As we chug on toward the end of the year, let’s pause and consider some of the events that have appeared on the historical calendar for November:
November 1, 1914 — The bra was patented.
November 2, 1721 — Peter the Great became Emperor of Russia.
November 3, 1952 — Clarence Birdseye marketed frozen peas.
November 4, 1842 — Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd. Eighteen years later on November 6, Lincoln was elected president of the United States.
November 7, 1874 — Cartoonist Thomas Nast depicted the Republican party as an elephant in a cartoon in Harper’s Weekly.
November 8, 1933 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the Civil Works Administration to help create jobs for millions of workers unemployed during the Great Depression.
November 9, 1927 — Giant pandas were first reported in China to the rest of the world by Pere David.
November 10, 1951 — Direct dial telephone service was first available coast to coast in the U.S.
November 10, 1969 — Sesame Street premiered on PBS television.
November 10, 1975 — The Edmund Fitzgerald and its entire crew was lost during a storm on Lake Superior.
November 11 — Remembrance Day. Here are a few numbers to consider as we salute those who died to preserve our freedom today:
• 115,000 Canadian war dead in First and Second World Wars.
• 516 Canadians died in the Korean War.
• Over 100 Canadian Peacekeepers have died in the cause of peace since the Second World War.
• 158 Canadians killed in Afghanstan.
• 74 countries have Canadian war graves
• The Vimy Memorial commemorates 11,172 Canadian war dead who have no known grave.
November 11, 1620 — Forty-one Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sign a compact calling for a “body Politick” just off the Massachusetts coast.
November 12, 1981 — The space shuttle Columbia was launched for the second time. This was the first time a space vehicle was used more than once.
November 13, 1942 — The minimum U.S. draft age was lowered from 21 to 18.
November 14, 1832 — The first horse-drawn streetcar went into operation. It ran on rails along Bowery Street in New York. The first horse-drawn streetcars (four) carried passengers in Winnipeg on October 21, 1882.
November 14, 1968 — Yale University went co-ed.
November 19, 1863 — Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.
November 20, 1959 — Ford stopped making the unpopular Edsel.
November 22, 1963 — President John F. Kennedy, the youngest person to become a U.S. president, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, as his motorcade travelled through the city.
November 23, 1835 — A patent was issued for the horseshoe manufacturing machine.
November 23, 1936 — the first issue of Life magazine was on the newsstand. It's amazing to think back to simpler days when the great events of our time were chronicled week-by-week for us in the pages of Life, instead of instantly before our eyes on the TV screen and internet.
November 24, 1859 — Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution, On the Origin of the Species, sparking great controversy. The book suggested that humans evolved from lower creatures.
November 25, 1963 — Jazz singer Holly Cole was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After moving to Toronto she formed the Holly Cole Trio. The award-winning performer developed an international career and produced seven gold and platinum albums. Holly Cole is particularly popular in Japan, where she received the Grand Prix Gold Disc Award in 1993.
November 26, 1716 — The first lion was exhibited in the U.S.
November 27, 1890 — Boston police received a complaint from residents, charging it was unsafe to drive horse and buggies due to “racing bicyclists.”
November 28, 1925 — The Grand Ole Opry debuted on radio.
November 30, 1782 -- The United States and Great Britain signed a peace treaty in Paris, formally ending the Revolutionary War.