November 16
Joseph Goebbels publishes in the German magazine Das Reich that “The Jews wanted the war, and now they have it”—referring to the Nazi propaganda scheme to shift the blame for the world war on to European Jewry, thereby giving the Nazis a rationalization for the so-called Final Solution. – 1941.
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.
Construction begins on a giant bonfire at Texas A&M University, the continuation of a tradition that began 90 years earlier. Two days later, the bonfire collapsed and kills 12 students and injures another 27. The bonfire had 7,000 logs and was 59 feet high, four feet higher than authorized. – 1999.
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.
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
The Nation’s first automatic toll collection machine is used at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway. – 1954.
November 20
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.
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.
November 22
The district president of the American Federation of Labor and two other white men are shot and killed in Bogalusa, Ala. when they attempt to assist an African-American organizer working to unionize African-American workers at the Great Southern Lumber Co.. – 1919.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible. The unusual trajectory of the ricochet of the bullet has been the subject of many conspiracy theories. – 1963.