November's Today in Your History
A look at the people, events and popular culture that shaped our lives
AARP Members Only Access, November 2022
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PHOTO BY: Jeopardy Productions/Getty Images
Nov. 30: Ken Jennings finally loses on Jeopardy! after 74 games (2004)
“Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.” That was the Final Jeopardy answer that finally tripped up Salt Lake City software engineer Ken Jennings on Nov. 30, 2004, after a 74-game streak. He guessed Federal Express, but the correct answer was H&R Block. With that wrong response, Jennings ended up in second place and was unseated by real estate agent Nancy Zerg, who told the Associated Press that, backstage before the show, she had repeated to herself, “Someone’s got to beat him sometime, it might as well be me.” During his impressive run, he got 2,693 answers correct and only missed 263, and he was first to buzz in 61.5 percent of the time. Many commentators pointed out the irony in Jennings losing out on a question about tax preparers since he would certainly be needing one in the next few months: His final earnings topped more than $2.5 million, well surpassing the record of $2.18 million set by Who Wants to Be a Millionaire contestant Kevin Olmstead. The G.O.A.T. was such a fan favorite and ratings boost that this July, in the wake of Alex Trebek’s death in November 2020, Jennings was named a permanent replacement host, alongside Mayim Bialik. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: INTERFOTO/Alamy
Nov. 29: The video game Pong is released in its original arcade-game form (1972)
Pong, the simplistic table tennis simulator, wasn’t the first video game made by Atari, but it was the first to become a massive commercial success. It might then be surprising to find out that the idea for Pong was once called “a throwaway.” The cofounder of Atari (previously called Syzygy), Nolan Bushnell, wanted his first hire, Allan Alcorn, to learn the company’s proprietary technology for an earlier, space combat arcade game, Computer Space, as a training exercise. The final result was put in an arcade cabinet and they set it up in Andy Capp’s bar in Sunnyvale, California. The popularity was clear when the game stopped working a few days later due to it being too full of coins. Alcorn was blown away by the response and in 2021 told AARP: “Very much to my surprise, it became a hit right away. I’m blessed by having the opportunity to create something that changed the world a little bit, you know?” In 1974, Atari released a home console version of the game, and kickstarted the multibillion-dollar home video game market. Today, the simple game that started a gaming revolution is mostly a fond but distant memory, but AARP members can play Pong — along with other Atari classic games — any time they want. —Tom Maxwell
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PHOTO BY: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Nov. 28: Willie Nelson makes his debut onstage at the Grand Ole Opry (1964)
Shortly after signing with RCA on Nov. 24, 1964, a then-unknown Texan country singer named Willie Nelson made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Nov. 28. As he recalled in his autobiography, It's a Long Story: My Life, he was paid $35 for the performance. “I was very nervous the first time I played the Opry,” he recalled. “Because, you know, it’s the Ryman Auditorium, it’s the Grand Ole Opry, and it’s where Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams and my heroes had played.” Right after his inaugural appearance, Nelson headed across the street to the Ernest Tubb Record Shop to do the Midnite Jamboree show with his musical hero, and that’s when he knew he had hit the big leagues: “He treated me like I was really somebody. I said, ‘Well, heck, I like ole Ernest.’ He treated all of us that way.” If you went back in time and caught that first Opry performance, you might not even recognize the Red-Headed Stranger: Before he emerged as the braided, cannabis-smoking outlaw legend we all know and love, he performed in smart suits with a close-cropped hairstyle that made him look more preppy than pothead. Nelson had to give up his position in the Grand Ole Opry when he decided to leave Nashville and move back to Texas in 1972. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Scott Halleran/Getty Images
Nov. 27: Tiger Woods crashes his SUV outside his mansion in Florida (2009)
On the morning of Nov. 27, 2009, the world’s top golfer faced one of the biggest scandals of his career when, at around 2:30 a.m., Tiger Woods smashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant, then hit a neighbor’s tree outside his home in Windermere, Florida. Shortly after the crash, his then-wife, model Elin Nordegren, used a golf club to smash the back window and pull him out of the car; Woods was knocked unconscious for about six minutes, and paramedics reportedly found him on the ground barefoot and snoring. The accident raised suspicions about Woods’ marriage, as it occurred two days after the National Enquirer published a story alleging that the golfer was having an affair with a New York City nightclub hostess named Rachel Uchitel. He kept a low profile, not appearing in public until he was spotted at a sex addiction rehab clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In August 2010, the couple announced their divorce after five years of marriage. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Nov. 26: The first incarnation of The Price is Right debuts on NBC (1956)
