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8 October 1829 – Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials.

Rainhill trials

Locomotive motive power competition (1829)

The Rainhill trials was an important competition run from the 6 to 14 October 1829, to test George Stephenson's argument that locomotives would have the best motive power for the then nearly-completed Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR).^[1] Ten locomotives were entered, of which five were able to compete, running along a 1 mile (1.6 km) length of level track at Rainhill, in Lancashire (now Merseyside).

Stephenson's Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials, and was declared the winner. The directors of the L&MR accepted that locomotives should operate services on their new line, and George and Robert Stephenson were given the contract to produce locomotives for the railway.

1. ^ Cleveland-Stevens 1915, pp. 6–7.

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9 October 1701 – The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook.

Yale University

Private university in New Haven, Connecticut, US

"Yale" redirects here. For other uses, see Yale (disambiguation).

Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.^[10]

Yale was established as the Collegiate School in 1701 by Congregationalist clergy of the Connecticut Colony. Originally restricted to instructing ministers in theology and sacred languages, the school's curriculum expanded, incorporating humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century, the college expanded into graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first PhD in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale's faculty and student populations grew rapidly after 1890 due to the expansion of the physical campus and its scientific research programs.

Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools, including the original undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Yale Law School.^[11] While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each school's faculty oversees its curriculum and degree programs. In addition to a central campus in downtown New Haven, the university owns athletic facilities in western New Haven, a campus in West Haven, and forests and nature preserves throughout New England. As of 2023^[update], the university's endowment was valued at $40.7 billion, the third largest of any educational institution.^[4] The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States.^[12][13] Student athletes compete in intercollegiate sports as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference.

As of October 2020^[update], 65 Nobel laureates, 5 Fields medalists, 4 Abel Prize laureates, and 3 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with Yale University. In addition, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including 5 U.S. presidents, 10 Founding Fathers, 19 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 31 living billionaires,^[14] 54 college founders and presidents, many heads of state, cabinet members and governors. Hundreds of members of Congress and many U.S. diplomats, 96 MacArthur Fellows,^[15] 263 Rhodes Scholars,^[16] 123 Marshall Scholars, 81 Gates Cambridge Scholars, 102 Guggenheim Fellows and 9 Mitchell Scholars have been affiliated with the university. Yale's current faculty include 67 members of the National Academy of Sciences,^[17] 55 members of the National Academy of Medicine,^[18] 8 members of the National Academy of Engineering,^[19] and 193 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[20]

1. ^ This is established usage, although John Sandys argued that Universitas Yaleana would be the correct form, see: John Sandys (1910). Orationes et epistolae cantabrigienses (1876-1909). p. viii.; Gilbert Campbell Scoggis (1920). "General Comment". The Classical Journal. 15: 505.
2. ^ Records of The Tercentenary Festival of Dublin University. Dublin, Ireland: Hodges, Figgis & Co. 1894. ISBN 9781355361602.
3. ^ Actes du Jubilé de 1909 (in Swiss French). Geneva, Switzerland: Georg Keck & Cie. 1910. ISBN 9781360078335.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Yale reports investment return for fiscal 2024". news.yale.edu. October 25, 2024. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
5. ^ "Maurie McInnis, B.A., '90 M.A., '96 Ph.D." www.yale.edu. July 1, 2024. Archived from the original on July 1, 2024. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
6. ^ "Scott Strobel named Yale provost". YaleNews. Yale University. November 6, 2019. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
7. ^ "Yale Facts "By the Numbers"". yale.edu. Yale University. August 3, 2015. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2024.
8. ^ ^{a b c} University, Yale (2024). "Yale Facts". Retrieved August 11, 2024.
9. ^ "Web". yaleidentity.yale.edu. Yale University. Archived from the original on April 20, 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
10. ^ "COLLEGES IN THE COLONIAL TIMES". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
11. ^ "Graduate & Professional Schools | Yale 2021". yale2021.yale.edu. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
12. ^ Gibbons, Susan (2013). Yale University Library Annual Report 2012–2013 (Report). Yale University Library. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
13. ^ "ALA Library Fact Sheet 22 – The Nation's Largest Libraries: A Listing by Volumes Held". www.ala.org. American Library Association. July 2010. Archived from the original on June 19, 2010. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
14. ^ Elkins, Kathleen (May 18, 2018). "More billionaires went to Harvard than to Stanford, MIT and Yale combined". CNBC.com. CNBC. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
15. ^ "All Fellows - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
16. ^ "U.S. Rhodes Scholarships Number of Winners by Institution U.S. Rhodes Scholars 1904 – 2023" (PDF). 2023. Retrieved November 12, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
17. ^ Cite error: The named reference National Academy of Sciences was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
18. ^ "Directory Search Form". National Academy of Medicine. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
19. ^ Cite error: The named reference NAE Website was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. ^ "Member Directory". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved November 12, 2024.

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10 October 1913 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, completing major construction on the Panama Canal.

Panama Canal

Shipping route across Central America

The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82-kilometer (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, cutting across the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade. Locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial fresh water lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created by damming up the Chagres River and Lake Alajuela to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal. Locks then lower the ships at the other end. An average of 200,000,000 L (52,000,000 US gal) of fresh water is used in a single passing of a ship. The canal is threatened by low water levels during droughts.

The Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage, the Strait of Magellan or the Beagle Channel. It is one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken.

Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of lack of investors' confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The US took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal in 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama in 1977. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the Panamanian government took control in 1999. It is now managed and operated by the Panamanian government-owned Panama Canal Authority.

The original locks are 33.5 meters (110 ft) wide and allow the passage of Panamax ships. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded waterway began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, Neopanamax ships.

Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal.^[1] In 2017, it took ships an average of 11.38 hours to pass between the canal's two outer locks. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.^[2]

1. ^ "Panama Canal Traffic—Years 1914–2010". Panama Canal Authority. Archived from the original on 30 December 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
2. ^ "Seven Wonders". American Society of Civil Engineers. Archived from the original on 2 August 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2011.

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11 October 1865 – Hundreds of black men and women march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.

Morant Bay rebellion

1865 protest in Jamaica

The Morant Bay Rebellion (11 October 1865) began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people led by preacher Paul Bogle in Morant Bay, Jamaica. Some were armed with sticks and stones. After seven men were shot and killed by the volunteer militia, the protesters attacked and burned the courthouse and nearby buildings. Twenty-five people died. Over the next two days, poor freedmen rose in rebellion across most of St. Thomas-in-the-East parish.^[1]

The Jamaicans were protesting against injustice and widespread poverty. Most freedmen were prevented from voting by high poll taxes, and their living conditions had worsened following crop damage by floods, cholera and smallpox epidemics, and a long drought. A few days before the march, when police tried to arrest a man for disrupting a trial, a fight broke out against them by spectators. Officials then issued a warrant for the arrest of preacher Bogle, who had called for reforms, and was charged with inciting to riot.

Governor Edward John Eyre declared martial law in the area, ordering in troops to hunt down the rebels. They killed many black individuals with an initial death toll of more than 400. Troops arrested more than 300 persons, including Bogle. Many of these were also innocent but were quickly tried and executed under martial law; both men and women were punished by whipping and long sentences. This was the most severe suppression of unrest in the history of the British West Indies.^[2] The governor had George William Gordon, a mixed-race representative of the parish in the House of Assembly, arrested in Kingston and brought back to Morant Bay, where he tried the politician under martial law. Gordon was quickly convicted and executed.

The violent suppression and numerous executions generated a fierce debate in England, with some protesting about the unconstitutional actions of the governor John Eyre, and others praising him for his response to a crisis. The rebellion and its suppression remain controversial, and it is frequently discussed by specialists in black and colonial studies.

1. ^ Heuman, Gad J. (1994). 'The Killing Time': The Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-87049-852-7.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference hutton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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12 October 1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.

White House

Official residence and workplace of the US president

"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" redirects here. For other uses, see 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (disambiguation) and White House (disambiguation).

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia.^[2] The "White House" is also used as a metonym to refer to the Executive Office of the President of the United States.^[3]

The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style.^[4] Hoban modeled the building on Leinster House in Dublin, a building which today houses the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature. Constructed between 1792 and 1800, its exterior walls are Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing to conceal what then were stables and storage.^[5] In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by British forces in the burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semicircular South Portico in 1824 and the North Portico in 1829.

Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, which was eventually moved and expanded. In the Executive Residence, the third floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. The East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the residence's load-bearing walls and wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame was constructed inside the walls. On the exterior, the Truman Balcony was added. Once the structural work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.

The present-day White House complex includes the Executive Residence, the West Wing, the East Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which previously served the State Department and other departments (it now houses additional offices for the president's staff and the vice president), and Blair House, a guest residence. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories: the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, and a two-story basement. The property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President's Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of America's Favorite Architecture.^[6]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference jYAHg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ "White House History". clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
3. ^ N/A, Michael (July 7, 2023). "White House vs Capitol Building: What is the Difference?". Newspire. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference TSGjH was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference bwDpG was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference 1AvjX was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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13 October 1307 – Hundreds of the Knights Templar in France are arrested at dawn by King Philip the Fair, and later confess under torture to heresy.

Knights Templar

Catholic military order, c. 1119 to 1312

See also: Knights Templar (disambiguation) and Templar (disambiguation)

Military unit

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a French military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the wealthiest and most popular military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded c. 1119 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, with their headquarters located there on the Temple Mount, and existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages.

Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church by such decrees as the papal bull Omne datum optimum of Pope Innocent II, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. The Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. They were prominent in Christian finance; non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members,^[1][2] managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom.^[3] They developed innovative financial techniques that were an early form of banking,^[4][5] building a network of nearly 1,000 commanderies and fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.^[6]

The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades. As they became unable to secure their holdings in the Holy Land, support for the order faded.^[7] Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the order, turned this distrust to his own advantage. In 1307, he pressured Pope Clement V to have many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake.^[8] Under further pressure, Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312.^[9] The abrupt disappearance of a major medieval European institution gave rise to speculation and legends, which have currently kept the "Templar" name alive.

