Sunday, November 16, 2014

On This Date in History - November 16 Dostoevsky Sentenced to Death

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!


Nov 16, 1849: Fyodor Dostoevsky is sentenced to death

On this day in 1849, a Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for his allegedly antigovernment activities linked to a radical intellectual group. His execution is stayed at the last minute.  

Dostoevsky's father was a doctor at Moscow's Hospital for the Poor, where he grew rich enough to buy land and serfs. After his father's death, Dostoevsky, who suffered from epilepsy, studied military engineering and became a civil servant while secretly writing novels. His first, Poor People, and his second, The Double, were both published in 1846-the first was a hit, the second a failure.  

Dostoevsky began participating in a radical intellectual discussion group called the Petrashevsky Circle. The group was suspected of subversive activites, which led to Dostoevsky's arrest in 1849, and his sentencing to death.  

On December 22, 1849, Dostoevsky was led before the firing squad but received a last-minute reprieve and was sent to a Siberian labor camp, where he worked for four years. He was released in 1854 and worked as a soldier on the Mongolian frontier. He married a widow and finally returned to Russia in 1859. The following year, he founded a magazine and two years after that journeyed to Europe for the first time.  

In 1864 and 1865, his wife and his brother died, the magazine folded, and Dostoevsky found himself deeply in debt, which he exacerbated by gambling.  

In 1866, he published Crime and Punishment, one of his most popular works. In 1867, he married a stenographer, and the couple fled to Europe to escape his creditors. His novel The Possessed (1872) was successful, and the couple returned to St. Petersburg. He published The Brothers Karamazov in 1880 to immediate success, but he died a year later.










Nov 16, 1532: Pizarro traps Incan emperor Atahualpa    

On November 16, 1532, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer and conquistador, springs a trap on the Incan emperor, Atahualpa. With fewer than 200 men against several thousand, Pizarro lures Atahualpa to a feast in the emperor's honor and then opens fire on the unarmed Incans. Pizarro's men massacre the Incans and capture Atahualpa, forcing him to convert to Christianity before eventually killing him.  

Pizarro's timing for conquest was perfect. By 1532, the Inca Empire was embroiled in a civil war that had decimated the population and divided the people's loyalties. Atahualpa, the younger son of former Incan ruler Huayna Capac, had just deposed his half-brother Huascar and was in the midst of reuniting his kingdom when Pizarro arrived in 1531, with the endorsement of Spain's King Charles V. On his way to the Incan capital, Pizarro learned of the war and began recruiting soldiers still loyal to Huascar.  

Pizarro met Atahualpa just outside Cajamarca, a small Incan town tucked into a valley of the Andes. Sending his brother Hernan as an envoy, Pizarro invited Atahualpa back to Cajamarca for a feast in honor of Atahualpa's ascendance to the throne. Though he had nearly 80,000 soldiers with him in the mountains, Atahualpa consented to attend the feast with only 5,000 unarmed men. He was met by Vicente de Valverde, a friar traveling with Pizarro. While Pizarro's men lay in wait, Valverde urged Atahualpa to convert and accept Charles V as sovereign. Atahualpa angrily refused, prompting Valverde to give the signal for Pizarro to open fire. Trapped in tight quarters, the panicking Incan soldiers made easy prey for the Spanish. Pizarro's men slaughtered the 5,000 Incans in just an hour. Pizarro himself suffered the only Spanish injury: a cut on his hand sustained as he saved Atahualpa from death.  

Realizing Atahualpa was initially more valuable alive than dead, Pizarro kept the emperor in captivity while he made plans to take over his empire. In response, Atahualpa appealed to his captors' greed, offering them a room full of gold and silver in exchange for his liberation. Pizarro consented, but after receiving the ransom, Pizarro brought Atahualpa up on charges of stirring up rebellion. By that time, Atahualpa had played his part in pacifying the Incans while Pizarro secured his power, and Pizarro considered him disposable. Atahualpa was to be burned at the stake—the Spanish believed this to be a fitting death for a heathen—but at the last moment, Valverde offered the emperor clemency if he would convert. Atahualpa submitted, only to be executed by strangulation. The day was August 29, 1533.  

