1718 - English pirate Edward Teach, known as "Blackbeard", was captured off the Outer Banks of North Carolina near Ocracoke, taken to England and hanged.
    1749 - Birthday of Edward Rutledge (d. 1800) at Charleston, SC.  He was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, governor of South Carolina. Ironically he was against independence, but was a recognized leader at the first Continental Congress and was the deciding vote approving South Carolina’s entry to the Union.
http://www.edwardrutledge.com/
http://www.colonialhall.com/rutledge/rutledge.php
    1765 – The people of Frederick County, MD refused to pay England's Stamp tax.
    1783 – Annapolis became the capital of the US and would remain so until June, 1784.
    1785 - John Hancock was elected President of the Continental Congress for the second time.
    1804 - Birthday of Franklin Pierce (d. 1869) at Hillsboro, NH.  Fourteenth President of the US whose term of office was Mar 4, 1853 - Mar 3, 1857. He was not nominated until the 49th ballot at the Democratic Party convention in 1852, and he was refused his party's nomination for a second term in 1856. (Lower half of: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov23.html)
    1835 - Henry Burdon of Troy, NY, received a patent for a horseshoe manufacturing machine. His machine produced a completed horseshoe from a rod of iron that was fed into it. It produced shoes more rapidly and uniformly than the rational method of hand production on a forge.
    1848 – The Female Medical Education Society formed in Boston.
    1852 - Just past midnight, a sharp jolt causes Lake Merced to drop 30' (9m)
http://www.outsidelands.org/lake-merced.html
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hgoe31.htm
http://www.lakemerced.org/homepage.html
    1857 - Birthday of Katharine Coman (d. 1915) in Newark, OH.  U.S. economic historian who’s “Industrial History of the United States” (1905) was widely used as a textbook and her “Economic Beginnings of the Far West” (1912) was a major historical work. She researched her books by going into the field and interviewing personally while observing things for herself. She was professor of political economy and history at Wellesley College where she lived with Katharine Lee Bates for many years.
    1859 - Birthday of legendary outlaw Henry McCarty (d. 1881) in New York City.  He was better known as William H. Bonney a.k.a. “Billy the Kid”. He was a ruthless killer, a failure at everything legal, escaping from jail at age 21 while under sentence to be hanged. Recaptured at Stinking Springs, NM, and returned to jail, he again escaped, only to be shot through the heart by pursuing Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, NM, during the night of July 14, 1881. His last words, answered by two shots, reportedly were “Who is there?”
    1860 - Abraham Lincoln had inherited not only a country divided, but in great financial difficulty. On this day, the Clearing House handed out its first loan, issuing $7.375 million worth of certificates to the nation's ailing banks. Abraham Lincoln was elected President on February 27.  The US population was 31,443,321; 448,070 free blacks and 3,953,760 slaves. The Union was 33 states, 18 of them free and 15 slave. At the time, the economy was not in very good shape. One of Lincoln’s moves to get the economy going was helping the ailing banks.
    1863 - The historic Battle of Chattanooga began.  Following the defeat of the Union Army at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Bragg besieged Union Gen. Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga. Maj. Gen. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West and significant reinforcements began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the East.  After opening a supply line (the "Cracker Line") to feed his starving men and animals, Grant's army fought off a Confederate counterattack at Wauhatchie on October 28–29, 1863. On November 23, the Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. Thomas advanced from the fortifications around Chattanooga to seize the minor high ground at Orchard Knob while elements of the Union Army of Tennessee under Gen. Sherman maneuvered to launch a surprise attack against Bragg's right flank on Missionary Ridge. On November 24, Eastern Theater troops under Maj. Gen. Hooker defeated the Confederates at Lookout Mountain and began a movement toward Bragg's left flank at Rossville.  On November 25, Sherman's attack on Bragg's right flank made little progress. Hoping to distract Bragg's attention, Grant authorized Thomas's army to advance in the center of his line to the base of Missionary Ridge. A combination of misunderstood orders and the pressure of the tactical situation caused Thomas's men to surge to the top of Missionary Ridge, routing the Army of Tennessee, which retreated to Dalton, GA, fighting off the Union pursuit successfully at Ringgold Gap. Bragg's defeat eliminated the last significant Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, leading to Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea of 1864.
http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/tn024.htm
http://www.aotc.net/Chattanooga.htm
http://www.collectorsnet.com/cwtimes/chattano.htm
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov23.html
    1876 - William Magear Tweed, known as Boss, was delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain. Tammany Hall was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in NYC, a director of the Erie Railroad, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel.  His control over political patronage in New York City was through Tammany, as was his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects.  According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:  “It's hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed's system ... The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization.” Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from NYC taxpayers through corruption, although later estimates ranged as high as $200 million.  Unable to make bail, he escaped from jail once, but was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail.
