On Wikipedia Wednesday I take the Wiki’s word for it about what happened on this date in history (give or take a day) and vamp up the rest to connect the events. It’s okay. I’m a trained historian.
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I wonder if Jack the Ripper was in a fraternity. We’ll never know because he was never caught, even after taking the life of his last victim Mary Kelly–a.k.a. Black Mary–on November 9, 1888. Black Mary shouldn’t be confused with Typhoid Mary who died on November 11, 1938 after a rough career as a cook who infected people with a potentially fatal disease.
I mention college fraternities because the first American one began at William & Mary (no relation to Typhoid or Black Mary) way back in November 1750. The F.H.C. Society came complete with a secret handshake and famous alum like President Thomas Jefferson. Originally a latin phrase, FHC came to stand for the Flat Hat Club. The organization enjoyed a rebirth in 1916 while America prepared to enter World War I.
Speaking of The Great War, November 11th is Armistice Day, the anniversary of the official end of the war in 1918. Three years later, President Warren Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Armistice Day is ironically called Remembrance day, ironic because few people remember it anymore.
Most people may have also forgotten (or never known) that yesterday was World Freedom Day, a day to commemorate the fall of The Berlin Wall in 1989, the official end to communism’s brutal 20th century reign as millions celebrated the defeat of some pretty evil business. President Obama created controversy last year by refusing to attend the 20th anniversary celebration.
Obama is traveling this week, however, to Asia. Most folks don’t blink over our top executive traveling abroad, but Teddy Roosevelt made headlines in 1906 when he became the first sitting president to leave the country. He visited Panama to check up on construction of his famous canal which begins in the Atlantic Ocean, the same body of water reached by Civil War General Sherman’s famous March to the Sea. The most famous event of that march was the burning of Atlanta which happened on November 11, 1864. Another great blaze broke out a few years later during the Great Boston Fire of November 9, 1872.
From the 1870s to the 1970s looks like Leo DiCaprio has a birthday tomorrow. Born in 1974, you know Leo watched some Sesame Street which first aired on this date in 1969. Little Leo would grow up to appear on multiple covers of Rolling Stone, first published on November 9, 1967.
Rolling Stone has covered some major shakers during its run, perhaps none as big as Nirvana who led the alternative charge of the Grunge scene in 1991. The magazine featured the band on its cover in 1992 with frontman Kurt Cobain famously wearing a “Corporate Magazines Still Suck” t-shirt. The Gen X trio wound up on the cover once again in 1993, this time sporting pinstripe suits against the banner headline “Success Doesn’t Suck.” Unfortunately for Cobain, success wasn’t fulfilling and he made a third appearance on the mag’s cover again in 1994, this time in memoriam after his death.
On that first Nirvana cover of Rolling Stone, the magazine declared Seattle as “The New Liverpool.” And to think there would never have been a Seattle had the state of Washington not been founded on November 11th, 1889, around the exact same time Jack the Ripper was slinking back into the shadows of history. Well, there you go but this is all getting a little too depressing for me, so I’m gonna go read up on Cookie Monster. You know that guy was in a fraternity.
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Who says history is boring? Follow me on Twitter @eduClaytion.
