day, using his famed Black Letter type that imitated the calligraphy of Haarlem monks. During his career as a printer, Caxton went on to print almost one hundred books in England, including the Canterbury Tales, the late fourteenth-century masterpiece by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
Parution du premier ouvrage imprimé en Angleterre
Il sort des presses de William Caxton qui devient ainsi le premier imprimeur anglais après avoir été marchant de tissus prospère et etimé, puis écrivain. Séjournant à Cologne (Allemagne) entre 1470 et 1472, Caxton entend parler de l'imprimerie et 'y intéresse. De retour à Londres en 1476, il installe ses presses près de l'Abbaye de Westminster. Encouragé par le roi d'Angleterre Édouard VI, il éditera de nombreux ouvrages (une centaine en quinze ans)

1307 William Tell shoots apple off his son's head
1302 Pope Boniface VIII published the bull "Unam Sanctam." It was the first papal writing to decree that spiritual power took precedent over temporal power, and that subjection to the pope was necessary to salvation. He declared that there is "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" outside of which there is "neither salvation nor remission of sins." Emphasizing the pope's position as Supreme Head of the Church, it demanded that civil powers subjugate themselves to spiritual. Boniface claimed the title Vicar of Christ but died mad a few weeks later.
1210 Pope Innocent III excommunicates emperor Otto IV.

1095 Pope Urban II opens the Council of Clermont.
      Summoned to plan the First Crusade, it was attended by over 200 bishops. Among its official policies, the Council decreed that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem made every other penance superfluous.
     For a thousand years Christianity steadily expanded throughout Europe. Yet by the eleventh century it was threatened in the place where it started. The Turks had conquered Jerusalem and were at the door of Constantinople. Eastern Christians pleaded with Rome to send help, and on this day, 18 November1095, Pope Urban II called 600 clergymen and laymen to the Council of Clermont to take action. Pope Urban II addressed the Council with a sermon that tugged at the heart strings of Christians everywhere. He asked Europe to recapture the Holy Land from the Turks and to free Antioch, where men had first been called Christians.
      When the pope declared: "The way is short, the toil will be followed by an incorruptible crown," the people replied, "God wills it." Urban II then said: "Let these words be your war-cry when you unsheathe the sword. You are soldiers of the cross. Wear it as a token that His help will never fail you, as the pledge of a vow never to be recalled." (Some have said that the pope's message that day has to be ranked as one of the most "effective" sermons ever preached.
      In the first crusade Jerusalem was captured by the Europeans on July 15, 1099, but the victory did not last. The Holy Land was not won nor was the advance of Islam checked. Because of the Crusades there was increased enmity between Moslems and Christians, and a wider split between the Eastern and Western Church.
      When we hear the word "crusade," we think of a lofty, moral ideal. But the aims of the original crusaders raise important issues for some Christians: First, Christ's church has never been a place, such as Jerusalem, but rather it is the body of believers in Jesus as the Son of God. Secondly, Jesus taught by word and example that His church should not be built by warfare. He said: "They that take the sword shall perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52)

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Deaths which occurred on a 18 November:

2000 Wang Huachen, 32, Falun Gong member, dies in a hospital of injuries he got jumping out of a 4th-story window at a police station in Huludao, northeastern China.
      On 07 December AP would reveal that two more members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement have died in police custody, bringing to at least 74 the death toll in China's 17-month crackdown on the sect.
      Chemical factory worker Wang died 18 November in a hospital of injuries he got jumping out of a fourth-story window at a police station in the northeastern city of Huludao. Wang jumped after police allegedly beat him for two hours with wooden poles on 07 November, the day they arrested him for refusing to leave Falun Gong
      Zhao Jing, 19, was arrested on 23 November on a train in the northern province of Hebei while traveling to Beijing with other Falun Gong followers. Three days later, police notified her family that she was dead. Police said she died after falling in an escape attempt, but her companions said they heard her cries as police beat her.
      Chinese officials have declined to discuss individual reports of police abuse but deny that any followers have died from mistreatment. At least 74 Falun Gong followers have died in detention since China banned the group in July 1999, but Falun Gong says the number is much higher. Falun Gong attracted millions of members in the 1990s with its health exercises and eclectic mix of Taoism, Buddhism and the ideas of its founder, former government clerk Li Hongzhi, who eventually fled to the US. China outlawed Falun Gong as an “evil cult that caused the death of at least 1500 followers”. Communist Party leaders apparently fear the group's size and organization could challenge their monopoly on power.

1999 Paul Bowles, 88, in Morocco, US author and composer, best known for The Sheltering Sky and other novels set in North Africa.
1999 12 persons as a bonfire under construction at Texas A&M University collapses..

