Nov 4 in History
1712 — The Bandbox Plot, an attempt to kill Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and British Lord Treasurer, is foiled by a famous visitor, Jonathan Swift (author of “Gulliver’s Travels”). Harley receives a bandbox (lightweight hatbox) configured to fire a number of loaded, cocked pistols on opening with the triggers attached to a thread (like a parcel bomb). Swift spots the thread, seizes the package and cuts the thread. 1847 — Felix Mendelssohn, 38, German pianist and composer (overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), dies in Leipzig after a series of strokes.
1854 — Florence Nightingale and 38 nurses arrive at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari, Turkey, during the Crimean War (1853-56) amid increasing casualties in unsanitary conditions. Their clean-up and care cut down greatly on fatalities. Florence earns the title “Lady with the Lamp” during her nightly rounds.
1880 — The first cash register is patented by James Ritty of Ohio. He calls it “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier”. 1899 — Monte Ward, retired baseball player and manager, delivers a manifesto on the sport that says in part: “There was a time when the League stood for integrity and fair dealing …”
1921 — Hara Takashi, 65, premier of Japan, is assassinated (stabbed) by a right-wing railway switchman at Tokyo Station.
1970 — The story of “Genie”, the feral child who was the victim of extraordinarily severe abuse, neglect and social isolation, comes to the attention of Los Angeles child welfare authorities. Her father kept her locked alone in a room from the age of 20 months to 13 years 7 months, almost always strapped to a child’s toilet or bound in a crib with her arms and legs completely immobilised, and never exposed to any significant amount of speech.
1979 — The US Embassy in Teheran is taken over by Iranian students. They hold 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Ronald Reagan, 69, is elected US president on November 4 1980. The hostages are released on January 20 1981, the day of Reagan’s inauguration. 1989 — Lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, his wife Satoko, 29, and son Tatsuhiko, 14 months, are killed in their Yokohama apartment, Japan. He had handled a case against Aum Shinrikyo, a new cult. Their bodies are placed in drums and deposited in three different prefectures. More than 100 members of the cult are arrested after the March 20 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. Four confess to the Sakamoto murders and point out the location of their remains. One killer is stabbed to death by a Korean assassin in April 1995. The other three are executed by hanging in July 2018. 1995 — Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 73, is assassinated (shot) by a far-right law student at a Tel Aviv peace rally.