One hundred years ago, on Nov. 13, 1909, 259 men and boys were killed when fire erupted inside a coal mine in Cherry, Ill. (Nearly as many miners survived the disaster).
On this date:
In 1775, U.S. forces captured Montreal. [Just a reminder to some people. — Belligerence Editor]
In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
In 1856, Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis was born in Louisville, Ky.
In 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between lower Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.
In 1933, the first recorded "sit-down" strike in the United States was staged by workers at the Hormel Packing Company in Austin, Minn.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.
In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public city and state buses.
In 1967, Carl Stokes became the first black U.S. mayor when he was elected in Cleveland.
Forty years ago, in 1969, speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accused network TV news departments of bias and distortion, and urged viewers to lodge complaints.
In 1971, the U. S. space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars.
Thirty-five years ago, in 1974, Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.
In 1977, the comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.
Thirty years ago, in 1979, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan announced in New York his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. [See above for the full horror of the AP story. — Ed.]
In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington.
In 1992, a group of Peruvian military officers tried unsuccessfully to assassinate President Alberto Fujimori and overthrow the government.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000, ending the four-year legal battle over her sexual harassment lawsuit that spurred impeachment proceedings against him. Clinton did not admit guilt.
In 1999, the Navy recovered the cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 31 with the loss of all 217 people aboard. Lennox Lewis became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, winning a unanimous decision over Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas.
AP Highlight in [Alternate] History:
On Nov. 13, 2001, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban abandoned the capital Kabul without a fight, allowing U.S.-backed northern alliance fighters to take over the city.
In 2003, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had refused to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse, was thrown off the bench by a judicial ethics panel for having "placed himself above the law."
In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney went to a hospital after experiencing shortness of breath; tests found nothing wrong. Harry Lampert, the illustrator who helped create the DC Comics superhero The Flash, died in Boca Raton, Fla., at age 88. Also in 2004, an Iraqi national security adviser said up to 1,000 insurgents were killed in the six-day battle for Fallujah.
In 2006, as many as 150 people were kidnapped from Iraq's Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad by about 80 gunmen in security services uniforms.
In 2008, A wind-driven fire erupted in Southern California; the blaze destroyed more than 200 homes in Santa Barbara and neighboring Montecito. Investors did an abrupt turnaround on Wall Street, muscling the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 550 points after three straight days of selling. Cleveland's Cliff Lee won the American League Cy Young Award.
Today's Birthdays: Actress Madeleine Sherwood is 87. Journalist-author Peter Arnett is 75. Producer-director Garry Marshall is 75. Actor Jimmy Hawkins is 68. Country singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard is 63. Actor Joe Mantegna is 62. Actress Sheila Frazier is 61. Actress Frances Conroy is 56. Musician Andrew Ranken (The Pogues) is 56. Actress Tracy Scoggins is 56. Actor Chris Noth is 55. Actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg is 54. Actor Rex Linn ("CSI: Miami") is 53. Actress Caroline Goodall is 50. Actor Neil Flynn ("Scrubs") is 49. Former NFL quarterback Vinny Testaverde is 46. Rock musician Walter Kibby (Fishbone) is 45. Comedian/talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel is 42. Actor Steve Zahn is 42. Writer-activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is 40. Actress Aisha Hinds is 34. Rock musician Nikolai Fraiture is 31. Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest is 30.
Today In Entertainment History November 13
In 1940, the Walt Disney movie "Fantasia" had its world premiere in New York.
In 1983, country comedian Junior Samples died. He was 57.
In 1992, drummer Ronnie Bond of The Troggs died. He was 49. Elton John performed in Mexico for the first time. An estimated 90,000 people attended the concert at a stadium in Mexico City.
In 1993, actress Michelle Pfeiffer married TV writer-producer David E. Kelley.
In 1997, two players with the New England Patriots took a stage dive during an Everclear concert in Boston. A woman in the crowd later sued, claiming she suffered neck injuries when the players landed on her. The Disney musical "The Lion King" opened on Broadway.
In 1999, Donald Mills, last surviving member of the singing Mills Brothers, died in Los Angeles at age 84.
In 2004, Rapper O.D.B. (real name: Russell Jones), a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, collapsed and died inside a recording studio in New York City two days before his 36th birthday.
In 2008, Colombian rocker Juanes won five awards, including record of the year and album of the year, at the Latin Grammys in Houston.
Thought for Today: "What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?" — Gilbert Highet, Scottish-born American author and educator (1906-1978).
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