Today is Monday, Nov. 10, the 314th day of 2014. There are 51 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 10, 1944, during World War II, the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded while moored at the Manus Naval Base in the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific; the blast annihilated the Mount Hood and damaged nearby vessels, leaving 45 confirmed dead and 327 missing and presumed dead.
On this date:
In 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.
In 1871, journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found Scottish missionary David Livingstone, who had not been heard from for years, near Lake Tanganyika in central Africa.
In 1919, the American Legion opened its first national convention in Minneapolis.
In 1928, Japanese Emperor Hirohito was formally enthroned, almost two years after his ascension.
In 1938, Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” on her CBS radio program. Turkish statesman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk died in Istanbul at age 57.
In 1942, Winston Churchill delivered a speech in London in which he said, “I have not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.”
In 1951, customer-dialed long-distance telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, called Alameda, California, Mayor Frank Osborne without operator assistance.
In 1954, the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, depicting the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Arlington, Virginia.
In 1969, the children’s educational program “Sesame Street” made its debut on National Educational Television (later PBS).
In 1972, three armed men hijacked Southern Airways Flight 49, a DC-9 with 24 other passengers on board during a stopover in Birmingham, Alabama. (The 30-hour ordeal finally ended in Cuba, where the hijackers were taken into custody by Cuban authorities.)
In 1975, the ore-hauling ship SS Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 mysteriously sank during a storm in Lake Superior with the loss of all on board.
In 1982, the newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, D.C., three days before its dedication. Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev died at age 75.
Ten years ago: Word reached the United States of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at age 75 (because of the time difference, it was the early hours of November 11 in Paris, where Arafat died). President George W. Bush nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general, succeeding John Ashcroft. France, the United States and other nations began evacuating thousands of foreigners from Ivory Coast following attacks on civilians and peacekeeping troops.
Five years ago: John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that killed 10 in the Washington, D.C. region, was executed. President Barack Obama visited Fort Hood, Texas, where he somberly saluted the 13 Americans killed in a shooting rampage, and pledged that the killer would be “met with justice — in this world, and the next.”
One year ago: Talks in Geneva on curbing Iran’s nuclear program ended with no deal after France objected that the proposed measures did not go far enough.
Today’s Birthdays: Film composer Ennio Morriconeis 86. Blues singer Bobby Rush is 80. Actor Albert Hall is 77. Country singer Donna Fargo is 73. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., is 71. Lyricist Tim Rice is 70. Rock singer-musician Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 67. Actress-dancer Ann Reinking is 65. Actor Jack Scalia is 64. Movie director Roland Emmerich is 59. Actor Matt Craven is 58. Actor-comedian Sinbad is 58. Actress Mackenzie Phillips is 55. Author Neil Gaiman is 54. Actress Vanessa Angel is 51. Actor Hugh Bonneville (TV: “Downton Abbey”) is 51. Actor-comedian Tommy Davidson is 51. Actor Michael Jai (jy) White is 50. Country singer Chris Cagle is 46. Actor-comedian Tracy Morgan is 46. Actress Ellen Pompeo (TV: “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 45. Rapper-producer Warren G is 44. Actor Walton Goggins is 43. Comedian-actor Chris Lilley is 40. Rock singer-musician Jim Adkins (Jimmy Eat World) is 39. Rapper Eve is 36. Rock musician Chris Joannou (Silverchair) is 35. Actor Bryan Neal is 34. Actress Heather Matarazzo is 32. Country singer Miranda Lambert is 31. Actor Josh Peck is 28. Pop singer Vinz Dery (Nico & Vinz) is 24. Actress Zoey Deutch (Film: “Vampire Academy”) is 20. Actress Kiernan Shipka (TV: “Mad Men”) is 15. Actress Mackenzie Foy (Film: the “Twilight” films) is 14.
Thought for Today: “Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtues.” — Moliere, French dramatist (1622-1673).