First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - NOVEMBER 14th

Herman Melville, Quote

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.”

~ Herman Melville

Wikiquote (Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick.)

(Herman Melville in Moby-Dick - published November 14, 1851 in the United States; but first published on October 18 in England.)

This Day in History

November 14th, 1533

Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca, Inca empire

Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca, Inca empire.

Wikipedia  Image: Francisco Pizarro, Governor of New Castile; Map, The Conquest of Peru, 1531 - 1533; Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru Millais, John Everett


November 14th, 1770

James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile

James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.

Wikipedia  Photo: Tisisat Falls in Amhara, EthiopiaTisisat Falls in Amhara, Ethiopia, National Geographic; Blue Nile, National geographic; Juvenile African jacana stalking around in search of food at Sunset Dam near Lower Sabie in the Kruger National Park (South Africa), by Chris Martin, National geographic; Lake Tana is Ethiopia's largest lake and is the source of the Blue Nile River, by El-Len, Flickr; Semien Mountains, Ethiopia. by Hulivili, Flickr; Sunset in Egypt, by Jonasvl, National Geographic


November 14th, 1862

Lincoln Memorial: an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument American Civil War: Battle of Antietam; Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland American Civil War: American Civil War: First Battle Between Ironclads; CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads

American Civil War:
1862 - President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Wikipedia  Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.


November 14th, 1889

Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in seventy-two days

Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochrane) Pioneering female journalist, begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days - she completes the trip in seventy-two days.

Wikipedia  Photo: Elizabeth Cochrane, (Nellie Bly, 1890).


November 14th, 1910

Aviator Eugene Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia - taking off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher

Aviator Eugene Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia - taking off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.

Wikipedia  Photo: © Curtiss pusher, by Marty McGuire; World's First Aircraft Carrier 1910, The Atlantic; F18 takeoff; Replica 1910 Ely-Curtiss pusher airplane; Takeoff from Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise, Official U.S. Navy Imagery; USS Forrestal, by roger4336, flickr.


November 14th, 1916

World War I: Collage

Post World War I:
1916 - The Battle of the Somme ends.
1918 - Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
1921 - The Communist Party of Spain is founded.

Wikipedia  Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.


November 14th, 1940

World War II: Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf; Battle of Leyte Gulf; The first kamikaze attack: A Japanese plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island

World War II:
1940 - Coventry Blitz; in England, the city of Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
1941 - The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal torpedoed the previous day by U-81, sinks.

Wikipedia  Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.


November 14th, 1941

World War II, The Holocaust

World War II: Holocaust;
1941 - In Slonim, German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murdered 9000 Jews in a single day.

Wikipedia  Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.


November 14th, 1967

American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser

American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser.

Wikipedia  Photo: Lasers.


November 14th, 1969

Apollo Program: Apollo 11 first manned Moon landing and the first walk on the surface on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia. The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi)

Apollo Program: Apollo 12; NASA launches the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.

Wikipedia  Photo: Apollo Program: Apollo 11 first manned Moon landing and the first walk on the surface on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia.
The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi).


November 14th, 1971

Mariner program: was a program conducted by the American space agency NASA in conjunction with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury from 1962 to 1973

Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.

Wikipedia  Image: Mariner program was a program conducted by the American space agency NASA in conjunction with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury from 1962 to 1973.


November 14th, 1979

Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis

Islamic revolution of Iran, Iran hostage crisis:
1979 - United States President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.

Wikipedia  Photo: The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian Revolution. President Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy", adding that the "United States will not yield to blackmail". The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.


November 14th, 1982

Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border

Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.

Wikipedia  Image: Lech Wałęsa helped defeat Soviet Communism


November 14th, 2012

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2012 - Operation Pillar of Defense; Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas.

Wikipedia  Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)