1986 Helle Crafts, murdered by husband Richard Crafts.
On 10 January 1987, a search for evidence in the disappearance and probable murder of Helle Crafts begins on the snow-covered banks of the Housatonic River in Connecticut. Investigators had finally narrowed the search to this area after Helle, a Pan Am flight attendant, had vanished on 18 November 1986. Although her body was never found, authorities did find enough evidence to convict her husband, Richard, of murder. Following her disappearance, friends immediately suspected Richard Crafts because his answers about his wife's whereabouts had been so evasive. When police got involved, Crafts' version of the events began to crumble. Although he claimed he had not left the house on 19 November, credit card records showed he had purchased new bedding. Further inquiry showed that he had bought a chest freezer and a wood chipper in the days right before Helle's disappearance. Two witnesses then came forward, saying that they had seen a wood chipper near the Housatonic River. A search of the Craft house revealed a blood smear on the mattress that turned out to be consistent with Helle's blood type. Detectives also found an envelope addressed to Helle near the river. Divers found a chain saw and serrated cutting bar, which had human hair and tissue embedded in the teeth. This led to the meticulous search on January 10, 1987. Thawing the snow and sifting the soil, detectives found 2,000 hairs, three ounces of human tissue, two fingernails, two tooth caps, and five droplets of blood. From this microscopic evidence, doctors were able to prove that Richard Crafts had disposed of his wife's body with a wood chipper near the river. The most important evidence was that the tooth caps matched Helle's dental records. Crafts' first trial in 1988 ended with a deadlocked jury, but the following year he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Until recent advances in forensic science, a murder conviction without a dead body was nearly impossible. But as this case proved, it is more difficult than ever to get away with murder.

1978 Rep. Leo J. Ryan and 4 with him murdered, then 912 members of Peoples Temple led James Warren Jones, by suicide or murder.
      People's Temple leader Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their “Jonestown” agricultural commune in remote northwestern Guyana. The few cult members who refused to take the cyanide-laced fruit-flavored concoction were either forced to do so at gunpoint or shot as they fled. The final death toll was 913, including 276 children.
      James Warren “Jim” Jones (born 13 May 1931) was a charismatic churchman who founded the initially Christian sect The Wings of Deliverance (precursor of The Peoples Temple) on 04 April 1955, in Indianapolis. He preached against racism, and his integrated congregation attracted mostly African Americans. In 1965, he moved the group to northern California, settling in Ukiah and after 1971 in San Francisco. In the 1970s, his church was accused by the press of financial fraud, physical abuse of its members, and mistreatment of children. In response to the mounting criticism, Jones led several hundred of his followers to South America in 1977 and set up a utopian agricultural settlement called Jonestown in the jungle of Guyana.
      A year later, a group of ex-members convinced US Congressman Leo Ryan, a Democrat of California, to travel to Jonestown and investigate the commune. On November 17, 1978, Ryan arrived in Jonestown with a group of journalists and other observers. At first the visit went well, but the next day, as Ryan's group was about to leave, several People's Church members approached members of the group and asked them for passage out of Guyana. Jones became distressed at the defection of his members, and one of Jones' lieutenants attacked Ryan with a knife. Ryan escaped from the incident unharmed, but Jones then ordered Ryan and his companions ambushed and killed at the airstrip as they attempted to leave. The congressman and four others were murdered as they attempted to board their charter planes.
      Back in Jonestown, Jones directed his followers in a mass suicide in a clearing in the town. With Jones exhorting the "beauty of dying" over a loudspeaker, hundreds drank a lethal cyanide and Kool-Aid drink. Those who tried to escape were chased down and shot by Jones' lieutenants. Jones died of a gunshot wound in the head, probably self-inflicted. Guyanese troops, alerted by a cult member who escaped, reached Jonestown the next day. Only a dozen or so followers survived, hidden in the jungle. Most of the 913 dead were lying side by side in the clearing where Jones had preached to them for the last time.

1976 Emanuel Radnitsky Man Ray, US artist born on 27 August 1890.
1969 60 South Vietnamese and 14 North Vietnamese in a Mekong Delta battle.. A South Vietnamese spokesman said that the high South Vietnamese casualties were "due to bad fighting on our part." The battle was the first major action in the northern delta since the US 9th Division was withdrawn and the South Vietnamese assumed responsibility for the area.

