This Day in History – November 14, 2011

1666 – Samuel Pepys reports on 1st blood transfusion (between dogs) 1732 – 1st US professional librarian, Louis Timothee, hired in Philadelphia 1832 – The first streetcar went into operation in NYC. The vehicle was horse-drawn and had room for 30 people. The route ran along 4th Avenue between Prince & 14th Streets. The fare was 12 cents. 1851 – Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick” was first published in the U.S. 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau’s trial began for the assassination of U.S. President Garfield. Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year. 1889 – New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes. 1896 – Power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation 1906 – Teddy Roosevelt becomes 1st US President to visit a foreign country (Panama) 1910 – 1st airplane flight from deck of a ship, Norfolk, Va 1922 – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began domestic radio service. 1935 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth after its new constitution was approved. The Tydings-McDuffie Act planned for the Phillipines to be completely independent by July 4, 1946. 1940 – During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked. 1943 – Chicago Bear Sid Luckman passes for 7 touchdowns vs NY Giants (56-7) 1943 – Ernie Nevers of the St. Louis Cardinals became the first professional football player to score six touchdowns in a single game. 1956 – The USSR crushed the Hungarian uprising. 1959 – Hawaii’s Kilauea has it’s most spectacular eruption (thus far) 1968 – Yale University announced it was going co-educational. 1969 – Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon from Cape Kennedy, FL. 1969 – During the Vietnam War, Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, commander of the Third Marine Division, became the first general to be killed in Vietnam by enemy fire. 1970 – Marshall University football team wiped out in air crash at Kenova, WV 1972 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 (1,003.16) level for the first time. 1972 – Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike. 1979 – U.S. President Carter froze all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks abroad in response to the taking of 63 American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran. 1981 – 2nd Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 2-returns to Earth 1981 – Old Dutch Windmill in Golden Gate Park repaired & working again 1984 – Astronauts aboard “Discovery” pluck a 2nd satellite from orbit 1986 – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a record $100 million penalty against Ivan F. Boesky for insider-trading and barred him from working again in the securities industry. 1987 – In the lobby of Beirut’s American University Hospital a bomb hidden in a box of chocolates exploded. Seven people were killed including the woman carrying the box. 1988 – Israeli President Chaim Herzog formally asked Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to form a new government. 1989 – The U.S. Navy ordered an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down in the wake of a recent string of serious accidents. 1990 – Simon and Schuster announced it had dropped plans to publish Bret Easton Ellis novel “American Psycho.” 1991 – U.S. and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. 1991 – Thomas McIlvane fatally shot four workers at the Royal Oak, MI, Post Office before killing himself. He had been fired from the location. 1994 – U.S. experts visited North Korea’s main nuclear complex for the first time under an accord that opened such sites to outside inspections. 1995 – The U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while most government offices operated with skeleton crews. 1998 – Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman were married in Las Vegas]]]]> ]]>