On This Day in History - November 28 Magellan Reaches Pacific

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!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history


Nov 28, 1520: Magellan reaches the Pacific

After sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic.  

On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sea route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. In command of five ships and 270 men, Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Rio de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarters at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.  

On October 21, he finally discovered the strait he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became known, is located near the tip of South America, separating Tierra del Fuego and the continental mainland. Only three ships entered the passage; one had been wrecked and another deserted. It took 38 days to navigate the treacherous strait, and when ocean was sighted at the other end Magellan wept with joy. His fleet accomplished the westward crossing of the ocean in 99 days, crossing waters so strangely calm that the ocean was named "Pacific," from the Latin word pacificus, meaning "tranquil." By the end, the men were out of food and chewed the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. On March 6, 1521, the expedition landed at the island of Guam.  

Ten days later, they dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu—they were only about 400 miles from the Spice Islands. Magellan met with the chief of Cebu, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In fighting on April 27, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.  

After Magellan's death, the survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas and loaded the hulls with spice. One ship attempted, unsuccessfully, to return across the Pacific. The other ship, the Vittoria, continued west under the command of Basque navigator Juan Sebastian de Elcano. The vessel sailed across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at the Spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda on September 6, 1522, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.     









Nov 28, 1954: Enrico Fermi, architect of the nuclear age, dies           

On this day in 1954, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, the first man to create and control a nuclear chain reaction, and one of the Manhattan Project scientists, dies in Chicago at the age of 53.  

Fermi was born in Rome on September 1, 1901. He made his career choice of physicist at age 17, and earned his doctorate at the University of Pisa at 21. After studying in Germany under physicist Max Born, famous for his work on quantum mechanics, which would prove vital to Fermi's later work, he returned to Italy to teach mathematics at the University of Florence. By 1926, he had been made a full professor of theoretical physics and gathered around him a group of other young physicists. In 1929, he became the youngest man ever elected to the Royal Academy of Italy.  

The theoretical became displaced by the practical for Fermi upon learning of England's Sir James Chadwick's discovery of the neutron and the Curies' production of artificial radioactivity. Fermi went to work on producing radioactivity by means of manipulating the speed of neutrons derived from radioactive beryllium. Further similar experimentation with other elements, including uranium 92, produced new radioactive substances; Fermi's colleagues believed he had created a new, "transuranic" element with an atomic number of 93, the result of uranium 92 capturing a neuron while under bombardment, thus increasing its atomic weight. Fermi remained skeptical, despite his fellow physicists' enthusiasm. He became a believer in 1938, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for "his identification of new radioactive elements." Although travel was restricted for men whose work was deemed vital to national security, Fermi was given permission to go to Sweden to receive his prize. He and his wife, Laura, who was Jewish, never returned; both feared and despised Mussolini's fascist regime.  

Fermi left Sweden for New York City, Columbia University, specifically, where he recreated many of his experiments with Niels Bohr, the Danish-born physicist, who suggested the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction. Fermi and others saw the possible military applications of such an explosive power, and quickly composed a letter warning President Roosevelt of the perils of a German atomic bomb. The letter was signed and delivered to the president by Albert Einstein on October 11, 1939. The Manhattan Project, the American program to create its own atomic bomb, was the result.  

It fell to Fermi to produce the first nuclear chain reaction, without which such a bomb was impossible. He created a jury-rigged laboratory, complete with his own "atomic pile," in a squash court in the basement of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. It was there that Fermi, with other physicists looking on, produced the first controlled chain reaction on December 2, 1942. The nuclear age was born. "The Italian navigator has just landed in the new world," was the coded message sent to a delighted President Roosevelt.  

The first nuclear device, the creation of the Manhattan Project scientists, was tested on July 16, 1945. It was followed less than a month later by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, Fermi, now an American citizen, became a Distinguished Service Professor of Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago, consulting on the construction of the first large-particle accelerator. He went on to receive the Congressional Medal of Merit and to be elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London.  

Among other honors accorded to Fermi: The element number 100, fermium, was named for him. Also, the Enrico Fermi Award, now one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology awards given by the U.S. government, was created in his honor.











Nov 28, 1925: The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting      

The Grand Ole Opry, one of the longest-lived and most popular showcases for western music, begins broadcasting live from Nashville, Tennessee. The showcase was originally named the Barn Dance, after a Chicago radio program called the National Barn Dance that had begun broadcasting the previous year.  

Impressed by the popularity of the Chicago-based National Barn Dance, producers at WSM radio in Nashville decided to create their own version of the show to cater to southern audiences who could not receive the Chicago signal. Both the Grand Ole Opry and the National Barn Dance aired on Saturday nights and featured folk music, fiddling, and the relatively new genre of country-western music. Both shows created a growing audience for a uniquely American style of music and were launching grounds for many of America's most-loved musicians--the singing cowboy Gene Autry got his first big break on the National Barn Dance. The WSM producers recognized that Americans were growing nostalgic for the rural past, so all live performers at the Grand Ole Opry were required to dress in hillbilly costumes and adopt old-time names.  

The four-and-a-half-hour Grand Ole Opry program became one of the most popular broadcasts in the South, and like its Chicago cousin, helped make country-western an enduring part of the popular American musical landscape.  


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

587 - Treaty of Andelot: King Guntram takes cousin Childebert II as heir

1340 - Battle of Salado Spain: last Moor invasion driven back

1443 - Albanian George Kastriotis Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in Middle Albania from the Ottomans and raise the Albanian flag.

1520 - Ferdinand Magellan begins crossing Pacific Ocean

1569 - Duke of Alva forces bishop Nicolaas van Nieuwland of Haarlem to resign

1660 - The Royal Society forms in London

1670 - Pierre Corneille's "Tite et Berenice" premieres in Paris

1710 - Battle at Brihuega: English General Stanhope captured

1729 - Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.

1745 - -29] French troops attack indians of Saratoga, NY

1757 - England condemns ceasefire of Kloster-Seven

1775 - 2nd Continental Congress formally establishes US Navy

1785 - The Treaty of Hopewell is signed.