1969 Joseph P. Kennedy, 81, in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
He became a bank president at age twenty-five and a millionaire by age thirty. Kennedy dabbled in less savory affairs as well, running a lucrative bootleg liquor operation that helped fuel the family fortune. He retired from investment banking in 1929 — before the markets could deflate his wealth — but he remained a prominent figure on Wall Street. Looking to expand his power and fortune, Kennedy became involved in politics and also took a failed stab at running a movie studio. Kennedy died on this day in 1969 in Hyannis Port, Massachussets, at age 81.

1962 Niels Bohr, 77, mathematician, physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1922
1959 Khinchin, mathematician.

1949 Frank Jewett, research pioneer
Frank Jewett, a pioneer in telephone, radar, recording, and other fields, became president of Bell Telephone Laboratories and helped build the company into a major research center. Jewett was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until 1904, when he joined AT&T. There he designed long-distance telephone lines, including a transcontinental line linking New York and San Francisco. His work eventually led to the first transatlantic phone call. Later, he became president of Bell Telephone Laboratories and a vice president at AT&T. He directed research on a number of influential projects, such as the dial telephone, sound motion picture, and the electric phonograph. He also served as president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1939 to 1947.

1943 John White, 52 other British airmen, 131 Berliners, as Royal Air Force bombs Berlin
Two days after the American raid on the power station in Vermork, Norway, 440 British bombers swooped down on Berlin at night. The raid was not overly successful. Though 131 Berliners were killed, the Royal Air Force struck very few of the industrial areas they intended to hit. Even worse, nine British bombers were shot down, and fifty-three aircrew members killed. One of the victims was Wing Commander John White, who had played a significant role in the successful bombing of Peenemunde.

1919 Adolf Hurwitz, mathematician.
1891 Wolstenholme, mathematician.
1886 Chester A. Arthur (21st US President), 56, in NY
1876 Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña , French Barbizon School painter specialized in landscapes born on 20 August 1807. — MORE ON DIAZ AT ART “4” NOVEMBER — LINKS — Forêt de Fontainbleau — Three Gypsies in a Clearing — Gypsies in a Forest — Fleurs — Wood Interior — Les Maléfices de la beauté — Les Folles Amoureuses — Les Fous Amoureux — Autumn — Seraglio — Stormy Sunset — Woodland Pond
1689 Jacob van der Ulft, Dutch artist born on 21 December 1627.
1630 Esaias van de Velde, Dutch painter specialized in landscapes, born in 1589 give or take a couple of years. — MORE ON VAN DE VELDE AT ART “4” NOVEMBER — LINKS — Landscape with Gallows, near Haarlem — Landscape with Trees — Spaarnwoude — The Cattle Ferry — Ferry Boat — Winter Landscape — View of Zierikzee
1421 Some 10'000 in Netherlands as Zuider Zee floods 72 villages

Births which occurred on an 18 November:
1939 Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer (The Edible Woman, The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, Dancing Girls & Other Stories).

1928 Mickey Mouse of Walt Disney's debuts in NY in "Steamboat Willie", the first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon
—     Le 18 novembre 1928, les spectateurs new-yorkais du Colony Theater applaudissent Mickey Mouse dans le film "Steamboat Willie". Il s'agit d'une parodie parlante d'un succès de Buster Keaton.
      Inventé par un Français, Emile Raynaud, en 1892, le dessin animé a connu un bref essor avec un autre Français, Emile Cohl. Il est entré dans l'ère industrielle au début des années 1920 avec la mise en oeuvre de la taylorisation et de la fragmentation des tâches pour aboutir à des productions à moindre coût.
      Grâce au génie de Walt Disney, assisté de son frère Roy et du dessinateur de talent Ub Iwerks, le dessin animé devient une fructueuse affaire commerciale. Il va rester le domaine réservé des Américains jusqu'à la révélation des réalisations japonaises au début des années 80.

1927 Britton, mathematician.
1907 Yves Brayer, French painter who died in 1990. — LINKS
1904 Jean-Paul Lemieux, Canadian painter who died in 1990. — LINKS
1901 George Gallup Jefferson Iowa, journalist and public opinion pollster (Gallup Poll). He became famous by predicting FDR's 1936 win
1900 Howard Thurman theologian/author (Deep River, Deep in the Hunger)
1882 Jacques Maritain France, Catholic philosopher (exponent of St Thomas)
1882 Percy Wyndham Lewis, Canadian British writer and painter, born on a yatch near Amherst, Nova Scotia. He died on 07 March 1957 in London. He founded the abstract Vorticist movement, which, in painting and literature before WW I, sought to relate art to the industrial process. — MORE ON LEWIS AT ART “4” NOVEMBER — ART LINKS — A Canadian Gun-Pit — A Battery Shelled
1879 Viggo Thorvald Edvard Weie, Danish artist who died in 1943.

