Did you know that on this day, November 24, 1995, Ireland ended its ban on divorce? About two-thirds of registered voters turned out and voted on the issue, with the winning vote being 50.28%.
Source: factsite.com
November 24 ~ Ireland and Divorce
Monthly Archives: November 2025
on this day … 11/24
1615 – French King Louis XIII married Ann of Austria. They were both 14 years old.
1859 – Charles Darwin, a British naturalist, published “On the Origin of Species.” It was the paper in which he explained his theory of evolution through the process of natural selection.
1863 – During the Civil War, the battle for Lookout Mountain began in Tennessee.
1871 – The National Rifle Association was incorporated in the U.S.
1874 – Joseph F. Glidden was granted a patent for a barbed fencing material.
1903 – Clyde J. Coleman received the patent for an electric self-starter for an automobile.
1940 – Nazis closed off the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. Over the next three years the population dropped from 350,000 to 70,000 due to starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps.
1944 – During World War II, the first raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo was made by land-based U.S. bombers.
1947 – The “Hollywood 10,” were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in their industry.
1947 – John Steinbeck’s novel “The Pearl” was published for the first time.
1963 – Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald live on national television.
1969 – Apollo 12 landed safely in the Pacific Ocean bringing an end to the second manned mission to the moon.
1983 – The Palestine Liberation Organization released six Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of 4,500 Palestinians and Lebanese held by the Israelis.
1985 – In Malta, Egyptian commandos stormed an Egyptian jetliner. 60 people died in the raid.
1987 – The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap short- and medium-range missiles. It was the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.
1989 – Czechoslovakia’s hard-line party leadership resigned after more than a week of protests against its policies.
1992 – In China, a domestic jetliner crashed, killing 141 people.
1993 – The U.S. Congress gave its final approval to the Brady handgun control bill.
1995 – In Ireland, the voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment legalizing divorce.
1996 – Rusty Wallace won the first NASCAR event to be held in Japan.
1996 – Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) set an NFL record when he recorded his eighth straight 1,000-yard season.
1998 – AOL (America Online) announced a deal for their purchase of Netscape for $4.21 billion.
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November 23, 1897 ~ John Lee Love, Portable Pencil Sharpener Inventor
Public domain image
Updated on January 13, 2020 ~ Mary Bellis
John Lee Love (September 26, 1889?-December 26, 1931) was a Black inventor who developed the portable pencil sharpener, which he patented in 1897.
Not much is known about his life but he is remembered for two inventions, the other being a plasterer’s hawk, which works much like an artist’s palette for a plasterer or mason. In the pantheon of African American inventors, Love is remembered for devising small things to make life easier.
Fast Facts: John Lee Love
- Known For: Inventor of the Love pencil sharpener
- Born: September 26, 1889? in Fall River, Massachusetts
- Died: December 26, 1931 Charlotte, North Carolina
- Early Life
- John Lee Love is believed to have been born on September 26, 1889, though another account lists his birth year as sometime between 1865 and 1877 during Reconstruction, which would have put his place of birth in the South. Not much else is known about Love’s early days, including whether he had any formal schooling or what prompted him to tinker with and improve certain everyday objects.
- We do know that he worked almost his entire life as a carpenter in Fall River, Massachusetts and that he patented his first invention, an improved plasterer’s hawk, on July 9, 1895 (U.S. Patent No. 542,419).
First Invention
The plasterer’s hawk traditionally had been a flat, square wooden board, about nine inches long on each side, with a handle — basically, a post-like grip — that is perpendicular to the board and attached to its bottom. By putting the plaster, mortar, or (later) stucco on top of the board, the plasterer or mason could access it quickly and easily with the tool being used to apply it. The new design functioned much like an artist’s palette.
As a carpenter, Love was likely well acquainted with the use of plaster and mortar. He believed that the hawks in use at the time were too bulky to be portable. His innovation was to design a hawk with a detachable handle and a foldable board made of aluminum, which must have been a lot easier to clean than wood.
On November 23, 1897, Love patented the pencil sharpener
Source: blackpast.org , blackfacts.com , thoughtco.com
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1889 ~ The First ” JukeBox”
A 12-year-old little boy playing with a toy-gun… is shot to death ~Tamir Rice
Source: blackfacts.com
Today, November, 22, 2014, we all should remember Tamir Rice
On November 22, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice is shot dead by police officers in Cleveland, Ohio. Rice, who was carrying a realistic-looking toy gun at the time, was one of several African Americans killed by American law enforcement at the time whose deaths garnered national attention, making him a martyr of the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement.
Rice was playing with an Airsoft plastic pellet gun at the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland on the afternoon of the 22nd. An observer called the police to report him, specifically mentioning that the gun was likely a toy and that Rice appeared to be a minor. The police dispatcher, however, simply told Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback that the suspect had a gun. Loehmann and Garmback arrived on the scene and shot Rice in a matter of seconds. Issuing an opinion that both officers should be charged with homicide, a judge would later write, “this court is still thunderstruck by how quickly this event turned deadly.” The boy died of his wounds the next day.
Despite the judge’s opinion, a grand jury declined to charge either officer. The killing of Rice came a few months after the killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown by police in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, respectively; two days after the killing of unarmed Akai Gurley by the NYPD; and just two days before a grand jury declined to indict the officer who killed Brown. This spate of police killings, many of which were caught on camera and seen by millions of people, led to civil unrest throughout the United States and drew public attention to the excesses of American law enforcement. In 2017, the Cleveland police fired Loehmann, the officer who killed Rice, not for the shooting but for failing to disclose that he had previously been declared emotionally unfit for duty while working for a different police department.
The idea that a journalist, let alone the police and their lawyers blamed Tamir for his own death. This is offensive, tragic, and beyond unacceptable! Right??
Be a Seed for Change 
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