1795 - US pays $800,000 & a frigate as tribute to Algiers & Tunis

1813 - Kosacks occupy Utrecht

1814 - The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1821 - Panama declares independence from Spain

1833 - Charles Darwin rides through Las Pietras, returning to Montevideo

1843 - Ka Lahui: Hawaiian Independence Day - The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.

Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1847 - Bologna: church San Francisco dei Minori Conventuali initiated with premier of Rossini's Tantum ergo

1853 - Olympia forms as capital of Washington Territory

1854 - Dutch army stops Chinese uprising in Borneo

1861 - Confederate congress officially admits Missouri to Confederate Army

1862 - Battle at Cane Hill, Arkansas (475 casualties)

1862 - Battle of Hooly Spring, MS

1864 - 3rd day of Battles at Waynesboro/Jones's Plantation, Georgia

1864 - Battle of New Creek, WV (Rosser's Raid, Ft Kelly)

1871 - Ku Klux Klan trials began in Federal District Court in SC

1875 - Verney Cameroon reaches East Africa

1879 - Battle at Lydenburg South Africa: Gen Wolseley beats Sekhukhenes Pedi-Zulu

1893 - Women vote in a national election for the first time: the New Zealand general election.

1895 - America's 1st auto race starts; 6 cars, 55 miles, winner avg 7 MPH

1899 - Battle of Mud river (Boer general. Cronjé beats British gen Methuen)

1901 - Gustav Mahler's 4th Symphony in G, premieres

1904 - Germany defeats Hottentotten in Warmbad SW-Africa

1905 - Arthur Griffith forms Sinn Fein in Dublin

1906 - Tommy Burns & Jack O'Brien fight to a draw in 20 for hw boxing title

1907 - In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater.

1908 - 154 men die in coal mine explosion at Marianna Pa

1911 - Zapata proclaims Plan of Ayala Mexico

1912 - Albania declares it's Indepenence from Turkey

1913 - Heavyweight Jack Johnson KOs Andre Spaul in Paris

1914 - World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.

1916 - 1st (German) air attack on London

1917 - Sigmund Rombergs revue "Over the Top" premieres in NYC

1918 - Emperor Wilhelm of Prussia & Germany abdicates

1918 - Bucovina voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania.

1919 - US-born Lady Astor elected 1st female member of British Parliament

1920 - Kilmichael Ambush, Battle of the Irish War of Independence.

1921 - Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha (Baha'i festival-Qawl 6, 78)

1922 - 6 ex-minsters executed in Greece

1922 - Capt Cyril Turner (RAF) gives 1st skywriting exhibition (NYC) Turner spelled out "Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200." 47,000 called

1924 - Pieter Jelle Troelstra leaves 2nd Chamber

1925 - 7th French government of Briand sworn-in

1925 - Grand Ole Opry premieres as WSM Barn Dance on WSM radio Nashville Tn

1925 - NHL goalie Georges Vezina collapses & dies of TB 4 months later

1927 - J McHugh & D Fields' musical "Delmar's Revels" premieres in NYC

1929 - Adm Richard E Byrd makes 1st South Pole flight

1929 - Ernie Nevers scores all 40 pts for Chic Cards vs Bears (NFL record)

1930 - Howard Hanson's 2nd Symphony "Romantic" premieres

1931 - Bradman scores 226, the 1st Test Cricket century at Gabba, v South Africa

1932 - France & USSR signs not-attack treaty

Comedian Groucho MarxComedian Groucho Marx 1932 - Groucho Marx performed on radio for 1st time

1934 - Churchill tells Premier Baldwin not to under estimate German air power

1938 - 4th Heisman Trophy Award: Davey O'Brien, Texas Christian (QB)

1939 - Nazi Gov-Gen of Poland, Hans Frank organizes Judenrat

1939 - Soviet government revokes Russian-Finnish non-attack treaty

1940 - Cleveringa arrested by nazis

1941 - German troops vacate Rostov

1942 - 492 die in a fire that destroyed Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston

1943 - FDR, Churchill & Stalin met at Tehran to map out strategy

1944 - 1st allied ship sails into Schelde Antwerp

1944 - 400 Rotterdammers attack coal warehouse

1944 - Hal Newhouser is named AL MVP

1944 - In reprisal 40 Dutch men are executed by Nazis

1944 - US 121st Infantry regiment occupies Hurtgen

1945 - Aust Services draw second Victory Test Cricket v India at Calcutta

32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1946 - French government of Bidault, resigns

1946 - Landverrader Anton Mussert to death sentenced

1948 - "Hopalong Cassidy" premieres on TV

1948 - 1st Polaroid camera sold

1949 - "Texas, Li'l Darlin'" opens at Mark Hellinger NYC for 293 perfs

1950 - Walter O'Malley fires Burt Shotton as Dodgers manager

1951 - John Van Druten's "I am a Camera," premieres in NYC

1951 - Military coup under Col Adib el-Shishakli in Syria

1953 - "Wish You Were Here" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 597 perfs

1953 - 41st CFL Grey Cup: Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeats Winn Blue Bombers, 12-6

1954 - 1st pro football game in Netherlands

1954 - Cleveland Browns' Horace Gillom sets club record with 80-yard punt

1954 - KCKT (now KSNC) TV channel 2 in Great Bend, KS (NBC) 1st broadcast

1955 - KMVI (now WMAU) TV channel 12 in Wailuku, HI (IND) begins broadcasting

1955 - KTHV TV channel 11 in Little Rock, AR (CBS) begins broadcasting

1956 - Photography begins on "... & God Created Women"

1957 - "Look Homeward, Angel" with Anthony Perkins premieres in NYC

1957 - Warren Spahn of the Braves wins Cy Young Award

1958 - AL announces Opening Day in 1959 will be earliest ever, April 9

1958 - Chad becomes an autonomous republic within French community

1958 - Congo & Mauritania become autonomous members of French Community

1958 - George "Punch" Imlach becomes coach of NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs

1958 - KCOO (now KABY) TV channel 9 in Aberdeen, SD (ABC) begins broadcasting

1958 - Test Cricket debut for Wes Hall, v India at Bombay

1958 - US reports 1st full-range firing of an ICBM

1959 - 47th CFL Grey Cup: Winn Blue Bombers defeats Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 21-7

1959 - KOMC (now KSNK) TV channel 8 in McCook - Oberlin, NB (NBC) begins

262nd Pope John XXIII262nd Pope John XXIII 1959 - Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Princeps Pastorum

1960 - CBS radio expands hourly news coverage from 5 to 10 minutes

1960 - Mauritania gains independence from France (Natl Day)

1961 - Ernest Davis is 1st black to win Heisman Trophy

1961 - General Meeting of UN debates about New-Guinea

1961 - Martin Walser's "Der Abstecher," premieres in Munich

1962 - Telegraph between Netherlands & Indonesia restored

1963 - 1st million copy record prior to release "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

1963 - Beatles "She Loves You" returns to #1 on UK record chart

1963 - Crusher beats Verne Gagne in St Paul, to become NWA champ

1963 - WHNT TV channel 19 in Huntsville, AL (CBS) begins broadcasting

1964 - 52nd CFL Grey Cup: BC Lions defeats Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 34-24

1964 - France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria

1964 - Mariner 4 launched; 1st probe to fly by Mars

1965 - Browns' Leroy Kelly sets club record for most punt return yds (109)

1965 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship

1966 - Coup in Burundi overthrows monarchy; a republic is declared

1966 - Dominican Republic adopts constitution

1967 - 33rd Heisman Trophy Award: Gary Beban, UCLA (QB)

1967 - The 1st pulsating radio source (pulsar) detected

1968 - John Lennon is fined £150 for unauthorized drug possession

1969 - Ted Sizemore becomes 7th Dodger to win NL Rookie of Year

1970 - 58th CFL Grey Cup: Montreal Alouettes defeat Calgary Stampeders, 23-10

1971 - "Me Nobody Knows" closes at Helen Hayes Theater NYC after 587 perfs

1971 - 59th CFL Grey Cup: Calgary Stampeders defeats Toronto Argonauts, 14-11

1972 - "Via Galactica" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 7 performances

1972 - LA Dodgers trade Frank Robinson to California Angels

1973 - Arab League summit in Algiers recognizes Palestine

1973 - Balt Oriole Al Bumbry wins AL Rookie of Year

New York Yankees Owner George SteinbrennerNew York Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner 1974 - Bowie Kuhn suspends George Steinbrenner for 2 years

1974 - John Lennon's last concert appearance (Elton John concert in Madison Square Garden NYC)

1975 - Democratic Republic of East-Timor proclaimed

1975 - Test Cricket debut of Michael Anthony Holding, WI v Australia Brisbane

1975 - Wings release "Venus & Mars/Rock Show" medley

1975 - As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes.

1976 - 64th CFL Grey Cup: Ottawa Rough Riders defeats Saskatchewan, 23-20

1978 - 44th Heisman Trophy Award: Billy Sims, Oklahoma (RB)

1978 - Reds fire manager Sparky Anderson after 9 years

1979 - "King of Schnorrers" opens at Playhouse Theater NYC for 63 perfs

1979 - Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mt Erebus on Antarctica kills 257

1979 - LA Dodger Rick Sutcliffe wins NL Rookie of Year

1981 - "Merrily We Roll Along" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 16 perfs

1981 - Bear Bryant wins his 315th game to out distance Alonzo Stagg & become college football's winningest coach

1982 - "Pirates of Penzance" closes at Uris Theater NYC after 772 perfs

Musician and Beatle John LennonMusician and Beatle John Lennon 1982 - 70th CFL Grey Cup: Edmonton Eskimos defeats Toronto Argonauts, 32-16

1982 - 71st Davis Cup: USA beats France in Grenoble (4-1)

1983 - 9th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 6-is launched

1984 - Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.

1985 - 6th Belgium government of Martens forms

1986 - Hilbert van der Duim skates 1 hour world record 39.4928 km

1986 - US Reagan administration exceeds SALT II arms limitations for 1st time

1987 - South African Airways Boeing 747 crashes into Indian Ocean, 159 die

1988 - Picasso's "Acrobat & Harlequin" sells for $38.46 million

1989 - Rickey Henderson signs record $3,000,000 per year Oak A's contract

1989 - Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci flees to Hungary

1990 - Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew resigns, ending his reign as Singapore's longest-serving Prime Minister

1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as Britain's PM, replaced by John Major

1993 - "Gray's Anatomy" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 13 performances

1993 - "Mixed Emotions" closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 48 perfs

British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherBritish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 1993 - 81st CFL Grey Cup: Edmonton Eskimos defeats Winn Blue Bombers, 33-23

1993 - Carlos Reina wins Honduras presidential election

1994 - Norway votes against joining European Union

1994 - In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death by an inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institution gymnasium.

1995 - James Brady, former white house press sect, suffers a heart attack

1997 - Final episode of "Beavis & Butt-head" on MTV

1997 - First public appearance of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group that fought for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia.

1998 - The people of Albania vote for their new Constitution in a referendum.

2000 - Ukrainian politician Oleksander Moroz begins the Cassette Scandal by publicly accusing President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

2004 - Male Poʻo-uli dies of Avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct.