1. ^ ^{a b} Burman 1990, p. 45.
2. ^ ^{a b} Barber 1992, pp. 314–26

   By Molay's time the Grand Master was presiding over at least 970 houses, including commanderies and castles in the east and west, serviced by a membership which is unlikely to have been less than 7,000, excluding employees and dependents, who must have been seven or eight times that number.

3. ^ Selwood, Dominic (2002). Knights of the Cloister. Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania 1100–1300. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-828-0.
4. ^ Martin 2005, p. 47.
5. ^ Nicholson 2001, p. 4.
6. ^ Barber 1994.
7. ^ Miller, Duane (2017). 'Knights Templar' in War and Religion, Vol. 2. Santa Barbara, California: ABC–CLIO. pp. 462–64. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
8. ^ Barber 1993.
9. ^ Barber, Malcolm (1995). The new knighthood : a history of the Order of the Temple (Canto ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. xxi–xxii. ISBN 978-0-521-55872-3.

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14 October 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I of England

Mary, Queen of Scots

Queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567

For other people called Mary, Queen of Scots, see Mary, Queen of Scots (disambiguation).

Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart^[3] or Mary I of Scotland,^[4] was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.

The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she inherited the throne. During her childhood, Scotland was governed by regents, first by the heir to the throne, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and then by her mother, Mary of Guise. In 1548, she was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin of France, and was sent to be brought up in France, where she would be safe from invading English forces during the Rough Wooing. Mary married Francis in 1558, becoming queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland in August 1561. The tense religious and political climate following the Scottish Reformation that Mary encountered on her return to Scotland was further agitated by prominent Scots such as John Knox, who openly questioned whether her subjects had a duty to obey her. The early years of her personal rule were marked by pragmatism, tolerance, and moderation. She issued a proclamation accepting the religious settlement in Scotland as she had found it upon her return, retained advisers such as James Stewart, Earl of Moray (her illegitimate half-brother), and William Maitland of Lethington, and governed as the Catholic monarch of a Protestant kingdom.

Mary married her half-cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in 1565, and in 1566 she bore him a son James. But their marriage soured after Darnley orchestrated the murder of Mary's Italian secretary and close friend David Rizzio. In February 1567, Darnley's residence was destroyed by an explosion, and he was found murdered in the nearby garden. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was acquitted of the charge in April 1567 and in the following month he married Mary. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. On 24 July 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son James VI. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southward seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Elizabeth I of England.

As a great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England, Mary had once claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving Mary as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen-and-a-half years in captivity, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586 and was beheaded the following year at Fotheringhay Castle. Mary's life and execution established her in popular culture as a romanticised historical character.

1. ^ Bishop John Lesley said Mary was born on the 7th, but Mary and John Knox claimed the 8th, which was the feast day of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (Fraser 1994, p. 13; Wormald 1988, p. 11).
2. ^ While Catholic Europe switched to the New Style Gregorian calendar in the 1580s, England and Scotland retained the Old Style Julian calendar until 1752. In this article, dates before 1752 are Old Style, with the exception that years are assumed to start on 1 January rather than 25 March.
3. ^ Also spelled as Marie and as Steuart or Stewart
4. ^ "National Records of Scotland; Hall of Fame A-Z – Mary Queen of Scots". NRS. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2022.

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15 October 1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.

General Electric

American multinational conglomerate (1892–2024)

"GE" redirects here. For other uses, see GE (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with the legal successor to General Electric, GE Aerospace, or the former British General Electric Company (GEC).

General Electric Company (GE) was an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the state of New York and headquartered in Boston. The company had several divisions, including aerospace, energy, healthcare, and finance.^{[7][8][9][10]}

In 2020, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue.^[11] In 2023, the company was ranked 64th in the Forbes Global 2000.^[12] In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 20 as the 14th most profitable company, but later very severely underperformed the market (by about 75%) as its profitability collapsed.^[13][14][15] Two employees of GE—Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973)—have been awarded the Nobel Prize.^[16]

Following the Great Recession of the late 2000s decade, General Electric began selling off various divisions and assets, including its appliances and financial capital divisions, under Jeff Immelt's leadership as CEO. John Flannery, Immelt's replacement in 2017, further divested General Electric's assets in locomotives and lighting in order to focus the company more on aviation. After restrictions on air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic caused General Electric's revenue to fall significantly in 2020, GE's final CEO Larry Culp^[17] announced in November 2021 that General Electric was to be broken up into three separate, public companies—GE Aerospace, GE HealthCare, and GE Vernova—by 2024. The new companies are respectively focused on aerospace, healthcare, and energy.^[18] GE HealthCare's spin-off was finalized on January 4, 2023. This was followed by the spin-off of GE's portfolio of energy businesses on April 2, 2024, into GE Vernova. Following these transactions, General Electric changed its trading name to GE Aerospace, pivoted to aviation, and ceased to exist as a conglomerate.^[17]

1. ^ Hall, Peter D. (1984). The Organization of American Culture, 1700–1900: Private Institutions, Elites, and the Origins of American Nationality. New York University Press. p. 237. ISBN 0-8147-3425-1. After mustering out, Henry Lee Higginson gave up his ambitions to become a musician and went into cotton farming and oil prospecting; by 1868, he was a partner in the family investment banking firm, Lee, Higginson & Company. As an entrepreneur, he became one of the most active and innovative organizers of national scale enterprise, ranging from western railroads and copper mines through the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, General Electric and General Motors.
2. ^ Strouse, Jean (2014) [1999]. Morgan: American Financier. Random House Trade Paperbacks. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-8129-8704-1. ...When [Charles] Coffin's banker, Henry Lee Higginson suggested a merger early in 1891, J.P. Morgan wrote back, 'The Edison system affords us all the use of time and capital that I think desirable to use in one channel. If, as would seem to be the case, you have the control of the Thomson-Houston, we will see which will make the best result. I do not see myself how the two things can be brought together.'[¶] A year later, [Morgan] had changed his mind—perhaps because Thomson-Houston was winning the marketplace war ... Morgan wrote to Higginson's associate T. Jefferson Coolidge in March of 1892: 'I entirely agree with you that it is desirable to bring about closer management between the two companies.'[¶] Morgan told Coolidge in March that [Henry] Villard's resignation would take effect on April 1, and urged that Coffin 'be then elected President of the Edison General Electric Company.' When the new firm was chartered in New York on April 1, 1892, however, with Coffin as its president, it was not called Edison General but General Electric. [¶] Each Edison share was converted into one share in the new company, while three Thomson-Houston shares brought five in GE. The bankers capitalized the consolidation at $50 million: $15 million went to the Edison stockholders, $18 million to Thomson-Houston's, and $17 million (in stock) into the GE treasury ... Morgan and Coster took seats on the GE board, as did Higginson, Coolidge and Edison...
3. ^ Carlson 1991, pp. 294–296.
4. ^ Carlson 1991, pp. 294–295.
5. ^ Carlson 1991, p. 296.
6. ^ General Electric Company, Form 10-K (Annual Report) (Report). US Securities and Exchange Commission. February 2, 2024. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
7. ^ Wragg, David W. (1973). A Dictionary of Aviation (first ed.). Osprey. p. 142. ISBN 9780850451634.
8. ^ Egan, Matt (June 13, 2018). "Inside the dismantling of GE". CNN Money. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018.
9. ^ "2017 Annual Report SEC Form 10-K Summary of Operating Segments" (PDF). GE. p. 26. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
10. ^ Chesto, Jon (August 2, 2021). "GE stock is now trading at $100 but the company's turnaround efforts still have a ways to go". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
11. ^ "Fortune 500". Fortune. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
12. ^ "The Global 2000 2023". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 29, 2024. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
13. ^ Thomas Gryta; Tedd Mann (December 14, 2018). "GE Powered the American Century – Then It Burned Out". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on August 10, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
14. ^ "What the Hell Happened at GE?". Fortune. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
15. ^ "Fortune 20 most profitable companies: IBM". Fortune. 2011. Archived from the original on May 8, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
16. ^ "Heritage of Research". General Electric. Archived from the original on August 10, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
17. ^ ^{a b} Chesto, Jon (April 1, 2024). "GE's long life as giant industrial conglomerate enters new era, as company splits up on Tuesday". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on April 1, 2024.
18. ^ Mazein, Elodie (April 1, 2024). "Swan song for General Electric as it completes demerger". AFP. Archived from the original on April 2, 2024 – via Yahoo! News. The official finalization of the separation comes Tuesday, with General Electric disappearing in favor of GE Vernova, dealing with energy activities, and GE Aerospace, the new name of the late GE.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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16 October 1847 – The novel Jane Eyre is published in London

Jane Eyre

1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë

This article is about the novel. For its title character, see Jane Eyre (character). For other uses, see Jane Eyre (disambiguation).

Jane Eyre (/ɛər/ AIR; originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York.^[2] Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.^[3]

The novel revolutionised prose fiction, being the first to focus on the moral and spiritual development of its protagonist through an intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events are coloured by a psychological intensity. Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of the private consciousness" and the literary ancestor of writers such as Marcel Proust and James Joyce.^[4]

The book contains elements of social criticism with a strong sense of Christian morality at its core, and it is considered by many to be ahead of its time because of Jane's individualistic character and how the novel approaches the topics of class, sexuality, religion and feminism.^[5][6] Jane Eyre, along with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is one of the most famous romance novels.^[7] It is considered one of the greatest novels in the English language,^[8] and in 2003 was ranked as the tenth best-loved book in Britain by the BBC in The Big Read poll.

