HISTORY At A Glance

TODAY is Wednesday, November 18, the 323rd day of 2020. There are 43 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1905 Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.

1928 Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey’s birthday.

1943 World War II: Battle of Berlin: Four

hundred forty Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses nine aircraft and 53 air crew.

1961 United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam. 1978 In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder–suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.

Congressman Leo Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.

1991 After an 87-day siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar capitulates to the besieging Yugoslav People’s Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces. 1996 A fire occurs on a train traveling through the Channel Tunnel from France to England causing several injuries and damaging approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) of tunnel.