November 18

Birthdays:

1968 ~ Owen Wilson, American actor.

1963 ~ Lennie Bias (né Leonard Kevin Bias, d. June 19, 1986), American basketball player.  He died at age 22 from a cocaine overdose two days after being selected to play for the Boston Celtics in the NBA Draft.

1939 ~ Margaret Atwood, Canadian novelist.

1924 ~ Lucien Le Cam (d. Apr. 25, 2000), French mathematician.  He died at age 75.

1923 ~ Alan Shepard (d. July 21, 1998), American pioneering astronaut.  He was the first American and second person to travel into space, although is initial flight was suborbital.  He was born in Derry, New Hampshire.  He died at age 74.

1923 ~ Ted Stevens (né Theodore Fulton Stevens, Sr. d. Aug. 9, 2010), American politician from Alaska, who was killed in a small plane crash.  He was 86 years old.  Sean O’Keefe was also a passenger in the plane, but he survived.

1908 ~ Imogene Coca (d. June 2, 2001), American actress.  She died at age 92.

1906 ~ George Wald (d. Apr. 12, 1997), American neurologist and recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.  He died at age 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1901 ~ George Gallup (d. July 26, 1984), American mathematician, statistician, and creator of the Gallup poll.  He died at age 82.

1897 ~ Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett (d. July 13, 1974), English physicist and recipient of the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 76.

1861 ~ Dorothy Dix (né Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, d. Dec. 16, 1951), American journalist.  She died a month after her 90^th birthday.

1836 ~ Sir W.S. Gilbert (né William Schwenck Gilbert, d. May 29, 1911), English dramatist and lyricist who worked with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan to create operettas, such as the Pirate of Penzance.  He died at age 74.

1810 ~ Asa Gray (d. Jan. 30, 1888), American botanist.  He died at age 77.

1787 ~ Louis-Jacques Daguerre (d. July 10, 1851), French physicist inventor of the daguerreotype, the forerunner of photography.  He died at age 63.

Events that Changed the World:

2014 ~ Two Palestinian terrorists armed with guns and meat cleavers entered a synagogue in Jerusalem during prayer and killed four rabbis and a police officer.  Several other worshippers were injured.

2014 ~ US Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

2003 ~ In Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

1999 ~ A bonfire at the Texas A&M University campus collapsed, killing 12 students and injuring many others.

1993 ~ The United States House of Representatives ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  The agreement would become effective on January 1, 1994.

1991 ~ Shi’ite Muslims kidnapped Terry Waite (b. 1939) and Thomas Sutherland (1931 ~ 2016), both members of the Anglican Church, in Lebanon.  Terry Waite had been kidnapped in 1987; Thomas Sutherland had been kidnapped in 1985.

1978 ~ Cult leader Jim Jones (1931 ~ 1978) convinced members of his Peoples Temple cult to drink poisoned Kool-Aid, leading to a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.  Of the over 900 who died, over 270 were children.  Only hours before the mass murder, members of the cult had killed California Congressman Leo Ryan (1925 ~ 1978)

1963 ~ The push-button telephone first became available to the public.

1961 ~ President John F. Kennedy (1917 ~ 1963) sent 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.

1938 ~ John L. Lewis (1880 ~ 1969) was elected as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

1929 ~ A 7.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean caused severe damage along the south coast of the Burin Peninsula and broke 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables.

1928 ~ Mickey Mouse, created by Walt Disney (1901 ~ 1966), first appeared on screen in the animated short film, Steamboat Willie.  This is that date considered to Mickey Mouse’s birthday.

1926 ~ George Bernard Shaw (1856 ~ 1950) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but refused to accept the monetary award.

1905 ~ Prince Carl of Denmark became King Haakon VII (1872 ~ 1957) of Norway.  He reigned as King from November 18, 1905 until his death at age 85 on September 21, 1957.

1903 ~ The United States and Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which granted the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

1883 ~ The American and Canadian railroads instituted five standard continental time zones in an effort to centralize rail schedules.

