November
24
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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