1. ^ "On Tuesday next will be published, and may be had at all the libraries, Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. Edited by Currer Bell. 3 vols, post 8vo. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill". Daily News. 13 October 1847. p. 1.
2. ^ "The HarperCollins Timeline". HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
3. ^ Lollar, Cortney. "Jane Eyre: A Bildungsroman". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
4. ^ Burt, Daniel S. (2008). The Literature 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438127064.
5. ^ Gilbert, Sandra; Gubar, Susan (1979). The Madwoman in the Attic. Yale University Press.
6. ^ Martin, Robert B. (1966). Charlotte Brontë's Novels: The Accents of Persuasion. New York: Norton.
7. ^ Roberts, Timothy (2011). Jane Eyre. p. 8.
8. ^ "The 100 best novels written in English: the full list". The Guardian. 17 August 2015.

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17 October 1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood.

London Beer Flood

1814 brewery disaster in London

The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, London, on 17 October 1814. It took place when one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst. The escaping liquid dislodged the valve of another vessel and destroyed several large barrels: between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons (580,000–1,470,000 L; 154,000–388,000 US gal) of beer were released in total.

The resulting wave of porter destroyed the back wall of the brewery and swept into an area of slum dwellings known as the St Giles rookery. Eight people were killed, five of them mourners at the wake being held by an Irish family for a two-year-old boy. The coroner's inquest returned a verdict that the eight had lost their lives "casually, accidentally and by misfortune".^[1] The brewery was nearly bankrupted by the event; it avoided collapse after a rebate from HM Excise on the lost beer. The brewing industry gradually stopped using large wooden vats after the accident. The brewery moved in 1921, and the Dominion Theatre is now where the brewery used to stand. Meux & Co went into liquidation in 1961.

1. ^ "Dreadful Accident at H Meux & Co's Brewhouse". The Times.

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18 October 1081 – The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.

Battle of Dyrrhachium (1081)

Part of the First Norman invasion of the Balkans

The Battle of Dyrrhachium took place on October 18, 1081 between the Byzantine Empire, led by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), and the Normans of southern Italy under Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria. The battle was fought outside the city of Dyrrhachium (present-day Durrës in Albania), the major Byzantine stronghold in the western Balkans, and ended in a Norman victory.

Following the Norman conquest of Byzantine Italy and Saracen Sicily, the Byzantine emperor, Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078), betrothed his son to Robert Guiscard's daughter. When Michael was deposed, Robert took this as an excuse to invade the Byzantine Empire in 1081. His army laid siege to Dyrrhachium, but his fleet was defeated by the Venetians. On October 18, the Normans engaged a Byzantine army under Alexios I Komnenos outside Dyrrhachium. The battle began with the Byzantine right wing routing the Norman left wing, which broke and fled. Varangian mercenaries joined in the pursuit of the fleeing Normans, but became separated from the main force and were massacred. Norman knights in the centre attacked the Byzantine centre and routed it, causing the bulk of the Byzantine army to rout.

After this victory, the Normans took Dyrrhachium in February 1082 and advanced inland, capturing most of Macedonia and Thessaly. Robert was then forced to leave Greece to deal with an attack on his ally, the Pope, by the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV (r. 1084–1105). Robert left his son Bohemond in charge of the army in Greece. Bohemond was initially successful, defeating Alexios in several battles, but was defeated by Alexios outside Larissa in 1083. Forced to retreat to Italy, Bohemond lost all the territory gained by the Normans in the campaign. The Byzantine recovery began the Komnenian restoration.

1. ^ Haldon 2001, p. 134.
2. ^ Birkenmeier 2002, p. 62.
3. ^ France, p. 128
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Haldon137 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Norwich 1995, p. 20; Treadgold 1997, p. 614.

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19 October 1950 – Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.

Point Four Program

Foreign aid program established by U.S. President Harry Truman in 1949

The Point Four Program was a technical assistance program for "developing countries" announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address on January 20, 1949. It took its name from the fact that it was the fourth foreign policy objective mentioned in the speech.

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20 October 1910 – British ocean liner RMS Olympic is launched

RMS Olympic

British transatlantic liner (1911–1935)

RMS Olympic was a British ocean liner and the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Olympic had a career spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935, in contrast to her short-lived sister ships, Titanic and Britannic. This included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable", and during which she rammed and sank the U-boat U-103. She returned to civilian service after the war, and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable. Olympic was withdrawn from service and sold for scrap on 12 April 1935 which was completed in 1937.

Olympic was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1910–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger Titanic, which had the same dimensions but higher gross register tonnage, before the German SS Imperator went into service in June 1913. Olympic also held the title of the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of Titanic and Britannic.^[5][6] The other two ships in the class had short service lives: in 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank in the North Atlantic; Britannic never operated in her intended role as a passenger ship, instead serving as a hospital ship during the First World War until she hit a mine and sank in the Aegean Sea in 1916.

1. ^ Chirnside 2015, p. 34.
2. ^ Chirnside 2004, pp. 43–44.
3. ^ Chirnside 2015, p. 39.
4. ^ Chirnside 2015, p. 246.
5. ^ Chirnside, Mark, RMS Olympic Specification File (November 2007)
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference thegreatoceanliners was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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21 October 1959 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Art museum in Manhattan, New York

"The Guggenheim" redirects here. For other Guggenheim Museums, see List of Guggenheim Museums.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. It was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, under the guidance of its first director, Hilla von Rebay. The museum adopted its current name in 1952, three years after the death of its founder Solomon R. Guggenheim. It continues to be operated and owned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

The museum's building, a landmark work of 20th-century architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, drew controversy for the unusual shape of its display spaces and took 15 years to design and build; it was completed in 1959. It consists of a six-story, bowl-shaped main gallery to the south, a four-story "monitor" to the north, and a ten-story annex to the northeast. A six-story helical ramp extends along the main gallery's perimeter, under a central ceiling skylight. The Thannhauser Collection is housed within the top three stories of the monitor, and there are additional galleries in the annex and a learning center in the basement. The museum building's design was controversial when it was completed but was widely praised afterward. The building underwent extensive renovations from 1990 to 1992, when the annex was built, and it was renovated again from 2005 to 2008.

The museum's collection has grown over the decades and is founded upon several important private collections, including those of Guggenheim, Karl Nierendorf, Katherine Sophie Dreier, Justin Thannhauser, Rebay, Giuseppe Panza, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the Bohen Foundation. The collection, which includes around 8,000 works as of 2022^[update], is shared with sister museums in Bilbao, Spain, and Venice, Italy. In 2023, nearly 861,000 people visited the museum.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Angeleti, Gabriella (March 26, 2024). "US museums blame falling visitor numbers for staff redundancies". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
2. ^ ^{a b} "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference NHL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ ^{a b} "Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. November 7, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
5. ^ "The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. August 14, 1990. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
6. ^ "The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: Interior" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. August 14, 1990. Retrieved June 18, 2019.

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22 October 1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.

 

23 October 1157 – The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the Danish Civil War.

Battle of Grathe Heath

1157 final battle of the Danish Civil War

The Battle of Grathe Heath was fought in 1157 between the Danish armies of Valdemar I and his rival for the Danish throne, Sweyn III. Valdemar's forces won the battle, and Sweyn III was slain while attempting to flee.^[1]

1. ^ Benham, J. E. M (15 June 2021). Peacemaking in the Middle Ages; Principles and Practice. England: Manchester University Press. p. 16. ISBN 9781526162724.

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24 October 1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel

Annie Edson Taylor

American schoolteacher and daredevil (1838–1921)

For other people called Annie Taylor, see Annie Taylor.

Annie Edson Taylor (October 24, 1838 – April 29, 1921) was an American schoolteacher who, on her 63rd birthday, October 24, 1901, became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.^[1] Her motives were financial but she never made much money from her adventure. She died penniless and her funeral was paid for by public donations.

1. ^ Niagara Falls Live Archived July 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

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25 October 1983 – The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état.

United States invasion of Grenada

1983 hostage rescue of American students in Grenada by the United States

"Invasion of Grenada" redirects here. For the 1779 French invasion, see Capture of Grenada (1779).

The United States and a coalition of six Caribbean countries invaded the small island nation of Grenada, 100 miles (160 km) north of Venezuela, at dawn on 25 October 1983. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in military occupation within a few days.^[8] It was triggered by strife within the People's Revolutionary Government, which led to the house arrest and execution of the previous leader and second Prime Minister of Grenada, Maurice Bishop, and to the establishment of the Revolutionary Military Council, with Hudson Austin as chairman. Following the invasion there was an interim government appointed, and then general elections held in December 1984.

The invading force consisted of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, the 82nd Airborne Division, and elements of the former Rapid Deployment Force, U.S. Marines, U.S. Army Delta Force, Navy SEALs, and a small group Air Force TACPs from the 21st TASS Shaw AFB ancillary forces, totaling 7,600 troops, together with Jamaican forces and troops of the Regional Security System (RSS).^[9] The invaders quickly defeated Grenadian resistance after a low-altitude assault by the Rangers and 82nd Airborne at Point Salines Airport on the island's south end, and a Marine helicopter and amphibious landing at Pearls Airport on the north end. Austin's military government was deposed. An advisory council designated Sir Paul Scoon as Governor-General of Grenada until the 1984 elections.

