It happened today – this day in history – November 19
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1493: Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico..
1600: Birth of Charles I
1620: The Mayflower reaches Cape Cod.
1703: The Man in the Iron Mask, a prisoner in the Bastille in Paris, dies.
1828: Austrian composer Franz Schubert dies from typhoid aged 31.
1850: Alfred Tennyson becomes poet laureate, succeeding William Wordsworth.
1863: Abraham Lincoln delivers his Gettysberg address.
1887: Poet Emma Lazarus dies in New York aged 38.
1895: Inventor Frederick E. Blaisdell patents the pencil.
1906: London is selected to host the 1908 Olympics.
1911: New York receives the first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.
1926: The miners’ strike ends after 28 weeks.
1933: Women are allowed to vote in Spain.
1940: The first major German air raid on Birmingham kills 450 people.
1950: General Dwight Eisenhower becomes supreme commander of NATO-Europe.
1953: Vice president Richard Nixon visits Hanoi.
1955: Carl Perkins recorded his song ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ at Sun Studios in Memphis.
1962: Cuban leader Fidel Castro accepts the removal of Soviet weapons.
1972: Leader of the IRA, Seán MacStiofáin is arrested in Dublin.
1977: Egyptian president Anwar Sadat arrives in Israel. On the same day, Libya ceases diplomatic relations with Egypt.
1983: Tom Evans of the group Badfinger committed suicide by hanging himself from a willow tree in his garden.
1985: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
1988: Heiress Christina Onasis dies of heart failure aged 37.
1990: Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning “Girl You Know Its True” album.
1994: Musician David Crosby underwent a successful liver transplant.
1998: Van Gogh’s “Portrait of the Artist Without Beard” sells at auction for $71.5 million.
2002: Michael Jackson dangles his baby from the balcony of a hotel in Berlin, showing the nine month-old child to his fans.
2003: Humble Pie bass player Greg Ridley died from pneumonia. On the same day, Gene Anthony Ray, best know as Leroy in the TV series Fame, died from a stroke aged 41 and police issued an arrest warrant for Michael Jackson following allegations of sexual abuse of a 12-year old boy.
2004: Record producer Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day, who was behind hits by the Byrds, Ry Cooder and the Beach Boys, died aged 62 after a long battle with skin cancer.
2013: 23 people are killed by a suicide bombing attack on the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
2017: Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe refuses to resign in a TV speech after being ousted as leader of ruling ZANU-PF party. On the same day, cult leader Charles Manson dies in prison aged 83 and tennis player Jana Novotna dies of cancer aged 49.
BIRTHDAYS: Larry King, TV host, 86; Calvin Klein, fashion designer, 77; Fred Lipsius, musician (Blood Sweat and Tears), 76; Eddie Rayner, musician (Split Enz), 67; Bill Sharpe, musician (Shakatak), 67; Allison Janney, actress, 60; Matt Sorum, drummer (Guns n Roses) 59; Meg Ryan (Margaret Mary Emily Hyra), actress, 58; Jody Foster, actress/director, 57; Jason Pierce, musician (Spiritualized) 54; Justin Chancellor, musician (Tool), 48; Adam Driver, actor, 36.
