Today in History, December 21, the invention of the first crossword puzzle

December 21 is the 355th day of the year. There are 10 days remaining until the end of the year.

crossword puzzle

Today's Highlight in History.
1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white and black shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom. The shaded squares are used to separate the words or phrases.

Arthur Wynne was a British-born inventor, best known for the invention of the crossword puzzle in 1913. He created a page of puzzles for the "Fun" section of the Sunday edition of the New York World. For the December 21, 1913, edition, he introduced a puzzle with a diamond shape and a hollow center, the letters F-U-N already being filled in. He called it a "Word-Cross Puzzle."

Although Wynne's invention was based on earlier puzzle forms, such as the word diamond, he introduced a number of innovations, like the use of horizontal and vertical lines to create boxes for solvers to enter letters. He subsequently pioneered the use of black squares in a symmetrical arrangement to separate words in rows and columns. With the exception of the numbering scheme, the form of Wynne's "Word-Cross" puzzles is used for modern crosswords.

A few weeks after the first "Word-Cross" appeared, the name of the puzzle was changed to "Cross-Word" as a result of a typesetting error.Wynne's puzzles have been known as "crosswords" ever since.

Arthur Wynne became a naturalized US citizen in the 1920s.He died in Clearwater, Florida, on January 14, 1945.
On December 20, 2013, he was honored with an interactive Google Doodle commemorating the "100th anniversary of the first crossword puzzle" with a puzzle by Merl Reagle. Numerous other constructors also created tribute puzzles to Wynne to commemorate the anniversary.
Wikipedia

World Events

1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
1919 – American anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to Russia.
1923 – United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship, called the Nepal–Britain Treaty of 1923, which superseded the Sugauli Treaty signed in 1816.
1973 – The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict opens.
1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.
1992 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, killing 56.
1994 – Mexican volcano Popocatépetl, dormant for 47 years, erupts gases and ash.
1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.
2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.
2012 – The world was predicted to end on December 21, 2012 according to some calendars.
2012 – The Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of Lucasfilm and of the Star Wars franchise.

Today in History December 12 - Jomo Kenyatta, the founding father of Kenya

December 12 is the 346th day of the year. There are 19 days remaining until the end of the year.

Jomo Kenyatta, 1st President of Kenya

Jomo Kenyatta, 1st President of Kenya

Today's Highlight in History
1964 – Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first President of the Republic of Kenya.

Jomo Kenyatta was Kenya's leader from independence in 1963 untill his death in 1978. He was first a Prime Minister before, he was elected president of the Kenya African Union (KAU) In 1947. He is considered the founding father Kenyan.

Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau wa Ngengi to parents Muigai wa Kung'u and Wambui in the village of Gatundu. After the death of both his parents, he lived with his grandfather and trained himself through school doing odd jobs. He worked as a houseboy and cook for a white settler to pay his school fees at a mission school.

When he completed his mission school education, he became an apprentice carpenter, before he went to work as a clerk for an Asian contractor, In 1922 Kamau began working, as a store clerk and water-meter reader for the Nairobi Municipal Council Public Works Department.

His love for education took him to London where he enrolled in University College London, he studied social anthropology under Bronisław Malinowski at the London School of Economics (LSE).

A statue of Kenyatta at the KICC in Nairobi

Kenyatta was a well-educated intellectual who authored several books, and is remembered as a Pan-Africanist. He is also the father of Kenya's fourth and current President, Uhuru Kenyatta.

President Kenyatta died in Mombasa of natural causes attributable to old age and was buried on 31 August 1978 in Nairobi in a state funeral at a mausoleum on Parliament grounds.

He had so many things named after him. Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi's main street and main streets in many Kenyan cities and towns, numerous schools, two universities (Kenyatta University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology), the country's main referral hospital, markets and housing estates are named after him.

A statue in Nairobi city center and monuments all over Kenya stand in his honour. Kenya observed a public holiday every 20 October in his honour until the 2010 constitution abolished Kenyatta Day and replaced it with Mashujaa (Heroes') day. Kenyatta's face adorns Kenyan currency notes and coins of all denominations except the 40 shilling coin.

