Today is November 9 2014

National Scrapple Day: More

• International Tongue Twister Day: More
  
• World Freedom Day: More
• Chaos Never Dies Day: More

• In 1620, The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
  From Wikipedia: 'The "Speedwell" was re-rigged with larger masts before leaving Holland and setting out to meet the "Mayflower" in Southampton, England, around the end of July 1620. The Mayflower was purchased in London. The original captains were Captain Reynolds for the Speedwell and Captain Christopher Jones for the Mayflower. Other passengers joined the group in Southampton, including William Brewster, who had been in hiding for the better part of a year, and a group of people known to the Leiden congregation as "The Strangers." This group was largely made up of people recruited by the Merchant Adventurers to provide practical assistance to the colony and additional hands to work for the colony's ventures. The term was also used for many of the indentured servants.
  
  Among the Strangers were Myles Standish, who was the colony's military leader, Christopher Martin, who had been designated by the Merchant Adventurers to act as shipboard governor during the trans-Atlantic trip, and Stephen Hopkins, a veteran of a failed colonial venture that may have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest. The group that later became the Leiden Leaders after the merging of ships included John Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, William Brewster, and Isaac Alberton.
  
  The departure of the Mayflower and Speedwell for America was beset by delays. Further disagreements with the Merchant Adventurers held up the departure in Southampton. A total of 120 passengers finally departed on August 5—90 on the Mayflower and 30 on the Speedwell. Leaving Southampton, the Speedwell experienced significant leakage, which required the ships to immediately put in at Dartmouth. The leakage was partly caused by being over masted and being pressed too much with sail. Repairs were completed, then a further delay ensued awaiting favorable winds. The two ships finally set sail on August 23 and made it only two hundred miles beyond Land's End before another major leak in the Speedwell forced the expedition to return again to England, this time to the port of Plymouth. The Speedwell was found to be unseaworthy; some passengers abandoned their attempt to emigrate, while others joined the Mayflower, crowding the already heavily burdened ship. Later, it was speculated that the crew of the Speedwell had intentionally sabotaged the ship to avoid having to make the treacherous trans-Atlantic voyage. The delays had significant consequences; the cost of the repairs and port fees required that the colonists sell some of their invaluable provisions, but, more importantly, the delays meant that everyone had to spend the entire winter on board the Mayflower off Cape Cod in what could only be described as squalid conditions.
  
  The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620 with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members in the small, 106 foot-long ship. The seas were not severe during the first month in the Atlantic but, by the second month, the ship was being hit by strong north-Atlantic winter gales, causing it to be badly shaken with water leaks from structural damage. There were many obstacles throughout the trip, including multiple cases of seasickness and the bending and cracking of a main beam of the ship. One death occurred, that of William Button.
  
  After two months at sea, land was sighted on November 9 off the coast of Cape Cod. They attempted to sail south to the designated landing site at the mouth of the Hudson but ran into trouble in the region of Pollack Rip, a shallow area of shoals between Cape Cod and Nantucket Island. With winter approaching and provisions running dangerously low, the passengers decided to return north to Cape Cod Bay and abandon their original landing plans'.
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• In 1887, The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
  From Wikipedia: 'During the early 19th century, Pearl Harbor was not used for large ships due to its shallow entrance. The interest of United States in the Hawaiian Islands grew as a result of its whaling, shipping and trading activity in the Pacific. As early as 1820, an "Agent of the United States for Commerce and Seamen" was appointed to look after American business in the Port of Honolulu. These commercial ties to the American continent were accompanied by the work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. American missionaries and their families became an integral part of the Hawaiian political body.
  
  Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, many American warships visited Honolulu. In most cases, the commanding officers carried letters from the U.S. Government giving advice on governmental affairs and of the relations of the island nation with foreign powers. In 1841, the newspaper Polynesian, printed in Honolulu, advocated that the U.S. establish a naval base in Hawaii for protection of American citizens engaged in the whaling industry. The British Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Crichton Wyllie, remarked in 1840 that "... my opinion is that the tide of events rushes on to annexation to the United States."
  