2012 - 54 people are killed and 120 are injured by two car bombs in Damascus, Syria

1520 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait. The strait was named after him. He was the first European to sail the Pacific from the east.   1582 - William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married.   1757 - English poet, painter and engraver William Blake was born. Two of his best known works are "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience."   1919 - American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.   1922 - Capt. Cyril Turner of the Royal Air Force gave the first public exhibition of skywriting. He spelled out, "Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200" over New York's Times Square.   1925 - The Grand Ole Opry made its radio debut on station WSM.   1934 - The U.S. bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson was killed by FBI agents near Barrington, IL.   1942 - 491 people died in a fire that destroyed the Coconut Grove in Boston.   1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to map out strategy concerning World War II.   1953 - New York City began 11 days without newspapers due to a strike of photoengravers.   1958 - The African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.   1963 - U.S. President Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral would be renamed Cape Kennedy in honor of his assassinated predecessor. The name was changed back to Cape Canaveral in 1973 by a vote of residents.   1964 - The U.S. launched the space probe Mariner IV from Cape Kennedy on a course set for Mars.   1977 - Larry Bird was introduced as "College Basketball's Secret Weapon" with a cover story in Sports Illustrated. (NBA)   1978 - The Iranian government banned religious marches.   1979 - An Air New Zealand DC-10 flying to the South Pole crashed in Antarctica killing all 257 people aboard.   1983 - The space shuttle Columbia took off with the STS-9 Spacelab in its cargo bay.   1985 - The Irish Senate approved the Anglo-Irish accord concerning Northern Ireland.   1987 - A South African Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean. All 159 people aboard were killed.   1989 - Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci arrived in New York after escaping her homeland through Hungary.   1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister of Britain.   1992 - In Bosnia-Herzegovina, 137 tons of food and supplies were to be delivered to the isolated town of Srebrenica.   1992 - In King William's Town, South Africa, black militant gunmen attacked a country club killing four people and injuring 20.   1993 - The play "Mixed Emotions" closed after 48 performances.   1994 - Jeffrey Dahmer, a convicted serial killer, was clubbed to death in a Wisconsin prison by a fellow inmate.   1994 - Norwegian voters rejected European Union membership.   1995 - U.S. President Clinton signed a $6 billion road bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.   2010 - WikiLeaks released to the public more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. About 100,000 were marked "secret" or "confidential."



1520 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan passed through the strait which bears his name to the Pacific ocean. 1919 American-born Lady Astor became the first woman to take a seat on the British Parliament. 1942 Almost 500 people died in the Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston. 1943 Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met in Tehran for their first meeting during World War II. 1964 The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 4 launched—on its way to the first successful mission to Mars. 1990 Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister of Great Britain; John Major took over.


The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/nov28.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

A Controversial History for Thanksgiving

I have wanted to do a history of the Thanksgiving holiday for a long time now. For whatever the reason, my assumption was that this had already been done to some extent on this blog page before but, when I checked earlier today, this was proven not to be the case.

Here is the thing about Thanksgiving: it is a great holiday, yet it also represents something terrible. That makes it a paradox, really. Let me explain.

The first time that I really came to understand the depth of the anger by Native Americans regarding the holiday was a number of years ago, after reading an article from Ward Churchill. He mentioned that celebrating Thanksgiving was essentially an insult to the native people, and that, in fact, it should be a day of mourning.

Since then, I have done further explorations, and even asked one native during a Pow Wow a couple of years or so back about it, and the answers have more or less been the same: Native Americans feel that this holiday represents an insult to their people, and a constant reminder that the holiday that we tend to think represents friendship and cooperation between Indians and Pilgrims actually represents the beginning of the end of their culture and traditional way of life.

For a little while, I was even entertaining the idea of abandoning the holiday, although this never actually came to pass.

Why?

Because it is a nice holiday, with a noble meaning, even if the holiday that it falls on is a bit tainted with history. But in researching for this article, and listening to Suzan Shown Harjo, as well as reading so0me of the arguments of those that went to Plymouth today to protest the holiday, made me realize that what needs to change is not perhaps the holiday itself, or what it is supposed to represent. Rather, what needs to change is the common misunderstanding about the origins of Thanksgiving, and why, specifically, natives find it offensive and representing something far more sinister than most popular perceptions.

If you are interested in finding out more, please start by reading my article by clicking on the link below, but also, do some of your own research. This is an important issue, and any American that feels some measure of patriotic duty should understand this history better, in order to come to terms with the darker aspects of our national past.

Also, one thing that bothers me about this holiday, or more this holiday weekend, is that it is immediately followed by Black Friday, which is perhaps the single day when, more than any other date on the calendar, represents our society's excessive greed and mindless consumerism. The fact that this comes literally the day after we are supposed to take time out to be thankful for all that we have been blessed with in life and that, furthermore, Black Friday is increasingly encroaching on the Thanksgiving holiday itself, is the height of hypocrisy. It suggests that there really is something wrong with this society, and we would do well, I think, not to simply shrug our shoulders or ignore it. We should recognize it, own up to it, and individually, refuse to participate in "Black Friday" deals and shopping, particularly with those stores that are trying to open up on Thanksgiving itself.

As I was driving past some malls earlier this evening, at an hour when the malls are usually closed and the vast parking lots normally deserted, I sighed at the sight of those parking lots almost filled to the brim. Thanksgiving was not yet officially over, and people surely were still feeling that heaviness from a huge dinner, and the fatigue from eating all of that turkey. Yet, so many people were out and about, hoping to horde as many great deals as possible, even though many retail stores jack up the prices prior to Black Friday before marking them down with significant seeming savings. It all seems so shady, such a scam, and it is more than a little disappointing to see greed win out on the part of all participants of this event.

Personally, I want absolutely no part of Black Friday, and urge any and all of you out there not to have anything to do with it, either. But ultimately, of course, that choice is yours to make.

Would have liked to get this published earlier. However, Thanksgiving is usually chaotic, between working overnight, getting a few hours of sleep, then eating a late Thanksgiving lunch with family, before going further south to meet my girlfriend, and head towards the place we have gone to the last three years. It has been a busy day, with very little time, as well as limited access, to the internet. So, I post this when I can.

Here is the link to my article, and I do hope that you take a look:


Thanksgiving Has a Controversial History

http://guardianlv.com/2014/11/thanksgiving-has-a-controversial-history/

On This Day in History - November 27 Pope Urban II Orders First Crusade

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!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Nov 27, 1095: Pope Urban II orders first Crusade          

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of "Deus vult!" or "God wills it!"  

Born Odo of Lagery in 1042, Urban was a protege of the great reformer Pope Gregory VII. Like Gregory, he made internal reform his main focus, railing against simony (the selling of church offices) and other clerical abuses prevalent during the Middle Ages. Urban showed himself to be an adept and powerful cleric, and when he was elected pope in 1088, he applied his statecraft to weakening support for his rivals, notably Clement III.  