One of his famous words : “When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”

Wikipedia

World Events

1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman, the first being Hiram Revels.
1897 – Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, is founded.
1901 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal (the letter "S" [***] in Morse Code), at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
1911 – Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
1941 – Adolf Hitler declares the imminent extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery
1950 – Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services.
1958 – Guinea joins the United Nations.
1963 – Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1964 – Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first President of the Republic of Kenya.
1984 – Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya becomes the third president of Mauritania after a coup d'état against Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla while the latter is attending a summit.
1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing all 256 people on board, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.
1988 – The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains—one of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom.
1991 – The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.
2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.

Today in History: December 8 - John Winston Lennon, founder of the rock band, the Beatles, killed by a crazy fan

December 8 is the 342nd day of the year. There are 23 days remaining until the end of the year.

John Lennon, 1969

Today's Highlight in History
1980 – John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.

John Winston Lennon, was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder/ member of the rock band the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music.

John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, during a German air raid in World War II.

As a teenager Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze. At age 15, Lennon formed the Quarrymen band in September 1956, named after his school, Quarry Bank High School. By the summer of 1957, the Quarrymen played a "spirited set of songs" made up of half skiffle and half rock and roll. Lennon first met Paul McCartney at the Quarrymen's second performance, held in Woolton on 6 July at the St. Peter's Church garden fête, after which he asked McCartney to join the band.

The fledgling band usually rehearsed in McCartneys' front room at 20 Forthlin Road. During this time, Lennon who was 18-year-old, wrote his first song, "Hello Little Girl", a UK top 10 hit for nearly five years later.George Harrison joined the band as lead guitarist at 14 years old. Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's friend from art school, later joined as bassist. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe became "The Beatles" in early 1960.

Lennon (right) performing
"All You Need Is Love" with The Beatles
 in 1967 to 400 million viewers of Our World

The Beatles were discovered by Brian Epstein in 1961 at Liverpool's Cavern Club, where they were performing on a regular basis. As their new manager, Epstein secured a record contract with EMI. With a new drummer, Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), and George Martin as producer, the group released their first single, "Love Me Do," in October 1962. It peaked on the British charts at No. 17.

They recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in under 10 hours on 11 February 1963

Lennon (right) performing with the Beatles in
1964 at the height of Beatlemania

John Lennon and Paul McCartney, formed a songwriting partnership that is one of the most celebrated of the 20th century. The partnership yielded eight of its fourteen tracks. He later said, "We were just writing songs ... pop songs with no more thought of them than that—to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant".

In a 1987 interview, McCartney said that the other Beatles idolised John: "He was like our own little Elvis ... We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest".

Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969, just after the group completed recording Abbey Road. The news of the break-up was kept secret until McCartney announced his departure in April 1970, a month before the band released Let It Be, recorded just before Abbey Road.

When he left the group, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Working Class Hero". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to raise his infant son Sean. He emerged from retirement in October 1980 with the single "(Just Like) Starting Over", followed the next month by the album Double Fantasy.

John Lennon (left) autographing a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman (right),
6 hours before the killing.

He was murdered three weeks after its release.At around 10:50 pm on 8 December 1980, as Lennon and Ono returned to their New York apartment in the Dakota, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to the building. Lennon was taken to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:07 pm. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.


Lennon married Cynthia Powell in August 1962. The couple had one son together, Julian, who was named after Lennon's mother. Cynthia was forced to keep a very low profile during Beatlemania. She and Lennon divorced in 1968. He remarried the following year, on March 20, 1969, to Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he had met at the Indica Gallery in November 1966.

As of 2012, Lennon's solo album sales in the United States exceeded 14 million and, as writer, co-writer or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth and, in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

The entrance to the Dakota buildin
where Lennon was shot

Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to killing John Lennon on December 8, 1980. Chapman shot Lennon outside The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman remained at the scene reading J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye until the police arrived and arrested him.

