November 30

Literary Greats

Mark Twain - born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in Missouri on this day in 1835.

In 1900, Irish writer Oscar Wilde died in Paris at the age of 46.

November 27

Happy Birthday...

...to both Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix. Two stunning performers, gone far too young.

November 25

A Little Music History

Cream played their last concert in 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. As they left the stage, 10,000 fans chanted "God Save The Cream!"

In 1976, The Band performed what they said would be their last performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. A few friends stopped by: Bob Dylan, Ronnie Wood, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Neil Diamond, to name a scant few. It was filmed and ultimately became Scorsese's wonderful biopic entitled The Last Waltz.

Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Paul Atkinson, Chris White and Hugh Grundy—collectively referred to as The Zombies, reunited after 30 years to perform at the Jazz Cafe in London. They performed only two songs: She's Not There and Time of the Season.

—Jessie Lilley

November 22-24

The Kenendy Assasination

November 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, TX. The 35th President of the United States was 46 years old. 24 year old Lee Harvey Oswald, an ex-Marine, was arrested for the crime later that night. By November 23, the entire world knew of the event and was, for the most part, stunned.

November 24, 1963

Dallas, TX nightclub owner Jack Rudy shot and killed the accused gunman and was later found guilty sentenced to death (March 14, 1964) for the crime. Two-and-a-half-years later, in October of 1966 Ruby was granted a new trial. He died of cancer before that trial ever came about.

Today

Conspiracy theorists have a field day with these events. Who was responsible? Was Oswald "just a patsy" as he claimed? Did the mob hit JFK? Did the US Government assassinate their own president? Was Castro responsible? At this point, we'll never know.

Should the actual facts one day become available, no one will accept them for what they are, rather, they'll simply be relegated to the shelf with all the other theories and this case will join the anals of history as another mystery as great or greater than the Jack the Ripper murders.

What we do know is that JFK was dead, Johnson was sworn in as President, Jackie lost a husband, John and Caroline lost a father, the Kennedy family lost a son and the world lost a man with the potential of being a truly great leader - or not. We'll never know now.

—Jessie Lilley

November 23

Mondo

Fun Facts

Several events occurred on this day in history.

1889

The Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco installed the first jukebox in the city.

1936

The first issue of Life magazine hit the newsstands.

1945

Wartime food rationing in the United States came to an end.

November 20

Mondo Fun Facts

Several events occurred on this day in history.

1789

New Jersey was the first of the original 13 States to ratify the Bill of Rights.

1945

This marks the first day of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.

1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis came to an end.

The New York Daily News cost 5¢

and...

Happy Birthday John Fitzgerald Kennedy!

Joe Biden, too!

And Happy Anniversay to Elizabeth and Philip of England. Married 62 years today.

November 19

Gettysburg

The US Civil War was unimaginable carnage that forever branded this land with the mark of Cain. One of the bloodiest battles ocurred from July 1 to 3 in 1863 at Gettysburg, PA. On November 19 of that year, a cemetary was dedicated on the battleground, and President Abraham Lincoln gave an address. It wasn't a long speech, but those few words echo across the decades with a clamor that will not be ignored. Read it again, now. It's worth a few minutes, I assure you.

—Jessie Lilley

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

November 18

It's About Time

On this day in 1883, the US Railroads claimed a victory for instigating the new time calculation that went into effect. Until then, different cities and towns in the country was on their own time standards; referred to as local sun time. In fact, whether traveling East or West in this country, one would have to adjust one's watch by 1 minute every 12 miles. There were over 300 of them! This played havoc with the train schedules.

It should also be noted that the US Naval Observatory, created in 1830, which cooperated with Great Britain's Greenwich Observatory (in their quest to observe the heavens and try to figure out time based on those observations) changed their telegraph signals at noon that day to correspond with the change. People across the US and Canada, adjusted their pocket watches at noon Greenwich Mean Time, based on the instructions from the telegraph. The four time zones we are so used to here in the US, were adopted. The standardization worked so well that a year later, the system was adopted internationally. GMT is the base and the 24 meridians mark the time zones around the world.

November 17

Mondo Fun Facts

Three notable things occurred on this day in history.

1800

Today marks the first day Congress met in Washington, DC. The Capitol building was still only partially complete.

1973

This is the day President Richard M. Nixon said, "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."

2003

Arnold Schwartznegger was sworn in as Governor of California

and...

Happy Birthday Gordon Lightfoot!