By the end of the 11th century, the Holy Land—the area now commonly referred to as the Middle East—had become a point of conflict for European Christians. Since the 6th century, Christians frequently made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion, but when the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, Christians were barred from the Holy City. When the Turks then threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire and take Constantinople, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I made a special appeal to Urban for help. This was not the first appeal of its kind, but it came at an important time for Urban. Wanting to reinforce the power of the papacy, Urban seized the opportunity to unite Christian Europe under him as he fought to take back the Holy Land from the Turks.  

At the Council of Clermont, in France, at which several hundred clerics and noblemen gathered, Urban delivered a rousing speech summoning rich and poor alike to stop their in-fighting and embark on a righteous war to help their fellow Christians in the East and take back Jerusalem. Urban denigrated the Muslims, exaggerating stories of their anti-Christian acts, and promised absolution and remission of sins for all who died in the service of Christ.  

Urban's war cry caught fire, mobilizing clerics to drum up support throughout Europe for the crusade against the Muslims. All told, between 60,000 and 100,000 people responded to Urban's call to march on Jerusalem. Not all who responded did so out of piety: European nobles were tempted by the prospect of increased land holdings and riches to be gained from the conquest. These nobles were responsible for the death of a great many innocents both on the way to and in the Holy Land, absorbing the riches and estates of those they conveniently deemed opponents to their cause. Adding to the death toll was the inexperience and lack of discipline of the Christian peasants against the trained, professional armies of the Muslims. As a result, the Christians were initially beaten back, and only through sheer force of numbers were they eventually able to triumph.  

Urban died in 1099, two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem but before news of the Christian victory made it back to Europe. His was the first of seven major military campaigns fought over the next two centuries known as the Crusades, the bloody repercussions of which are still felt today. Urban was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 1881.








Nov 27, 1940: Iron Guard massacres former Romanian government     

Two months after General Ion Antonescu seized power in Romania and forced King Carol II to abdicate, Antonescu's Iron Guard arrests and executes more than 60 aides of the exiled king, including Nicolae Iorga, a former minister and acclaimed historian.  

The extreme right-wing movement known as the Iron Guard was founded by Corneliu Codreanu in the 1920s, imitating Germany's Nazi Party in both ideology and methods. In 1938, King Carol II managed to establish a stronger dictatorship in Romania and took steps to suppress the activities of the Iron Guard as well as its left-wing antithesis, the Romanian Communist Party. However, the control fell into violent turmoil after the Munich Pact of 1939 was signed, seen as an abandonment of Romania by its Western allies from World War I, followed by a Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact in 1939, which ceded portions of Romania to the USSR.  

General Ion Antonescu emerged from the chaos victorious and established a dictatorship with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's approval, killing, exiling, or imprisoning most of his former political opposition. Nevertheless, Romanian resistance to the Iron Guard and Nazi occupation persisted during the war, and in August 1944 a massive revolt toppled Antonescu's government in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, allowing the Soviet liberators to capture the city without firing a shot. In 1945, Romanian communists came to power with the backing of the Soviet Union.






Nov 27, 1868: Custer massacres Cheyenne on Washita River

Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle.  

Convicted of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier that year in a military court, the government had suspended Custer from rank and command for one year. Ten months into his punishment, in September 1868, General Philip Sheridan reinstated Custer to lead a campaign against Cheyenne Indians who had been making raids in Kansas and Oklahoma that summer. Sheridan was frustrated by the inability of his other officers to find and engage the enemy, and despite his poor record and unpopularity with the men of the 7th Cavalry, Custer was a good fighter.  

Sheridan determined that a campaign in winter might prove more effective, since the Indians could be caught off guard while in their permanent camps. On November 26, Custer located a large village of Cheyenne encamped near the Washita River, just outside of present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma. Custer did not attempt to identify which group of Cheyenne was in the village, or to make even a cursory reconnaissance of the situation. Had he done so, Custer would have discovered that they were peaceful people and the village was on reservation soil, where the commander of Fort Cobb had guaranteed them safety. There was even a white flag flying from one of the main dwellings, indicating that the tribe was actively avoiding conflict.  

Having surrounded the village the night before, at dawn Custer called for the regimental band to play "Garry Owen," which signaled for four columns of soldiers to charge into the sleeping village. Outnumbered and caught unaware, scores of Cheyenne were killed in the first 15 minutes of the "battle," though a small number of the warriors managed to escape to the trees and return fire. Within a few hours, the village was destroyed--the soldiers had killed 103 Cheyenne, including the peaceful Black Kettle and many women and children.  

Hailed as the first substantial American victory in the Indian wars, the Battle of the Washita helped to restore Custer's reputation and succeeded in persuading many Cheyenne to move to the reservation. However, Custer's habit of boldly charging Indian encampments of unknown strength would eventually lead him to his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.







Nov 27, 1914: Hindenburg celebrates Warsaw campaign

On November 27, 1914, German commander Paul von Hindenburg issues a triumphant proclamation from the battlefields of the Eastern Front, celebrating his army's campaign against Russian forces in the Polish city of Warsaw.  

On November 1, Hindenburg had been appointed commander in chief of all German troops on the Eastern Front; his chief of staff was Erich Ludendorff, who had aided him in commanding several earlier victories against Russian forces in East Prussia. The new command, dubbed OberOst, had two objectives: First, they were to mount a counterattack in Poland while their colleague, Erich von Falkenhayn, managed German forces fighting in the Ypres region on the Western Front. Second, they were to balance the faltering Austrian command headed by Conrad von Hotzendorff. Earlier, Conrad had audaciously blamed his army's failure against Russia on a lack of sufficient German support and demanded that 30 new German divisions be sent east, a notion that Falkenhayn steadfastly opposed.  

The German campaign against Warsaw, launched in early November 1914, aimed to draw Russian manpower and other resources away from their ferocious assault on the struggling army of Germany's ally, Austria-Hungary. In this it proved successful. The Germans scored several significant victories, most notably at the neighboring city of Lodz. Though the broader German assault ultimately failed, leaving Warsaw still in Russian hands, the kaiser rewarded Hindenburg by promoting him to field marshal, the highest rank in the German army.  