The invasion date of 25 October is now a national holiday in Grenada, called Thanksgiving Day, commemorating the freeing of several political prisoners who were subsequently elected to office. A truth and reconciliation commission was launched in 2000 to re-examine some of the controversies of that tumultuous period in the 1980s; in particular, the commission made an unsuccessful attempt to locate the remains of Maurice Bishop's body, which had been disposed of at Austin's order and never found.^[10]

At the time, the invasion drew criticism from many countries. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher privately disapproved of the mission, in part because she was not consulted in advance and was given very short notice of the military operation, but she supported it in public.^[11] The United Nations General Assembly condemned it as "a flagrant violation of international law" on 2 November 1983, by a vote of 108 to 9.^[12]

The invasion exposed communication and coordination problems between the different branches of the U.S. military when operating together as a joint force. This triggered post-action investigations resulting in sweeping operational changes in the form of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act.^[13]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Cole, Ronald H. (1997). "Operation Urgent Fury: The Planning and Execution of Joint Operations in Grenada" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2011.
2. ^ "Medals Outnumber G.I.'s in Grenada Assault". The New York Times. 30 March 1984. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). McFarland. p. 645. ISBN 978-0786474707.
4. ^ "Study Faults U.S. Military Tactics in Grenada Invasion". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
5. ^ "The Invasion of Grenada". PBS.org. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
6. ^ Russell, Lee; Mendez, Albert (2012). Grenada 1983. London: Osprey Publishing. p. 45.
7. ^ "Soldiers During the Invasion of Grenada". CardCow Vintage Postcards. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
8. ^ Kukielski, Phil (8 September 2013). "How Grenada reshaped the US military". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
9. ^ "Caribbean Islands – A Regional Security System". country-data.com. Archived from the original on 26 April 2017.
10. ^ Powers, Martine; Muldoon, Ted; Svirnovskiy, Rennie (8 December 2023). "U.S. may hold key to finding remains of Grenada's prime minister". The Washington Post.
11. ^ Moore, Charles (2016). Margaret Thatcher: At Her Zenith. p. 130.
12. ^ "United Nations General Assembly resolution 38/7". United Nations. 2 November 1983. Archived from the original on 19 December 2000. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
13. ^ Kukielski, Philip (2019). The U.S. Invasion of Grenada: Legacy of a Flawed Victory. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 213–214. ISBN 978-1-47667-879-5. OCLC 1123182247.

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26 October 1881 – Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday participate in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

1881 shootout in Tombstone, Arizona, United States

For the film, see Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film).

"O.K. Corral" redirects here. For the location, see O.K. Corral (building).

"The OK Corral" redirects here. For the Doctor Who episode, see The Gunfighters.

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral pitted lawmen against members of a loosely organized group of cattle rustlers and horse thieves called the Cowboys on October 26, 1881. While lasting less than a minute, the gunfight has been the subject of books and films into the 21st century. Taking place in the town of Tombstone in Arizona Territory, the battle has become one archetype of the American Old West. The gunfight was the result of a long-simmering feud between five outlaws (including two sets of brothers) and four representatives of the law, including three brothers. The trigger for the event was the local marshal's decision to enforce a city ordinance that prohibited the carrying of weapons into town. To enforce that ordinance, the lawmen would have to disarm the Cowboys.

Among the lawmen were three brothers, Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp, as well as Wyatt’s close friend Doc Holliday. As Deputy U.S. Marshal and Town Marshal, Virgil was in charge, and it was his decision to enforce the ordinance that led to the shoot out. His two brothers and Doc Holliday were temporary assistant marshals.^[1][2][3]

The Cowboys were a loosely-connected group of outlaws. In Tombstone at the time of the gunfight were five members of the Cowboys: Billy Claiborne, brothers Ike and Billy Clanton, and brothers Tom and Frank McLaury.

During that brief battle, three men were killed, three were wounded, two ran away, and one fought but was unharmed.

The gunfight was not widely known until two years after Wyatt Earp's death, when Stuart Lake published his 1931 Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal.^[4] The book was the basis for the 1939 film Frontier Marshal, with Randolph Scott and Cesar Romero, the 1946 film My Darling Clementine, directed by John Ford,^[4] and the 1957 film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, after which the shootout became known by that name. Since then, the conflict has been portrayed with varying degrees of accuracy in numerous Western films and books, and has become an archetype for much of the popular imagery associated with the Old West.

Despite its name, the gunfight did not take place within or next to the O.K. Corral, which fronted Allen Street and had a rear entrance lined with horse stalls on Fremont Street. The shootout actually took place in a narrow lot on the side of C. S. Fly's photography studio on Fremont Street, six doors west of the O.K. Corral's rear entrance. Some members of the two opposing parties were initially only about 6 feet (1.8 m) apart. About thirty shots were fired in thirty seconds.^[5] Ike Clanton subsequently filed murder charges against the Earps and Holliday. After a thirty-day preliminary hearing and a brief stint in jail, the defendants were shown to have acted lawfully.

The gunfight was not the end of the conflict. On December 28, 1881, Virgil was ambushed and maimed in a murder attempt by the Cowboys. On March 18, 1882, a Cowboy fired from a dark alley through the glass door of Campbell & Hatch's saloon and billiard parlor, killing Morgan. The suspects in both incidents furnished alibis supplied by other Cowboys and were not indicted. Wyatt, newly appointed as Deputy U.S. Marshal in Cochise County, then took matters into his own hands in a personal vendetta. He was pursued by county sheriff Johnny Behan, who had received a warrant from Tucson for Wyatt's killing of Frank Stilwell.

1. ^ Correa, Tom (November 27, 2012). "Gunfight at the OK Corral – The Aftermath – Part One". Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 16, 2015.
2. ^ "Virgil Earp: In a Brother's Shadow". HistoryNet. March 23, 2018.
3. ^ "This Civil War vet was the real hero of the O.K. Corral shootout". May 18, 2020.
4. ^ ^{a b} Goodman, Michael (2005). Wyatt Earp. The Creative Company. p. 95. ISBN 1583413391. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016.
5. ^ "Shootout at the OK Corral". History Channel. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2016.

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27 October 312 – Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.

Battle of the Milvian Bridge

312 AD battle in the Civil Wars of the Tetrarchy

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on 28 October AD 312. It takes its name from the Milvian Bridge, an important route over the Tiber. Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy and become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the battle; his body was later taken from the river and decapitated, and his head was paraded through the streets of Rome on the day following the battle before being taken to Africa.^[2]

According to Christian chroniclers Eusebius of Caesarea and Lactantius, the battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Eusebius of Caesarea recounts that Constantine and his soldiers had a vision sent by the Christian God. This was interpreted as a promise of victory if the sign of the Chi Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, was painted on the soldiers' shields. The Arch of Constantine, erected in celebration of the victory, certainly attributes Constantine's success to divine intervention; however, the monument does not display any overtly Christian symbolism.

1. ^ ^{a b} Cowen, p. 77
2. ^ Kristensen, Troels Myrup. "Maxentius' Head and the Rituals of Civil War". p. 326. Retrieved 28 October 2017.

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28 October 1420 – Beijing is officially designated the capital of the Ming dynasty when the Forbidden City is completed.

Forbidden City

Imperial palace complex in Beijing, China

"The Forbidden City" redirects here. For the film by this name, see The Forbidden City (film). For other uses, see Forbidden City (disambiguation).

"Gugong" redirects here. For other uses, see Gugong (disambiguation).

The Forbidden City (Chinese: 紫禁城; pinyin: Zǐjìnchéng) is the imperial palace complex in the center of the Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming and Qing dynasty Emperors, and the center of political power in China for over 500 years from 1420 to 1924. The palace is now administered by the Palace Museum. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. The Forbidden City is arguably the most famous palace in all of Chinese history, and is the largest preserved royal palace complex still standing in the world.

The Forbidden City was constructed from 1406 to 1420, and was the imperial palace and winter residence of the Emperor of China from the Ming dynasty (since the Yongle Emperor) to the end of the Qing dynasty, between 1420 and 1924. The Forbidden City served as the home of Chinese emperors and their households and was the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government for over 500 years. Since 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts was built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.^[2]

The complex claims to consist of 9,999 rooms in total, although experts have shown in recent years that the number only amounts to 8,886,^[3] covering 72 ha (720,000 m²)/178-acre.^[4][5] The palace exemplifies the opulence of the residences of the Chinese emperor and the traditional Chinese palatial architecture,^[2] and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. It is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Since 2012, the Forbidden City has seen an average of 14 million visitors annually, and received more than 19 million visitors in 2019.^[6] In 2018, the Forbidden City's market value was estimated at US$70 billion, making it both the world's most valuable palace and the most valuable piece of real estate anywhere in the world.^[7]

It was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics in 1961.^[8] The palace is extremely important to the Chinese public and nation, who often view it as a cultural and heavenly link to their ancestors.

1. ^ 故宫2017年接待观众逾1699万人次 创历史新纪录 (in Chinese). 31 December 2017. Archived from the original on 25 March 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
2. ^ ^{a b} "UNESCO World Heritage List: Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 5 May 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Oakland was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Lu, Yongxiang (2014). A History of Chinese Science and Technology, Volume 3. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-3-662-44163-3.
5. ^ "Advisory Body Evaluation (1987)" (PDF). UNESCO. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 November 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
6. ^ "1900万！故宫年客流量创新高-新华网". www.xinhuanet.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
7. ^ "How much the world's most valuable palaces are worth". MSN.com. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2020. Forbidden City, China – $69.66 billion+ (£54bn+). The crown jewel of Beijing, the Forbidden City was the residence of the Chinese emperors and the locus of government from 1420 to 1912. Now a museum, the complex was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
8. ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2021.

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29 October 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.

International Committee of the Red Cross

Humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland

"ICRC" redirects here. For other uses, see ICRC (disambiguation).