    1876 – Those three college football powers, Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard, formed the Intercollegiate Football Association.
    1878 – Fleet Admiral Ernest King (d. 1956) was born in Lorain, OH.  He was Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. fleet who reportedly designed the United States' winning strategy in World War II. Promoted to Vice Admiral, he insisted that his pilots be trained for night operations. In January 1941, King was made commander of the Atlantic Fleet and, after Pearl Harbor, he was given the post of Commander in Chief of the US Fleet. King developed a reputation for being abrasive and argumentative. As a member of the Joint Chief of Staffs, he often clashed with General George Marshall. King opposed plans to land the US Army in North Africa. He thought the most important area of concern was the Pacific War. Moreover, he thought that the US Navy should play the decisive role in this as long as it was given adequate resources. King, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area, and Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, decided that their first objective should be to establish and protect a line of communications across the South Pacific to Australia. This resulted in the battles of Coral Sea and Midway, where the Japanese Navy lost all four of her carriers. King insisted on launching the Guadalcanal campaign although MacArthur claimed that the US Army was not ready yet for a major offensive. MacArthur also disagreed with invasion of the Solomon Islands. There was also conflict over King's view that American forces should bypass the Philippines. King also opposed Russian involvement in the Pacific War. He also objected to the idea that the Royal Navy should be moved to Pacific after gaining control of the Atlantic. In December 1944, King, along with William Leahy and Chester Nimitz, was given the five-star rank of Fleet Admiral.
    1887 – Actor Boris Karloff (d. 1969) was born William Henry Pratt in London, England.  He is best known for his roles in horror films and especially for his portrayal of Frankenstein in “Frankenstein” (1931), “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935), and “Son of Frankenstein” (1939), which resulted in his immense popularity.  
    1888 – Harpo Marx (d. 1964) was born Adolph Marx in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius (later "Groucho") and Milton (later "Gummo"), to form "The Three Nightingales", later changed to simply "The Marx Brothers". Multiple stories, most unsubstantiated, exist to explain Harpo's evolution as the "silent" character in the brothers' act. In his memoir, Groucho wrote that Harpo simply wasn't very good at memorizing dialog, and thus was ideal for the role of the "dunce who couldn't speak", a common character in vaudeville acts of the time.
    1889 - Louis Glas invented and this day installed a coin-operated phonograph player in the Palais Royale, San Francisco. There were many such machines made, generally called “coin graphs.” The first widely successful “jukebox” manufacturer was the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, NY. Its most popular model was made of curved plastic tubes containing a fluid with a low boiling point. Small heaters kept the fluid bubbling. Wurlitzer sold 56,246 of the Model 1015 in 1946 at $750 each. In reality, the juke boxes never became as widely distributed until the 1950's with the invention of the 45rpm record.
http://www.knowmadz.org/library/ref/soundcap.htm
    1897 - Jazz pianist Willie “the Lion” Smith (d. 1973) birthday, born William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff Smith, Goshen, NY
http://www.redhotjazz.com/thelion.html
    1897 – Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Michigan, is issued a U.S. patent for his "motor carriage," a gasoline-powered vehicle that he constructed the year before.  He claimed to have built his first steam car as early as 1894 The modern assembly line and its basic concept is credited to Olds, who used it to build the first mass-produced automobile, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, beginning in 1901
    1897 – Ruth Etting was born in David City, NE.  One of the most popular U.S. singers from the 1920's through most of the 1940's, she had more than 60 big hits. Best known today for her gangster connections because of the movie about her life “Love Me or Leave Me”, the fictionalized story of her life with Doris Day as Etting.
    1903 - Singer Enrico Caruso made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, appearing in "Rigoletto."
    1909 – The Wright Brothers formed a million-dollar corporation to manufacture airplanes.