  From the conclusion of the Civil War, to the purchase of Alaska, to the increased importance of the Pacific states, the projected trade with countries in Asia and the desire for a duty-free market for Hawaiian staples, Hawaiian trade expanded. In 1865, the North Pacific Squadron was formed to embrace the western coast and Hawaii. Lackawanna in the following year was assigned to cruise among the islands, "a locality of great and increasing interest and importance." This vessel surveyed the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands toward Japan. As a result, the United States claimed Midway Island. The Secretary of the Navy was able to write in his annual report of 1868, that in November 1867, 42 American flags flew over whaleships and merchant vessels in Honolulu to only six of other nations. This increased activity caused the permanent assignment of at least one warship to Hawaiian waters. It also praised Midway Island as possessing a harbor surpassing Honolulu's. In the following year, Congress approved an appropriation of $50,000 on March 1, 1869, to deepen the approaches to this harbor.
  
  After 1868, when the Commander of the Pacific Fleet visited the islands to look after American interests, naval officers played an important role in internal affairs. They served as arbitrators in business disputes, negotiators of trade agreements and defenders of law and order. Periodic voyages among the islands and to the mainland aboard U.S. warships were arranged for members of the Hawaiian royal family and important island government officials. When King Lunalilo died in 1873, negotiations were underway for the cessation of Pearl Harbor as a port for the duty-free export of sugar to the U.S. With the election of King Kalakaua in March 1874, riots prompted landing of sailors from USS Tuscarora and Portsmouth. The British warship, HMS Tenedos, also landed a token force. During the reign of King Kalakaua the United States was granted exclusive rights to enter Pearl Harbor and to establish "a coaling and repair station."
  
  Although this treaty continued in force until August 1898, the U.S. did not fortify Pearl Harbor as a naval base. The shallow entrance constituted a formidable barrier against the use of the deep protected waters of the inner harbor as it had for 60 years.
  
  The United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom signed the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 as supplemented by Convention on December 6, 1884, the Reciprocity Treaty was made by James Carter and ratified it in 1887. On January 20, 1887, the United States Senate allowed the Navy to exclusive right to maintain a coaling and repair station at Pearl Harbor. (The US took possession on November 9 that year). The Spanish–American War of 1898 and the desire for the United States to have a permanent presence in the Pacific both contributed to the decision'.
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• In 1961, The X-15 rocket plane achieved a world record speed of 4,093 mph (Mach 6.04) and reached 101,600 feet (30,970 m or over 19 miles) altitude.
  From Wikipedia: 'The North American X-15 was a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the 1960s, reaching the edge of outer space and returning with valuable data used in aircraft and spacecraft design. The X-15's official world record for the highest speed ever recorded by a manned, powered aircraft, set in October 1967 when William J. "Pete" Knight flew at 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h), or Mach 6.72, and has remained unchallenged as of 2016.
  
  During the X-15 program, 13 flights by eight pilots met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of 50 miles (80 km), thus qualifying these pilots as being astronauts. The Air Force pilots qualified for astronaut wings immediately, while the civilian pilots were eventually awarded NASA astronaut wings in 2005, 35 years after the last X-15 flight. The only Navy pilot in the X-15 program never took the aircraft above the requisite 50 mile altitude and so as a result, never earned himself astronaut wings.
  
  Of the 199 X-15 missions, two flights (both by Joseph A. Walker) qualified as true space flights per the international (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) definition of a spaceflight by exceeding 100 kilometers (62.1 mi) in altitude'.
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• In 1965, The biggest power failure in US history occurs. All New York state, 7 neighboring states and parts of Canada are plunged into darkness.
  From Wikipedia: 'he Northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on Tuesday, November 9, 1965, affecting parts of Ontario in Canada and Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Vermont in the United States. Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles (207,000 km2) were left without electricity for up to 13 hours.
  
  The cause of the failure was human error that happened days before the blackout. Maintenance personnel incorrectly set a protective relay on one of the transmission lines between the Niagara generating station Sir Adam Beck Station No. 2 in Queenston, Ontario. The safety relay, which was to trip if the current exceeded the capacity of the transmission line, was set too low.
  
