Moments in Time – November 8, 2023

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• On Nov. 20, 1998, the first module of the International Space Station, Zarya (“Dawn”), was launched. Russian-built and American-owned, its name signified the concept of a new era of international space cooperation.
• On Nov. 21, 1931, the horror film “Frankenstein” was released, starring Boris Karloff as the monster created from corpses. Based on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus,” it was a commercial success and is still widely considered one of the greatest movies of all time.
• On Nov. 22, 1718, the infamous pirate Blackbeard was killed off the coast of North Carolina by British naval lieutenant Robert Maynard, who’d been dispatched by Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood to track him down. As a warning to others who might be pondering a career in piracy, Spotswood had the buccaneer’s head mounted on a pike at the mouth of the Hampton River.
• On Nov. 23, 1976, 49-year-old Frenchman Jacques Mayol, sometimes known as “Dolphin Man,” became the first person to dive 100 meters into the sea without the use of breathing equipment. Seven years later, he broke his record with a dive of 105 meters.
• On Nov. 24, 2012, a fire in the Tazreen Fashion clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killed over 110 people and injured another 200. The tragedy shed light on poor working conditions for employees who made export clothing in the country and led to major labor reforms in Bangladesh and the fashion world, which promised to take steps to ethically source its products.
• On Nov. 25, 1834, Delmonico’s, one of New York’s finest restaurants, offered its customers a meal of soup, steak, coffee and half a pie for 12 cents. Even as we sigh for the “good old days,” however, we should remember that this meal would also cost an unskilled laborer about an hour’s wage.
• On Nov. 26, 1865, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll (born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), a mathematics don at Oxford University, was published in the U.S. The beloved children’s classic, which has never gone out of print, has been translated into 174 languages and adapted for the cinema, art, ballet, opera, musicals, theme parks, board games and video games.

© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.