    1912 - Trombonist Tyree Glenn (d. 1974) was born in Corsicana, Texas.
http://www.harlem.org/people/glenn.html 
http://www.jazzmanrecords.com/tyreeglenn.html
    1914 - Emmett Littleton Ashford (d. 1980), was born at Los Angeles, CA.  he was the first black to umpire a Major League Baseball game. Ashford began his pro career calling games in the minors in 1951 and went to the Majors in 1966. He was noted for his flamboyant style when calling strikes and outs, and for his dapper dress which included cuff-links with his uniform.
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-308006
    1925 - Birthday of composer Johnny Mandel, NYC.  A Grammy and Oscar-winning composer and arranger of popular songs, film music, and jazz, among the musicians he has worked with are Basie, Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O’Day, Streisand, Tony Bennett, and Shirley Horn.
http://www.ascap.com/filmtv/mandel.html
http://www.thegoldenglobes.com/welcome.html?
nominee/mandel_johnny.html
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Johnny%20Mandel
    1936 - The illustrated magazine “Life” debuted on this day.  “Life” was a weekly American magazine from 1883 to 1972, published initially as a humor and general interest magazine. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936, solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name, then shifted it to a role as a weekly news magazine with a strong emphasis on photojournalism, the first issue of which was today. It was published weekly until 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 to 2002.
http://www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F97/vj22/history.html
http://www.life.com/Life/covers/1936/cv112336.html
http://www.life.com/Life/aboutlife/lifefaqs01.html
    1938 - Bob Hope and Shirley Ross recorded a song for the film, “The Big Broadcast of 1938”.  “Thanks for the Memory” became Decca record number 2219. It also became Hope's theme song.    1943 - The US Second Marine Division took control of the Gilbert Islands after fierce fighting on the heavily fortified Tarawa Atoll.  In the 76-hour battle, the Marines beat back a “death charge” in which the Japanese ran directly at the American guns. American troops sustained 3,500 killed and wounded. The Japanese suffered 5,000 killed and 17 wounded and captured.  The Gilbert Islands are the westernmost of the Polynesians, midway between Australia and Hawaii and today are part of the nation of Kirbati.
    1943 - Randolph in Coos County, NH receives 56 inches of snow, a record for the state. Berlin received 55 inches and many other locations over 40 inches
    1943 – Philadelphia Phillies owner William D. Cox was permanently banned from baseball by Commissioner Landis for having bet on his own team
    1944 - SILK, EDWARD A., Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company E, 398th Infantry, 100th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near St. Pravel, France, 23 November 1944. Entered service at: Johnstown, Pa. Born: 8 June 1916, Johnstown, Pa. G.O. No.: 97, 1 November 1945. Citation: 1st Lt. Edward A. Silk commanded the weapons platoon of Company E, 398th Infantry, on 23 November 1944, when the end battalion was assigned the mission of seizing high ground overlooking Moyenmoutier France, prior to an attack on the city itself. His company jumped off in the lead at dawn and by noon had reached the edge of the woods in the vicinity of St. Pravel where scouts saw an enemy sentry standing guard before a farmhouse in a valley below. One squad, engaged in reconnoitering the area, was immediately pinned down by intense machinegun and automatic-weapons fire from within the house. Skillfully deploying his light machinegun section, 1st Lt. Silk answered enemy fire, but when 15 minutes had elapsed with no slackening of resistance, he decided to eliminate the strong point by an l-man attack. Running 100 yards across an open field to the shelter of a low stone wall directly in front of the farmhouse, he fired into the door and windows with his carbine; then, in full view of the enemy, vaulted the wall and dashed 50 yards through a hail of bullets to the left side of the house, where he hurled a grenade through a window, silencing a machinegun and killing 2 gunners. In attempting to move to the right side of the house he drew fire from a second machinegun emplaced in the woodshed. With magnificent courage he rushed this position in the face of direct fire and succeeded in neutralizing the weapon and killing the 2 gunners by throwing grenades into the structure. His supply of grenades was by now exhausted, but undaunted, he dashed back to the side of the farmhouse and began to throw rocks through a window, demanding the surrender of the remaining enemy. Twelve Germans, overcome by his relentless assault and confused by his unorthodox methods, gave up to the lone American. By his gallant willingness to assume the full burden of the attack and the intrepidity with which he carried out his extremely hazardous mission, 1st Lt. Silk enabled his battalion to continue its advance and seize its objective.
