Sunday, November 14, 2010

POPnews - November 14th

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[While Colombian money has frequently featured portraits of mythical or allegorical women, Policarpa Salavarrieta is the only historical woman to be so honoured; currently, her image appears on the 10,000 peso note.]

1889 - Journalist Nellie Bly began a successful attempt to travel around the world in 80 days, inspired by the Jules Verne novel of that name... She actually completed the trip in under seventy-three days and her account of the trip, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, became almost as big a best seller as Verne's.

1910 - Aviator Eugene Ely became the first to launch an airplane from a ship when he took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in a Curtiss Model D designed by Glenn Curtiss himself.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) began radio service.

1940 - The city of Coventry was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, almost completely destroying Coventry Cathedral in the process.

1941 - The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sank off Gibraltar - a day after sustaining heavy damage from the German submarine U-81, which was under the command of Friedrich Guggenberger.

1948 - The first child - a son and heir to the throne, named Charles Philip Arthur George - was born to Britain's Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

1952 - The first regular UK singles chart was published by the New Musical Express.

1957 - The Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton in Upstate New York was raided by law enforcement, resulting in the arrest of many high level Mafiosi, including the meeting's host Joseph 'Joe the Barber' Barbara.

1965 - The Battle of the Ia Drang - the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War - began.

1967 - The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, led that nation in celebrating this day as the first 'Day of the Colombian Woman'.

1969 - NASA launched Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.

1970 - Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75 - including members of the Marshall University football team.

1971 - Shenouda III was enthroned as Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Apostolic See of Saint Mark the Evangelist, making him the spiritual leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church around the world.

1972 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 1,003.16 - above 1,000 for the first time.

1973 - The Queen's only daughter Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips at Westminster Abbey.

1975 - Spain relinquished its claim to Western Sahara.

1984 - Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco - a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos - was assassinated in his home city.

1991 - Cambodia's Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh after thirteen years in exile.

2003 - Sedna* was discovered, although the discovery would not be announced until the following March... Already considered a trans-Neptunian object by scientists, whether or not it is an asteroid or dwarf planet is still being debated, and will obviously depend on whether or not it is in hydrostatic equilibrium, as is currently suspected. It is, nevertheless, the most distant observed natural body in our solar system.

*Named after the Inuit goddess of the sea...
*
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