Chapman was imprisoned in 1981 and has been denied parole eight times amidst campaigns against his release. Chapman's eighth parole application was denied in August 2014. After the hearing, Chapman said, "I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory." "I have peace now in Jesus," he continued. "He has forgiven me and loves me. He has helped me in my life like you wouldn't believe." Chapman's next scheduled parole hearing will be in August 2016.

Wikipedia

World Events 

1813 – Premier of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin.
1927 – The Brookings Institution, one of the United States' oldest think tanks, is founded through the merger of three organizations that had been created by philanthropist Robert S. Brookings.
1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be "a date which will live in infamy", after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.
1941 – World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies. (See December 7 for the concurrent attack on Pearl Harbor in the Western Hemisphere.)
1949 – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is established to provide aid to Palestinian refugees who left their homes during the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
1953 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.
1962 – Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.
1963 – Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board
1974 – A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.
1980 – John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.
1988 – A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others.
1991 – The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1991 – The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
1998 – Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
2004 – The Cusco Declaration is signed in Cusco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
2007 – Three unidentified gunmen storm an office of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party in Balochistan. Three PPP supporters are killed.
2009 – Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 127 and injure 448.
2010 – With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
2010 – The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km.

Today in History December 7- The Winecoff Hotel, advertised as "absolutely fireproof." went up in flames

December 7 is the 341st day of the year. There are 24 days remaining until the end of the year.

The  Winecoff Hotel in flame

Today's Highlight in history
1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.

The Winecoff Hotel, advertised in advertisements and on its stationery as "absolutely fireproof." went up in flames on Dec. 7, 1946. The early morning fire claimed the lives of 119 people, including the hotel's owners. It was the deadliest hotel fire in United States history .
The Winecoff Hotel,(now the Ellis Hotel) Located at 176 Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA, opened in 1913 as one of the tallest buildings in Atlanta.

The steel-framed structure was built on a small lot measuring 62.75 feet (19.13 m) by 70 feet (21 m), While the hotel's steel structure was for protection against the effects of fire, the hotel's interior finishes were combustible, and the building's exit arrangements consisted of a single stairway serving all fifteen floors.The single stairway, of non-combustible construction, was not enclosed with fire-resistant doors.

Guest rooms extended from the third to the fifteenth floors, with fifteen rooms on a typical floor. Corridors on guest floors were arranged in an H-shape, with two elevators and the upward flights of stairs opening into the cross halls, and opposing downward runs of stairs converging on a single landing from the legs of the H.

The fire's point of origin was on the third floor west hallway, where a mattress and chair had been temporarily placed in the corridor, close to the stairway to the fourth floor. The assumption was that a dropped cigarette may have ignited the mattress or other combustibles in the corridor. The fire was first noticed about 3:15 AM by a bellboy went to the fifth floor to help a guest, However, the first (and only) call to the fire department was made at 3:42 AM by the night manager.

The first engine and ladder companies arrived within thirty seconds of the call. By that time people were already jumping from windows. Fire department ladders could extend only part way up the building, but many guests were rescued in this manner. Ladders were placed horizontally across the alley from an adjoining building, allowing some rescues to be effected.



All of the hotel's occupants above the fire's origin on the third floor were trapped, and the fire's survivors either were rescued from upper-story windows or jumped into nets held by firemen. A number of guests tied bedsheets together and tried to descend. The fire was notable for the number of victims who jumped to their deaths.

The former Winecoff Hotel,
 now the Ellis Hotel

Arnold Hardy, a 24-year-old Georgia Tech graduate student, who captured the fall of Daisy McCumber from the building won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography,

Out of the 304 guests in the hotel that night, 119 died, about 65 were injured and about 120 were rescued uninjured. The hotel's original owners, the Winecoffs, who lived in an apartment in the hotel, died in the apartment. 32 deaths were among those who jumped, or who fell while trying to descend ropes made of sheets tied together.

