Interesting Facts

25th November 1960 - Three sisters, Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal, were brutally murdered for their political activism. The sisters, known as the "Unforgettable Butterflies," became a symbol of violence against women in Latin America. Women's activists have marked November 25 as a day against violence since 1981 and on December 17, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 (the anniversary of the day of the murder of the Mirabal sisters) as the annual date for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in commemoration of the sisters. Due to their mark in history November 25, is observed each year as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in honor of the Mirabal sisters. It also marks the beginning of the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence. The end of the 16 Days is December 10, International Human Rights Day. http://www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/

18th November 1307 - Famed marksman William Tell put an apple on his son's head and shot it off.  (Call Social Services) 1928 - Mickey Mouse appeared in Steamboat Willie, his first cartoon to be distributed. 2004 - Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales.

11th November 1918 - On the 11th hour of the 11th Day in the 11th month the Armistice that officially ended the First World War was declared. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/first-world-war https://flic.kr/g/fnA5wu 2005 - Lord Lichfield, the Royal photographer died at the age of 66 after suffering a major stroke. (Apart from being an excellent photographer he endeared himself to me by using a whistle to keep the Royal Family in order when taking the photographs at Charles and Diana's wedding - I am sure that he and Diana will have a few interesting words to say to each other.)

10th November 2008 - Mama Africa (Miriam Makeba) died of a heart attack after collapsing on stage.

8th November 1920 - Rupert Bear first appeared in the Daily Express.

5th November 1605 - Guy Fawkes and other conspirators attempted to blow up the English Parliament and failed. Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

4th November 1783 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 was performed for the first time in Linz, Austria. 1839 – The Newport Rising took place, which is the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority on mainland Britain. 1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform. 1918 – Wilfred Owen, English soldier and poet died, 6 days before the end of the war. 1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. 1952 – The United States government established the National Security Agency, or NSA. 1999 - Wallace and Gromit's animated adventure A Grand Day Out was first shown. 2008 – Barack Obama became the first man of African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.

3rd November 1928 - Mickey Mouse appeared in Walt Disney's first fully synchronized sound cartoon "Steamboat Willie". (Walt Disney actually did the voice too.)

31st October 1984 - Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, was killed by two assassins believed to be her own bodyguards. Booh - It's Halloween!

29th October 1986 - Margaret Thatcher officially opened the M25 motorway.

23rd October 1958 - Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced Smurfs to the world.

21st October 1966 at 09:15 - 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales. At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster, the NCB was found responsible for the disaster, due to "ignorance, ineptitude and a failure of communication". No NCB employee was fired, demoted or even disciplined.

20th October 1781 - British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered to a Franco-American force led by George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, at Yorktown, Virginia, paving the way for the end of the American Revolutionary War. 2015 - English radio launched online.

18th October 1922 - The BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) was established.

15th October 1901 - Walt Disney was born. 2013 - The Royal Mail was privatised.

14th October 1066 - The Battle of Hastings, Duke William of Normandy and Norman army defeated the English forces of Harold II. 1773 - The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Commission of National Education), was formed in Poland.

4th October 1957: The Russian satellite, Sputnik was launched into space. Becoming the first man-made object ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere.

4th October 1924 - Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared in the children's verse book, "When We Were Very Young".

3rd October 1990 - Germany officially reunified when the six re-established federal states (Bundesländer) of East Germany–Brandenburg, Berlin (formed by uniting the two halves of the formerly divided city), Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia–formally joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).

30th September 2005 - A Danish newspaper published a series of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which Muslims found so insulting that 140 people died in the ensuing violence. (140 people died in the resulting protests - now that's a crime.)