    1946 - French naval bombardment of Hai Phong Harbor, Vietnam, killed thousands of civilians. This was to lead to the First Indochina war, which eventually dragged the US into the conflict in the late 1950s.
    1946 - Top Hits
“Rumors are Flying” - Frank Sinatra
“Ole Buttermilk Sky” - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The Campus Kids)
“The Whole World is Singing My Song” - The Les Brown Orchestra (vocal: Doris Day)
“Divorce Me C.O.D.” - Merle Travis
    1947 - E. L. Sukenik of Jerusalem's Hebrew University first received word of the existence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The documents, dating between 200 BC and AD 70, had been accidentally discovered the previous winter (1946-47) by two Bedouin shepherds in the vicinity of Qumran.
    1948 - Dr. Frank G. Back of New York City patented the Zoom lens, which was first used by NBC television in April of 1947. It was not mass produced until 1959 when it became very popular with usage on a 35mm camera.
http://www.cameraquest.com/ekzoom.htm
    1952 - Birthday of Francie Larrieu Smith, Palo Alto, CA.   She is, perhaps the greatest runner in U.S. history in a career that spanned four decades.  She set 35 American records in distances from 1,000 meters to two miles. During an international career from 1969-92, Larrieu Smith was on 28 national teams and won 21 national titles. She was a member of five Olympic teams, starting in 1972 when she ran the 1,500 meters. She also ran the 1500 at the 1976 Games and was a team member at the same distance in 1980.
    1954 - Top Hits
“I Need You Now” - Eddie Fisher
“Mr. Sandman” - The Chordettes
“Teach Me Tonight” - The De Castro Sisters
“More and More” - Webb Pierce
    1954 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally surpassed its pre-crash high, 25 years after Black Tuesday, when it closed at 382.74.
    1962 - Top Hits
“Big Girls Don't Cry” - The 4 Seasons
“Return to Sender” - Elvis Presley
“Next Door to an Angel” - Neil Sedaka
“I've Been Everywhere” - Hank Snow
    1963 - "I'm Leaving it up to You" by Dale & Grace topped the charts and stayed there for 2 weeks.
    1963 – President John F. Kennedy's body lay in repose in East Room of White House, the day after his assassination in Dallas.  President Johnson declared November 25 a national day of mourning.
http://www.multied.com/Sixties/Funeralrites.html
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/kennedy/kennedy-assassination-23.htm
http://www.mdw.army.mil/fs-m01.htm
    1963 - First episode of “Dr. Who” premiered on British TV with William Hartnell as the first doctor. Traveling through time and space in the TARDIS (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimen­sions in Space), the doctor and his companions found themselves in mortal combat with creatures such as the Daleks. “Dr. Who” didn't air in the US until Sept 29, 1975.
    1964 - The US Supreme Court refuses to strike the phrase "under God," instituted in 1954, from the Pledge of Allegiance
    1966 - Elvis Presley's 22nd film, "Spinout," premieres in Los Angeles. The movie is another box-office success and critical disaster for Elvis.
    1967 - AM radio received a blow to its self-esteem when San Francisco KMPX-FM disc jockey Tom Donahue, inventor of "classic rock" and "deep cut" radio, tells Rolling Stone: "Top Forty radio, as we know it today and have known it for the last ten years, is dead, and its rotting corpse is stinking up the airwaves."
    1968 - It's the end of an era: Rolling Stone Magazine reported that San Francisco's Family Dog has lost its license to operate out of the Avalon Ballroom, site of the marathon dance concerts featuring the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service and other psychedelic groups.
    1970 - Top Hits
“I Think I Love You” - The Partridge Family
“The Tears of a Clown” - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
“Gypsy Woman” - Brian Hyland
“Fifteen Years Ago” - Conway Twitty
    1974 - Billy Swan reached the #1 spot on the singles charts for the first and only time. “I Can Help” was the most popular song in the U.S. for two weeks.
