Browsing: November 7

A Brief History On November 7, 1933, Fiorello La Guardia was first elected Mayor of the City of New York, an office he would hold until December 31, 1945.  As any mayor of New York City is automatically well known to all of America, so was La Guardia, but in his case perhaps a lot more famous than usual.  Heck, a major airport is named after him!  Also on November 7 (1967 this time), Carl Stokes of Cleveland became the first African American man elected as mayor of a major American city.  Since it is way too hard for our…

A Brief History On November 7, 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage to the New World, a large meteor fell on the town of Ensisheim, Alsace, Austria, in what is now France. Seen as a falling fireball 100 miles away, the meteorite (when it hits the ground, a meteor becomes a “meteorite”) landed safely in a wheat field. Digging Deeper The 280 pound rock left a crater 3 feet deep (not bad for a rock that size) and was quickly set upon by curious villagers. Contrary to popular belief, people back then were not a…

A Brief History On November 7, 2000, the US DEA made a drug bust of one of the largest illegal LSD labs in the United States.  What made this bust significant was that it was located in a retired ICBM missile silo in Kansas. Digging Deeper During the 1960’s the US, Russia, and eventually other countries constructed mass numbers of underground missile launch facilities to protect their nuclear armed ICBM’s (InterContinental Ballistic Missile) from enemy nuclear weapons in order to insure the ability to conduct a counter strike if the enemy struck first.  Such was the nature of the Cold…

A Brief History On November 7, 1775, in an announcement known as “Dunmore’s Proclamation,” the first movement to free African-Americans from slavery (also known as “emancipation”) took place when the Royal Governor of Virginia offered freedom to any slave willing to fight for the British against the Colonies in the American Revolution.  Between 800 and 2,000 black slaves accepted the offer, inciting rage and fear among Virginia’s slave holders.  Over the course of the Revolution, an estimated 100,000 slaves tried to take advantage of similar British offers, and at least 3,000 of them were sent to Nova Scotia as freemen.…

A Brief History On November 7, 1907, Jesús García saved the entire town of Nacozari de Garcia, Sonora by driving a burning train full of dynamite six kilometers away before it could explode. Digging Deeper By now on History and Headlines, we have had full towns and cities destroyed by everything from armies to earthquakes, floods, and even a tornado!  In November 0f 1907, Nacozari, Sonora in Mexico nearly experienced a disaster that could have been added to the list of annihilated cities.  The city survived thanks to a man now known as el héroe de Nacozari and for whom…