The International Committee of the Red Cross^[a] (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and promoting humanitarian norms.^[3]

State parties (signatories) to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977 (Protocol I, Protocol II) and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded persons, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants.^[4]

The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and 191 National Societies.^[5] It is the oldest and most honoured organization within the movement and one of the most widely recognized organizations in the world, having won three Nobel Peace Prizes (in 1917, 1944, and 1963).^[6]

1. ^ "Annual Report 2016, Key facts and figures" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
2. ^ "Annual Report 2016, Key facts and figures" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
3. ^ Finnemore, Martha (1996), "Norms and War: The International Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions", National Interests in International Society, Cornell University Press, pp. 69–88, doi:10.7591/9781501707384-004, ISBN 978-1-5017-0738-4, archived from the original on 1 February 2024, retrieved 1 February 2024
4. ^ "Discover the ICRC". 2007. Archived from the original on 29 April 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2009. p.6.
5. ^ "National Society Directory - IFRC". Archived from the original on 8 July 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
6. ^ "Nobel Laureates Facts – Organizations". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 15 November 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2009.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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30 October 1947 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is founded.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

1947–95 multilateral trade agreement; predecessor to WTO

"GATT" redirects here. For other uses, see GATT (disambiguation).

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its preamble, its purpose was the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis."

The GATT was first discussed during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization (ITO). It was signed by 23 nations^[2] in Geneva on 30 October 1947, and was applied on a provisional basis 1 January 1948.^[1] It remained in effect until 1 January 1995, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established after agreement by 123 nations in Marrakesh on 15 April 1994, as part of the Uruguay Round Agreements. The WTO is the successor to the GATT, and the original GATT text (GATT 1947) is still in effect under the WTO framework, subject to the modifications of GATT 1994.^[3][4] Nations that were not party in 1995 to the GATT need to meet the minimum conditions spelled out in specific documents before they can accede; in September 2019, the list contained 36 nations.^[5]

The GATT, and its successor the WTO, have succeeded in reducing tariffs. The average tariff levels for the major GATT participants were about 22% in 1947, but were 5% after the Uruguay Round in 1999.^[6] Experts attribute part of these tariff changes to GATT and the WTO.^[7][8][9]

1. ^ ^{a b c} "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Treaty data". Government of the Netherlands. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
2. ^ Unger, Michael (7 December 2017). "GATT rounds: Who, what, when". Hinrich Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
3. ^ "WTO legal texts: The Uruguay Round agreements". World Trade Organization. Archived from the original on 14 December 2005. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
4. ^ "Uruguay Round – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994". World Trade Organization. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
5. ^ "Acc Protocols of accession for new members since 1995, including commitments in goods and services". World Trade Organization. Archived from the original on 21 July 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Tomz, Michael; Goldstein, Judith L; Rivers, Douglas (May 2007). "Do We Really Know That the WTO Increases Trade? Comment". American Economic Review. 97 (5). Nashville, Tennessee: American Economic Association: 2005–2018. doi:10.1257/aer.97.5.2005. ISSN 0002-8282.
8. ^ Goldstein, Judith L.; Rivers, Douglas; Tomz, Michael (January 2007). "Institutions in International Relations: Understanding the Effects of the GATT and the WTO on World Trade". International Organization. 61 (1). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press: 37–67. doi:10.1017/S0020818307070014 (inactive 12 November 2024). ISSN 1531-5088.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
9. ^ Irwin, Douglas A. (9 April 2007). "GATT Turns 60". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2017.

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31 October 1956 – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

Suez Crisis

1956 British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt

Not to be confused with the Raid on the Suez Canal or 2021 Suez Canal obstruction.

The Suez Crisis^[a] also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War,^[8][9][10] the Tripartite Aggression^[b] in the Arab world^[11] and as the Sinai War^[c] in Israel,^[d] was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage.^[12] After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 5 November, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal, which Nasser had earlier nationalised by transferring administrative control from the foreign-owned Suez Canal Company to Egypt's new government-owned Suez Canal Authority.^[e] Shortly after the invasion began, the three countries came under heavy political pressure from both the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as from the United Nations, eventually prompting their withdrawal from Egypt. Israel's four-month-long occupation of the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula enabled it to attain freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran, but the Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 to March 1957.^[14][15]

U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower had issued a strong warning to the British if they were to invade Egypt; he threatened serious damage to the British financial system by selling the American government's bonds of pound sterling. Before their defeat, Egyptian troops blocked all ship traffic by sinking 40 ships in the canal. It later became clear that Israel, the UK, and France had conspired to invade Egypt. These three achieved a number of their military objectives, although the canal was useless.

The crisis strengthened Nasser's standing and led to international humiliation for the British – with historians arguing that it signified the end of its role as a world superpower – as well as the French amid the Cold War (which established the U.S. and the USSR as the world's superpowers).^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]} As a result of the conflict, the UN established an emergency force to police and patrol the Egypt–Israel border, while British prime minister Anthony Eden resigned from his position. For his diplomatic efforts in resolving the conflict through UN initiatives, Canadian external affairs minister Lester B. Pearson received a Nobel Peace Prize. Analysts have argued that the crisis may have emboldened the USSR, prompting the Soviet invasion of Hungary.^[23][24]

1. ^ A Military History of Modern Egypt: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War. 2006. p. 251.McGregor 2006, p. 251
2. ^ "Casualties of Mideast Wars". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 8 March 1991. p. A7. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
3. ^ ^{a b} Varble 2003, p. 90
4. ^ Zuljan, Ralph. "Armed Conflict Year Index". OnWar.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
5. ^ Schiff 1974, p. 70.
6. ^ Schiff 1974.
7. ^ "Invasion of Egypt!". Israel – The Suez War of 1956: U.S. newsreel footage. Event occurs at 0:30–0:40. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021.
8. ^ Ross, Stewart (2004). Causes and Consequences of the Arab–Israeli Conflict. Evans Brothers. pp. 76ff. ISBN 978-0-2375-2585-9.
9. ^ Isacoff, Jonathan B. (2006). Writing the Arab–Israeli Conflict: Pragmatism and Historical Inquiry. Lexington Books. pp. 79ff. ISBN 978-0-7391-1273-1.
10. ^ Caplan, Neil (1983). Futile Diplomacy: Operation Alpha and the Failure of Anglo-American Coercive Diplomacy in the Arab–Israeli Conflict, 1954–1956. Psychology Press. pp. 15. ISBN 978-0-7146-4757-9.
11. ^ Egypt Today staff (3 November 2019). "In 63rd ann. of Tripartite Aggression, members of popular resistance tell heroic stories". Egypt Today. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
12. ^ Mayer, Michael S. (2010). The Eisenhower Years. Infobase Publishing. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-8160-5387-2.
13. ^ Copeland, Miles (1989). The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's original political operative. Aurum Press. pp. 170–171, 201.
14. ^ Pierre, Major Jean-Marc (15 August 2014). 1956 Suez Crisis And The United Nations. Tannenberg Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7828-9608-1. Still in 1950 Egypt blocked the Straits of Tiran barring Israel from the waterway ( Longgood 1958, xii-xiii).
15. ^ Golani, Motti (1995). "The Historical Place of the Czech-Egyptian Arms Deal, Fall 1955". Middle Eastern Studies. 31 (4): 803–827. doi:10.1080/00263209508701081. ISSN 0026-3206. JSTOR 4283762. 3. The blockade of the Straits of Eilat (Tiran) had actually been in effect since 1948, but was significantly aggravated on 12 September 1955, when Egypt announced that it was being tightened and extended to the aerial sphere as well. (p. 805)
16. ^ Abernathy, David (2000). The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415–1980. Yale University Press. p. CXXXIX. ISBN 978-0-3000-9314-8.
17. ^ Owen, Roger (2001). Krieger, Joel (ed.). Suez Crisis. The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.^{[page needed]}
18. ^ "An affair to remember". The Economist. 27 June 2006. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
19. ^ Ellis, Sylvia (2009). Historical Dictionary of Anglo-American Relations. Scarecrow Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-8108-6297-5.
20. ^ Peden, G. C. (December 2012), "Suez and Britain's Decline as a World Power", The Historical Journal, 55 (4): 1073–1096, doi:10.1017/S0018246X12000246, ISSN 0018-246X
21. ^ Mullen, Matt; Onion, Amanda; Sullivan, Missy; Zapata, Christian (14 September 2022). "Suez Crisis". History Channel. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
22. ^ Smith, Simon C., ed. (2016). Reassessing Suez 1956: New perspectives on the crisis and its aftermath. Routledge. pp. 216–218. ISBN 978-0-7546-6170-2.
23. ^ Mastny, Vojtech (March 2002). "NATO in the Beholder's Eye: Soviet Perceptions and Policies, 1949–56" (PDF). Cold War International History Project. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 November 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
24. ^ Christopher, Adam (2010). The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungarian and Canadian Perspectives. University of Ottawa Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7766-0705-4.

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1 November 1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

Sistine Chapel

Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, Vatican City

Rome

1km
0.6miles

Sistine Chapel

  

The Sistine Chapel (/ˈsɪstiːn/ SIST-een; Latin: Sacellum Sixtinum; Italian: Cappella Sistina [kapˈpɛlla siˈstiːna]) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna ('Great Chapel'), it takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and 1481. Since that time, it has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today, it is the site of the papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The chapel's fame lies mainly in the frescoes that decorate its interior, most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment, both by Michelangelo.

During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters including Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe-l'œil drapery below. They were completed in 1482, and on 15 August 1483 Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Assumption, during which the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.^[3][4]

Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the chapel's ceiling, a project that changed the course of Western art and is regarded as one of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization.^[5][6] In a different political climate, after the Sack of Rome, he returned and, between 1535 and 1541, painted The Last Judgment for Popes Clement VII and Paul III.^[7] The fame of Michelangelo's paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel since they were revealed five centuries ago.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Cite error: The named reference EHT2006_313 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Vatican City, Whc.unesco.org, archived from the original on 25 December 2017, retrieved 9 August 2011
3. ^ Pietrangeli 1986, p. 28
4. ^ Monfasani, John (1983), "A Description of the Sistine Chapel under Pope Sixtus IV", Artibus et Historiae, 4 (7), IRSA s.c.: 9–18, doi:10.2307/1483178, ISSN 0391-9064, JSTOR 1483178, archived from the original on 1 August 2015, retrieved 7 March 2009.
5. ^ Gardner, Helen (1970) Art through the Ages, p. 469, Harcourt, Brace and World. ISBN 978-0-15-508315-8
6. ^ Robert Coughlan, The World of Michelangelo, Time-Life International, (1966) p. 116
7. ^ Robert Coughlan, p. 127

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3 November 1493 – Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator and explorer (1451–1506)

"Cristoforo Colombo" and "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" redirect here. For his direct descendant, see Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal, 18th Duke of Veragua. For other uses, see Christopher Columbus (disambiguation) and Cristoforo Colombo (disambiguation).