1874 Clarence Shepard Day, NYC, stockbroker, author.
His first book, This Simian World, a collection of humorous essays and illustrations, appeared in 1920. This was followed by The Crow's Nest (1921) and Thoughts Without Words (1928). He achieved great success with God and My Father (1932), Life with Father (1935), and Life with Mother (1936). Drawn from his own family experiences, these were pleasant and gently satirical portraits of a late Victorian household dominated by a gruff, opinionated father and a warm, charming mother. He suffered from arthritis most of his life. He died on 28 December 1935.

1874 The Women's Christian Temperance Union is founded in Cleveland. Claiming the power of the Holy Spirit, Protestant women march into saloons and demand they be closed. It was the largest women's organization in the US before 1900.
1872 Vacca, mathematician.
1869 Constantin Andrievitch Somov (or Somoff), Russian Symbolist painter who died in 1939. — LINKS

1865 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain, 29, is published Twain had heard this story when he stayed at a mining camp in the Tuolumne Hills, in California. Published in a New York periodical, The Saturday Press, the story was an immediate hit when it was reprinted in newspapers far and wide. Written much in the manner of the Southwestern humor popular in Twain's youth, this fine tall tale brought not only his first national fame but also the first approval of his work by several discerning critics. TWAIN ONLINE:
The Pirates of Penzance The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1st ed.) Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Tom Sawyer Tom Sawyer, Detective Tom Sawyer Abroad The Prince and the Pauper The Prince and the Pauper The Prince and the Pauper Extracts From Adam's Diary Extracts From Adam's Diary Extracts From Adam's Diary What is Man? and Other Essays What is Man? and Other Essays What Is Man? Songs of a Savoyard	A Dog's Tale Eve's Diary A Horse's Tale A Horse's Tale A Horse's Tale The Innocents Abroad A Tramp Abroad The Bridge-Builders Life on the Mississippi Life on the Mississippi Life on the Mississippi Life on the Mississippi The Mysterious Stranger The Mysterious Stranger Roughing It Roughing It A Tramp Abroad 1601 Concerning the Jews Concerning the Jews Christian Science	A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court A Connecticut Yankee The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc volume 1 / volume 2 A Double-Barrelled Detective Story The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg Extract From Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven Captain Stormfield Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography Chapters From My Autobiography King Leopold's Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule Mark Twain's Speeches translator of Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter (in German, English, and French) Engaged

1860 Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist, composer (opera Manru, Symphony in B Minor) , and statesman, who was prime minister of Poland in 1919 (17 Jan — 27 Nov). He resided in Switzerland about half his life. He died on 29 June 1941 in New York City.
1858 Luigi Pastega, Italian artist who died on 27 January 1927.

1852 Le Bon Marché
Un nouveau style de magasin ouvre sur les bords de Seine à Paris. C'est rue de Sèvres, à l'enseigne du Bon Marché que ce genre va bouleverser le commerce français. Aristide Boucicaut en est le fondateur. Il a choisi de casser les prix en limitant ses marges bénéficiaires. Sa nouveauté la plus suptile est d'indiquer un prix qui ne peut plus être négocié. L'habitude du marchandage est remise en cause, ce n'est pas évident d'imposer celle-ci car l'habitude est encrée depuis des années. L'entrée est libre. Les badauds peuvent entrer, flâner, regarder, essayer. Ils n'ont aucune obligation d'achat. Les rayons sont spécialisés. Le client peut en outre rendre la marchandise qui ne lui convient pas et être intégralement remboursé. Le succès de la formule est immédiat. S'il fait un chiffre de 450'000 francs à la fin de l'année, dès 1869, il annoncera un chiffre d'affaires de 20 millions de francs. Ce type de vente est devenu une plaie pour les petits qui se battent encore contre.

1844 Wangerin, mathematician.
1836 Cesare Lombroso (professor of psychiatry: founder: criminology: identifying criminals by personality types)

