A Focus on History – November 15 through November 21

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November 15
U.S. president Jimmy Carter welcomes Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran, and his wife, Empress (or “Shahbanou”) Farrah, to Washington. Over the next two days, Carter and Pahlavi discuss improving relations between the two countries. Two years later, the two leaders’ political fates would be further entwined when Islamic fundamentalists overthrow the shah and take Americans hostage in Tehran. – 1977.
November 16
Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer and conquistador, springs a trap on the Incan emperor, Atahualpa. With fewer than 200 men against several thousand, Pizarro lures Atahualpa to a feast in the emperor’s honor and then opens fire on the unarmed Incans. Pizarro’s men massacre the Incans and capture Atahualpa and force him to convert to Christianity before eventually killing him. – 1532.
In a move that stirs up some controversy, the United States sends 88 German scientists to America to assist the Nation in its production of rocket technology. Most of these men had served under the Nazi regime and critics in the United States doubted the morality of placing them in the service of America. Nevertheless, the U.S. government is desperate to acquire the scientific know-how that had produced the terrifying and destructive V-1 and V-2 rockets for Germany during WWII. – 1945.
November 17
The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. – 1869.
November 18
At exactly noon on this day, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies. – 1883.
Thirty-one men die on Lake Michigan with the sinking of the Carl D. Bradley during one of the worst storms in the Lake’s history. Four crewmen survived. – 1958.
Peoples Temple founder leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. Many of the Peoples Temple followers willingly ingest a poison-laced punch while others were forced to do so. The final death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; one-third of those who perished were children. – 1978.
November 19
At the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., during the American Civil War, president Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight to win the Civil War. – 1863.
November 20
Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis go on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II. – 1945.
Seventy-eight miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company’s No. 9 mine in Farmington, W. Va.. – 1968.
November 21
The American inventor Thomas A. Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound. – 1877.
Six miners on strike for better working conditions under the IWW banner are killed and many wounded in the Columbine Massacre at Lafayette, Colo.. Out of this struggle Colorado coal miners gained lasting union contracts. – 1927.
A Senate committee issues a report charging that U.S. government officials were behind assassination plots against two foreign leaders and were heavily involved in at least three other plots. The shocking revelations suggested that the United States was willing to go to murderous levels in pursuing its Cold War policies. – 1975.
National Security Council staff member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, begin shredding documents that would have exposed their participation in a range of illegal activities regarding the sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to a rebel Nicaraguan group. North was fired November 25, but Hall continued to sneak documents to him by stuffing them in her skirt and boots. The Iran-Contra scandal, as it came to be known, became an embarrassment and a sticky legal problem for the Ronald Reagan administration. – 1986.
Congress approves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to take effect January 1 of the following year. – 1993.

Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council.

• “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”   —George Santayana, Philosopher

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