Christopher Columbus^[b] (/kəˈlʌmbəs/;^[2] between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian^[3][c] explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa^[3][4] who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The name Christopher Columbus is the anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. Growing up on the coast of Liguria, he went to sea at a young age and traveled widely, as far north as the British Isles and as far south as what is now Ghana. He married Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, who bore a son, Diego, and was based in Lisbon for several years. He later took a Castilian mistress, Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, who bore a son, Ferdinand.^[5][6][7]

Largely self-educated, Columbus was knowledgeable in geography, astronomy, and history. He developed a plan to seek a western sea passage to the East Indies, hoping to profit from the lucrative spice trade. After the Granada War, and Columbus's persistent lobbying in multiple kingdoms, the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, agreed to sponsor a journey west. Columbus left Castile in August 1492 with three ships and made landfall in the Americas on 12 October, ending the period of human habitation in the Americas now referred to as the pre-Columbian era. His landing place was an island in the Bahamas, known by its native inhabitants as Guanahani. He then visited the islands now known as Cuba and Hispaniola, establishing a colony in what is now Haiti. Columbus returned to Castile in early 1493, with captured natives. Word of his voyage soon spread throughout Europe.

Columbus made three further voyages to the Americas, exploring the Lesser Antilles in 1493, Trinidad and the northern coast of South America in 1498, and the east coast of Central America in 1502. Many names he gave to geographical features, particularly islands, are still in use. He gave the name indios ("Indians") to the indigenous peoples he encountered. The extent to which he was aware the Americas were a wholly separate landmass is uncertain; he never clearly renounced his belief he had reached the Far East. As a colonial governor, Columbus was accused by some of his contemporaries of significant brutality and removed from the post. Columbus's strained relationship with the Crown of Castile and its colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over the privileges he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.

Columbus's expeditions inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries, thus bringing the Americas into the European sphere of influence. The transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Old World and New World that followed his first voyage are known as the Columbian exchange, named after him. These events and the effects which persist to the present are often cited as the beginning of the modern era.^[8][9]

Columbus was widely celebrated in the centuries after his death, but public perception fractured in the 21st century due to greater attention to the harms committed under his governance, particularly the beginning of the depopulation of Hispaniola's indigenous Taíno people, caused by Old World diseases and mistreatment, including slavery. Many places in the Western Hemisphere bear his name, including the South American country of Colombia, the Canadian province of British Columbia, the American city Columbus, Ohio, and the United States capital, the District of Columbia.

1. ^ Lester, Paul M. (January 1993). "Looks are deceiving: The portraits of Christopher Columbus". Visual Anthropology. 5 (3–4): 211–227. doi:10.1080/08949468.1993.9966590. ISSN 0894-9468.
2. ^ "Columbus" Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
3. ^ ^{a b} Delaney, Carol (2011). Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem (1st ed.). United States of America: Free Press/Simon and Schuster. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4391-0237-4.
4. ^ ^{a b} Flint, Valerie I.J. (16 May 2021). "Christopher Columbus". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
5. ^ Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2010). Columbus on Himself. Hackett Publishing. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-60384-317-1. The date of Fernando's birth, November 1488, gives a terminus ante quem early in that year for the start of Columbus's liaison with Beatriz Enríquez. She was of peasant parentage, but, when Columbus met her, was the ward of a well-to-do relative in Cordoba. A meat business gave her income of her own, mentioned in the only other record of Columbus's solicitude for her: a letter to Diego, written in 1502, just before departure on the fourth Atlantic crossing, in which the explorer enjoins his son to 'take Beatriz Enriquez in your care for love of me, as you your own mother'. Varela, Cristóbal Colón, p. 309.
6. ^ Taviani, Paolo Emilio (2016). "Beatriz de Arana". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9. Columbus never married Beatriz. When he returned from the first voyage, he was given the greatest of honors and elevated to the highest position in Spain. Because of his discovery, he became one of the most illustrious persons at the Spanish court and had to submit, like all the great persons of the time, to customary legal restrictions on matters of marriage and extramarital relations. The Alphonsine laws forbade extramarital relations of concubinage for "illustrious people" (king, princes, dukes, counts, marquis) with plebeian women, if they themselves were or their forefathers had been of inferior social condition.
7. ^ Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 126.
8. ^ Dowlah, Caf (2020). Cross-Border Labor Mobility: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-36506-6. Most researchers however trace the beginning of the early modern era to Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas in the 1490s
9. ^ Mills, Keneth and Taylor, William B., Colonial Spanish America: A Documentary History, p. 36, SR Books, 1998, ISBN 0-8420-2573-1

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3 November 1838 – The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.

The Times of India

Indian English-language daily newspaper

The Times of India, also known by its abbreviation TOI, is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the fourth-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest selling English-language daily in the world.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} It is the oldest English-language newspaper in India, and the second-oldest Indian newspaper still in circulation, with its first edition published in 1838.^[7] It is nicknamed as "The Old Lady of Bori Bunder",^[8][9] and is a "newspaper of record".^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Near the beginning of the 20th century, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, called TOI "the leading paper in Asia".^[17][18] In 1991, the BBC ranked TOI among the world's six best newspapers.^[19][20]

It is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (B.C.C.L.), which is owned by the Sahu Jain family. In the Brand Trust Report India study 2019, TOI was rated as the most trusted English newspaper in India.^[21] In a 2021 survey, Reuters Institute rated TOI as the most trusted media news brand among English-speaking, online news users in India.^[22][23] In recent decades, the newspaper has been criticised for establishing in the Indian news industry the practice of accepting payments from persons and entities in exchange for positive coverage.^[4]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Highest Circulated Daily Newspapers (language wise)" (PDF). Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
2. ^ Kaminsky & Long 2011, p. 706.
3. ^ Westhead, Rick (5 February 2010). "It's the best of Times". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
4. ^ ^{a b} Auletta 2012, pp. 52–61.
5. ^ "National Newspapers Total Circulation". International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations (IFABC). 2011. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
6. ^ "Highest daily English-language newspaper circulation". Guinness World Records. 12 May 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
7. ^ Bhattacherje 2009, p. A126.
8. ^ Joseph 2005, p. 227.
9. ^ "The old lady of Bori Bunder celebrates 175 yrs with panache". Exchange4Media. 24 April 2013. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
10. ^ Frost et al. 2017, p. 27.
11. ^ Barton, Weller & Yilmaz 2014, p. 28.
12. ^ Anil 2023a, p. 192.
13. ^ Singh 2015, p. 52.
14. ^ Halterman, Andrew; Keith, Katherine A.; Sarwar, Sheikh Muhammad; Connor, Brendan (27 May 2021). "Corpus-Level Evaluation for Event QA: The IndiaPoliceEvents Corpus Covering the 2002 Gujarat Violence". arXiv:2105.12936 [cs.CL].
15. ^ Caulfield, Mike (8 January 2017). "National Newspapers of Record". Retrieved 12 May 2024.
16. ^ Anil 2023b, p. 25.
17. ^ Malhan 2013, p. 212.
18. ^ Bose, Jaideep (23 April 2013). "A daily in the life of India". TOI. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
19. ^ Baxi & Prasad 2005, p. 167.
20. ^ Aggarwal & Gupta 2001, p. 128.
21. ^ "TRA's Brand Trust Report India Study 2019" (PDF). TRA Research Pvt. Ltd. p. 48. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
22. ^ "Digital News Report 2021". Reuters Institute. p. 135.
23. ^ Content, Afaqs! Partner (24 April 2023). "Trust in The Times of India: The Key to Its Continued Success as India's Most Trusted News Brand". afaqs!. Retrieved 12 May 2024.

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4 November 1677 – The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange; they later jointly reign as William and Mary.

Mary II

Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689 to 1694

For the ship, see Queen Mary 2. For other uses, see Mary II (disambiguation).

Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, King William III and II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. She was also Princess of Orange following her marriage on 4 November 1677. Her joint reign with William over Britain is known as that of William and Mary.

Mary was born during the reign of her uncle King Charles II. She was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York (the future James II of England), and his first wife, Anne Hyde. Mary and her sister Anne were raised as Anglicans at the behest of Charles II, although their parents both converted to Roman Catholicism. Charles lacked legitimate children, making Mary second in the line of succession. At the age of 15, she married her cousin William of Orange, a Protestant. Charles died in 1685 and James became king, making Mary heir presumptive. James's attempts at rule by decree and the birth of his son from a second marriage, James Francis Edward (later known as "the Old Pretender"), led to his deposition in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the adoption of the English Bill of Rights.

William and Mary became king and queen regnant. Mary mostly deferred to her husband – a renowned military leader and principal opponent of Louis XIV – when he was in England. She did, however, act alone when William was engaged in military campaigns abroad, proving herself to be a powerful, firm, and effective ruler. Mary's death from smallpox in 1694 at the age of 32 left William as sole ruler until his death in 1702, when he was succeeded by Mary's sister, Anne.
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5 November 1955 – After being destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio.