The current incarnation of The Price is Right has been a daytime TV mainstay for 50 years, premiering in 1972 with host Bob Barker. But before Barker ever held that long skinny microphone, there was a lesser-known original version of the show that debuted on this date in 1956. The host was Bill Cullen, who was quite a busy media personality in his day: He hosted the four-hour NBC radio program Pulse from 6 to 10 a.m., then The Price is Right from 11 to 11:30, plus a later prime-time version of The Price is Right and I’ve Got a Secret — or more than 25 hours of radio and TV programming per week! Cullen became one of the highest-paid personalities of the late ’50s, earning a $300,000 annual salary and winning an Emmy. If you don’t know Cullen by name, you may recognize the show’s original announcer, Don Pardo: He went on to be the voice of Saturday Night Live for 38 seasons, missing only Season 7. Pardo said he developed his signature delivery, including elooongated vooowels, on The Price is Right, as he described products shown on the screen. “The cameras are moving so slowly, and that’s the way I had to describe it: slowly,” he said The show moved to ABC in 1963, where it lasted two years before airing its final episode in September 1965. TV audiences would have to wait seven years before they’d have another chance at guessing the price of laundry detergent and breakfast cereal for cash prizes. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Warner Brothers/Everett Collection
Nov. 25: The Bodyguard hits theaters and launches one of the most successful movie soundtracks of all time (1992)
Thirty years ago today on Nov. 25, 1992, Whitney Houston made her film debut in The Bodyguard, in which she starred as an R&B singer named Rachel Marron who’s pursued by an obsessive fan. Enter Kevin Costner as the titular bodyguard, a former Secret Service agent who soon begins an affair with the superstar. Though not exactly a critical darling, the musical melodrama was a smash hit at the box office, grossing an estimated $411 million worldwide on a modest $25 million budget. But what fans loved most was its radio-dominating original soundtrack, which was led by Houston’s soaring cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” and included not one but two Oscar nominees for best original song, “I Have Nothing” and “Run to You” — though both lost to “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. The album sold a staggering 45 million copies, making it not only the highest-selling soundtrack of all time but also the best-selling album by a female artist. Unsurprisingly, The Bodyguard cleaned up at that year’s Grammys, where Houston picked up best female pop vocal performance and both record and album of the year. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Denis O'Regan/Getty Images
Nov. 24: Freddie Mercury dies at the age of 45 (1991)
On Nov. 24, 1991, the rock world lost one of its most vibrant forces when Queen frontman Freddie Mercury died at 45 of bronchial pneumonia caused by AIDS at his home in West Kensington. Just one day before his passing, Mercury announced his diagnosis in a public statement: “Following enormous conjecture in the press, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private in order to protect the privacy of those around me.” Mercury had reportedly been diagnosed in 1987, but he waited until 1989 to tell his bandmates. Three days after his death, an intimate Zoroastrian funeral was held at the West London Crematorium, with just 35 people — including his friend Elton John — in attendance. Mercury had joked that he wanted to be buried with all of his possessions like King Tut, even saying it would be “fab” if people could erect a pyramid in Kensington for him. His burial ended up being much simpler: A plinth with his birth name, Farrokh Bulsara, stands at the crematorium, and his ex-girlfriend and confidante Mary Austin was tasked with burying his ashes in a secret location. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Clive Limpkin/Getty Images
Nov. 23: The incredibly long-running British series Doctor Who airs its first episode (1963)
