#Middlebury
On Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.- On Nov. 21, 1877, Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound. He used a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder to play back a song he had recorded, ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
- On Nov. 24, 1932, the FBI crime lab officially opens in Washington, D.C. The single room lab, chosen because it had a sink, had scant equipment and was used primarily as a public relations tool.
- On Nov. 20, 1967, San Jose State College students demonstrate against Dow Chemical, the maker of napalm. Napalm was an acronym derived from naphthetic and palmic acids, whose salts were used to make the jellied gasoline – napalm – used in flame-throwers and bombs.
- On Nov. 23, 1972, secret peace talks resume in Paris between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese representative. The talks deadlocked weeks later, leading President Richard Nixon to order the massive “Christmas bombing” campaign to break the impasse.
- On Nov. 25, 1986, Attorney General Edwin Meese reveals that proceeds from arms sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua. President Ronald Reagan accepted the resignation of his national security adviser, Vice Admiral John Poindexter, and fired Lt. Col. Oliver North, a Poindexter aide.
- On Nov. 22, 2002, the James Bond movie “Die Another Day,” starring Pierce Brosnan as the fictional British secret-service agent 007, opens in theaters. Its debut came almost exactly 40 years after the first Bond movie, “Dr. No,” was released.
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