Also in the hotel were forty high school students on a State YMCA of Georgia ("Y" Clubs) sponsored trip to Atlanta for a state youth-in-government legislative program, thirty of whom died.The students had mostly been placed two to a room at the back of the hotel next to the alley, where many of the windows had been covered by louvered shutters for privacy. The occupants of the shuttered rooms were killed on every floor above the fifth floor.

The fire, which followed the June 5, 1946 La Salle Hotel fire in Chicago with 61 fatalities, and the June 19, 1946 Canfield Hotel fire in Dubuque, Iowa with 19 fatalities, spurred significant changes in North American building codes, most significantly requiring multiple protected means of egress and self-closing fire-resistive doors for guest rooms in hotels.

The building is now the Ellis Hotel, which stands at the corner of Peachtree and Ellis streets.
Wikipedia

World Events

1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.
1869 – American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri.
1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1972 – Imelda Marcos survives an assassination attempt using a bolo knife against her.
1971 – Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister.
1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
1983 – An Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 93 people.
1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
1988 – Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills more than 25,000, injures 30,000 and leaves 500,000 homeless out of a population of 3,500,000.
1988 – Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
1993 – The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.
1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
1999 – A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.: The Recording Industry Association of America sues the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Napster, alleging copyright infringement.
2005 – Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
2006 – A tornado strikes Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging about 150 properties.
2007 – The Hebei Spirit oil spill begins in South Korea after a crane barge that had broken free from a tug collides with the Very Large Crude Carrier, Hebei Spirit.

Today in History December 6 - Washington Monument, built to commemorate George Washington, the first American president.

December 6 is the 340th day of the year. There are 25 days remaining until the end of the year.

Washington Monument

Today's highlight in History
1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is completed.

The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, DC, built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the early Continental Army and the first American president.

George Washington (1732–1799) was hailed as the father of his country, and the leader who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen", He was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1798.


At his death in 1799 he left a critical legacy: he exemplified the core ideals of the American Revolution and the new nation: republican virtue and devotion to civic duty.Washington was the unchallenged public icon of American military and civic patriotism.

In 1832. That year, which marked the 100th anniversary of Washington's birth, a large group of concerned citizens formed the Washington National Monument Society. In 1836, after they had raised $28,000 in donations ($15,700,000 in 2012, they announced a competition for the design of the memorial.

Excavation for the foundation of the Monument began in early 1848. The cornerstone was laid as part of an elaborate Fourth of July ceremony hosted by the Freemasons, an organization to which Washington belonged. Speeches that day showed the country continued to revere Washington. One celebrant noted, "No more Washingtons shall come in our time ... But his virtues are stamped on the heart of mankind. He who is great in the battlefield looks upward to the generalship of Washington. He who grows wise in counsel feels that he is imitating Washington. He who can resign power against the wishes of a people, has in his eye the bright example of Washington."

The monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss,is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5

1⁄8 inches (169.294 m) tall. Taller monumental columns exist, but they are neither all stone nor true obelisks.

2003 view of monument, surrounded by
 a ring of Jersey barriers. The White House is visible at the upper right
. The Lincoln Memorial is beyond the frame, at left.

Construction of the monument began in 1848, was halted from 1854 to 1877, and was finally completed in 1884. The hiatus in construction happened because of co-option by the Know Nothing party, a lack of funds, and the intervention of the American Civil War. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet (46 m) or 27% up, shows where construction was halted. Its original design was by Robert Mills, an architect of the 1840s, but his design was modified significantly when construction resumed.

Construction resumed in 1879 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Casey redesigned the foundation, strengthening it so it could support a structure that ultimately weighed more than 40,000 tons. He then followed the society's orders and figured out what to do with the commemorative stones that had accumulated. Though many people ridiculed them, Casey managed to install most of the stones in the interior walls — one stone was found at the bottom of the elevator shaft in 1951. The bottom third of the monument is a slightly lighter shade than the rest of the construction because the marble was obtained from different quarries.

The monument undergoing restoration in 1999.

