This date in history

[Aktungbby]

1975: After nearly four decades of absolute rule, Spain's Generalissimo Francisco Franco died at age 82. The 'Caudillo's demise inspired inane mirth in America which I never quite grasped. CHEVY CHASE on Saturday Night LIVE: Even Richard Nixon got in on the parody...unintentionally: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States. He earned worldwide respect for Spain through firmness and fairness " Whatever the game was, El Caudillo played it better than anyone...for a very long time.

[BossMark]

1620-The 'Pilgrim Fathers' on the 'Mayflower' make first landfall in North America, at Cape Cod, New England.

1953-Piltdown Man, an archaeological discovery hailed as the 'missing link' in 1911, is exposed as a fake.

1995-The Dayton Agreement between Serb, Croat and Bosnian leaders ends more than three years of war in Bosnia.

[Jimbuna]

1791 - Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte is promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic.

[Aktungbby]

1934: Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" opens starring Ethel Merman-on Broadway...update 2013: I just saw it with my aspiring (birthday girl) singer-daughter at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre; Helps to have hearing aids with a 'music' setting... starring a fabulous Rachel York-needless to say she's 'De-lovely' RACHEL YORK

[Jimbuna]

1906 - International Radio Telecommunications Com adopts "SOS" as new call for help.

[STEED]

Bossmark got badly badly drunk on this day.

November 22, 1990: Margaret Thatcher quits as Prime Minister after leadership challenge

After she failed to win enough support from Conservative MPs in a leadership contest, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned after 11 years at Number 10.

[BossMark]

Originally Posted by STEED

Bossmark got badly badly drunk on this day.

Not nearly as much as I got drunk last April........

[Aktungbby]

1718: Edward Teach is killed in battle off North Carolina. Several spellings of his surname exist—Thatch, Thach, Thache, Thack, Tack, Thatche and Theach. One early source claims that his surname was Drummond...Howver unlike most alias-using pirates this gent is immortal as BLACKBEARD! Well over six feet with burning matches in his braided locks, he led from the front! At points of his career he commanded more than one vessel-dubbing himself 'Commodore'; his principle flagship Queen Anne's Revenge had 40 guns. His last fight: and a villain's end: so to speak; Legend has it that his headless body swam around the vessel 5 times before succumbing-a bit much IMHO 3 is more like it...Queen Anne's Revenge has been discovered off North Carolina. http://www.history.com/videos/queen-annes-revenge#queen-annes-revenge The pirate flag was no useless decoration; but meant to convey a clear message Blackbeard's flag: this clear message was that time to surrender was running out. Fearlessness in the face of death was shown with a cup raised in a toast.
A heart pierced with a spear or dart showed a violent death. A heart leaking drops of blood showed a drawn out and torturous death. An empty fist or cutlass in hand spoke of a swift death. In short: Heave-to or die! Blackbeard apparently tried to incorporate most all of these symbols. His flag showed a skeleton with horns holding an spear in one hand and hourglass in the other that is pointing to a heart dripping three blood drops. It must have worked: "A shrewd and calculating leader, Teach spurned the use of force, relying instead on his fearsome image to elicit the response he desired from those he robbed. Contrary to the modern-day picture of the traditional tyrannical pirate, he commanded his vessels with the permission of their crews and there is no known account of his ever having harmed or murdered those he held captive. He was romanticised after his death and became the inspiration for a number of pirate-themed works of fiction across a range of genres.

[Jimbuna]

1940 - RAF pilot Guy Gibson (22) weds show dancer and actress Eve Moore in Penarth’s Anglican Church.

[Jimbuna]

1642 - Abel Janzoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).

[Aktungbby]

1943: U-600 is sunk with all hands in the North Atlantic north of Ponta Delgada, in position 40.31N, 22.07W, by depth charges from the British frigates HMS Bazely and HMS Blackwood. 54 dead (all hands lost). A productive U boat with 5 ships sunk (28,600 tons) and 3 ships damaged (19,230 tons), her commander Bernhard Zurmühlen had served aboard U-331...as watch officer...1941: at 4.25pm, while steaming to cover an attack on Italian convoys with the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth, Valiant and an escort of eight destroyers, HMS Barham was hit by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-331. The torpedoes were fired from a range of only 750 yards providing no time for evasive action, and struck so closely together as to throw up a single massive water column. As she rolled over to port, her magazines exploded and she quickly sank within 4 minutes with the loss of more than two-thirds of the crew. The explosion was caught on camera from the nearby Valiant. Out of a crew of approximately 1,184 officers and men, 841 were killed.

[Jimbuna]

1867 - Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.