A cult classic British TV show that’s almost as enduring as the royal family, Doctor Who premiered on the BBC on Nov. 23, 1963. If you aren’t familiar with the series, it follows a time-traveling alien scientist who goes on adventures through time and space in his TARDIS, a craft that’s bigger on the inside than the outside and often takes the form of a blue police box. The original Doctor was played by William Hartnell, though a feature of the series is that he can regenerate in a new form, meaning that a different performer could take on the role every few years. The original run of the show continued through 1989, followed by a made-for-TV movie in 1996, but it was such a favorite among generations of fans that it returned in 2005 and is still going strong. Over the years, actors who have played Doctor Who include David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi — and Jodie Whittaker became the first actress to take on the role from 2017 to this October. Following a brief return by Tennant as the 14th incarnation, history will be made once again when the Rwandan-born Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa becomes the first Black Doctor in the show’s 60-year run. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Maximum Film/Alamy
Nov. 22: Toy Story hits American movie theaters as the first fully computer-animated feature film (1995)
The history of animation was forever changed on Nov. 22, 1995 with the release of Pixar’s Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated feature film. The sweet tale of Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and their gaggle of toy friends was an immediate hit, taking in $365 million at the global box office and earning John Lasseter a Special Achievement Award at that year’s Oscars. More than that, it signaled a shift away from hand-drawn animation to an embrace of computer animation that dominated the box office in the following decades. “For the kids in the audience, a movie like this will work because it tells a fun story, contains a lot of humor and is exciting to watch,” Roger Ebert wrote in his four-star rave. “Older viewers may be even more absorbed, because Toy Story … achieves a three-dimensional reality and freedom of movement that is liberating and new.” Despite being a relatively modest film, Toy Story has had a major impact on Hollywood history: The American Film Institute ranked it as number 99 on its list of the 100 greatest films of all time, and the movie launched a blockbuster franchise that has earned $3.3 billion internationally. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Everett Collection
Nov. 21: Viewers tune in to Dallas to find out who shot J.R. (1980)
The third season of the primetime soap Dallas ended with a bang — literally — when the loathesome J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) was shot twice by a mystery assailant on March 21, 1980. Those two gunshots kicked off what would become the most famous cliffhanger in television history: Did he die? Did he live? And who pulled the trigger?! The question of who shot J.R. stretched on for an agonizing eight months when a Screen Actors Guild strike delayed production on the show’s fourth season. Over that summer, fans placed bets on the culprit, and “Who shot J.R.?” bumper stickers outsold both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan campaign stickers. Finally, on Nov. 21, 1980, more than 83 million Americans (or 76 percent of the country’s TV viewing audience!) tuned in to the episode “Who Done It?” and found out that it had been J.R.’s mistress (and sister-in-law) Kristin Shepard, who announced that she was pregnant with his baby. It became the most-watched episode in TV history up until that point, and its reach stretched around the world: In fact, the Turkish parliament famously suspended a session to allow lawmakers time to get home to watch the episode. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images
Nov. 20: A destructive fire breaks out at Windsor Castle, destroying 115 rooms (1992)
Thirty years ago today, the British royal residence of Windsor Castle went up in flames when a massively destructive fire started in Queen Victoria’s Private Chapel. The culprit is believed to be a faulty spotlight that was installed by renovators and that set a curtain ablaze, which quickly spread to St. George’s Hall next door. Before the disaster could be contained with the help of 225 firefighters from seven counties, the fire destroyed 115 rooms, including nine state rooms, but the damage could have been even more extensive if it weren’t for quick thinking. Staffers and soldiers formed a human chain to pass precious artworks and furnishings out to safety, resulting in the loss of only a few treasures, most notably a 13-by-16-foot equestrian portrait by Sir William Beechey that was too big to move. It ended up taking some 15 hours to finally put out the last embers, and the firefighters used 1.5 million gallons of water sourced everywhere from a reservoir, a swimming pool, a pond and even the River Thames. In a speech on November 24, Queen Elizabeth II called 1992 an annus horribilis, Latin for “horrible year,” and it’s not difficult to see why: Within the calendar year, three of her children had either gotten divorced or announced a separation from their spouse! —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Republic Pictures/Getty Images
Nov. 19: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest debuts in theaters (1975)
Based on Ken Kesey’s celebrated 1962 novel, Miloš Forman’s cinematic masterpiece premiered on Nov. 19, 1975. Jack Nicholson starred as R.P. McMurphy, a man with a criminal past who’s transferred from a prison work farm to a state mental hospital, where he’s soon terrorized by the oppressive Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). Widely hailed as one of the greatest movies ever made, it was both a critical and a financial hit, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 1975 behind only Jaws. When the Oscars rolled around, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest cleaned up: It became only the second movie in Oscar history, after 1934’s It Happened One Night, to pick up the “Big Five” awards — best picture, best director (Forman), best actor (Nicholson), best actress (Fletcher) and best screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). Over the years, its legacy has only grown stronger, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest currently sits at number 20 on the American Film Institute list 100 Years … 100 Movies. And Nurse Ratched is such a baddie for the ages that AFI placed her fifth on its list of the best villains of all time, above the likes of the Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (#10) and the Alien from Alien (#14). —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: The Plain Dealer, Pete Copeland/AP Photo
Nov. 18: The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes debuts (1985)
On Nov. 18, 1985, cartoonist Bill Watterson introduced the world to his adorable (and often surprisingly profound) creations: a six-year-old boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger toy Hobbes — although Calvin (and readers) experienced him as a mischievous and very real friend. Watterson named his protagonists after 16th-century theologian John Calvin and 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, but that doesn’t mean the comic strip was ever pretentious or highbrow. On the contrary, the first strip depicts Calvin trapping Hobbes with a sandwich, as he tells his dad, “Tigers will do anything for a tuna fish sandwich!” Hobbes, swinging upside down from a rope, happily munches away at the bait as he replies, “We’re kind of stupid that way.” Unlike many of his peers who turned their characters into T-shirts and toys and movies and television shows, Watterson resisted the urge to merchandize; experts estimate that the move could have earned the cartoonist and the Universal Press Syndicate up to $400 million. (To wit, both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas reportedly want to work on adaptations.) Nevertheless, in its 10 short years of publication, Calvin and Hobbes emerged as a massive hit, appearing in 250 newspapers within its first year and more than 2,400 worldwide before the end of its run in 1995. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: AP Photo
Nov. 17: President Nixon delivers his famous “I am not a crook” line at a press conference in Florida (1973)
Exactly 17 months after the Watergate break-in, a scandal-plagued President Richard M. Nixon held a press conference Nov. 17, 1973 at Walt Disney World during which he took questions from 400 Associated Press managing editors. He ended up uttering five words — ”I am not a crook” — that would come to define his presidency. In addition to Watergate, Tricky Dick was facing questions about unpaid income taxes and rumored kickbacks to the milk lobby, and he wanted to set the record straight. “In all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service,” he began. “I’ve earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president’s a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.” Less than a year later, Nixon resigned as president. Over the years, his signature line has been spoofed many times, including on Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Boy Meets World and Mrs. Doubtfire — with Robin Williams making a lobster (whose two claws look a bit like Nixon’s double peace signs) say the historic quote. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Nov. 16: The Sound of Music opens on Broadway (1959)
Before it became one of the most beloved film musicals of all time, The Sound of Music was a wildly popular Broadway show, officially premiering at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Nov. 16, 1959. With music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, the 1930s-set musical was based on The Trapp Family Singers, a memoir by the nun-turned-baroness Maria von Trapp. The Sound of Music has become such a classic that it might be difficult to believe some of the top critics of the day weren’t immediately smitten: Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times that it’s “disappointing to see the American musical stage succumbing to the clichés of operetta,” while Walter Kerr of the New York Herald Tribune complained that it “becomes not only too sweet for words but almost too sweet for music.” Nevertheless, Tony Award voters saw fit to reward the show with five trophies, including best musical and best actress for Mary Martin, who starred as Maria. In a weird twist, all seven of the performers playing the von Trapp kids were jointly nominated for best featured actress in a musical — even though two of them were male! —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Nov. 15: Elvis Presley makes his film debut in Love Me Tender (1956)
Elvis Presley first started to show off his triple-threat bonafides Nov. 15, 1956, when his debut film, Love Me Tender, premiered at the Paramount Theatre in New York City. Some 1,500 fans lined up outside the theater the night before, below a 40-foot-tall cut-out of Elvis. Due to the rocker’s burgeoning star power, 20th Century Fox released a record-breaking 575 prints of the film to cinema’s around the country, which was about double the amount studios usually produced. Although a 1865-set Western melodrama, Presley, playing the character of Clint, sings four songs — “Love Me Tender,” “Let Me,” “Poor Boy” and “We’re Gonna Move” — which were released as an EP that eventually sold half a million copies. This is the only movie in which Presley’s character dies on screen (he dies off-screen in Flaming Star), and fans were so outraged that the studio changed the last scene to make it a somewhat happier ending: A ghost version of Clint appears at his own grave to sing the title track. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: AP Photo
Nov. 14: Princess Anne gets married at Westminster Abbey (1973)
On Nov. 14, 1973, Westminster Abbey hosted only the 10th “royal wedding” in its history since the church opened in 1100. That day, Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, wed Capt. Mark Phillips, an army officer and a commoner with whom she shared an interest in equestrian sports. About 2,000 guests attended the nuptials, but an additional half-billion watched the televised coverage around the globe — the largest audience to tune in for a wedding up to that point. Anne wore a high-necked gown with a 7-foot-long train and the same tiara her mother donned when she got married in 1947. The ceremony was dripping with nods to the past: Anne’s ring was carved from the same nugget of Welsh gold that had been used to make the rings of the queen mother, the queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, and her bouquet included clippings of myrtle that had been regrown from a sprig carried by Queen Victoria in her own wedding bouquet in 1840. The couple’s marriage ended with a separation in 1989, after it was reported that Phillips had fathered another child during an affair, and they divorced in 1992. Anne married a naval officer named Sir Timothy Laurence later that year in a decidedly more intimate ceremony in Scotland, attended only by the royal family. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Dan Balilty/AP Photo
Nov. 13: NASA announces that water has been discovered on the moon (2009)
On this day in 2009, NASA scientists made a surprising announcement during a midday news conference: They had discovered water on the surface of the moon! A month before, as part of a $79 million mission, they had intentionally crashed a device known as the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, into a permanently shadowed area near the moon’s south pole in the Cabeus crater. After the crash, NASA sent a rocket through the resulting debris cloud, and it found that about 25 gallons of water had been sent flying from the impact. In a statement after the news conference, the agency wrote, “The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon,” and experts predicted that water on the moon’s surface would make it much easier to set up a lunar camp for astronauts. So how did the water get there? According to NASA’s chief lunar scientist, Michael Wargo, there are many explanations, including solar winds, comets, molecular clouds or even some form of activity within the moon itself. “The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time,” said project scientist Anthony Colaprete. “The data is that rich. Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: AP Photo
Nov. 12: Ellis Island closes after processing more than 12 million immigrants (1954)
Beginning in 1892, New York’s Ellis Island served as a gateway to America for millions of newly arriving immigrants, and the country’s first federal immigration center eventually processed about 12 million newcomers. After 1924, things slowed down considerably, and the island was only used for war refugees, displaced persons and passengers who had trouble with their paperwork. Finally, on Nov. 12, 1954, the era drew to a close when Ellis Island was closed and officials released the last remaining detainee, a Norwegian merchant seaman named Arne Peterssen. He had been held for three days after he overstayed his shore leave, and he was released as long as he promised to get back on his ship when it departed for Norway. Upon the island’s closure, the editorial board of The New York Times wrote, “Perhaps some day a monument will go up on Ellis Island. The memory of this episode in our national history should never be allowed to fade.” Thirty years later, their wishes came true when the historic buildings underwent a $160 million restoration, the largest such project undertaken in American history, and Ellis Island reopened to the public six years later. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Nov. 11: Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 hits bookstore shelves (1961)
On Nov. 11, 1961, Simon & Schuster published Catch-22, a satirical novel by Joseph Heller set during World War II. Capt. John Yossarian is an American bombardier stationed in the Mediterranean, and he’s faced with an impossible conundrum: He wants to get out of flying dangerous missions, but the only way to do so is to prove that he’s insane. The catch? If he asks to be relieved of his duties on the grounds of insanity, he proves to his superiors that he is, in fact, sane and has to fly the mission. Reviews were all over the place. Kenneth Tynan of The Observer called it “the most striking debut in American fiction since Catcher in the Rye,” and the critic from The Nation deemed it “the best novel to come out in years.” Whitney Balliett of The New Yorker, on the other hand, dismissed it as “a debris of sour jokes, stage anger, synthetic looniness and the sort of antic behavior the children fall into when they know they are losing our attention.” The novel sold about 12,000 copies before Thanksgiving, but it never became a New York Times bestseller, and it lost the National Book Award to Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer. Nonetheless, Heller’s darkly comedic masterwork has aged well: It showed up on Time’s 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923 and turned “catch-22” into a common phrase. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Nov. 10: “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang becomes the first rap song in history to hit Billboard Hot 100 chart (1979)
If you don’t know the Sugarhill Gang’s pioneering 1979 rap track by name, chances are you’d recognize “Rapper’s Delight” by its opening lyrics: “I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie / The hip hip hop and you don’t stop the rockin’ / To the bang-bang, boogie, say up jump the boogie / To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.” Those infectious — if a bit nonsensical — lines ushered in a new genre that dominated the airwaves in the decades to follow. Released in September 1979, the track first appeared on a Billboard chart, the Hot Soul Singles chart, in mid-October, before it officially entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 84 on Nov. 10, 1979, becoming the first rap song to break through to a mainstream audience. It went on to peak at number 36 the following January. The original version of the song stretched on to 14 minutes and 27 seconds, but the radio edit was trimmed down to a more manageable 4 minutes and 55 seconds; left on the cutting room floor were references to Perry Mason, Farrah Fawcett and Superman. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Baron Wolman Collection/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame/Getty Images
Nov. 9: Rolling Stone magazine debuts (1967)
Before going on to become the most influential rock magazine in history, Rolling Stone was founded in 1967 by Berkeley dropout Jann Wenner and San Francisco Chronicle jazz critic Ralph Gleason — an odd couple with an almost three-decade age gap between them. “There was nothing called rock journalism as a profession,” Wenner later said. “If you picked up Billboard, you might get a sense of the music business, but you wouldn’t keep it as part of your regular diet if you were interested in rock ’n’ roll.” As they brainstormed ideas for a title, they briefly considered Electric Typewriter and New Times, before settling on Rolling Stone. The magazine debuted Nov. 9, 1967, with John Lennon on the cover in costume as the British soldier Gripweed from the film How I Won the War. Wenner wrote an introduction to readers that encapsulated the mission of the magazine: “Rolling Stone is not just about music, but also about the things and attitudes that the music embraces. We’ve been working quite hard on it and we hope you can dig it.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Dick Yarwood/Newsday RM via Getty Images
Nov. 8: HBO launches as a pioneering pay cable channel (1972)
Fifty years ago today on Nov. 8, 1972, the television landscape as Americans knew it forever changed with the launch of Home Box Office, a pay TV network beamed by microwave to about 350 homes in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Subscriptions in that first year went for $6 a month with the promise of no commercials. On the evening of Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m., Jerry Levin, the network’s head of programming, welcomed viewers before introducing the first scheduled event — a live hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks in Madison Square Garden. Next up came the first movie HBO ever aired, 1971’s Sometimes a Great Notion, a drama about a family of Oregon loggers starring and directed by Paul Newman and based on a novel by Ken Kesey. By 1975, HBO began using satellites to deliver its programming, making it the first cable channel available nationally. HBO has grown into a critical powerhouse, known for some of the most acclaimed shows in television history, including The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire and Game of Thrones. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Nov. 7: Frank Sinatra marries Ava Gardner (1951)
According to the Lee Server biography Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing, the love affair between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner began in fall 1949, when they were both attending a party at the Palm Springs mansion of studio executive Darryl Zanuck. Even though he was married to Nancy Barbato at the time, the crooner asked the leading lady to leave with him, and they drove to Indio, where they drunkenly fired pistols, shooting out streetlights and shop windows, until they were nabbed by police. By 1951, Sinatra convinced Nancy, with whom he shared three kids, to get a divorce, and one week after it was finalized, the singer on Nov. 7, 1951, married Gardner, herself a two-time divorcée after marriages to actor Mickey Rooney and bandleader Artie Shaw. Their relationship was tempestuous, to put it mildly, and she later recalled to Peter Evans, the ghostwriter of her memoir: “November 7, 1951. A day that will live in infamy. Only days after his divorce from Nancy became final. It was too soon, but that was Frank all over. Plenty of people told me I was mad to marry him. Lana Turner had had an affair with him after she divorced Artie [Shaw]. ‘I’ve been there, honey,’ she told me. ‘Don’t do it!’” MGM announced the couple’s separation in 1953, and they officially got divorced in 1957. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Andy Manis/AP Photo
Nov. 6: Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate (2012)
On Nov. 6, 2012, Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin defeated Republican former governor Tommy Thompson to become the next U.S. senator from Wisconsin. In doing so, she became not only the state’s first female senator but also the first openly LGBT senator from anywhere in the country. “I am well aware that I will be the first openly gay member of the United States Senate, but I didn't run to make history,” she told a crowd of supporters on election night. “I ran to make a difference. But in choosing me to tackle those problems the people of Wisconsin have made history.” After that election night, the Senate would include 18 women, the highest number ever elected to the chamber, and Baldwin wasn’t the only winner to usher in historic firsts, with Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono becoming the first Asian American female senator and the first senator to be born in Japan. “There were several glass ceilings smashed on Tuesday,” Baldwin later said, “and … I’m proud to have been one of those.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Nov. 5: Nat King Cole becomes the first Black variety show host (1956)
On Nov. 5, 1956, singer and pianist Nat King Cole broke ground as the first Black American to host his own variety show on television, when The Nat King Cole Show debuted at 7:30 p.m. on NBC. Episodes were originally only 15 minutes long, but Cole packed much into that premiere episode: performances of “Somebody Loves Me” and then “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” from the newly opened musical My Fair Lady; “Tea for Two” with his chorus, the Boataneers; a piano solo; and finally “Unforgettable,” his hit 1951 single, which his daughter Natalie later re-recorded as a Grammy-winning posthumous duet. During the course of the series, Cole welcomed such guests as Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Eartha Kitt, Mahalia Jackson, Harry Belafonte and Sammy Davis Jr. Unfortunately, while Cole would go on to become one of the most legendary and beloved entertainers of the 20th century, the racism of the 1950s meant that few brands were willing to publicly support a Black entertainer, and the show was canceled after one season. Cole would later quip: “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Everett Collection
Nov. 4: The first film in the Harry Potter franchise premieres (2001)
After voraciously devouring the first books in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, fans got their first taste of the soon-to-be-blockbuster film series when Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S.) had its world premiere Nov. 4, 2001, at the Odeon cinema in London’s Leicester Square. The theater was festooned in the banners of the Hogwarts houses, and the guest list included a who’s who of A-listers and even royals, including Sarah Ferguson, Cher, Sting, Ben Stiller, Cate Blanchett and Spice Girl Emma Bunton. “I woke up last night at 3 a.m., 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.,” said a then-12-year-old Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the film, “and although I am very nervous, I am also extremely excited and happy today.” That first film would go on to earn more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office and receive three Oscar nominations — for art direction, original score and costume design. It also kicked off one of the most profitable film franchises in history, which included the original eight Harry Potter films and three (so far) Fantastic Beasts prequel spin-offs. Collectively, the franchise ranks as the fourth-highest-grossing series in movie history, with a combined global gross of nearly $10 billion. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Nov. 3: The Chicago Cubs win their first World Series in 108 years in a game that stretches past midnight (2016)
In 1908, the Chicago Cubs won their second consecutive World Series title, marking the first time a major league baseball team pulled off back-to-back victories. Unfortunately, their good fortune would end there, and it would take another 108 years for them to nab a third championship! According to legend, the team had been placed under the Curse of the Billy Goat, which was perhaps even more ridiculous than the Curse of the Bambino that plagued the Red Sox: In 1945, the owner of Chicago’s Billy Goat Tavern tried to enter Game 4 of the World Series at Wrigley Field with his pet goat, and when he was turned away, he reportedly said, “You are going to lose this World Series, and you are never going to win another World Series again.” Fast-forward to 2016, and it looked like the losing streak would continue. The Cubs were down 3 games to 1 in the Series against the Cleveland Indians before rallying to make it to Game 7. In that final game, which began on Nov. 2, the Indians came back from a 5-1 deficit to end the ninth inning with a 6-6 tie. To up the drama a bit longer, the game then stopped for a 17-minute rain delay before the 10th inning picked back up. Finally, shortly after midnight, the Cubs clinched their 8-7 win, sending the crowd into a frenzy, as they roared “Go Cubs Go” and lingered in the stadium for almost an hour. “We’re world champions,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said in the locker room after the game. “The Chicago Cubs are world champions. Let that sink in.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: NASA via AP
Nov. 2: An American astronaut and two cosmonauts become the first residents of the International Space Station (2000)
On Nov. 2, 2000, NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev became the first space explorers to move into the new International Space Station. Two days before, the trio had blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as part of the Expedition 1 mission, and for the next four months, they essentially helped turn the ISS into a livable home, first by installing the necessary life support and communication systems. Shepherd later said that one of the biggest challenges in those early days was getting conflicting instructions from mission control back in the United States and Russia, and he told The New York Times that his “happiest day in space” came when he finally put his foot down and said, “We are the International Space Station. We’re a program for Houston and another for Moscow. And we’re not going to work a plan until you get one plan for one station. So you guys get your act together.” Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev ultimately returned to Earth aboard the space shuttle Discovery in March 2001, having handed over the reins to the Expedition 2 crew. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Nov. 1: Sandy Koufax becomes the first three-time Cy Young Award winner (1966)
On Nov. 1, 1966, the Brooklyn-born southpaw Sandy Koufax became the first pitcher to earn three Cy Young Awards, having won already in 1963 and 1965. (The feat was all the more impressive because the award was given then to just one pitcher in all of baseball; since 1967, each league has had its own Cy Young winner.) The award capped what would prove to be his last season, as the Los Angeles Dodger decided to retire at age 31 due to chronic arthritis in his throwing arm. During those seasons, Koufax also won the MLB pitching Triple Crown, an unofficial honor for a pitcher who led the majors in three statistics: wins, strikeouts and earned run average (ERA). His three Cy Youngs remained a league record until 1982, when Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton earned his fourth. Greg Maddux, of the Atlanta Braves, won his fourth in 1995, and then Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens ascended to the top of the rankings with five and seven Cy Young Awards, respectively. In August 1972, Koufax, a pioneering Jewish baseball player, became the youngest player to ever be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, at age 36. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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