  As was common on a cold November evening, power for heating, lighting and cooking was pushing the electrical system to near its peak capacity. Transmission lines heading into Southern Ontario were heavily loaded. At 5:16 p.m. Eastern Time, a small surge of power originating from the Robert Moses generating plant in Lewiston, New York caused the improperly set relay to trip at far below the line's rated capacity, disabling a main power line heading into Southern Ontario. Instantly, the power that was flowing on the tripped line transferred to the other lines, causing them to become overloaded. Their own protective relays, which are designed to protect the line from overload, tripped, isolating Beck Station from all of Southern Ontario.
  
  With no place else to go, the excess power from Beck Station then switched direction and headed east, over the interconnected lines into New York State, overloading them as well, and isolating the power generated in the Niagara region from the rest of the interconnected grid. The Beck generators, with no outlet for their power, were automatically shut down to prevent damage. The Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant continued to generate power, which supplied Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation customers in the metropolitan areas of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY. These areas ended up being isolated from the rest of the Northeast power grid and remained powered up. The Niagara Mohawk Western NY Huntley (Buffalo) and Dunkirk steam plants were knocked offline. Within five minutes, the power distribution system in the Northeast was in chaos as the effects of overloads and the subsequent loss of generating capacity cascaded through the network, breaking the grid into "islands." Station after station experienced load imbalances and automatically shut down. The affected power areas were the Ontario Hydro System, St Lawrence-Oswego, Upstate New York, and New England. With only limited electrical connection southwards, power to the Southern States was not affected. The only part of the Ontario Hydro System not affected was the Fort Erie area next to Buffalo, which was still powered by older 25 Hz generators. Residents in Fort Erie were able to pick up a TV broadcast from New York, where a local backup generator was being used for transmission purposes'.
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• In 1967, NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft atop the first Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
  From Wikipedia: 'Apollo 4, (also known as AS-501), was the first, unmanned test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, which was used by the U.S. Apollo program to send the first astronauts to the Moon. The space vehicle was assembled in the Vertical Assembly Building, and was the first to be launched from Launch Complex 39 at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, facilities built specially for the Saturn V.
  
  Apollo 4 was an "all-up" test, meaning all rocket stages and spacecraft were fully functional on the initial flight, a first for NASA. It was the first time the S-IC first stage and S-II second stage flew. It also demonstrated the S-IVB third stage's first in-flight restart. The mission used a Block I Command Service Module (CSM) modified to test several key Block II revisions, including its heat shield at simulated lunar-return velocity and angle.
  
  Originally planned for late 1966, the flight was delayed to November 9, 1967, largely due to development problems of the S-II stage encountered by North American Aviation, the manufacturer of the stage. Delay was also caused, to a lesser extent, by a large number of wiring defects found by NASA in the Apollo spacecraft, also built by North American.
  
  The mission was the first Apollo flight after the stand-down imposed after the Apollo 1 fire which killed the first Apollo crew. It was the first to use NASA's official Apollo numbering scheme established in April 1967, designated Apollo 4 because there had been three previous unmanned Apollo/Saturn flights in 1966, using the Saturn IB launch vehicle.
  
  The mission lasted almost nine hours, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, achieving all mission goals. NASA deemed the mission a complete success, because it proved the Saturn V worked, an important step towards achieving the Apollo program's objective of landing astronauts on the Moon and bringing them back safely, before the end of the decade'.
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• In 1967, The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine is launched.
  From Wikipedia: 'Rolling Stone is an American biweekly magazine that focuses on popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the magazine's publisher, and music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its musical coverage and for political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine shifted focus to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors, and popular music. In recent years, it has resumed its traditional mix of content'.
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• In 1979, The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert is cancelled.
  From Wikipedia: 'On at least three occasions, NORAD systems failed, such as on 9 November 1979, when a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape, but failed to switch the system status to "test", causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two "continuity of government" bunkers as well as command posts worldwide. On 3 June 1980, and again on 6 June 1980, a computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash in U.S. Air Force command posts around the world that a nuclear attack was taking place. During these incidents, Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) properly had their planes (loaded with nuclear bombs) in the air; Strategic Air Command (SAC) did not and took criticism, because they did not follow procedure, even though the SAC command knew these were almost certainly false alarms, as did PACAF. Both command posts had recently begun receiving and processing direct reports from the various radar, satellite, and other missile attack detection systems, and those direct reports simply did not match anything about the erroneous data received from NORAD'.
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• In 1989, The fall of the Berlin Wall begins. Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and fall of communism in eastern Europe including Russia.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
  
  The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by GDR authorities, implying that the NATO countries and West Germany in particular were considered equal to "fascists" by GDR propaganda. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer Inner German border (IGB), which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize a physical marker of the "Iron Curtain" that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
  
  Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from which they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin.
  