Vienna State Opera

Opera house in Vienna, Austria

The Vienna State Opera (German: Wiener Staatsoper, IPA: [ˈviːnɐ ˈʃtaːtsˌʔoːpɐ]) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, and designs by Josef Hlávka. The opera house was inaugurated as the "Vienna Court Opera" (Wiener Hofoper) in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It became known by its current name after the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in 1921. The Vienna State Opera is the successor of the old Vienna Court Opera^[1] (built in 1636 inside the Hofburg). The new site was chosen and the construction paid by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1861.^[2]

The members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from the Vienna State Opera's orchestra. The building is also the home of the Vienna State Ballet, and it hosts the annual Vienna Opera Ball during the carnival season.

1. ^ "The 'Sunken Chest': The Building of the Vienna Court Opera on the Ring". Die Welt der Habsburger. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
2. ^ "The History of Opera in Vienna". Concert Vienna. Retrieved 9 June 2020.

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6 November 1947 – Meet the Press, the longest running television program in history, makes its debut on NBC Television

Meet the Press

American news/interview television program

This article is about the American public affairs program. For the Australian program, see Meet the Press (Australian TV program).

Meet the Press is a weekly American television Sunday morning talk show broadcast on NBC.^[6][7] It is the longest-running program on American television, though its format has changed since the debut episode on November 6, 1947.^[8][9] Meet the Press specializes in interviews with leaders in Washington, D.C., across the country, and around the world on issues of politics, economics, foreign policy, and other public affairs, along with panel discussions that provide opinions and analysis. In January 2021, production moved to NBC's bureau on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.^[5][10]

The longevity of Meet the Press is attributable in part to the fact that the program debuted during what was only the second official "network television season" for American television. It was the first live television network news program on which a sitting president of the United States appeared, this occurred on its broadcast on November 9, 1975, which featured Gerald Ford. The program has been hosted by 12 moderators, beginning with creator Martha Rountree. The show's current moderator is Kristen Welker, who became moderator in September 2023 following longtime moderator Chuck Todd’s departure.

Meet the Press airs Sundays from 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m. ET on the NBC-TV network, 10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. ET in New York and Washington. The program also re-airs at 2:00 p.m. ET Sundays and 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. ET Mondays on MSNBC on cable.^[11] Meet the Press is also occasionally pre-empted by network coverage of sports events held outside the U.S. The program is also rebroadcast on Mondays at 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time on MSNBC, whose audio feed is also simulcast on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. The program is syndicated by Westwood One to various radio stations around the United States, and is on C-SPAN Radio as part of its replays of the Sunday morning talk shows.

1. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference 60th was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference shemadeit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ "Meet the Press – Credits". NBCUniversal. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
4. ^ "The Sounds of War". Slate. April 2003.
5. ^ ^{a b} Johnson, Ted (25 January 2021). "NBCU Debuts New Washington Bureau And Studios". Deadline. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
6. ^ "Meet the Press: Cast & Details". TV Guide. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
7. ^ "About Meet The Press". MSNBC. 8 December 2003. Archived from the original on February 3, 2004. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
8. ^ "Meet the Press: U.S. Public Affairs/Interview". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on September 25, 2012.
9. ^ "About 'Meet the Press' – Meet the Press – About us". NBC News. 2012-12-31. Archived from the original on 2012-12-31. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
10. ^ Ball, Rick (1998). Meet the Press: Fifty Years of History in the Making. McGraw Hill. pp. 12 (Farley), 14–15 (Chambers), 15–17 (Bentley), 51–53 (Castro), 67–68 (JFK) 92 (MLK), 167 (satellite). Retrieved 18 March 2020.
11. ^ "Watch NBC's 'Meet the Press with Kristen Welker' in your area". NBC News. 2023-09-18. Retrieved 2024-01-07.

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7 November 1861 – The first Melbourne Cup horse race is held in Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne Cup

Annual Thoroughbred horse race in Melbourne, Australia

For the greyhound race, see Melbourne Cup (greyhounds). For the most recent race, see 2024 Melbourne Cup.

Horse race

The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest two-mile handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation".^[1]

The Melbourne Cup has cemented itself as a part of Melbourne and Australian culture, having been run every year since 1861 (except for an intermission during World War I and World War II). The day of the race has been a public holiday for much of Victoria since 1876.^[2] It was originally run over two mi (3.219 km) but was shortened to 3,200 m (1 mi 1,740 yd) in 1972 when Australia adopted the metric system. This reduced the distance by 18.688 m (61 ft 3+3⁄4 in), and Rain Lover's 1968 race record of 3:19.1 was accordingly adjusted to 3:17.9. The present record holder is the 1990 winner Kingston Rule with a time of 3:16.3.

Due to animal cruelty, Melbourne Cup has been steadily declining in popularity, a massive amount of organisations and individuals have boycotted Melbourne Cup.^[3][4] From 2014 - 2024, six horses have died in the Melbourne Cup race and 1,400 horses have died on the Australian racetracks.^[5] Some brands that have boycotted Melbourne cup include Myer, David Jones and Country Road.^[6]

1. ^ "Melbourne Cup: how Australia's signature race lost its hold on the nation | Melbourne". The Guardian. November 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
2. ^ "Why is Melbourne Cup Day a public holiday?". Public Record Office Victoria. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
3. ^ "The Slow Decline of Our Cruelest Sport". The Humane League. 20 December 2023.
4. ^ "Horse racing's disregard for animal life is appalling". The Guardian. 21 April 2023.
5. ^ "From fascinators to protests, this is what the Melbourne Cup means to different people". SBS News. 5 November 2024.
6. ^ "Melbourne Cup: why brands are quietly distancing themselves from the 'race that stops the nation". The Guardian. 5 November 2023.

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8 November 1895 – While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.

Wilhelm Röntgen

German physicist, discoverer of X-rays (1845–1923)

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (/ˈrɛntɡən, -dʒən, ˈrʌnt-/;^[4] German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈʁœntɡən] ^ⓘ; 27 March 1845 – 10 February 1923) was a German physicist,^[5] who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.^[6][7] In honour of Röntgen's accomplishments, in 2004, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes, after him. The non-SI unit of radiation exposure, the roentgen (R), is also named after him.

1. ^ "Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen – Facts". NobelPrize.org.
2. ^ Segovia-Buendía, Cristina (22 July 2020). "Röntgens Wurzeln im Bergischen". Lüttringhauser Anzeiger (in German).
3. ^ Jain, C. "Spouse - source from Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Biographical". Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Biographical.
4. ^ "Röntgen". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
5. ^ "Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923) – Ontdekker röntgenstraling". historiek.net. 31 October 2010.
6. ^ Novelize, Robert. Squire's Fundamentals of Radiology. Harvard University Press. 5th ed. 1997. ISBN 0-674-83339-2 p. 1.
7. ^ Stoddart, Charlotte (1 March 2022). "Structural biology: How proteins got their close-up". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-022822-1. Retrieved 25 March 2022.

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9 November 1872 – The Great Boston Fire of 1872.

Great Boston Fire of 1872

The largest fire in Boston

The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83–87 Summer Street.^[1] The fire was finally contained 12 hours later, after it had consumed about 65 acres (26 ha) of Boston's downtown, 776 buildings and much of the financial district, and caused $73.5 million in damage (equivalent to $1.7 billion in 2023).^[2][3] The destruction to the buildings was valued at $13.5 million and the personal property loss was valued at $60 million.^[1] At least 30 people died, including 12 firefighters.^[4]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Great Boston Fire of 1872 – Boston Fire Historical Society". Boston Fire Historical Society. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
2. ^ "Great Fire Devastates Boston". www.massmoments.org. November 9, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
3. ^ Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference NE Historical Society was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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10 November 1969 – National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts Sesame Street.

Sesame Street

American children's television show

Sesame Street is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. It is known for its images communicated through the use of Jim Henson's Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. It premiered on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy,^[13] and high viewership. It has aired on the United States national public television provider PBS since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO on January 16, 2016, then its sister streaming service (HBO) Max in 2020.

The show's format consists of a combination of commercial television production elements and techniques which have evolved to reflect changes in American culture and audiences' viewing habits. It was the first children's TV show to use educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content, and the first show whose educational effects were formally studied. Its format and content have undergone significant changes to reflect changes to its curriculum.

Shortly after its creation, its producers developed what came to be called the CTW Model (after the production company's previous name), a system of planning, production and evaluation based on collaboration between producers, writers, educators and researchers. The show was initially funded by government and private foundations, but has become somewhat self-supporting due to revenues from licensing arrangements, international sales and other media. By 2006, independently produced versions ("co-productions") of Sesame Street were broadcast in 20 countries. In 2001, there were over 120 million viewers of various international versions of Sesame Street; and by its 40th anniversary in 2009, it was broadcast in more than 140 countries.

Since its debut, Sesame Street has garnered praise. It was by then the 15th-highest-rated children's television show in the United States. A 1996 survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched it by the time they were three. In 2018, it was estimated that 86 million Americans had watched it as children. As of 2022, it has won 222 Emmy Awards and 11 Grammy Awards, more than any other children's show.^[14][15] Sesame Street remains one of the longest-running shows in the world.

Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ "Sesame Street season 1 End Credits (1969-70)". YouTube. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
2. ^ "Sesame Street season 3 End Credits (1971-72)". YouTube. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
3. ^ "Sesame Street season 4 End Credits (1972-73)". YouTube. October 7, 2014. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
4. ^ "Sesame Street season 9 end credits (1977-78)". YouTube. Archived from the original on January 22, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
5. ^ "Sesame Street season 10 end credits (1978-79)". YouTube. Archived from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
6. ^ "Sesame Street season 12 end credits (1980-81)". YouTube. August 24, 2015. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
7. ^ "Sesame Street season 24 (#3010) closing & funding credits (1992) ["Dancing City" debut]". YouTube. April 3, 2019. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
8. ^ "Sesame Street - Season 25 End Credits (1993-1994)". YouTube. May 24, 2014. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
9. ^ "Elmo Writes a Story - Sesame Street Full Episode (credits start at 55:37)". YouTube. Sesame Street. May 3, 2019. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
10. ^ "Sesame Street Season 34 credits & fundings (version #1)". YouTube. February 4, 2017. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
11. ^ "Elmo and Zoe Play the Healthy Food Game - Sesame Street Full Episodes (credits start at 52:50)". YouTube. Sesame Street. July 13, 2018. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
12. ^ "PBS Kids Program Break (2006 WFWA-TV)". YouTube. January 6, 2017. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
13. ^ Cite error: The named reference morrow-3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
14. ^ "Sesame Street Co-Founder Lloyd Morrisett Dies Aged 93". No. Virgin Radio UK. January 25, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
15. ^ Cite error: The named reference wallace was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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11 November 1923 – Adolf Hitler is arrested in Munich for high treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.