The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884, and the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885. It officially opened October 9, 1888. Upon completion, it became the world's tallest structure, a title previously held by the Cologne Cathedral. The monument held this designation until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris, France.


The monument stands due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial.

Crack in a stone at the top of the
 monument after the 2011
 Virginia earthquake

On August 23, 2011, the Washington Monument sustained damage during the 2011 Virginia earthquake;over 150 cracks were found in the monument. A National Park Service spokesperson reported that inspectors discovered a crack near the top of the structure, and announced that the monument would be closed indefinitely. A block in the pyramidion also was partially dislodged, and pieces of stone, stone chips, mortar, and paint chips came free of the monument and "littered" the interior stairs and observation deck.

The monument remained closed to the public while the structure was assessed and repaired. After 32 months of repairs, the National Park Service reopened the Washington Monument to visitors on May 12, 2014. Repairs to the monument cost US$15,000,000, with taxpayers funding $7.5 million of the cost and The Carlyle Group funding the other $7.5 million.
Wikipedia

World Events


1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.
1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.
1865 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.
1877 – The first edition of The Washington Post is published.
1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is completed.
1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.
1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performs the first human heart transplant in the United States.
1969 – Meredith Hunter is killed by Hells Angels during a Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.
1971 – Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India following New Delhi's recognition of Bangladesh.
1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3.)
1977 – South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
1988 – The Australian Capital Territory is granted self-government.
1989 – The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
1991 – In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city since May.
1992 – The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, is demolished, leading to widespread riots causing the death of over 1,500 people.
1997 – A Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.
2005 – Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.
2005 – An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 84 on board and 44 more on the ground.
2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
2008 – The 2008 Greek riots break out upon the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by a police officer.

Today in History - November 23. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, first elected female head of state in Africa

November 23 is the 327th day of the year . There are 38 days remaining until the end of the year

Ellen Johnson Sirlea

Today's Highlight in History:

2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country.


She was declared the winner of the Liberian election and confirmed as the country's next president.on 23 November 2005, Her inauguration, attended by many foreign
dignitaries, took place on 16 January 2006 after which Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took charge as the 24th and President of Liberia and the first elected female head of state in Africa

Sirleaf was born in Monrovia, and attended the College of West Africa. She married James Sirleaf at the age of 17 years,and then traveled with him to the United States in 1961 to continue her studies and earned an associate degree in accounting at Madison Business College, in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1970 she enrolled at the Economics Institute in Boulder, Colorado, for her graduate studies. She studied economics and public policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, gaining a Master of Public Administration.

On her return to Liberia, Sirleaf served as assistant minister from 1972 to 1973 under Tolbert's administration. She resigned after getting into a disagreement about spending. Subsequently she was Minister of Finance from 1979 to April 1980. When Sergeant Samuel Doe, seized power in an 12 April 1980 military coup, Tolbert was assassinated and all but four members of his cabinet were executed by firing squad. The People's Redemption Council took control of the country and led a purge against the former government. Sirleaf initially accepted a post in the new government as President of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment, however, she fled the country in November 1980 after publicly criticizing Doe and the People's Redemption Council for their management of the country.

She moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the World Bank and later moved to Nairobi in 1981 to serve as Vice President of the African Regional Office of Citibank and resigned in 1985 following her involvement in the 1985 election in Liberia and went to work for Equator Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC. In 1992, Sirleaf was appointed as the Director of the United Nations Development Programme's Regional Bureau for Africa at the rank of Assistant Administrator and Assistant Secretary General (ASG), from which she resigned in 1997 to run for president in Liberia.

Sirleaf at her inauguration in Monrovia.