  In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of what was left. Contrary to popular belief the Wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990'.
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Tomorrow's food holiday will be 'National Scrapple Day'. I don't think I have ever had any. From the dictionary. 'scraps of pork or other meat stewed with cornmeal and shaped into loaves for slicing and frying, especially characteristic of eastern Pennsylvania.'

Start practicing now. Tomorrow is 'International Tongue Twister Day'. The Guinness Book of World Records has the following as the most difficult English twister 'The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick.'

Tomorrow celebrates the last and permanent opening, or fall, of the Berlin Wall. tomorrow is 'World Freedom Day'.

Chaos is always with us. Tomorrow is 'Chaos Never Dies Day'. If it is always with us, then we must find a way to deal with it, or if not ignoring it, at least learn to live with it to the point that it doesn't run our lives.

Henry David Thoreau once said 'Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.'. It looks likes Thoreau had the chaos thing licked. Let's adopt the same attitude, let today take care of itself and look back to, not necessarily a simpler or better time, but one we can consider while it holds still for us. How about November 9 in the past.

In 1620, The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, sight land at what would become Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Rumor has it that the Turkey was almost done and they needed a place to set up the picnic table and so began looking for a rock with the name Plymouth on it. OK, the last part may be a humor and not a rumor.

In 1887, The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In 1961, The X-15 rocket plane achieved a world record speed of 4,093 mph (Mach 6.04) and reached 101,600 feet (30,970 m or over 19 miles) altitude.

In 1965, The biggest power failure in US history occurs. All New York state, 7 neighboring states and parts of Canada plunged into darkness.

In 1967, NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft atop the first Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

In 1979, The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected a purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert is cancelled. It turned out that test data was fed into the computer, but the switch was not set to a 'test' value, so the information looked real.

In 1989, The Fall of the Berlin Wall occurs.

No. 1 song

• Last Kiss - J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers: More
  'We'll Sing in the Sunshine' has been displaced by 'Last Kiss', which will hold the no. 1 spot until November 14 1964, when 'Baby Love', takes over.

Top movie

• Kitten with a Whip More
  Having displaced 'The Naked Kiss', it will be there until the weekend box office of November 15 1964 when, 'Roustabout', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: November 9 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: November 9 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 9th November More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 9th November More
• On-This-day.com history 9th November More
• On-This-day.com music history 9th November More
• Wikipedia.com: History November 9 More

Food:
National Peanut Butter Lover's Month
National Georgia Pecan Month
National Pepper Month
Other:
National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month
National American Indian Heritage Month
National Bladder Health Awareness Month
National Candle Month
National Child Mental Health Month
National Diabetes Awareness Month
National Epilepsy Awareness Month
National Family Caregivers Month
National Fragrance Month
National Healthy Skin Month
National Home Care Month
National Lifewriting Month
National Long Term Care Awareness Month
National Marrow Awareness Month
National Military Family Month
National Native American Heritage Month
National Novel Writing Month
National Pet Awareness Month
National Scholarship Month
National Senior Pet Month

November is:

November origin (from Wikipedia): 'November is the eleventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of four months with the length of 30 days. November was the ninth month of the ancient Roman calendar. November retained its name (from the Latin novem meaning 'nine') when January and February were added to the Roman calendar. '

'November is a month of spring in the Southern Hemisphere and autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, November in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of May in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.'

November at Wikipedia: More

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

Best selling books of 1964 More

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
• NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
• Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
• NASA TV: (video feed) More
  NASA TV schedule: More
• Public Domain eBook Links

  Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

• Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
  Home page: More
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• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
  Home page: More
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Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.

US Government Holidays

• 2014 Postal Holidays More
• 2014 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More