November 10th in History

Michael Dobson | November 10

“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Illustration from the 1876 French edition of
Henry Morton Stanley’s book How I Found Livingstone (Comment j’ai retrouvé Livingstone)

On This Day in History

  • René Descartes has the dreams that inspire “Cogito, ergo sum” and his other Meditations on First Philosophy (1619)
  • The US Marine Corps begins in a tavern in Philadelphia (1775)
  • The French Revolution proclaims a Goddess of Reason for the Cult of Reason (Culte de la Raison) as an official replacement for Christianity (1793)
  • Andersonville POW camp superintendent Major Henry Wirtz becomes the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes (1865)
  • Henry Stanley locates missing explorer Dr. David Livingston near Lake Tanganyika, and reportedly greets him by saying, “Dr. Livingston, I presume?” (1871)
  • Final day of Nazi pogrom known as Krystalnacht (1938)
  • Direct dial transcontinental telephone service begins in the US (1951)
  • The Iwo Jima Memorial is dedicated by President Dwight Eisenhower (1954)
  • The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History (1958)
  • Sesame Street debuts on TV (1969)
  • The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks, inspiring Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1975*)
  • German citizens begin to tear down the Berlin Wall (1989)
  • WorldCom and MCI complete what was at the time the largest merger in American history (1997)
  • King Juan Carlos I of Spain tells Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez “¿Por qué no te callas?” (“Why don’t you shut up?”) during the 2007 Ibero-American Summit in Chile, inspiring an Internet meme (2007)

*At the time of its sinking, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was owned by a division of the company my wife Deborah worked for (GATX Corporation’s American Steamship Company)

Birthdays

  • Martin Luther, religious reformer (1483)
  • William Hogarth, painter (1728)
  • Oliver Goldsmith, playwright (1728)
  • George Jennings, sanitary engineer, inventor of the public flush toilet (1810)
  • Winston Churchill, American novelist not related to the British prime minister (1871)
  • Vachel Lindsay, poet (1879)
  • Андрей Туполев (Andrei Tupolev), Soviet aircraft designer (1888)
  • Claude Rains, actor (1889)
  • Carl Stalling, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies composer (1891)
  • John P. Marquand, author (1893)
  • Jack Northrop, aircraft manufacturer (1895)
  • Jimmy Dykes, baseball player and manager (1896)
  • Johnny Marks, songwriter of holiday standards “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas” (1909)
  • Birdie Tebbets, baseball player and manager (1912)
  • George Fenneman, radio announcer, Groucho Marx sidekick on You Bet Your Life (1919)
  • Michael Strank, helped raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima (1919)
  • 忠犬ハチ公 (Hachikō), Japanese dog (1923)
  • Russell Johnson, Gilligan’s Island professor (1924)
  • Richard Burton, actor (1925)
  • Marilyn Bergman, composer, member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1929)
  • W. E. B. Griffin, author (1929)
  • Lilly Pulitzer, fashion designer (1931)
  • Roy Scheider, actor (1932)
  • Russell Means, Native American activist (1939)
  • Screaming Lord Sutch, musician and political candidate (1940)
  • James Hood, civil rights activist temporarily stopped from entering the University of Alabama by George C. Wallace “standing in the schoolhouse door” (1942)
  • Tim Rice, songwriter (1944)
  • Donna Fargo, country singer-songwriter (1945)
  • Glen Buxton, Alice Cooper guitarist (1947)
  • بشير الجميّل‎ (Bachir Gemayel), Lebanese politician and military leader (1947)
  • Greg Lake, singer-songwriter (1947)
  • Dave Loggins, singer-songwriter (1947)
  • Steven Utley, science fiction writer (1948)
  • Ann Reinking, actress and dancer (1949)
  • Jack Scalia, soap opera actor (1950)
  • Sinbad, comedian (1956)
  • Mackenzie Phillips, actress (1959)
  • Neil Gaiman, author and illustrator (1960)
  • Jamie Dixon, basketball coach (1965)
  • Michael Jai White, actor (1967)
  • Tracy Morgan, comedian and actor (1968)
  • Holly Black, children’s fantasy author (1971)
  • Walton Goggins, actor (1971)
  • Shawn Green, baseball player (1972)
  • Brittany Murphy, actress (1977)
  • Eve, rapper and actress (1978)
  • Kyla Cole, Penthouse glamour and porn model (1978)
  • Ricki-Lee Coulter, singer-songwriter (1985)

Deaths

  • Arthur Rimbaud, poet (1891)
  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey (1938)
  • Jimmie Dodd, leader of the Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers and writer of its theme song (1964)
  • Walter Van Tilburg Clark, author (1971)
  • Stringbean, banjo player and Hee Haw cast member (1973)
  • Abel Gance, director (1981)
  • Леони́д Бре́жнев (Leonid Brezhnev), Soviet leader (1982)
  • Chuck Connors, actor (1992)
  • Carmen McRae, jazz singer (1994)
  • Tommy Tedesco, guitarist (1977)
  • Ken Kesey, author (2001)
  • Irv Kupcinet, columnist (2003)
  • Jack Palance, actor (2006)
  • Jack Williamson, science fiction writer (2006)
  • Laraine Day, actress (2007)
  • Norman Mailer, author (2007)
  • Dino De Laurentiis, producer (2010)

Holidays

  • Cry of Independence Day (Panama)
  • Day of Remembrance of Ataturk (Turkey)
  • Day of Russian Militsiya (Russia)
  • Día de la Tradición (Day of Tradition), Argentina
  • Forget-Me-Not Day (US, unofficial)
  • Hari Pahlawan (Heroes’ Day) (Indonesia)
  • National Vanilla Cupcake Day (US food holidays)
  • US Marine Corps Birthday Ball (US)

November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years), with 51 days remaining until year’s end.