This day in history
Today is Saturday, Nov. 11, the 315th day of 2023. There are 50 days left in the year. Today is Veterans Day.
▶ Birthdays: Country singer Narvel Felts is 85. Former Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, is 83. Americana roots singer/songwriter Chris Smither is 79. Rock singer-musician Vince Martell (Vanilla Fudge) is 78. The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, is
78. Rock singer Jim Peterik (Ides of March, Survivor) is 73. Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is 72. Pop singer-musician Paul Cowsill (the Cowsills) is 72. Rock singermusician Andy Partridge (XTC) is 70. Singer Marshall Crenshaw is 70. Rock singer Dave Alvin is
68. Rock musician Ian Craig Marsh (Human League; Heaven 17) is 67. Actor Stanley Tucci is
63. Actor Demi Moore is 61. Actor Calista Flockhart is 59. Actor Frank John Hughes is 56. TV personality Carson Kressley is
54. Actor David DeLuise is 52. Actor Adam Beach is 51. Actor Tyler Christopher is 51. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is 49. Musician Jon Batiste is 37. Actor Tye Sheridan is 27.
▶ In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a “body politick.”
▶ In 1831, former slave Nat Turner, who’d led a slave uprising, was executed in Jerusalem, Va.
▶ In 1918, fighting in World War I ended as the Allies and Germany signed an armistice in the Forest of Compiegne.
▶ In 1921, the remains of an unidentified American service member were interred in a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony presided over by President Warren G. Harding.
▶ In 1938, Irish-born cook Mary Mallon, who’d gained notoriety as the disease-carrying “Typhoid Mary” blamed for the deaths of three people, died on North Brother Island in New York’s East River at age 69 after 23 years of mandatory quarantine.
▶ In 1942, during World War II, Germany completed its occupation of France.
▶ In 1966, Gemini 12 blasted off on a four-day mission with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. aboard; it was the tenth and final flight of NASA’s Gemini program.
▶ In 1972, the US Army turned over its base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese, symbolizing the end of direct US military involvement in the Vietnam War.
▶ In 1987, following the failure of two Supreme Court nominations, President Ronald Reagan announced his choice of Judge Anthony M. Kennedy, who went on to win confirmation.
▶ In 1992, the Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.
▶ In 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered warships, planes, and troops to the Persian Gulf as he laid out his case for a possible attack on Iraq. Iraq, meanwhile, showed no sign of backing down from its refusal to deal with UN weapons inspectors.
▶ In 2004, Palestinians at home and abroad wept, waved flags, and burned tires in an eruption of grief at news of the death of Yasser Arafat in Paris at age 75.
▶ In 2020, Georgia’s secretary of state announced an audit of presidential election results that he said would be done with a full hand tally of ballots because the margin was so tight; President-elect Joe Biden led President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes out of nearly 5 million votes counted in the state. (The audit would affirm Biden’s win.)
▶ In 2021, F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid leader, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela and oversaw the end of the country’s white minority rule, died at age 85.
▶ Last year, Kevin Conroy, the prolific voice actor whose gravely delivery on “Batman: The Animated Series” was for many Batman fans the definitive sound of the Caped Crusader, died at age 66.