During her time at the UN, she was one of the seven internationally eminent persons designated in 1999 by the Organization of African Unity to investigate the Rwandan genocide, one of the five Commission Chairs for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and one of two international experts selected by UNIFEM to investigate and report on the effect of conflict on women and women's roles in peace building. She was the initial Chairperson of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and a visiting Professor of Governance at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Sirleaf stood for president as the candidate of the Unity Party in the 2005 general election. She placed second in the first round of voting behind footballer George Weah. In the subsequent run-off election, Sirleaf earned 59% of the vote versus 40% for Weah, though Weah disputed the results. The announcement of the new leader was postponed until further investigations were carried out. On 23 November 2005, Sirleaf was declared the winner of the Liberian election and confirmed as the country's next president. Her inauguration, attended by many foreign dignitaries, including United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush, took place on 16 January 2006.

Sirleaf campaigning in Monrovia in 2005,
shortly before she was elected.

In January 2010, Sirleaf announced that she would run for a second term in office in the 2011 presidential election while speaking to a joint session of the Legislature. Opposition leaders noted that in doing so, she had broken a promise made during her 2005 campaign to only serve one term if elected. Sirleaf was renominated as the Unity Party's presidential candidate at the party's national convention on 31 October 2010. That same day, Vice President Joseph Boakai was nominated by Sirleaf and confirmed by the delegates as Sirleaf's running mate.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Sirleaf four days prior to the election sparked criticism from opposition parties, with Congress for Democratic Change candidate Winston Tubman calling the award "undeserved" and "a political interference in our country's politics." Sirleaf called the timing of the award a coincidence and avoided mentioning the award during the final days of campaigning.

Sirleaf won She took presidential oath for her second presidency on 16 January 2012.

Forbes magazine named Sirleaf as the 51st most powerful woman in the world in 2006. In 2010,Newsweek listed her as one of the ten best leaders in the world, while Time counted her among the top ten female leaders. That same year, The Economist called her "arguably the best president the country has ever had." Sirleaf in 2012 attracted international attention for an interview regarding LGBT rights.. In 2010, Sirleaf released her first book, This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.

Sirleaf is the mother of four sons, and she has eight grandchildren. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and an honorary member of the Links, Incorporated.

From left to right: Tawakkul Karman,
 Leymah Gbowee, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
 display their awards during the presentation of the
 Nobel Peace Prize, 10 December 2011 (Photo:Harry Wad).

Sirleaf was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen. The women were recognized "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." She was also conferred the Indira Gandhi Prize by President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 12 September 2013. As of 2014, she is listed as the 70th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.





World Events





1889 – The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
1890 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to succeed him.
1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden.
1924 – Edwin Hubble's scientific discovery that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula within our galaxy, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe, was first published in a newspaper.
1936 – Life magazine is reborn as a photo magazine and enjoys instant success.
1963 – The BBC broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who (starring William Hartnell), which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama.
1971 – Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.
1974 – 60 Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government.
1976 – Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment.
1985 – Gunmen hijack Egypt Air Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.
1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1993 – Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.
1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
2001 – The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.
2004 – The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated.
2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country.
2007 – MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sinks in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There are no fatalities.
2009 – The Maguindanao massacre occurs in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, Philippines
2010 – Bombardment of Yeonpyeong: North Korean artillery attack kills 2 civilians and 2 marines on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea.
2011 – Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests in Yemen, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signs a deal to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity.

Today in History- November 22: Mike Tyson, former undisputed heavyweight champion

November 22 is the 326th day of the yeara. There are 39 days remaining until the end of the year

Today's Highlight in History
1986 – Mike Tyson defeats Trevor Berbick to become youngest Heavyweight champion in boxing history.


Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson ; born June 30, 1966 is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old. Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. He won the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, and the only heavyweight to successively unify them.


In 1988, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks after 91 seconds. Tyson successfully defended the world heavyweight championship nine times, including victories over Larry Holmes and Frank Bruno. In 1990, he lost his titles to underdog James "Buster" Douglas, by a knockout in round 10. Attempting to regain the titles, he defeated Donovan Ruddock twice in 1991, but he pulled out of a fight with undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield due to injury.

