#Middlebury
On Nov. 14, 1851, Herman Melville publishes “Moby-Dick.” Initially the book about Captain Ahab and his quest to catch a giant white whale was a flop, but it would eventually become a staple of high-school reading lists across the U.S.- On Nov. 12, 1892, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger becomes the first professional football player when Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Athletic Association pays him $500 to play as a ringer in a game. Before then, players had traded their services for expense money or trinkets, not cash.
- On Nov. 8, 1900, Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone with the Wind” (1936), is born in Atlanta. Mitchell quit working as *a journalist after an ankle injury limited her mobility, and she devoted herself to her novel about the South during and after the Civil War. The book sold 1 million copies in its first six months.
- On Nov. 9, 1938, in an event that would foreshadow the Holocaust, German Nazis launch a campaign of terror against Jewish people and their homes and businesses. “Kristallnacht,” or “Night of Broken Glass,” left some 100 Jews dead and 7,500 Jewish businesses damaged.
- On Nov. 10, 1969, “Sesame Street,” a pioneering TV show that would teach generations of young children the alphabet and how to count, makes its broadcast debut, on PBS.
- On Nov. 11, 1978, a stuntman on the Georgia set of “The Dukes of Hazzard” launches the show’s iconic 1969 Dodge Charger, nicknamed the General Lee, off a 16-foot-high dirt ramp and over a police car. Several hundred Chargers were used during the show’s six-year run due to damage from jumps and other stunts.
- On Nov. 13, 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. The simple V-shaped black-granite wall is inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict, arranged in order of death, not rank.
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