Thanks
Giving day
Thanksgiving
Day in the United States started as a way
of giving thanks to food collected from
a good harvest or problems that were fixed.
It originated in 1621 and was a religious
festival, but is now largely secular. It
is now a holiday on the fourth Thursday
of November.
It
is traditional for families and groups of
friends to get together for a large meal.
This often consists of a turkey, stuffing,
different types of potatoes, cranberry sauce,
gravy and maize and other seasonal vegetables.
The meal also often includes pumpkin pie.
Many of these foods are native to the Americas
and were not available in Europe at the
time of the first settlers. This adds to
their symbolism of giving thanks for a good
harvest in a new country.
Thanksgiving Day parades are held in some
cities and towns on or around Thanksgiving
Day. Some parades or festivities also mark
the opening of the Christmas shopping season.
Many football games are played and watching
them is a popular activity. Some people
have a four-day weekend so it is a popular
time for trips out of town and to visit
friends and family.
Events
380
– Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal
entry, into Constantinople.
1227 – Polish Prince Leszek I the White
is assassinated at an assembly of Piast
dukes at Gąsawa.
1429 – Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges
La Charité.
1542 – Battle of Solway Moss: The English
army defeats the Scots.
1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European
to discover the island Van Diemen's Land
(later renamed Tasmania).
1835 – The Texas Provincial Government authorizes
the creation of a horse-mounted police force
called the Texas Rangers (which is now the
Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department
of Public Safety).
1850 – Danish troops defeat a Schleswig-Holstein
force in the town of Lottorf, Schleswig-Holstein.
1859 – Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin
of Species, the anniversary of which is
sometimes called "Evolution Day"
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Lookout
Mountain – Near Chattanooga, Tennessee,
Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant
capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break
the Confederate siege of the city led by
General Braxton Bragg.
1906 – The Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers
Betting Scandal, the first major scandal
in professional American football.
1922 – Author and Irish Republican Army
member Robert Erskine Childers is executed
by an Irish Free State firing squad for
illegally carrying a revolver.
1932 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific
Crime Detection Laboratory (better known
as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
1935 – The Senegalese Socialist Party holds
its second congress.
1940 – World War II: Slovakia becomes a
signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially
joining the Axis Powers.
1941 – World War II: The United States grants
Lend-Lease to the Free French.
1943 – World War II: The USS Liscome Bay
is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks, killing
650 men.
1944 – World War II: Bombing of Tokyo –
The first bombing raid against the Japanese
capital from the east and by land is carried
out by 88 American aircraft.
1950 – The "Storm of the Century",
a violent snowstorm, takes shape on this
date before paralyzing the northeastern
United States and the Appalachians the next
day, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero
temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia, records
57 inches of snow. 353 people would die
as a result of the storm.
1962 – The West Berlin branch of the Socialist
Unity Party of Germany forms a separate
party, the Socialist Unity Party of West
Berlin.
1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered by
Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police
department headquarters. The shooting happens
to be broadcast live on television.
1963 – Vietnam War: Newly sworn-in US President
Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United
States intends to continue supporting South
Vietnam both militarily and economically.
1965 – Joseph Désiré Mobutu seizes power
in the Congo and becomes President; he rules
the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971)
for over 30 years, until being overthrown
by rebels in 1997.
1966 – Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes
near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing
all 82 people on board.
1969 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command
module splashes down safely in the Pacific
Ocean, ending the second manned mission
to the Moon.
1971 – During a severe thunderstorm over
Washington state, a hijacker calling himself
Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes
from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with
$200,000 in ransom money. He has never been
found.
1973 – A national speed limit is imposed
on the Autobahn in Germany because of the
1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasted
only four months.
1974 – Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover
the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis
skeleton, nicknamed "Lucy" (after
The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds"), in the Awash Valley of
Ethiopia's Afar Depression.
1992 – A China Southern Airlines domestic
flight in the People's Republic of China,
crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Days:
Andrew Dung-Lac and other Vietnamese Martyrs
Chrysogonus (Roman Catholic Church)
Colman of Cloyne (Roman Catholic Church)
Firmina (Roman Catholic Church)
Flavian of Ricina (Roman Catholic Church)
Mercurius (Eastern Church)
November 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Lachit Divas (Assam)
Teacher's Day or Öğretmenler Günü (Turkey)
The first day of Brumalia, celebrated until
the winter solstice. (Roman empire)
For details, contact Datacentre
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