4 Score & 7 Years Ago
NOVEMBER 19, 1863
- President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the
dedication ceremony of a national military cemetery in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. Over 7,500 soldiers died
during the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place from July 1-3, 1863. Lincoln's remarks, which lasted just over two minutes, are considered to be one of the
greatest speeches in American history and redefined the Civil War as a struggle
not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom."
The entire text of the speech can be read here.
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Blame it on the Rain
NOVEMBER 19, 1990 - The pop music group Milli Vanilli was stripped of
its Grammy Award after it was revealed that the duo did not perform any of
the vocals on their Girl You Know It's True album. Milli Vanilli was formed by
music producer Frank Farian in 1988 and featured the vocals of five different
artists. However, Farian did not think those artists had a marketable image and
instead recruited Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, a couple of models he had
found at a German night club, to front the group. Milli Vanilli's instant popularity in the United States, with three number one hits in 1988-1989, resulted in
their winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Things started to unravel for the lip-synching pop stars, when the tape started skipping during a live performance in Bristol, Connecticut and broadcast on MTV.
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A Pirate's Pirate
NOVEMBER 22, 1718 - The infamous pirate Edward Teach, better known as
Blackbeard, was killed during battle by Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the British Royal Navy. Blackbeard,
who is the archetypal image of the seafaring pirate, terrorized and plundered
the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic during the early 18th century. It is said
during battles Blackbeard would wear lit matches woven into his beard to intimidate
his enemies. After Blackbeard was killed his head was cut off and placed on a pike on the north shore of the Hampton River in Virginia as a warning to other pirates.
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Dark Day in Dallas
NOVEMBER 22, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in the back of a
convertible limousine with Texas Governor John Connally. The shots were fired at 12:30 pm and the President was immediately rushed to Parkland Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:00 pm. By 2:40 pm the President's body was on Air Force One and headed back to Washington, D.C. The body was removed before a forensic examination could be conducted by the Dallas County Coroner -- a violation of Texas state law, which had legal jurisdiction over the murder. At that time it was not a federal offense to kill the President of the United States. Really.
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"The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract."
-- Abraham Lincoln
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Side Note:
The Jolly Roger is the name given to any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The most famous is the skull and crossbones, but the flag shown above was the one flown by Blackbeard.
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