1878 ~ Suprano Marie Selika Williams (1849 ~ 1937) became the first Black artist to perform at the White House.  She sang for President Rutherford B. Hayes and his family.

1872 ~ Susan B. Anthony (1820 ~ 1906) and 14 other women were arrested for illegally voting in the 1872 United States presidential election.

1865 ~ Mark Twain’s short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was first published.  It appeared in the New York Saturday Press.

1626 ~ St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome was consecrated.

1421 ~ In an event known as Sint-Elisabethsvloed, or St. Elizabeth’s Flood, a seawall at the Zuiderzee dike in the Netherlands broke, killing about 10,000 people and flooding over 70 villages.

1307 ~ According to tradition, William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head.

1180 ~ Phillip II (1165 ~ 1223) became King of France.

1095 ~ Pope Urban II (1042 ~ 1099) called the Council of Clermont, which lead to the First Crusade (1096 ~ 1099).

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ Denton Cooley (b. Aug. 22, 1920), American heart surgeon.  He performed the first implantation of an artificial heart.  He was from  Houston, Texas.  He died at age 96.

2009 ~ Jeanne-Claude (née Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, b. June 13, 1935), Moroccan-born French artist.  She and her husband, Christo (né Christo Vladimirov Javacheff), were born on the same day.  They were both visual artists and created many environmental works of art throughout the world.  Christo is Bulgarian; Jeanne-Claude was born in Casablanca, Morocco of French parents.  Jeanne-Claude was the French artist who helped Christo wrap his work.  She died at age 74.

2002 ~ James Colburn (b. Aug. 31, 1928), American actor best known for his role in western films.  He died of a heart attack at age 74.

1994 ~ Cabell “Cab” Calloway, III (b. Dec. 25, 1907), American Jazz singer and bandleader.  He died at age 86.

1991 ~ Gusváv Husák (b. Jan. 10, 1913), 9^th President of Czechoslovakia.  He served in that office from May 1975 until December 1989.  He died at age 78.

1990 ~ Beatrice Shilling (b. Mar. 8, 1909), British engineer and motorcycle racer.  She invented the “Miss Shilling's orifice” which helped prevent engines flooding in fighter aircraft during World War I.  She died at age 81.

1978 ~ Leo Ryan (b. May 5, 1925), US Congressman from California.  He was assassinated at age 53 while on a political tour in Guyana by members of the People’s Temple.

1976 ~ Man Ray (né Emmanuel Radnitzky, b. Aug. 27, 1890), American photographer and artist.  He died at age 86.

1969 ~ Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (b. Sept. 6, 1888), American banker and diplomat and patriarch of the Kennedy clan.  He died at age 81.

1965 ~ Henry A. Wallace (b. Oct. 7, 1888), 33^rd Vice President of the United States.  He served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt second Vice President.  He served as Vice President from January 20, 1941 until January 20, 1945.  He had previously served as the 11^th Secretary of Agriculture from March 4, 1933 until September 4, 1940 during the Roosevelt administration.  After serving as Vice President, he became the 10^th Secretary of Commerce, under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.  He died at age 77.

1962 ~ Niels Bohr (b. Oct. 7, 1885), Danish physicist and recipient of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics.  In the 1930s, he aided refugees from Nazism.  He died at age 77.

1959 ~ Aleksandr Khinchin (b. July 19, 1894), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 65.

1941 ~ Walther Nernst (b. June 25, 1964), German chemist and physicist.  He was the recipient of the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 77.

1922 ~ Marcel Proust (né Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Proust, b. July 10, 1871), French writer.  He died at age 51.

1919 ~ Aldolf Hurwitz (b. Mar. 26, 1859), German mathematician.  He died at age 60.

1886 ~ Chester A. Arthur (b. Oct. 5, 1829), 21^st President of the United States.  He served as President from September 1881, following the assassination of James A Garfield, until March 1885.  Prior to becoming President, he was serving as the 20^th Vice President of the United States.  He was born in Fairfield, Vermont.  He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 57.