Beer Hall Putsch

Failed 1923 Nazi coup attempt in Germany

For the album by Doug Stanhope, see Beer Hall Putsch (album).

The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch,^{[1][note 1]} was a failed coup d'état by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders in Munich, Bavaria, on 8–9 November 1923, during the Weimar Republic. Approximately two thousand Nazis marched on the Feldherrnhalle, in the city centre, but were confronted by a police cordon, which resulted in the deaths of 15 Nazis, four police officers, and one bystander.^[2][3]

Hitler escaped immediate arrest and was spirited off to safety in the countryside. After two days, he was arrested and charged with treason.^[4]

The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated front-page headlines in newspapers around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicised and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments. Hitler was found guilty of treason and sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison,^{[note 2]} where he dictated Mein Kampf to fellow prisoners Emil Maurice and Rudolf Hess. On 20 December 1924, having served only nine months, Hitler was released.^[5][6] Once released, Hitler redirected his focus towards obtaining power through legal means rather than by revolution or force, and accordingly changed his tactics, further developing Nazi propaganda.^[7]

1. ^ Dan Moorhouse, ed. The Munich Putsch. Archived 5 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine schoolshistory.org.uk, accessed 2008-05-31.
2. ^ Shirer 1960, pp. 73–75.
3. ^ "Einsatz für Freiheit und Demokratie". 11 June 2015. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
4. ^ Hitler, Adolf (1924). Der Hitler-Prozeß vor dem Volksgericht in München [The Hitler Trial Before the People's Court in Munich]. Munich: Knorr & Hirth. OCLC 638670803.
5. ^ Harold J. Gordon Jr., The Hitler Trial Before the People's Court in Munich (Arlington, VA: University Publications of America 1976)
6. ^ Fulda, Bernhard (2009). Press and politics in the Weimar Republic. Oxford University Press. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-0-19-954778-4.
7. ^ Claudia Koonz, The Nazi Conscience, p. 24, ISBN 0-674-01172-4.

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12 November 1920 – The 1920 Cork hunger strike by Irish republicans ends after three deaths.

1920 Cork hunger strike

Part of the Irish War of Independence

The 1920 Cork hunger strike occurred in late 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, when 65 men interned without trial in Cork County Gaol went on hunger strike, demanding release from prison, and reinstatement of their status as political prisoners. Beginning on 11 August 1920, they were joined the following day by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney.^[1] A week into the hunger strike, all but 11 of the hunger strikers were released or deported to prison in England, with MacSwiney being among the latter.

After the death of Thomas Ashe on hunger strike (25 September 1917) Irish Republicans prisoners carried out several hunger strikes with their demands being granted. In late 1920, British authorities then decided to resist the hunger strike tactic and warned that there would be no further concessions to the men on strike in Cork jail.^[1] Michael Fitzgerald died after 68 days,^[2] while Joe Murphy died after 79 days.^[3] The nine surviving hunger strikers – Michael Burke, John Crowley,^[a] Peter Crowley,^[a] Seán Hennessy, Joseph Kenny, Thomas O'Donovan, Michael O'Reilly, John Power, and Christopher Upton – continued on for 94 days, ending their fast on 12 November 1920, following orders from Arthur Griffith.^[4][5]

This hunger strike drew worldwide attention and sympathy to the cause of Irish independence.^[6] The nine survivors of the 1920 Cork hunger strike hold the Guinness World Record for the longest hunger strike in history, in which no food was consumed, whether as a result of force-feeding or otherwise.^[7]

1. ^ ^{a b} Dwyer, Ryle (13 August 2019). "Death of MacSwiney had enormous significance as prisoners hunger strike drew global coverage". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
2. ^ "Hunger Striker Dies in Cork Jail After 68-Day Fast" (PDF). New York Times. 18 October 1920. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
3. ^ "Joseph Murphy Dies of 76 Days' Hunger Strike, the Second Prisoner to Succumb in Cork Jail" (PDF). New York Times. 26 October 1920. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
4. ^ "Important Message from Mr. Griffith". Irish Examiner. 13 November 1920.
5. ^ Kenny, Conor; Cronin, Clare (2020). The Nine Survivors. Cork: Orla Kelly Publishing. ISBN 9781912328864.
6. ^ Macardle, Dorothy (1965). The Irish Republic. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 391–393.
7. ^ Young, Mark C. (1994). The Guinness Book of Records 1995. Facts on File. ISBN 0816026467.

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13 November 1002 – English king Æthelred II orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St. Brice's Day massacre

St Brice's Day massacre

1002 killing of Danes in England

The St. Brice's Day massacre was a mass killing of Danes within England on 13 November 1002, on the order of King Æthelred the Unready of England. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle relates that the massacre was carried out in response to an accusation that the Danes would "beshrew [Æthelred] of his life, and afterwards all his council, and then have his kingdom without any resistance."^[1] King Æthelred thus ordered the killing of many Danes within his territory. The retaliation by the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard over the next few years would earn Æthelred the nickname Æthelred the Ill-Advised (or the Unready).

The skeletons of 37 young men and juveniles, found during an excavation at St John's College, Oxford, in 2008 have been assumed to be victims of the massacre.^[2]

1. ^ "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
2. ^ Kuligowski, Elizabeth. "Mass grave of murdered Vikings sheds light on King Aethelred's doomed reign". Museum of Oxford. Retrieved November 13, 2024.

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14 November 1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA

Moby-Dick

1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville

"Moby Dick" redirects here. For other uses, see Moby Dick (disambiguation).

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for vengeance against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship's previous voyage. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a Great American Novel was established only in the 20th century, after the 1919 centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself,^[1] and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written".^[2] Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous.^[3]

Melville began writing Moby-Dick in February 1850 and finished 18 months later, a year after he had anticipated. Melville drew on his experience as a common sailor from 1841 to 1844, including on whalers, and on wide reading in whaling literature. The white whale is modeled on a notoriously hard-to-catch albino whale Mocha Dick, and the book's ending is based on the sinking of the whaleship Essex in 1820. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God.

The book's literary influences include Shakespeare, Thomas Carlyle, Sir Thomas Browne and the Bible. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies, and asides. In August 1850, with the manuscript perhaps half finished, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne and was deeply impressed by his Mosses from an Old Manse, which he compared to Shakespeare in its cosmic ambitions. This encounter may have inspired him to revise and deepen Moby-Dick, which is dedicated to Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius".

The book was first published (in three volumes) as The Whale in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, in a single-volume edition in New York in November. The London publisher, Richard Bentley, censored or changed sensitive passages; Melville made revisions as well, including a last-minute change of the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in the text of both editions as "Moby Dick", without the hyphen.^[4] Reviewers in Britain were largely favorable,^[5] though some objected that the tale seemed to be told by a narrator who perished with the ship, as the British edition lacked the epilogue recounting Ishmael's survival. American reviewers were more hostile.^[6]

1. ^ Faulkner (1927)
2. ^ Lawrence (1923), 168
3. ^ Buell (2014), 362 note.
4. ^ Tanselle (1988) "Editorial Appendix", 810–12
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Parker 1988, 702 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Parker (1988), 721–722

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15 November 1965 – Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) in his car, the Spirit of America, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Craig Breedlove

American race driver (1937–2023)

Craig Breedlove (March 23, 1937 – April 4, 2023) was an American professional race car driver and a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first person in history to reach 500 mph (800 km/h), and 600 mph (970 km/h), using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.^[1]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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16 November 1974 – The Arecibo message is broadcast from Puerto Rico.

Arecibo message

Radio message sent into space in 1974

"Arecibo Message" redirects here. For the 2009 Boxcutter album, see Arecibo Message (album).

The Arecibo message is an interstellar radio message carrying basic information about humanity and Earth that was sent to the globular cluster Messier 13 in 1974. It was meant as a demonstration of human technological achievement, rather than a real attempt to enter into a conversation with extraterrestrials.^[1][2]

The message was broadcast into space a single time via frequency modulated radio waves at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico on 16 November 1974.^[2][3] The message was aimed at the current location of M13, about 25,000 light years from Earth, because M13 was a large and relatively close collection of stars that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony.^[4] When correctly translated into graphics, characters, and spaces, the 1,679 bits of data contained within the message form the image shown here.^[5]

1. ^ The Staff at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (December 1975). "The Arecibo message of November, 1974". Icarus. 26 (4): 462–466. Bibcode:1975Icar...26..462.. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(75)90116-5.
2. ^ ^{a b} Steele, Bill (1999-11-12). "Cornell News: It's the 25th anniversary of Earth's first (and only) attempt to phone E.T." Cornell News. Archived from the original on 2008-08-02. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
3. ^ Johnson, Steven (2017-06-28). "Greetings, E.T. (Please Don't Murder Us.)". The New York Times.
4. ^ Klaes, Larry (2005-11-30). "Making Contact". Ithaca Times. Archived from the original on 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
5. ^ Cassiday, George. "The Arecibo Message". University of Utah. Retrieved 2013-10-13.^{[permanent dead link‍]}

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