“I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”
– George Bernard Shaw, refusing to accept money for his Nobel Prize, Nov. 18, 1926
Today, November 18, is my birthday. Wikipedia has a massive list of notable events which have taken place on November 18 in years past. Here are a few highlights:
1421 – A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
1863 – King Christian IX of Denmark decides to sign the November constitution, which declares Schleswig to be part of Denmark. This is seen by the German Confederation as a violation of the London Protocol and leads to the German–Danish war of 1864.
1901 – George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster was born.
1909 – Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of José Santos Zelaya.
1923 – Ted Stevens, American politician, was born.
1928 – Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon stars Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is also considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey’s birthday. 1
1929 – Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula.
1940 – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini’s disastrous invasion of Greece.
1978 – Jonestown incident: In Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple cult in a mass murder-suicide that claims 918 lives in all, 909 of them at Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo J. Ryan is assassinated by members of Peoples Temple shortly beforehand. 2
1982 – Duk Koo Kim dies unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, Nevada, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing. 3
1987 – Iran-Contra Affair: The U.S. Congress issues its final report on the Iran-Contra Affair.
1987 – King’s Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city’s busiest underground station at King’s Cross St Pancras.
1993 – In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is passed in the House of Representatives. 4
1999 – In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when a massive bonfire under construction collapses.
2002 – James Coburn, American actor, died. 5
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1 – Terrible if you are a commie hippy like George Bernard Shaw who considers Disney Corporation a monument to evil capitalist greed, or at least would if you were still alive.
2 – Bonus points for being the year of my birth as well. I think my mom might have saved a newspaper with this story on the front page.
3 – There was reform, so yay?
4 – Terrible if you’re a bigot who thinks Mexicans want to “steal our jobs.”
5 – Arguably a good thing since it decreases the likelihood of a sequel to Maverick.
