1832 – The first streetcar went into operation in New York City, NY. The vehicle was horse-drawn and had room for 30 people.

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.

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.

1950 – Lydia M. Holmes St. Augustine, Florida Patent No. 2,529,692 on November 14, 1950 are the plans for several easily assembled wooden pull toys including a bird, a truck and dog. blackfacts.com

1951 – The first telecast of a world lightweight title fight was seen coast to coast. Jimmy Carter beat Art Aragon in Los Angeles.

1956 – The USSR crushed the Hungarian uprising.

1960 – U.S. marshals and parents escorted four Black girls to two New Orleans schools. blackfacts.com

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.

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.

1973 – Britain’s Princess Anne married a commoner, Capt. Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. They divorced in 1992, and Princess Anne re-married.

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.

1983 – The British government announced that U.S.-made cruise missiles had arrived at the Greenham Common air base amid protests.

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 – After 13 years in exile Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to his homeland.

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. 

2012 – The game Candy Crush Saga was released as a mobile app for iPhones.

It was on this day in 1789 that Founding Father Benjamin Franklin wrote what was probably his last great quote, a saying about the Constitution and life that became true about five months later.
In his time, Franklin may have been the most-quoted public figure of his generation. A publisher, entrepreneur and diplomat, Franklin became known for sayings or “proverbs” that appeared in Poor Richard’s Almanack and his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. In particular, Franklin wrote, or used other sources of content, for a 25-year period for his Almanack, as “Richard Saunders.”

To this day, there are discussions about the origins of some of these quotes. For example, one of the most-popular sayings attributed to Franklin is, “a penny saved is a penny earned.” This appears to be a combination of two Franklin proverbs.

Other famous Franklin quotes are well-documented. In “Advice To A Young Tradesman,” Franklin writes that, “Remember that time is money.”

But Franklin was also authored quotes in public documents from his involvement with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention, and in a huge volume of personal correspondence.

And one of his last great quotes came as Franklin knew his life was near its end.

In November 1789, Franklin wrote French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, concerned that he hadn’t heard from Le Roy since the start of the French Revolution. Franklin wrote in French and the letter was later translated for the 1817 printing of his private correspondence.
After asking about Le Roy’s health and events in Paris for the past year, Franklin gives a quick update about the major event in the United States: the Constitution’s ratification a year before and the start of a new government under it.

“Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes,” Franklin said. He concluded with a note about his own mortality to his friend: “My health continues much as it has been for some time, except that I grow thinner and weaker, so that I cannot expect to hold out much longer.”

Franklin would succumb to a combination of illnesses at the age of 84 in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790. In what thought to be his last known letter, Franklin wrote to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson on April 8, responding to an earlier inquiry about a boundary dispute involving an area between the Bay of Fundy in Canada and Maine.
“Your Letter found me under a severe Fit of my Malady, which prevented my answering it sooner, or attending indeed to any kind of Business. I now can assure you that I am perfectly clear in the Remembrance that the Map we used in tracing the Boundary was brought to the Treaty by the Commissioners from England,” Franklin replied, asking Jefferson to speak with John Adams about the boundary.

“I have the Honor to be with the greatest Esteem and Respect Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant,” Franklin said in his last letter.

While the concept of a “death and taxes” quote existed before Franklin, the publication of his papers in 1817 made the proverb a staple in American popular culture.

resource: constitutioncenter.org

resource: Madison.com

November 13th in African American History – Hansberry v. Lee

The ruling states that whites could not bar African Americans from white neighborhoods, but did not rule that restrictive covenants based on race were void.

It ruled for Hansberry on a legal technicality that Lee did not represent the entire class because a number of the homeowners (approximately 46%) disagreed with the covenant. Restrictive covenants based on race were completely outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 3, 1948 in the case of Shelley v. Kraemer.

Today in African American History . com