In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington and sentenced to six years in prison but was released after serving three years. After his release, he engaged in a series of comeback fights. In 1996, he won the WBC and WBA titles after defeating Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon by knockout. With his defeat of Bruno, Tyson joined Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Tim Witherspoon, Evander Holyfield, and George Foreman as the only men in boxing history to that point to have regained a heavyweight championship after having lost it. After being stripped of the WBC title, Tyson lost his WBA crown to Evander Holyfield in November 1996 by an 11th round TKO. Their 1997 rematch ended when Tyson was disqualified for biting Holyfield's ear.

Tyson was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He has a brother, Rodney, who is five years older than he is.His sister, Denise, died of a heart attack at age 24 in 1990.
when Tyson was 16-year-old, his mother died, leaving him in the care of boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato, who later became his legal guardian. Tyson later said, "I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: she only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally."

Tyson grew up in a high-crime neighborhoods. According to an interview in Details, his first fight was with a bigger youth who had pulled the head off one of Tyson's pigeons.Tyson was repeatedly caught committing petty crimes and fighting those who ridiculed his high-pitched voice and lisp. By the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times. He ended up at the Tryon School for Boys in Johnstown, New York. Tyson's emerging boxing ability was discovered there by Bobby Stewart, a juvenile detention center counselor and former boxer. Stewart considered Tyson to be an outstanding fighter and trained him for a few months before introducing him to Cus D'Amato.Tyson dropped out of high school as a junior. He would later be awarded honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University in 1989.

Kevin Rooney also trained Tyson, and he was occasionally assisted by Teddy Atlas, although he was dismissed by D'Amato when Tyson was 15. Rooney eventually took over all training duties for the young fighte

Tyson won gold medals at the 1981 and 1982 Junior Olympic Games, defeating Joe Cortez in 1981 and beating Kelton Brown in 1982. Brown's corner threw in the towel in the first round. He holds the Junior Olympic record for quickest knockout (8 seconds). He won every bout at the Junior Olympic Games by knockout.


He fought Henry Tillman twice as an amateur, losing both bouts by close decision. Tillman went on to win heavyweight gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Rise to stardom


Tyson made his professional debut as an 18-year-old on March 6, 1985, in Albany, New York. He defeated Hector Mercedes via a first round knockout. He had 15 bouts in his first year as a professional. Fighting frequently, Tyson won 26 of his first 28 fights by KO or TKO; 16 of those came in the first round.The quality of his opponents gradually increased to journeyman fighters and borderline contenders, like James Tillis, David Jaco, Jesse Ferguson, Mitch Green and Marvis Frazier. His win streak attracted media attention and Tyson was billed as the next great heavyweight champion. D'Amato died in November 1985, relatively early into Tyson's professional career; some speculate that his death was the genesis of many of the troubles Tyson was to experience as his life and career progressed.

Tyson's first nationally televised bout took place on February 16, 1986, at Houston Field House in Troy, New York against journeyman heavyweight Jesse Ferguson. Tyson knocked down Ferguson with an uppercut in the fifth round that broke Ferguson's nose to win when the referee stopped the fight near the middle of the sixth round.

On November 22, 1986, Tyson was given his first title fight against Trevor Berbick for the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship. Tyson won the title by second round TKO, and at the age of 20 years and 4 months became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.


Because of Tyson's strength, many fighters were intimidated by him.This was backed up by his outstanding hand speed, accuracy, coordination, power, and timing. Tyson was also noted for his defensive abilities. Holding his hands high in the Peek-a-Boo style taught by his mentor Cus D'Amato, he slipped and weaved out of the way of the opponent's punches while closing the distance to deliver his own punches. One of Tyson's trademark combinations was a right hook to his opponent's body followed by a right uppercut to his opponent's chin; very few boxers would remain standing if caught by this combination. Lorenzo Boyd, Jesse Ferguson and Jose Ribalta were among the boxers knocked down by the combination.

In 2002, he fought for the world heavyweight title at the age of 35, losing by knockout to Lennox Lewis. In another Memphis fight on February 22, 2003, Tyson beat fringe contender Clifford Etienne 49 seconds into round one. The pre-fight was marred by rumors of Tyson's lack of fitness. Some said that he took time out from training to party in Las Vegas and get a new facial tattoo. This would be Tyson's final professional victory in the ring.