    1975 - Minnesota quarterback Fran Tarkenton becomes the NFL's all-time completions leader when he completes his 2,840th pass in the Vikings' 28-13 victory over San Diego.
http://images.nfl.com/history/images/1123.jpg
http://www.tarkentonsports.com/
    1977 – With their closer, Sparky Lyle, having just won the AL Cy Young Award, the first AL reliever to do so, the New York Yankees signed free agent reliever Goose Gossage to a six-year $2.75 million contract. Gossage had 26 saves and a 1.26 ERA for the Pirates last season.  Before the season was over, Gossage would move into the closer’s role while Lyle would be traded to the Texas Rangers in the off-season.  The Yanks took the World Series from the Dodgers without having Lyle pitch.
    1978 - Top Hits
“MacArthur Park” - Donna Summer
“Double Vision” - Foreigner
“How Much I Feel” - Ambrosia
“Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” - Barbara Mandrell
    1981 - President Ronald Reagan signs off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gives the Central Intelligence Agency the power to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan rebels to conduct covert actions against the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. In the years to come, U.S. support of the Contras became a highly charged issue among the American public. Congressional and public criticisms of the program eventually drove the Reagan administration to subvert congressional bans on aid to the Contras. These actions resulted in what came to be known as the Iran-Contra scandal of 1986.
    1983 - A 24 hour snowfall record for Duluth, MN was broken with 16.9 inches. 19.7 inches fell during the entire storm, also a record
    1984 - Quarterback Doug Flutie of Boston College (my cousin on my mother's side) passed for 472 yards and led the Eagles to a 47-45 upset of the Miami University Hurricanes. Flutie won the game with a desperation “Hail Mary” touchdown pass that end Gerald Phelan caught in the end zone.  The play is considered among the greatest in college football history and American sports.
    1986 - Top Hits
“Human” - Human League
“You Give Love a Bad Name” - Bon Jovi
“Word Up” - Cameo
“You're Still New to Me” - Marie Osmond with Paul Davis
    1987 - Box office sales began for the spectacular musical, “The Phantom of The Opera”. Phantom took in a record-setting amount of $920,272 in seventeen hours. The incoming hit from London made a Broadway record in advance sales of over $12 million two months before its grand opening the following January.
    1988 - Wayne Gretzky scores his 600th NHL goal
http://www.upperdeck.com/athletes/waynegretzky/profile.aspx
    1989 - Low pressure tracking across the Carolinas brought heavy rain to parts of the Southern Atlantic Coast Region for Thanksgiving Day, and blanketed the Middle Atlantic Coast States and southern New England with heavy snow. The storm produced up to nine inches of snow over Long Island, NY, and up to 14 inches over Cape Cod, MA, at Yarmouth. Totals of 4.7 inches at New York City and 6.0 inches at Newark, NJ were records for Thanksgiving Day, the 8.0 inch total at Providence, RI was a record for any given day in November, and the 6.5 inch total at Strasburg, CT was a record for the month of November as a whole.
    1991 - "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Michael Bolton topped the charts and stayed there for a week.
    1991 - La Crosse, WI set a new record for 24 hour snow with 13 inches. This storm brought the monthly total to 28.2 inches, also a record
    1992 - The first smartphone, IBM’s Simon was introduced at COMDEX at Las Vegas.    
    1992 - Early morning severe thunderstorms spawned two F3 tornadoes in North Carolina resulting in 2 deaths and 59 injuries. This was the last day of the three day outbreak in which 93 tornadoes touched down claiming 25 lives.
    1992 - Alta, UT was buried under 45 inches of snow in 24 hours to set an all-time 24 hour record for that location
    1994 - Top Hits
“I’ll Make Love To You” - Boyz II Men
“Here Comes The Hotstepper” (From "Ready To Wear") - Ini Kamoze
“On Bended Knee” - Boyz II Men
“Another Night” - Real McCoy
    1996 - Actor Woody Harrelson and others clogged traffic for hours on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge in a protest on behalf of the Headwaters forest.
    1998 - The world's first portable mp3 player goes on sale, despite strenuous objections from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). The Diamond Rio PMP300, which cost $200, could play about a dozen songs.
    2004 - An outbreak of severe thunderstorms produced reports of 54 tornadoes across portions of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama. In Texas's Hardin County, one person was killed with three injured when a tornado struck during the afternoon.
    2013 - Pop band One Direction hosted 1D Day, a day consisting of a record, 7.5 hour-long socially interactive live-stream on YouTube and Google+ Hangout including live band performances and celebrity guests; the event was an unprecedented use of social media.