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Wed 21 Nov, 2007 07:36 pm
1963: Kennedy shot dead in Dallas
The President of the United States has been assassinated by a gunman in Dallas, Texas.
John F Kennedy was hit in the head and throat when three shots were fired at his open-topped car.
The presidential motorcade was travelling through the main business area of the city.
Texas Governor John Connally was also seriously injured when one of the unknown sniper's bullets hit him in the back.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2451000/2451143.stm
1990: Thatcher quits as prime minister
Margaret Thatcher is to stand down as prime minister after her Cabinet refused to back her in a second round of leadership elections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm
What I found most frightening on that day, was the realization that Lyndon Johnson would now be president. I had never been able to contemplate that man without a shadow crossing over my expectations. It was because of him I had never warmed up to Kennedy. Not a rational decision, but, I could not help it.
24th november
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to sight the island of Tasmania, off the coast of Australia. He named it Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. In 1803, Great Britain took possession of the island and established a penal colony there. The indigenous population numbered about 5,000 at the time of colonization but was subsequently decimated, leaving only a few mixed-race survivors. Who was the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine?
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/History+of+Tasmania
The best videos on the assassination I've seen. They make a mockery of the pristine bullet theory. Acceptence of the Warren Commission report was America at it weakest and most cowardly.
link
Nancy Witcher Astor, or Viscountess Astor, was the second woman elected to the British Parliament's House of Commons and the first to actually serve. She was a Conservative member who concentrated on women's issues, temperance, and child welfare. Astor attracted a great deal of attention, much of it for her caustic and witty comments, and was reelected many times, serving until 1945.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nancy+Astor,+Viscountess+Astor
And, on this day in 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus to a white man and was arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws,
sparking a year-long boycott of buses by blacks.
Ford's Assembly Line Ushers in Era of Mass Production (1913)
Henry Ford, an American engineer, introduced the world's first moving assembly line at the Ford Motor Company's Highland Park plant. The new technology reduced chassis assembly time from 12½ hours to less than 3; however, these innovations were hard on the factory workers, and many left the company. Ford's innovative solution to his employee turnover crisis was simple; he doubled pay and reduced shifts by one hour.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/History+of+Ford+Motor+Company
On this day
Fidel Castro Announces Cuba Will Adopt Communism (1961)
In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that, under his leadership, Cuba would become a Communist state. His announcement came nearly eight months after the disastrous, US-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion. Cuba's adoption of Communism, coupled with the country's proximity to the US, was a key element in the Cold War and continues to affect international relations. How many attempts have been made on Castro's life?
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Fidel%20Castro
And on this day
1954: US Senate condemns McCarthy
Senator Joseph McCarthy, famous for his crusade against Communism, is censured for conduct unbecoming to a senator.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/2/newsid_3205000/3205423.stm
Communist Castro is still there but this senator is gone without trace
2002
At Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday celebration, Senate Republican leader Trent Lott praised Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential bid. Lott subsequently resigned his leadership position.
1992: Mob rips apart mosque in Ayodhya
A mob of Hindu militants has torn down a mosque and attacked other Muslim targets in the north Indian town of Ayodhya, in one of India's worst outbreaks of inter-communal violence.
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