Fighting between the Spanish and the Incas would continue well after Atahualpa's death as Spain consolidated its conquests. Pizarro's bold victory at Cajamarca, however, effectively marked the end of the Inca Empire and the beginning of the European colonization of South America. 









Nov 16, 1961: Kennedy decides to increase military aid to Saigon

President John F. Kennedy decides to increase military aid to South Vietnam without committing U.S. combat troops.  

Kennedy was concerned at the advances being made by the communist Viet Cong, but did not want to become involved in a land war in Vietnam. He hoped that the military aid would be sufficient to strengthen the Saigon government and its armed forces against the Viet Cong. Ultimately it was not, and Kennedy ended up sending additional support in the form of U.S. military advisors and American helicopter units. By the time of his assassination in 1963, there were 16,000 U.S. soldiers in South Vietnam.  







Nov 16, 1945: German scientists brought to United States to work on rocket technology

In a move that stirs up some controversy, the United States ships 88 German scientists to America to assist the nation in its production of rocket technology. Most of these men had served under the Nazi regime and critics in the United States questioned the morality of placing them in the service of America. Nevertheless, the U.S. government, desperate to acquire the scientific know-how that had produced the terrifying and destructive V-1 and V-2 rockets for Germany during WWII, and fearful that the Russians were also utilizing captured German scientists for the same end, welcomed the men with open arms.Realizing that the importation of scientists who had so recently worked for the Nazi regime so hated by Americans was a delicate public relations situation, the U.S. military cloaked the operation in secrecy. In announcing the plan, a military spokesman merely indicated that some German scientists who had worked on rocket development had "volunteered" to come to the United States and work for a "very moderate salary." The voluntary nature of the scheme was somewhat undercut by the admission that the scientists were in "protective custody." Upon their arrival in the United States on November 16, newsmen and photographers were not allowed to interview or photograph the newcomers. A few days later, a source in Sweden claimed that the scientists were members of the Nazi team at Peenemeunde where the V-weapons had been produced. The U.S. government continued to remain somewhat vague about the situation, stating only that "certain outstanding German scientists and technicians" were being imported in order to "take full advantage of these significant developments, which are deemed vital to our national security."The situation pointed out one of the many ironies connected with the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union, once allies against Germany and the Nazi regime during World War II, were now in a fierce contest to acquire the best and brightest scientists who had helped arm the German forces in order to construct weapons systems to threaten each other.



Nov 16, 1941: Goebbels publishes his screed of hate

On this day in 1941, Joseph Goebbels publishes in the German magazine Das Reich that "The Jews wanted the war, and now they have it"—referring to the Nazi propaganda scheme to shift the blame for the world war onto European Jewry, thereby giving the Nazis a rationalization for the so-called Final Solution.  

Just two days earlier, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, having read more than a dozen decoded messages from German police which betrayed the atrocities to which European Jews were being subjected, had written in a letter to the Jewish Chronicle that "The Jew bore the brunt of the Nazis' first onslaught upon the citadels of freedom and human dignity... He has not allowed it to break his spirit: he has never lost the will to resist." And active Jewish resistance was increasing, especially in the USSR, where Jews were joining partisans in fighting the German incursions into Russian territory.  

But it was proving too little too late, as Goebbels, Himmler, and the rest of Hitler's henchmen carried out with fanatical glee the "elimination of the Jews," using propaganda and anti-Bolshevik rhetoric to infuse SS soldiers with enthusiasm for their work. As Goebbels wrote in Das Reich: "[T]he prophecy which the Fuhrer made... that should international finance Jewry succeed in plunging the nations into a world war once again, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the world...but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. We are in the midst of that process... Compassion or regret are entirely out of place here."


Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

13 - General Tiberius' (later Emperor) triumphant procession through Rome after siege of Germany
534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published.
1380 - French King Charles VI declares no taxes for ever
1491 - An auto de fe, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila, concludes the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects.
1532 - Francisco Pizarro captures Incan emperor Atahualpa after victory at Cajamarca
1572 - Troops under Don Frederik (the Spanish General Fadrique Alvarez de Toledo) occupy and plunder Zutphen, Nmetherlands
1632 - Battle at Lutzen: Sweden beats imperial armies under Von Wallenstein
1676 - 1st colonial prision organized, Nantucket Mass
1677 - French troops occupy Freiburg
1700 - Monarch of Brandenburg becomes king of Prussia
1763 - English journalist John Wilkes injured in a duel
1764 - Native Americans surrender to British in Indian War of Chief Pontiac
1771 - West Indian Company & Amsterdam divide up Suriname
1776 - 1st gun salute for an American warship in a foreign port - US Andrew Doria at Ft St Eustatius
1776 - British troops captured Fort Washington during American Revolution
1798 - Kentucky becomes 1st state to nullify an act of Congress
1801 - 1st edition of New York Evening Post
1805 - Battle at Schongrabern: Russian army stop French
1824 - NY City's Fifth Avenue opens for business
Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1835 - Charles Darwin's voyage published in Cambridge Philosophical Society
1841 - Life preservers made of cork are patented by Napoleon Guerin (NYC)
1849 - A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labor.
1856 - Amsterdam post office at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal opens
1859 - Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Groza," premieres in Moscow
1863 - Battle of Campbell's Station TN, 492 casualities
1864 - Confederate retreat at Lovejoy, Georgia
1864 - Union General William T Sherman begins march to sea during Civil War
1870 - Spanish Cortes selects King Amadeus I
1875 - Battle of Gundet: Ethiopian emperor Yohannes beats Egyptians
1875 - William Bonwill, patents dental mallet to impact gold into cavities
1882 - British HMS Flirt fires at & destroys Abari village in Niger
1885 - Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", Louis Riel is executed for treason aged 41.
1894 - 6,000 Armenians massacred by Turks in Kurdistan
1894 - French capt Henri Decoeurs troops reach Nikki West Africa
Spanish Conquistador Francisco PizarroSpanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro 1901 - 3 autos race on Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, fastest speed achieved by Henry Fournier who drives a mile in 51 4/5 seconds
1903 - V Herbert & H Smith' musical "Babette" premieres in NYC
1905 - Neth/Russ Count Witte becomes premier of Russia
1907 - Oklahoma becomes the United States 46th state
1908 - Arturo Tuscanini begins conducting NY's Metropolitan Opera
1909 - EVV Eindhoven soccer team forms
1914 - Federal Reserve System formally opens
1914 - Pope Benedict XV calls for peace
1916 - Eugene O'Neill's "Bound East for Cardiff" premieres in NYC
1916 - I Berlin/V Herbert/H Blossoms musical premieres in NYC
1916 - Russian La Satannaya ammunitions factory explodes, killing 1,000
1917 - British occupy Tel Aviv and Jaffa
1918 - Hungarian People's Republic declared
1919 - Admiral Horthy conquerors Budapest from Béla Kuns Soviet Republic
1920 - Australia's Qantas airways founded in Winton, Queensland as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited
1920 - 1st postage stamp meter is set in Stamford Conn
1922 - Pope Pius XI calls on Belgian people to unite
1922 - Turkish kalief/sultan Mehmed VI asks British army for help
1924 - Cleveland Bulldogs lose to Frankford Yellowjackets, ends 31-game undefeated streak (NFL & major-league football record)
1925 - American Association for Advancement of Atheism forms (NY)
1925 - Philip Barry's "In a Garden," premieres in NYC
1926 - NY Rangers 1st game, beat Montreal Maroons 1-0
President and Dictator of Brazil Getulio VargasPresident and Dictator of Brazil Getulio Vargas 1933 - Brazilians President Getulio Vargas names himself dictator
1933 - Roosevelt establishes diplomatic relations with USSR
1935 - Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart's musical "Jumbo," premieres in NYC
1936 - German air force begins bombing of Madrid
1938 - K B Regiment refuses round-table conference in East-India
1938 - LSD is first synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.
1939 - Al Capone freed from Alcatraz jail
1939 - German U-boat torpedoes tanker Sliedrecht near Ireland
1940 - World War II: In response to Germany's leveling of Coventry, England two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
1941 - German troops conquer Kertsh (probably)
1942 - Assault of US B-17 Flying Fortresses on airport at Sidi Ahmed
1943 - World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
1944 - US 9th division & 1st Army attacks at Geilenkirchen
1945 - Yeshiva College (Univesity), chartered in NY, 1st US Jewish College
1945 - UNESCO is founded.
Gangster Al CaponeGangster Al Capone 1947 - 15,000 demonstrate in Brussels against mild sentence of nazis
1948 - Operation Magic Carpet - 1st plane from Yemen carrying Jews to Israel
1950 - Egyptian king Faruk demands departure of all British troops
