On This Day November 7th

 OTD

November 7th is the 311th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 54 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.

1504 – Christopher Columbus returns from his fourth and last voyage.

1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.

1786 – The oldest musical organization in the United States was founded as the Stoughton Musical Society.

1811 – Tecumseh's War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States.

1874 – A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.

1910 – The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Morehouse.

1916 – Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the United States Congress.

1918 – The 1918 influenza epidemic spread to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year.

1933 – Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.

1957 – Cold War: The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.

1991 – Magic Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive and retires from the NBA.

 

Birthdays

1186 – Ögedei Khan, Mongol ruler, 2nd Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (d. 1241)

1619 – Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux, French author and poet (d. 1692)

1728 – James Cook, English captain, navigator, and cartographer (d. 1779)

1832 – Andrew Dickson White, American historian, academic, and diplomat, co-founded Cornell University (d. 1918)

1867 – Marie Curie, Polish chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1934)

1915 – Philip Morrison, American astrophysicist and academic (d. 2005)

1922 – Al Hirt, American trumpet player and bandleader (d. 1999)

1927 – Hiroshi Yamauchi, Japanese businessman (d. 2013)

1976 – Rob Caggiano, American guitarist and producer

1983 – Adam DeVine, American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and singer

1986 – David Nelson, American football player

 

Holiday Spotlight

 The Melbourne Cup

   It was 1840 when the Gold Rush town of Melbourne decided to racehorses down by the banks of the river. There was a large flat area, with a hill to the northwest for spectators. The following year, the organizers put up some scaffolding, but it was 1848 before there was a natural grandstand. The course became known as the Melbourne Racecourse.

 The landowner named the area “Flemington” after property his wife owned in Scotland, and in the 1850s, everyone called the course the “Flemington Racecourse.” It’s the oldest racecourse in Australia.

 By 1859, horses from New South Wales, Tasmania, and New Zealand were competing in the Australian Championship Sweepstakes. The event attracted 40,000 people and was the first Australian sporting event ever telegraphed in Sydney. At that point, Melbourne’s racing power players conceived of an even more significant, more prestigious event that could raise funds for developing the track.

 The Melbourne Cup made its debut in 1861. In those early days, there were two rival racing clubs, the Victoria Turf Club and the Victoria Jockey Club. With the two at loggerheads, management of the course and the Cup suffered, the track was sabotaged, and both clubs went into debt. So they merged in 1864 to form the Victoria Racing Club, the governing body of Flemington today. The following year, the Club was pleased to have Melbourne Cup Day declared a half-day holiday.

 One problem, though, was that the Victoria Racing Club didn’t own the land; they leased it. In 1871, the government passed the Victorian Racing Club Act, entrusting land ownership to the club. The Melbourne Cup was first run on a Tuesday in 1875. Two years later, Victoria made the day an official state holiday to accommodate the size and significance of the event. 

 

Others Include

Election Day

Employee Brotherhood Day

International Inuit Day

International Merlot Day

Little League Girls Day

National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day

National Canine Lymphoma Awareness Day

National Gin Day

National Hug a Bear Day - (A Stuffed Bear!)

Notary Public Day

Skeptics Day International 

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