On this date:
In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick."
In 1831, former slave Nat Turner, who'd led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Va.
In 1889, Washington became the 42nd state.
One hundred years ago, in 1909, President William Howard Taft accepted the recommendation of a joint Army-Navy board that Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands be made the principal U.S. naval station in the Pacific.
In 1921, the remains of an unidentified American service member were interred in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony presided over by President Warren G. Harding.
Eighty years ago, in 1929, the Ambassador Bridge spanning the Detroit River between Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, was dedicated.
In 1966, Gemini 12 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. aboard.
In 1968, the Republic of Maldives was declared.
In 1982, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off on the first commercial space mission.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan became the first U.S. chief executive to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.
In 1984, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. — father of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. — died in Atlanta at age 84.
In 1987, U. S. President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Anthony Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court after Judge Douglas Ginsburg withdrew his nomination and Judge Robert Bork was rejected by the Senate.
In 1989, an estimated 1 million East Germans poured into reopened West Germany for a day of celebration, visiting and shopping. Most returned home. [Shopping wasn't that good. — Ed.]
In 1992, the Church of England broke the tradition of a male-only clergy when it voted to allow the ordination of women as priests.
In 1999, a car bomb ripped through a Bogota, Colombia, commercial district, killing eight people, but President Andres Pastrana defiantly signed extradition orders for three suspected drug traffickers. Sixty-seven people were killed when an apartment building collapsed in Foggia, Italy; an investigation blamed the collapse on cheap materials and slipshod construction. Argentine journalist Jacobo Timerman died in Buenos Aires at age 76.
In 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks, U.S. President George Bush and leaders from around the world stood in the shadow of the World Trade Center ruins and, in a colorful and solemn ceremony, honored the dead from more than 80 nations.
In 2004, Palestinians at home and abroad wept, waved flags and burned tires in an eruption of grief at news of the death of Yasser Arafat in Paris at age 75. President George W. Bush expressed hope that Arafat's passing would clear the way for successful Mideast peace negotiations with new Palestinian leaders.
In 2005, Harvard-educated Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, dubbed the "Iron Lady," claimed victory as the first woman president of Liberia.
In 2006, reports say medical care shortages may have led to the deaths of thousands of Iraqis despite the infusion of nearly $500,000. Sectarian violence, theft, corruption and mismanagement -- and the reported killings of hundreds of doctors -- were blamed. Also in 2006, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned Israel's recent attacks in Gaza. And, an anonymous tip led investigators to a mass grave in Bosnia containing more than 100 victims of the infamous Srebrenica massacre.
In 2008, President George W. Bush marked his last Veterans Day as president at a New York pier, speaking to a crowd of thousands gathered for the rededication of the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Mohamed Nasheed was sworn in as the Maldives' first democratically elected president. Dignitaries from France and Britain laid wreaths at Verdun, France, to note the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. The ceremony, one of many held across the globe, was at the site of one of the war's bloodiest battles. San Francisco's Tim Lincecum won the National League Cy Young Award. [And just last wk. (or late last month, wouldn't want to be inaccurate) Mr. Lincecum was popped for possessing the reefer. — Ed.]
Today's Birthdays: Dancer-choreographer Nicholas Royce is 84. Comedian Jonathan Winters is 84. Jazz singer-musician Mose Allison is 82. Author Carlos Fuentes is 81. Actress Bibi Andersson is 74. Country singer Narvel Felts is 71. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is 69. Rock singer-musician Vince Martell (Vanilla Fudge) is 64. The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, is 64. Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is 58. Pop singer-musician Paul Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 57. Rock singer-musician Andy Partridge (XTC) is 56. Singer Marshall Crenshaw is 56. Rock singer Dave Alvin is 54. Rock musician Ian Craig Marsh (Human League; Heaven 17) is 53. Actor Stanley Tucci is 49. Actress Demi Moore is 47. Actress Calista Flockhart is 45. Actor Philip McKeon is 45. Rock musician Scott Mercado is 45. Actor Frank John Hughes is 42. TV personality Carson Kressley is 40. Actor David DeLuise is 38. Actor Adam Beach is 37. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is 35. Rock musician Jonathan Pretus (Cowboy Mouth) is 28.
Today In Entertainment History November 11
In 1939, Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on network radio.
In 1945, composer Jerome Kern, who wrote such memorable tunes as "Ol' Man River," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "The Last Time I Saw Paris," died at the age of 60.
In 1958, Hank Ballard and The Midnighters recorded the original version of "The Twist." It became a number-one hit in 1960 after Chubby Checker recorded it.
In 1965, The Velvet Underground made their concert debut at a high school dance in Summit, New Jersey.
Forty years ago, in 1969, Doors lead singer Jim Morrison was arrested for public drunkenness and for interfering with the flight of an aircraft. Morrison allegedly had annoyed a flight attendant on a trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix. The charges eventually were dropped.
In 1970, Bob Dylan's book "Tarantula," a collection of narratives and poems, was published.
In 1972, bassist Berry Oakley of the Allman Brothers Band was killed in a motorcycle crash in Macon, Georgia. The accident occurred three blocks from the site of a crash that took the life of Duane Allman a year earlier.
In 1997, Metallica played a free concert in the parking lot of the CoreStates complex in Philadelphia. The band had gone to court and won the right to do so after CoreStates officials bowed to pressure from city council members and neighbors who opposed the show.
Show Biz Quote of The Day: Following the formation of United Artists film corporation, Richard Rowland said, "The lunatics have taken charge of the asylum." (UA was founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith.)
Thought for Today: "Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information." — Kurt Vonnegut, American author (born this date in 1922, died 2007).
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