In his statement of November 27, Hindenburg expressed his satisfaction with the results of the campaign and, of course, with his promotion. "I am proud at having reached the highest military rank at the head of such troops. Your fighting spirit and perseverance have in a marvelous manner inflicted the greatest losses on the enemy. Over 60,000 prisoners, 150 guns and about 200 machine guns have fallen into our hands, but the enemy is not yet annihilated. Therefore, forward with God, for King and Fatherland, till the last Russian lies beaten at our feet.  Hurrah!"





Nov 27, 1940: Bruce Lee born   

On this day in 1940, the actor and martial-arts expert Bruce Lee is born in San Francisco, California. In his all-too-brief career, Lee became a film star in Asia, and a pop-culture icon, posthumously, in America.  

Lee was born while his father, a Chinese opera star, was on tour in America. The Lee family moved back to Hong Kong in 1941. Growing up, Lee was a child actor who appeared in some 20 Chinese films; he also studied dancing and trained in the Wing Chun style of gung fu (also known as kung fu). In 1959, Lee returned to America, where he eventually attended the University of Washington and opened a martial-arts school in Seattle. In 1964, he married Linda Emery, who in 1965 gave birth to Brandon Lee, the first of the couple’s two children. In 1966, the Lees relocated to Los Angeles and Bruce appeared on the television program The Green Hornet (1966-1967), playing the Hornet’s acrobatic sidekick, Kato. Lee also appeared in karate tournaments around the United States and continued to teach martial arts to private clients, including the actor Steve McQueen.  

In search of better acting roles than Hollywood was offering, Lee returned to Hong Kong in the early 1970s. He successfully established himself as a star in Asia with the action movies The Big Boss (1971) and The Way of the Dragon (1972), which he wrote, directed and starred in. Lee’s next film, Enter the Dragon, was released in the United States by Hollywood studio Warner Brothers in August 1973. Tragically, Lee had died one month earlier, on July 20, in Hong Kong, after suffering a brain edema believed to be caused by an adverse reaction to a pain medication. Enter the Dragon was a box-office hit, eventually grossing more than $200 million, and Lee posthumously became a movie icon in America.  

Lee’s body was returned to Seattle, where he was buried. His sudden death at the young age of 32 led to rumors and speculation about the cause of his demise. One theory held that Lee had been murdered by Chinese gangsters, while another rumor circulated that the actor had been the victim of a curse. The family-curse theory resurfaced when Lee’s 28-year-old son Brandon, who had followed in his father’s footsteps to become an actor, died in an accidental shooting on the set of the movie The Crow on March 31, 1993. The younger Lee was buried next to his father at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery.









Nov 27, 1942: Jimi Hendrix born

Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is born in Seattle. Hendrix grew up playing guitar, imitating blues greats like Muddy Waters as well as early rockers. He joined the army in 1959 and became a paratrooper but was honorably discharged in 1961 after an injury that exempted him from duty in Vietnam. In the early 1960s, Hendrix worked as a pickup guitarist, backing musicians including Little Richard, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, and Sam Cooke. In 1964, he moved to New York and played in coffeehouses, where bassist Bryan Chandler of the British group the Animals heard him. Chandler arranged to manage Hendrix and brought him to London in 1966, where they created the Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. The band's first single, "Hey Joe," hit No. 6 on the British pop charts, and the band became an instant sensation.  

In 1967, the Jimi Hendrix Experience made its first U.S. appearance, at the Monterey Pop Festival. Hendrix made a splash by burning his guitar and was quickly established as a rock superstar. In the next two years, before the band broke up in 1969, it had released such classic songs as "Purple Haze," "Foxy Lady," and "The Wind Cries Mary." The band's albums included Are You Experienced? (1967), Bold as Love (1969), and Electric Ladyland (1969).  

After the band dissolved because of creative tensions, Hendrix made his famous appearance at Woodstock, playing a masterful, intricate version of "The Star Spangled Banner." Later that year, he put together a new group called the Band of Gypsies, which debuted on New Year's Eve in 1969. The band put out only one album, Band of Gypsies (1969). (A second album, Band of Gypsies II, was released in 1986.) Hendrix then recorded another album, without the band, called The Cry of Love, which was released in 1971.  

Hendrix, one of the most innovative guitar players of the rock era, established an advanced recording studio in New York called the Electric Lady, boasting 46-track recording technology. The studio opened in August 1970, shortly before Hendrix died in London in September 1970, following a drug overdose. He was 27.




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

399 - St Anastasius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope

1095 - Pope Urban II preaches 1st Crusade

1237 - Battle of Cortenuova: Emperor Frederik II vs Lombardische steden

1295 - The first elected representatives from Lancashire were called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as "The Model Parliament".

1382 - Battle of Westrozebeke/Roosebeke. French army defeats the Flemish army. Flemish leader Philip Van Artevelde killed and corpse displayed

1495 - Scottish king James IV receives bedrieger Perkin Warbeck

1587 - Dutch County Groningen flood by dike break

1703 - The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703.

1798 - Rabbi Shneur Zalman, author (Tanya), released from St Peterburg jail

1807 - The Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops

1815 - City of Kraków (Poland) declared a free republic state by the Congress of Vienna

1815 - Adoption of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland

1817 - US soldiers attack Florida Indian village, beginning Seminole War

1826 - John Walker invents friction match in England

1839 - American Statistical Association organizes in Boston

1843 - Opera "Bohemian Girl" is produced (London)

1863 - -29] Battle at Fort Esperanza Texas

1863 - Battle of Payne's Farm, VA

1864 - 2nd day of Battles at Waynesboro, Georgia

US Cavalry Commander George Armstrong CusterUS Cavalry Commander George Armstrong Custer 1868 - Battle at Washita River, Oklahoma. General Custer attacks group of Native American Indians, their chief Black Kettle dies in the attack

1870 - NY Times dubs baseball "The National Game"

1877 - Burkina Faso adopts its constitution

1885 - Earliest photograph of a meteor shower made

1889 - 1st permit issued to drive a car through Central Park (Curtis P Brady)

1889 - Hermann Sudermann's "Ehre" premieres in Berlin

1890 - 1st signal box for SF Police Department goes into operation

1895 - Alfred Nobel establishes Nobel Prize

1896 - "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spake Zarathustra) debuts in Frankfurt

1901 - Army War College forms in Washington DC

1901 - Gerhart Hauptmanns "Der rote Hahn" premieres in Berlin

1901 - U.S. Army War College is established.