In August 2003, after years of financial struggles, Tyson finally filed for bankruptcy .Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003, despite having received over $30 million for several of his fights and $300 million during his career. In 2003, amid all his economic troubles, he was named by Ring Magazine at number 16, right behind Sonny Liston, among the 100 greatest punchers of all time.

On July 30, 2004, Tyson faced British boxer Danny Williams in another comeback fight, this time staged in Louisville, Kentucky. Tyson dominated the opening two rounds. The third round was even, with Williams getting in some clean blows and also a few illegal ones, for which he was penalized. In the fourth round, Tyson was unexpectedly knocked out. After the fight, it was revealed that Tyson was trying to fight on one leg, having torn a ligament in his other knee in the first round. This was Tyson's fifth career defeat. He underwent surgery for the ligament four days after the fight. His manager, Shelly Finkel, claimed that Tyson was unable to throw meaningful right-hand punches since he had an elbow injury.
On June 11, 2005, Tyson stunned the boxing world by quitting before the start of the seventh round in a close bout against journeyman Kevin McBride. In the 2008 documentary Tyson, he stated that he fought McBride for a payday, that he did not anticipate on winning, that he was in poor physical condition and fed up with taking boxing seriously. After losing the third of his last four fights, Tyson said he would quit boxing because he felt he had lost his passion

He retired from professional boxing in 2006, after being knocked out in consecutive matches against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride. Tyson was well known for his ferocious and intimidating boxing style as well as his controversial behavior inside and outside the ring. Nicknamed "The Baddest Man on the Planet", "Kid Dynamite" and "Iron Mike", Tyson is considered one of the best heavyweights of all time.He was ranked No. 16 on The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, and No. 1 in the ESPN.com list of "The hardest hitters in heavyweight history"
On June 12, 2011, Tyson was inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame alongside legendary Mexican champion Julio César Chávez, light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu, and actor/screenwriter Sylvester Stallone.

In 2009, he returned to the spotlight in a different role, starring in a cameo role as himself in the hit comedy The Hangover with Bradley Cooper. That success led to more guest appearances on TV, as well as a repeat cameo performance in "Hangover 2." In 2012, Mike made the jump from the big and small screen to the Broadway stage, where he starred in his hit one-man show, Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth, which was directed by Spike Lee. More recently, he was featured in the 6-part Fox Sports "Being" documentary series, which gives viewers a much deeper insight into the soul of this amazingly talented fighter and the life experiences that shaped the man.

In 2013, Mike returned to the ring once more - not as a fighter this time, but as a world-class boxing promoter. Iron Mike Productions has a roster of promising young hopefuls that benefit from Mike's wealth of knowledge and experience on what it takes to be a world champion.
.Wikipedia

World Events

1954 – The Humane Society of the United States is founded.
1963 – In Dallas, Texas, US President John F Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald is later captured and charged with the murder of both the President and police officer J. D. Tippit. Oswald is shot two days later by Jack Ruby while in police custody.
1967 – UN Security Council Resolution 242 is adopted, establishing a set of the principles aimed at guiding negotiations for an Arab–Israeli peace settlement.
1974 – The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.
1975 – Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of Francisco Franco.
1977 – British Airways inaugurates a regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
1986 – Mike Tyson defeats Trevor Berbick to become youngest Heavyweight champion in boxing history.
1987 – Two Chicago television stations are hijacked by an unknown pirate dressed as Max Headroom.
1989 – In West Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President René Moawad, killing him.
1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdraws from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her premiership.
1995 – Toy Story is released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.
2002 – In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.
2003 – Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident: Shortly after takeoff, a DHL Express cargo plane is struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile and forced to land.
2004 – The Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections.
2005W – Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany.
2012 – Ceasefire begins between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Israel after eight days of violence and 150 deaths.