1836 William Schwenck Gilbert, English playwright and humorist best known for his collaboration with Arthur Sullivan in comic operas. Many of Gilbert's original targets are no longer topical — Pre-Raphaelite aesthetes in Patience; women's education (Princess Ida); Victorian plays about Cornish pirates (The Pirates of Penzance); the long theatrical vogue of the "jolly jack tar" (H. M. S. Pinafore); bombastic melodrama (Ruddigore) — but Gilbert's burlesque is so good that it creates its own truth. In 1861, Gilbert had begun to contribute comic verse to Fun, illustrated by himself and signed "Bab." These pieces were later collected as The "Bab" Ballads (1869), followed by More "Bab" Ballads (1873); the two collections, containing the germ of many of the later operas, were united in a volume with Songs of a Savoyard (1898). Gilbert's dramatic career began with Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack. In 1870 Gilbert met Sullivan, and they started working together the following year. Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old (1871) and Trial By Jury (1875), a brilliant one-act piece, were followed by four productions staged by Richard D'Oyly Carte: The Sorcerer (1877), H. M. S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), and Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride (1881). The "Savoy Operas," performed in the Savoy Theatre, include Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri (1882), Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant (1884), The Mikado, or the Town of Titipu (1885), Ruddigore, or the Witch's Curse (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), and The Gondoliers (1889). Gilbert and Sullivan were then estranged until 1893, when they again collaborated, producing Utopia, Limited and later The Grand Duke (1896). Gilbert had meanwhile written librettos for other composers; the music for his last opera, Fallen Fairies: or, The Wicked World (1909), was by Edward German. His last play, The Hooligan, was performed in 1911. Gilbert died on 29 May 1911 of a heart attack brought on by rescuing a woman from drowning in a lake on his country estate. GILBERT ONLINE:
The Pirates of Penzance The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan Fallen Fairies: or, The Wicked World (PDF) The "Bab" Ballads Fifty "Bab" Ballads More "Bab" Ballads H. M. S. Pinafore The Happy Land Haste to the Wedding The Yeomen of the Guard Songs of a Savoyard	Iolanthe The Mikado No Cards Patience Foggerty's Fairy The Princess Princess Ida Princess Toto Ruddigore Selected Works	The Gondoliers The Grand Duke The Sorcerer Sweethearts Thespis Tom Cobb Trial By Jury Utopia, Limited Ages Ago Engaged

1810 Asa Gray Sauquoit NY, botanist (Flora of North America, Gray's Manual)
1789 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, French theater scene painter, physicist, inventor of the first practical process of photography, the daguerreotype.
1786 Carl von Weber, German composer.
1785 Sir David Wilkie, Scottish painter who died on 01 June 1841. — MORE ON WILKIE AT ART “4” NOVEMBER — LINKS — The Blind Tenant — The Blind Fiddler — The Artist's Family before the Portrait of Johann Georg Sulzer — Distraining for Rent — The Penny Wedding — The Letter of Introduction — The Preaching of John Knox before the Lords of Congregation, 10 June 1559 — William Chalmers-Bethune, his wife Isabella Morison and their Daughter Isabella
1736 Anton Graff “van Dyck of Germany”, Swiss German painter specialized in portraits who died on 22 June 1813. — MORE ON GRAFF AT ART “4” NOVEMBER — LINKS — Self-portrait at the Age of 58
1732 Per Hillestrom, Swedish artist who died on 13 August 1816.
1647 Pierre Bayle, French philosopher and writer
1584 Gaspar de Crayer, Flemish artist who died on 27 January 1669. — MORE ON CRAYER AT ART “4” NOVEMBER — LINKS — Altar — Alexander and Diogenes — The Cardinal Infante — Head Study of a Young Moor — The Coronation of St. Rosalie .
1573 Ambrosius Bosschaert I, Flemish painter specialized in still life and flowers, who died in 1621. — MORE ON BOSSCHAERT AT ART “4” NOVEMBER — LINKS — Still Life with Flowers in a Wan-Li vase — Bouquet of Flowers — Bouquet in an Arched Window .
0009 Vespasien, empereur romain Son règne se signalera par la prise et la destruction du Temple de Jérusalem. Un conseiller s'étant inquiété de collecter de l'argent sur les latrines publiques, l'empereur répondit: "non olet" ou encore: "il (l'argent) n'a pas d'odeur". C'est pourquoi nous avons adopté son nom pour baptiser nos vespasiennes

Holidays Albania Independence Day 1912 / Haiti : Army Day / YWCA : World Fellowship Day / Morocco : Independence Day / Oman : National Day

Religious Observances RC : Dedication of Basilicas of Peter & Paul, Rome (opt) / Ang : Hilda, Abbess of Whitby / Sainte Aude figure parmi les pieuses compagnes de Geneviève, qui protégea Paris contre Attila et les Huns. Elle devint la conseillère de Clovis sur ses vieux jours.

Thoughts for the day: “If we were intended to talk more than we hear, we'd have two mouths and only one ear.” [it would also be more convenient for talking while eating]
“If we were intended to think more than we talk, we'd have a brain bigger than our mouth.”
“Families is where wings take dream.” — US minority-President George “Dubya” Bush. [see http://www.dubyaspeak.com]

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