1903 - Opera "Die Heugierigen Frauen" is produced (Munich)

1910 - NY's Penn Station opens as world's largest railway terminal

1911 - Audience throws vegetables at actors for 1st recorded time in US

Author and Nobel Laureate Gerhart HauptmannAuthor and Nobel Laureate Gerhart Hauptmann 1912 - Albanian National Flag adopted

1912 - Spanish protectorate in Morocco forms

1914 - 1st women elected political agent (Grantham, Linconshire UK)

1919 - Peace of Neuilly-sur-Seine: Allies & Bulgaria

1924 - 57,000 watch a High School football game (LA & Polytechnic tie 7-7)

1924 - In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

1925 - German Parliament ratifies treaty of Locarno

1926 - 110,000 watch Army & Navy play a 21-all tie

1926 - Béla Bartoks ballet "Miraculous Mandarin" premieres in Keulen

1926 - Italian & Albania sign peace treaty

1926 - KXL-AM in Portland OR begins radio transmissions

1926 - Restoration of Williamsburg, Virginia, begins

1931 - 1st Test Cricket match at the Gabba Bradman scores 200 on 1st day

1932 - Poland & USSR signs non-attack treaty

1934 - Bank robber Baby Face Nelson dies in a shoot-out with the FBI.

1937 - Pro-labor musical revue "Pins & Needles" opens, produced by ILGWU

1939 - Maxwell Anderson's "Key Largo," premieres in NYC

1940 - 6th Heisman Trophy Award: Tom Harmon, Michigan (HB)

1940 - Nazis signs Technical Hague court Delft

1941 - British 13th Army corp reaches Tobruk

Baseball Player Joe DiMaggioBaseball Player Joe DiMaggio 1941 - Joe DiMaggio is named AL MVP

1941 - USSR begins a counter offensive causes Germany to retreat

1942 - Bobby Managoff beats Yvon Robert in Houston, to become wrestling champ

1942 - French navy at Toulon scuttles ships & subs so Nazis don't take them

1942 - Tito appoints Anti fascist Liberation board in Yugoslavia

1943 - 31st CFL Grey Cup: Hamilton Flying Wildcats defeat Winn Bombers, 23-14

1943 - Conference of Teheran (Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin)

1944 - 3,500-40,00 ton explosive, explodes in Staffordshire, 68 killed

1944 - US 121st Infantry regiment opens assault on Hurtgen

1945 - Gen George C Marshall named special US envoy to China

1945 - Hannie Buy buried in presence of Queen Wilhelmina

1945 - Trial against NSB-leader Mussert begins

1945 - Dutch resistance fighter Hannie Schaft re-buried in presence of Queen Wilhelmina

1946 - English soccer team beats Netherlands, 8-2

1947 - Joe DiMaggio wins his 3rd MVP, beating Ted Williams by 1 vote

Soviet Union Premier Joseph StalinSoviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin 1948 - 36th CFL Grey Cup: Calgary Stampeders defeat Ottawa Rough Riders, 12-7

1948 - Honda 1st opens in America

1950 - Red Sox sign shortstop Lou Boudreau as a player to 2-year contract

1950 - Trial against RC clergy "imperialistic conspiracy" begins in Prague

1951 - 1st rocket to intercept an airplane, White Sands, NM

1951 - Cease-fire & demarcation zone accord signed in Panmunjon Korea

1952 - KTBC TV channel 7 in Austin, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting

1953 - Indians 3rd baseman Al Rosen is unanimously named AL's MVP

1954 - "By the Beautiful Sea" closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 270 perfs

1954 - 42nd CFL Grey Cup: Edmonton Eskimos defeats Montreal Alouettes, 26-25

1954 - Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury.

1956 - F Goodrich & A Hackett's "Diary of Anne Frank" premieres in Neth

1957 - Army withdraws for Little Rock Ark, after Central HS integration

1958 - USSR abrogates Allied war-time agreements on control of Germany

1960 - CBS radio cancels "Have Gun Will Travel"

1960 - Dr Felix Houphouet-Boigny becomes president of Ivory Coast

1960 - Gordie Howe becomes 1st NHLer to score 1,000 points

1960 - Patrice Lumumba flees Leopoldville Congo

1960 - Trailing 38-7 late in 3rd quarter, Buffalo Bills tie Broncos at 38-38

1961 - Gordie Howe becomes 1st to play in 1,000 NHL games

1961 - KHAW TV channel 11 in Hilo, HI (NBC) begins broadcasting

1962 - 1st test flight of the Boeing 727 takes place

1962 - Sumner Arthur Long's "Never Too Late" premieres in NYC

1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1963 - The Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention is signed at Strasbourg.

1965 - 15-25,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam in Wash DC

1965 - 1st French satellite launched, France becomes 3rd nation in space

1965 - 53rd CFL Grey Cup: Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat Winn Blue Bombers, 22-16

1966 - In highest-scoring NFL game, Wash Redskins defeat NY Giants 72-41

1966 - Uruguay adopts constitution

1967 - Beatles release "Magical Mystery Tour"

1967 - Gold pool nations pledge support of $35 per ounce gold price

1970 - Carl Morton (18-11 for last-place Expos), receives NL Rookie of Year

1970 - George Harrison releases 3 album set "All Things Must Pass"

1970 - Pope Paul VI wounded in chest during a visit to Philippines by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest

1970 - Test Cricket debut of Rodney "Iron Gloves" Marsh v England, Brisbane

1971 - Soviet Mars 2 becomes 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars

1972 - Pierre Trudeau forms Canadian government

1972 - Yanks trade Ellis, Torres & Spikes to Indians for Nettles& amp; Moses

1973 - Gary Matthews wins NL Rookie of Year

1973 - Neil Simon's "Good Doctor" premieres in NYC

38th US President Gerald Ford38th US President Gerald Ford 1973 - Senate votes 92-3 to confirm Gerald R Ford as VP

1974 - Cardinals outfielder Bake McBride wins NL Rookie of Year

1975 - Red Sox's Fred Lynn is 1st rookie to win MVP (AL)

1975 - The Provisional IRA assassinates Ross McWhirter, after a press conference in which McWhirter announced a reward for the capture of those responsible for multiple bombings and shootings across England.

