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 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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What
Happened on November
24th?
1859
Charles Darwin published On the
Origin of Species.
1963 Lee Harvey Oswald,
accused assassin of President John F.
Kennedy, was shot and killed by nightclub
owner Jack Ruby while being taken through
the Dallas, Texas, police headquarters;
it was the first murder to be seen live
on television. |
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 Pope
Leo X Giovanni de Medici was
destined for the Church from a very early
age, and was made a Cardinal at the age
of 14. As Pope, he is best remembered for
instituting a number of practices that
led Martin Luther to criticize the
Church, which in turn led to the
Protestant Reformation. |
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 John
Jacob Astor started in the
fur business in 1784, and by 1800 had a
net worth of $250,000. In 1811 one of his
companies founded what is now Astoria,
Oregon, and by the early 1820's he had a
total monopoly on fur trade in the United
States. |
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 John
became king upon the death of Richard I
in 1199, and reigned until his own death
in 1216. An inept and very unpopular
king, he fought a losing battle against
English lords and was forced to sign the
Magna Carta in 1215. That document
severely limited the king's authority,
and became the foundation of the system
that governs England today. |
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 William
Harris Crawford served in
the U.S. Senate, as Secretary of War, and
as Secretary of the Treasury. He was a
presidential candidate in 1816 and 1824,
with the latter election having to be
decided by the U.S. House of
Representatives. |
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 Matthew
Alexander Henson became the
first man to reach the North Pole by
"land" on April 6, 1909, a full
45 minutes before the leader of the
expedition, Robert Peary. |
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 The Industrial
Workers of the World
was organized in
Chicago on June 27, 1905, by opponents of
the moderate policies in the labor
movement. It wanted to bring all workers
of each industry into one industrial
union, and sought to overturn the
capitalist system and set up a socialist
government. |
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 The
Articles of Confederation
went into effect on March 1, 1781, and
remained in effect until ratification of
the U.S. Constitution. It created a loose
confederation of the states with most
power vested with the state governments. |
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 Mordecai
Wyatt Johnson was the first
permanent African-American president of
Howard University, in which capacity he
served from 1926 to 1960. During his
tenure, Howard grew from eight
unaccredited schools and colleges to ten
that are still fully accredited, saw its
enrollment grow from 1,700 to 6,000, and
increased its budget from $700,000 to $8
million. |
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 The
Violin
is a stringed instrument that is played
with a bow. It has four strings, which
are tuned in fifths. The first violins
date from the 1500's. |
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 Madame
Marie Tussaud began her
remarkable wax sculpting career at the
age of six. Forced to create death masks
of persons executed during the Reign of
Terror, she turned that collection of
horrors into the nucleus of the most
famous wax museum in the world. |
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 Hans
Christian Andersen is best
known for his many collections of
original fairy tales, but was also an
author of travelogues, novels, and plays. |
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 Greater
Rhea (Rhea americana)
The largest bird in the
Americas, the greater rhea stands about
five feet tall and weighs about 50
pounds. Although the rhea cannot fly, it
has very long wings, which are used like
rudders when running. |
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 Albert
Bruce Sabin was influenced
to study polio by an epidemic of that
disease that hit New York City in 1931.
He began testing a live-virus vaccine in
1954, and by the 1970's that vaccine had
succeeded in nearly eradicating polio
from the world. |
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 Texas
Longhorn The
only American cattle breed to develop its
characteristics without the benefit of
human intervention, the Texas Longhorn
arose from ancestors that were the first
cattle to arrive in America. |
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 Soichiro
Honda began manufacturing
piston rings in 1936. He began
manufacturing motorcycles in 1948, and by
1952 Honda accounted for 70% of Japan's
motorcycle production. He began
manufacturing automobiles in the early
1960's, and Honda race cars were winning
races by 1965. |
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 Buffalo
Soldiers On June 28, 1866,
an Act of Congress authorized the
creation of six regiments of black
troops, two of cavalry and four of
infantry. The first two regiments were
subsequently organized on September 21,
1866, and these are the two regiments
that would become known to history as the
"Buffalo Soldiers." |
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 John
Philip Holland launched his
first successful submarine in 1881. The
company he founded ultimately became the
Electric Boat Company, which has
subsequently built the vast majority of
the U.S. Navy's submarines, as well as
submarines for many other nations. |
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