#Middlebury
On Nov. 22, 1718, Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, is killed off North Carolina’s Outer Banks during a battle with a British navy force. In 1717, Teach took over a captured French merchantman from a retired pirate, increased its armament to 40 guns and renamed it the Queen Anne’s Revenge.- On Nov. 20, 1923, the U.S. Patent Office grants a patent to Garrett Morgan for his three-position traffic signal. By having a third (yellow warning) position besides just “Stop” and “Go,” it regulated crossing vehicles more safely.
- On Nov. 23, 1936, the first issue of the magazine Life is published. When the original Life folded during the Great Depression, publisher Henry Luce bought the name and relaunched the magazine as a picture-based periodical.
- On Nov. 24, 1947, the House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to hold 10 Hollywood writers, directors and producers in contempt for refusing to cooperate at hearings dealing with communism in the movie industry. It marked the start of a “blacklist” of names of Hollywood personalities suspected of having communist ties.
- On Nov. 19, 1969, Brazilian soccer great Pele scores his 1,000th professional goal. It was a major milestone in a career that included three World Cup championships.
- On Nov. 18, 1978, Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones leads 909 of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. While many of Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch, others were forced to do so at gunpoint.
- On Nov. 21, 1986, National Security Council staff member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, begin shredding documents that would have exposed their part in a range of illegal activities. When North was fired, Hall continued to sneak documents to him by stuffing them in her skirt and boots.
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