World/nation trivia 11-17-13

Nov. 17:1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.

1973, President Richard Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in Orlando, Fla.: "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."

1979, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 black and/or female American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Nov. 18:

1928, Walt Disney's first sound-synchronized animated cartoon, "Steamboat Willie" starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York.

1966, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside of Lent.

1978, U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., and four others were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by more than 900 cult members.

1987, the congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.

Nov. 19:

1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.

1919, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55 in favor, 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.

1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon.

Nov. 20:

1945, 22 out of 24 indicted Nazi officials went on trial (one in absentia) before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

1947, Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey.

1969, the Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phaseout.

1969, the Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phaseout.

Nov. 21:

1922, Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

1942, the Alaska Highway was formally opened.

1973, President Richard Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18-1/2-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.

Nov. 22:

1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, Calif., carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.

1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas; Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same open car as the president, was seriously wounded. A suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested.

Nov. 23:

1889, the first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon.

1936, Life, the photojournalism magazine created by Henry R. Luce, was first published.

1980, some 2,600 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.

Source: Associated Press