Posted on 11/19/2004 11:36:42 AM PST by Just Dan
1521 - in Italy, Milan was invaded by papal armies under Colonna, which heralded the start of the war between Hapsburg and Valois.
1600 - Charles I, King of Scotland and England, born; his authoritarian rule led to civil war and his eventual execution.
1703 - The "Man in the Iron Mask," a prisoner in the Bastille prison in Paris, died. His true identity was the cause of much intrigue and is celebrated in the literary works of Francois Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas.
1794 - A treaty signed by American Chief Justice John Jay and British foreign secretary Lord Grenville was signed in Philadelphia. under the treaty, British forces pulled out of the Northwest Territory.
1809 - In the Peninsular War, 30,000 French defeated over 50,000 Spaniards at the battle of Ocana.
1850 - 36-year-old Carolyn Ingraham of Madison, New Jersey purchased the first life insurance policy issued to a female.
1863 - President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.
1874 - The Women's Christian Temperance Union was organized.
1893 - The first newspaper color supplement was published in the Sunday paper "New York World".
1895 - Frederick E. Blaisdell of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania patented the paper pencil, which was a pencil that writes on paper.
1919 - The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55 in favor to 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
1928 - Published for five years, "TIME" magazine presented its first cover portrait. The subject of the cover was Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
1932 - Football halfback Joe Kershallo scored 71 points leading West Liberty State College of West Virginia to a 127-0 win over Cedarville College, Ohio.
1941 - The Australian warship Sydney engaged the German raider Kormoran in a fierce battle in the Indian Ocean some 300 miles off the western coast of Australia. The Sydney sailed off and was never seen again, with 645 presumed dead.
1942 - Soviet Red Army troops began a massive counter-offensive against the Germans at Stalingrad.
1943 - Stan Kenton and his orchestra recorded Capitol Record #159, "Artistry in Rhythm", which would later become the Kenton theme. The flip side of the album was titled, "Eager Beaver".
1946 - The first UNESCO conference opened in Paris at which the organization attained full status as an agency.
1949 - Prince Rainier was sworn in as 30th ruling Prince of Monaco.
1954 - Nightclub singing star Sammy Davis, Jr. suffered a shattered face and the loss of his left eye in an auto accident while driving in the California desert. Following a lengthy hospitalization, Davis, who had considered retiring from show business, re-emerged as an even greater entertainer.
1954 - On New Jersey's Garden State Parkway, two automatic toll collectors were placed in service as the United States' first automatic toll collectos that only accepted correct change.
1955 - Carl Perkins recorded Blue Suede Shoes at Sun Studios in Memphis. It became his biggest pop hit.
1959 - After 2 years and 110,847 cars, the last Edsel rolled off the assembly line. Ford Motor Company stopped production of the vehicle beacuse of poor sales.
1959 - The famed cartoon series "Rocky and His Friends" premiered on American television.
1961 - A year after Chubby Checker hit #1 with "The Twist", the singer appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" to again perform the song. "The Twist" shot to #1 again on January 13, 1962, becoming the first record to reach #1 a second time.
1962 - The first jazz concert was presented at the White House. Before this, jazz had only been used as background music.
1966 - Six weeks before his 31st birthday, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, suffering from arthritis, announced his retirement. During his career, Koufax racked up a 12-season record of 165 wins, 87 losses and 2,396 strikeouts.
1969 - The United States Apollo 12 lunar module landed on the moon, carrying astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean.
1972 - West German Chancellor Willy Brandt won a second term with an increased majority.
1976 - Algeria voted for a new constitution with a national assembly and increased powers for an elected president.
1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
1978 - Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
1984 - 20-year-old New York Met Dwight Gooden became the youngest major-league pitcher named Rookie of the Year in the National League. The pitcher led the major leagues with 276 strikeouts.
1985 - President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.
1986 - Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt became the third player in National League history to win the Most Valuable Player award three times. His predecessors were Roy Campanella of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Stan Musial of the Cardinals.
1990 - The pop duo Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy Award because other singers had lent their voices to the "Girl You Know It's True" album.
1990 - Leaders of NATO and the Warsaw Pact marked the end of the Cold War when they signed the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, slashing their Cold War arsenals.
1994 - The United Nations Security Council authorized NATO warplanes to strike targets in Croatia used by Serbs to launch air attacks against United Nations-designated safe areas in neighboring Bosnia.
1995 - A suicide bomber blasted his way into the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, setting off a powerful explosion that killed 16 people and wounded more than 60, including diplomats.
1996 - A historic first meeting in the Vatican took place between the pope and veteran revolutionary Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
1996 - Paternal Home Alone actor John Heard was charged with stalking Homicide television actress Melissa Leo and their 9-year-old son and assaulting her current boyfriend. Heard, age 50, was freed on $50,000 bail. Leo wrote that she feared for the safety of her son and her own safety, and that Heard was stalking the boy and must be stopped. Leo's boyfriend said in his complaint that Heard assaulted him in front of the Baltimore school that Heard's son attended and harassed him with threatening phone calls.
1997 - In Hyderbad, India, 800 miles south of New Delhi, a car bomb tore through a film studio's gala kickoff for the filming of a new movie, killing 23 people and injuring 31 among a throng of moviemakers, fans, and journalists. Police suspected the bombing was the work of political rivals of the movie's producer, a state lawmaker. The bomb punched a crater 6 feet wide and 2 feet deep in the ground outside the studio. It detonated as hundreds were leaving the festivities.
1997 - Iowa seamstress Bobbi McCaughey gave birth to four boys and three girls - only the second set of septuplets known to be born alive.
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