1976 - Amy Alcott wins LPGA Colgate-Far East Golf Championship

1976 - Miss Teenage America Pageant

1977 - "Comedy with Music (Victor Borge)" closes at Imperial NY after 66 perf

1977 - 65th CFL Grey Cup: Montreal Alouettes defeats Edmonton Eskimos, 41-6

1979 - 1st day-night one-day cricket international, Australia v WI at SCG

1980 - Soyuz T-3 carries 3 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station, launched

1982 - 5th time Rangers shut-out Islanders 3-0

1982 - Kepler Wessels scores century in 1st Test Cricket (162 v England)

1983 - 71st CFL Grey Cup: Toronto Argonauts defeats BC Lions, 18-17

1983 - Colombian jetliner Boeing 747 crashes in Madrid killing 181

1983 - Desmond Haynes out handled the ball v India

1985 - Cards Vince Coleman wins NL Rookie of Year

1985 - Republic of Ireland gains consultative role in Northern Ireland

1987 - "Les Miserables," opens at Theatre Royal, Sydney

1987 - Young man survives 7 attempts at suicide in Somerset England

1988 - 76th CFL Grey Cup: Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeats BC Lions, 22-21

1989 - Colombian jetliner bombed killing 107

1989 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

1989 - George Harrison releases "Cheer Down" & "Poor Little Girl"

1989 - Luis Alberto Lacelle elected president of Uruguay

1989 - US 63rd manned space mission STS 33 (Discovery 9) returns from space

British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherBritish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 1990 - Britain's conservatives chose John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher

1991 - "Peter Pan" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 48 performances

1991 - Poetess Maria Elene Cruz Varela sentenced to 2 years (Cuba)

1991 - Undertaker beats Hulk Hogan to become new WWF champ

1992 - Howard Stern Interview premieres on E! Network

1992 - Part of Vienna Hofburg destroyed by fire

1993 - Boon completes his 18th Test Cricket century (106 v NZ, Hobart)

1993 - India defeat West Indies in Bengal Jubilee Cricket Final, Kumble 6-12

1993 - Lisa Hanna, 18, of Jamaica, crowned 43rd Miss World

1994 - 82nd CFL Grey Cup: British Columbia Lions defeat Balt Stallions, 26-23

1994 - Fire in disco in Fuxin, North-China, 233 killed

1994 - Julio Maria Sanguinetti elected president of Uruguay

1997 - Lions' Barry Sanders becomes NFL's 2nd all-time rusher

1997 - Twenty-five are killed in the second Souhane massacre in Algeria.

1999 - The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history.

WWF Wrestler Hulk HoganWWF Wrestler Hulk Hogan 2001 - A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.

2004 - New Zealand's All Blacks thump Six Nations Rugby Union Champions France 45-6 in Paris

2004 - Pope John Paul II returns the relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

2005 - The first partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France.

2005 - President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, in power since 1967 and the longest-serving head of state in the world, was re-elected to his third consecutive seven-year term.

2006 - The Canadian House of Commons endorses Prime Minister Stephen Harper's motion to declare Québécois a nation within a unified Canada.

2006 - Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician and former President of the Italian Republic, resigned from his position as lifetime senator.

2012 - 29 people are killed and 126 are wounded by 8 car bombings across Iraq

2012 - The eurozone announces that it will pay out 43.7 billion euros in Loans to Greece

2013 - Tiger Woods is named PGA Tour's player of the year for the 11th time

1684 - Japan's shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa was born.   1701 - Anders Celsius was born in Sweden. He was the inventor of the Celsius thermometer.   1779 - The College of Pennsylvania became the University of Pennsylvania. It was the first legally recognized university in America.   1839 - The American Statistical Association was founded in Boston.   1889 - Curtis P. Brady was issued the first permit to drive an automobile through Central Park in New York City.   1901 - The Army War College was established in Washington, DC.   1910 - New York's Pennsylvania Station opened.   1939 - The play "Key Largo," by Maxwell Anderson, opened in New York.   1951 - Hosea Richardson became the first black horse racing jockey to be licensed in Florida.   1963 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress.   1970 - Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was attacked at the Manila airport by a Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.   1973 - The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president after the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew.   1978 - San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by Dan White, a former supervisor.   1980 - Dave Williams (Chicago Bears) became the first player in NFL history to return a kick for touchdown in overtime.   1983 - 183 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Barajas airport in Madrid.   1985 - The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord giving Dublin a consulting role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.   1987 - French hostages Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque were set free by their pro-Iranian captors in West Beirut, Lebanon.   1989 - 107 people were killed when a bomb destroyed a Colombian jetliner minutes after the plane had taken off from Bogota's international airport. Police blamed the incident on drug traffickers.   1991 - The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that led the way for the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia.   1992 - In Venezuela, rebel forces tried but failed to overthrow President Carlos Andres Perez for the second time in ten months.

1852 Lord Byron's daughter Ada died. She had assisted Charles Babbage with his "analytical engine" and is credited with inventing computer language. 1895 Alfred Nobel signed his last will, which established the Nobel Prize. 1910 New York's Pennsylvania Station opened. 1953 Playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65. 1970 Pope Paul VI was attacked at the Manila airport by a Bolivian painter disguised as a priest. 1973 Gerald R. Ford was confirmed by the Senate to become vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew. 2003 President Bush secretly flew to Iraq to spend Thanksgiving with the troops.



The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/nov27.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory