TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10, the 314th day of 2021. There are 51 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1951, customer-dialed longdistance telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, called Alameda, California, Mayor Frank Osborne without operator assistance.
In 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.
In 1871, journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found Scottish missionary David Livingstone, who had not been heard from for years, near Lake Tanganyika in central Africa.
In 1919, the American Legion opened its first national convention in Minneapolis. In 1928, Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
In 1944, during World War II, the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded while moored at the Manus Naval Base in the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific, leaving 45 confirmed dead, and 327 missing and presumed dead.
In 1969, the children’s educational program “Sesame Street” made its debut on National Educational Television (later PBS).
In 1975, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution equating Zionism with racism (the world body repealed the resolution in Dec. 1991).
In 1982, the newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, D.C., three days before its dedication. Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev died at age 75. In 2006, actor Jack Palance died in Montecito, California, at age 87.
In 2009, John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that killed 10 in the Washington, D.C., region, was executed. President Barack Obama visited Fort Hood, Texas, where he somberly saluted the 13 Americans killed in a shooting rampage and pledged that the killer would be “met with justice — in this world, and the next.”
In 2017, facing allegations of sexual misconduct, comedian Louis C.K. said the harassment claims by five women that were detailed in a New York Times report “are true” and he expressed remorse for using his influence “irresponsibly.”
In 2018, President Donald Trump, in France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, canceled a visit to a cemetery east of Paris where Americans killed in that war are buried; rainy weather had grounded the presidential helicopter. Authorities in Northern California said 14 additional bodies had been found in the ruins of a fire that virtually destroyed the town of Paradise.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Blues singer Bobby Rush is 87. Actor Albert Hall is 84. Country singer Donna Fargo is 80. Former Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., is 78. Lyricist Tim Rice is 77. Actor Jack Scalia is 71. Movie director Roland Emmerich is 66. Actor Matt Craven and actor-comedian Sinbad are 65. Actor Mackenzie Phillips is 62. Author Neil Gaiman is 61. Actors Vanessa Angel and Hugh Bonneville, and actor-comedian Tommy Davidson are 58. Actor Michael Jai White is 57. Country singer Chris Cagle and actor-comedian Tracy Morgan are 53. Actor Ellen Pompeo is 52. Actor-comedian Orny Adams, rapper U-God and rapper-producer Warren G are 51. Actor Walton Goggins is 50. Comedian-actor Chris Lilley and contemporary Christian singer Matt Maher are 47. Rock singer-musician Jim Adkins (Jimmy Eat World) is 46. Rapper Eve is 43. Rock musician Chris Joannou (Silverchair) is 42. Actor Heather Matarazzo is 39. Country singer Miranda Lambert is 38. Actor Josh Peck is 35. Pop singer Vinz Dery (Nico & Vinz) is 31. Actor Genevieve Buechner is 30. Actor Zoey Deutch is 27.