1950 - UN gets US government approval to issue postage stamps
1950 - US pres Harry Truman proclaims emergency crisis caused by communist threat
1952 - Papagos' Greek Concentratie wins Greeks parliamentary election
1955 - 1st speed-boat to exceed 200 mph (322 kph) (Donald Campbell)
1955 - Johnny Cash made his 1st chart appearance with "Cry Cry Cry"
1955 - KLM orders 8 DC-8's
1955 - Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Yussuph V returns to Morocco
1957 - "Copper & Brass" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 36 perfs
1957 - Celtic Bill Russell sets NBA record of 49 rebounds beat Phila 111-89
1957 - Ed Gein butchers last victim
1957 - Okla's NCAA win streak ends at 47 after losing to Notre Dame 7-0
1959 - "Sound of Music" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 1443 perfs
Basketball Player Bill RussellBasketball Player Bill Russell 1960 - NL batting champion Dick Groat wins MVP
1961 - Great Britain limits immigration from Commonwealth countries
1962 - Kuwait adopts constitution (1st, Islamitic)
1962 - Wilt Chamberlain of NBA SF Warriors scores 73 points vs NY Knicks
1963 - Toledo, OH newspaper strike began
1963 - Touch-tone telephone introduced
1964 - Radio CJCX Sydney Nova Scotia (Canada) starts shortwave transmission
1964 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1965 - Venera 3 launched, 1st to land on another planet (crashes into Venus)
1965 - Walt Disney launches Epcot Center: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
1966 - Dr Sam Sheppard freed after 9 years in jail, by a jury
1966 - Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente is named NL MVP
1969 - 1968 massacre of civilians at Mylai S Vietnam, by US is 1st reported
1972 - "Dear Oscar" opens at Playhouse Theater NYC for 5 performances
1973 - John Lennon releases "Mind Games" album
Musician and Beatle John LennonMusician and Beatle John Lennon 1973 - Pres Nixon authorizes construction of Alaskan pipeline
1973 - Skylab 4 launched into Earth orbit
1974 - 1st intentional interstellar radio message sent, Arecibo telescope towards M 41, a cluster of stars some 25,000 light years away
1974 - John Lennon's only solo #1 "Whatever Gets You Through the Night"
1974 - Milwaukee Bucks lose their 11th straight NBA game (team record)
1975 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Jacksonville Ladies Golf Open
1976 - René Levesque's "Parti Québécois" wins elections in Quebec
1976 - Rick Barry (SF), ends then longest NBA free throw streak of 60
1977 - Rod Carew wins AL MVP award
1978 - Major Indoor Soccer League holds its 1st draft
1979 - Paul McCartney releases "Wonderful Christmas"
1980 - Tampa Bay Buccaneer QB Doug Williams throws for 486 yards
1981 - "Merrily We Roll Along" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 16 performances
1981 - Dennis Lillee kicked Javed Miandad, who waved his bat at Dennis
1982 - 5th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 5-lands at Edwards AFB
Musician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartneyMusician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartney 1982 - Aggrement reached ending 57 day football strike
1982 - Space Shuttle Columbia completes its 1st operational flight
1982 - Tom Stoppard's "Real Thing" premieres in London
1983 - Kapil Dev takes 9-83 v WI at Ahmedabad, but India still lose
1984 - 14th Shuttle Mission (51A) -Discovery 2- lands at Kennedy Center
1984 - Houston blocks 20 Denver shots tying NBA regulation game record
1984 - Imran Khan makes his 1st appearance for NSW Cricket
1984 - John Lennon releases 'Every Man has a Woman Who Loves Him'
1987 - Paul McCartney releases "Once Upon a Long Ago"
1988 - Estonia declares sovereignty in internal affairs
1988 - Jose Canseco is 1st unanimous AL MVP since Reggie Jackson
1988 - Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto's PPP wins 1st free Pakistani elections in 11 years
1988 - Robin Givens sues Mike Tyson for $125 million for libel
1989 - "Gypsy" opens at St James Theater NYC for 477 performances
1989 - 6 Jesuit priests are killed by El Salvadorian troops
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike TysonHeavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson 1989 - South Africa president FW de Klerk announces scrapping of Separate Amenities Act
1989 - UNESCO adopts the Seville Statement on Violence at the twenty-fifth session of its General Conference.
1990 - Manuel Noriega claims US denied him a fair trial
1993 - "Any Given Day" opens at Longacre Theater NYC for 32 performances
1993 - Jim Carrey files for divorce from Melissa
1993 - Russian President Yeltsin shuts Lenin museum
1995 - US Attorney General Janet Reno announces she has Parkinson's disease
1995 - Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother undergoes hip surgery
1996 - "Into the Whirlwind" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC for 2 perfs
1996 - 18th ACE Cable Awards: HBO wins 28 awards
1997 - "1776" closes at Criterion Theater NYC
1997 - CFL Grey Cup: Toronto beats Saskatchawan, 47-23
1997 - After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
2000 - Bill Clinton becomes the first U.S. President to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War.
2012 - 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 2' grosses $500 million in 24 hours to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time




1776 - British troops captured Fort Washington during the American Revolution.   1864 - Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops began their "March to the Sea" during the U.S. Civil War.   1885 - Canadian rebel Louis Riel was executed for high treason.   1907 - Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state.   1915 - Coca-Cola had its prototype for a countoured bottle patented. The bottle made its commercial debut the next year.   1933 - The United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations for the first time.   1952 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy first held a football for Charlie Brown.   1957 - Jim Brown (Cleveland Browns) set an NFL season rushing record of 1163 yards after only eight games.   1966 - Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard was acquitted in his second trial of charges he had murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954.   1969 - The U.S. Army announced that several had been charged with massacre and the subsequent cover-up in the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968.   1973 - Skylab 3 carrying a crew of three astronauts, was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on an 84-day mission.   1973 - U.S. President Nixon signed the Alaska Pipeline measure into law.   1981 - A vaccine for hepatitis B was approved. The vaccine had been developed at Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research.   1982 - An agreement was announced on the 57th day of a strike by National Football League (NFL) players.   1985 - Colonel Oliver North was put in charge of the shipment of HAWK anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.   1988 - Estonia's parliament declared that the Baltic republic "sovereign," but stopped short of complete independence.   1994 - Major League Soccer announced that it would start its inaugural season in 1996.   1997 - China released Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident from jail for medical reasons. He had been incarcerated for almost 18 years.   1998 - In Burlington, WIsconsin, five high school students, aged 15 to 16, were arrested in an alleged plot to kill a carefully selected group of teachers and students.   1998 - It was announced that Monica Lewinsky had signed a deal for the North American rights to a book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton.   1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court said that union members could file discrimination lawsuits against employers even when labor contracts require arbitration.   1999 - Johnny Depp received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.   1999 - Chrica Adams, the pregnant girlfriend of Rae Carruth, was shot four times in her car. She died a month later from her wounds. The baby survived. Carruth was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and 11 months in prison for his role in the murder.   2000 - Bill Clinton became the first serving U.S. president to visit Communist Vietnam.   2004 - A NASA unmanned "scramjet" (X-43A) reached a speed of nearly 10 times the speed of sound above the Pacific Ocean.




1864 General Sherman and his troops began their "March to the sea" during the Civil War. 1907 Oklahoma became the 46th state. 1933 The United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations. 1973 President Nixon signed the bill authorizing the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 2004 President George W. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.




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