[Aktungbby]

1703: The Great Storm of 1703 was one of the most severe storms ever recorded in the southern part of England. On the Thames, around 700 ships were heaped together in the Pool of London. The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships including the entire Channel Squadron and upwards of 1,500 seamen drowned. Vessels were blown 20 miles inland. In London, approximately 2,000 massive chimney stacks were blown down. The lead roofing was blown off Westminster Abbey. The Great Storm also coincided with the increase in English journalism, and was the first weather event to be a news story on a national scale. Special issue broadsheets were produced detailing damage to property and stories of people who had been killed. Even Daniel Defoe(Robinson Crusoe) produced his full-length book, The Storm, published in July 1704, in response to the calamity, calling it "the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England." He wrote: "No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it." Coastal towns such as Portsmouth "looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces." Winds of up to 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) destroyed more than 400 windmills. Defoe reported in some the sails turned so fast that the friction caused the wooden wheels to overheat and catch fire. The storm, unprecedented in ferocity and duration, was generally reckoned by witnesses to represent the anger of God– in recognition of the "crying sins of this nation." The government declared 19 January 1704 a day of fasting, saying it "loudly calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation of our people." It remained a frequent topic of moralizing in sermons well into the nineteenth century. Modern experts have rated it in the top five worst hurricanes (barometric readings, as taken by the Reverend William Derham, as low as 973 millibars). ever to strike southern England-loss of life was approximately 8000-largely from collapsed buildings and drowning. The hand of God having been involved, there was perhaps a culprit..Eddystone Lighthouse at Devon was destroyed. Its builder, Henry Winstanley, was in residence, completing additions to the structure. He had previously bragged that he wished he could be present for ‘the greatest storm that ever blew under the face of heaven’, to see his project withstand the storm. After the storm had abated, not even a stanchion of the lighthouse was left standing, and Winstanley’s body was never recovered...Be careful when tempting the Lord IMHO. Eddystone Lighthouse then...and #4 today http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/27november.htm

[Cybermat47]

783 – The Asturian queen Adosinda is put up in a monastery to prevent her kin from retaking the throne from Mauregatus.
1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynasty ships on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars.
1476 – Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Báthory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time.
1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui.
1784 – The Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States established.
1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
1805 – Official opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
1825 – At Union College in Schenectady, New York, a group of college students form the Kappa Alpha Society, the first college social fraternity.
1842 – The University of Notre Dame is founded.
1863 – United States President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26 as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November. (Since 1941, it has been on the fourth Thursday.)
1865 – Battle of Papudo: A Spanish navy schooner is defeated by a Chilean corvette north of Valparaíso, Chile.
1917 – The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.
1918 – The Montenegran Podgorica Assembly votes for a "union of the people", declaring assimilation into the Kingdom of Serbia.
1922 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.
1922 – The Toll of the Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor. (The Gulf Between was the first film to do so, but it was not widely distributed.)
1939 – Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Army orchestrates an incident which is used to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later.
1942 – World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
1943 – World War II: HMT Rohna is sunk by the Luftwaffe in an air attack in the Mediterranean north of Béjaïa, Algeria.
1944 – World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop on New Cross High Street in London, United Kingdom, killing 168 people.
1944 – World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.
1949 – The Constituent Assembly of India adopts the constitution presented by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
1950 – Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River and Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
1965 – In the Hammaguir launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1, on board.
1968 – Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire. He is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
1970 – In Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1.5 inches (38.1 mm) of rain fall in a minute, the heaviest rainfall ever recorded.
1977 – An unidentified hijacker named Vrillon, claiming to be the representative of the "Ashtar Galactic Command", takes over Britain's Southern Television for six minutes, starting at 5:12 pm.
1983 – Brink's-MAT robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are stolen from the Brink's-MAT vault at Heathrow Airport.
1986 – Iran–Contra affair: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.
1990 – The Delta II rocket makes its maiden flight.
1991 – National Assembly of Azerbaijan abolishes the autonomous status of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan and renames several cities back to their original names.
1998 – Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland.
2000 – George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida's electoral votes by Katherine Harris, going on to win the United States presidential election, despite losing in the national popular vote.
2003 – Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England.
2004 – Ruzhou School massacre: A man stabs and kills eight people and seriously wounds another four in a school dormitory in Ruzhou, China.
2004 – The last Poʻouli (Black-faced honeycreeper) dies of avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii, before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct.
2008 – Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba.
2011 – NATO attack in Pakistan: NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpost in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.

[Jimbuna]

1914 - Battleship HMS Bulwark explodes at Sheerness Harbour, England, 788 die.