November 13, 1789---The new American president George Washington completes his first presidential tour. For four weeks, Washington traveled by stagecoach on a visit to all the northern states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution. Also in 1789, Statesman Benjamin Franklin lamented in a letter to a friend, In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. 1861, President Abraham Lincoln pays a late-night visit to General George McClellan, whom Lincoln had recently named general in chief of the Union Army. The general, who had called his boss nothing more than a well-meaning baboon, refused to see him. 1879, The New York Stock Exchange goes modern, installing its first telegraph and phone lines. 1940, Walt Disneys FANTASIA opens in New York City. An ambitious animated film with no plot, it was an artistic attempt to marry music and animation. 1946, In Massachusetts, cloud seeding with pellets of dry ice creates the first artificially induced snowstorm--a limited success, considering that the snow evaporated before reaching the ground. 1982, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. It is inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died, arranged in order death, not rank, as was common in other memorials. BORN ON THIS DAY: Physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831), Actor Dack Rambo (1941), Actor Joe Mantegna (1947), Oscar winning actress/comedian Whoppi Goldberg (1949), and Actor Chris Noth (1957). DIED ON THIS DAY: World War II Icons Albert, Matt, Frank, George, and Joseph Sullivan (1942), Social reformer Karen Silkwood (1974), Comedian Junior Samples (1983), Mississippi-born rocker Donald Mills (1999), Gospel music legend/Blackwood Brothers Quartet Cecil Blackwood (2000), and Wrestler Eddie Guerrero (2005). QUOTE FOR TODAY: Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others---Author Robert Louis Stevenson (born today 1850). ON A SIDE NOTE: The Sullivan brothers, being killed on the same day, brought about changes in the military policy of siblings serving on the same ship or in the same platoon. Their story was also the inspiration for the movie Saving Private Ryan. ON A PERSONAL NOTE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to fellow 4581 produce associate William Sanderson (1936).
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 10:23:07 +0000