Scott Allsop's Blog, page 53

15th November 1864: Sherman’s March to the Sea begins when the Civil War Union General leads his troops from Atlanta, GA, to the port of Savannah

Sherman’s March to the Sea is remembered for brutal tactics that confiscated or destroyed food, livestock, and supplies. Railroads were dismantled, and industry disrupted. The devastation was widespread, and not only limited to military targets. Homes, farms, and civilian infrastructure became casualties of the ...

14th November 1680: German astronomer Gottfried Kirch uses a telescope to discover a comet for the first time

Officially known as C/1680 V1, Kirch's discovery soon became known as the Great Comet of 1680 and was visible for many weeks, growing to become the brightest object in the night sky and one of the brightest comets of the seventeenth ...

13th November 1982: Vietnam Veterans Memorial formally dedicated in Washington, D.C.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed by a 21-year-old architecture student, Maya Lin, following a national competition. Her minimalist design featured two black granite walls set into the ground, forming a ...

12th November 1970: A dead whale is blown up with dynamite by the Oregon State Highway Division

The Oregon State Highway Division blew up a dead whale that had washed up on a ...

11th November 1831: Nat Turner executed for leading a violent slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia

Nat Turner was supported by a group of more than seventy enslaved and free Blacks who sought to liberate enslaved people while brutally killing around 60 white individuals, including men, women, and ...

10th November 1983: Bill Gates announces the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface for PCs

Bill Gates publicly announced Windows 1.0 on November 10, 1983, at a reception in New York ...

9th November 1979: A computer error at NORAD reports that the USSR had fired hundreds of nuclear missiles at the USA

When news of the incident reached the Soviet Union, party leader Leonid Brezhnev wrote to Carter condemning the ‘tremendous danger’ caused by the ...

8th November 1861: The Trent Affair nearly causes a war between Britain and the United States

When news of the interception of a neutral ship reached Britain at the end of November, the government responded ...

7th November 1919: Palmer Raids in the United States result in the arrest of thousands of suspected communists and anarchists

The raids were ruthless in their execution and consisted of numerous warrantless searches and arrests across 12 cities, often targeting immigrants and prominent leftist ...

6th November 1869: First intercollegiate American football match played between Rutgers College and the College of New Jersey

Despite the absence of regulation and structured plays, the match turned out to be fiercely competitive. While the scoring was different from modern football, Rutgers won ...