What Happened on November 15?

  • The world's first stock ticker debuted in New York City. (1867) Invented by Edward Calahan, the stock ticker was able to provide instant updates to stock market prices over telegraph lines. The system was a revolutionary development for a process that previously relied upon mail or messengers to update market prices.

  • The Articles of Confederation were approved the the Second US Continental Congress. (1777) The articles, which were the precursor to the US Constitution, were approved after almost a year and a half of debate. They weren't ratified until almost four years later, on March 1, 1781.

  • The first Wendy's fast-food restaurant opened in the US. (1969) The first restaurant was opened by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio. Today, the restaurant has locations around the globe and is one of the largest hamburger fast food chains in the world.

  • The world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor was introduced. (1971) Intel released the "Intel 4004," the first computer chip to contain a complete central processing unit (CPU).

  • As many as half a million people participated in a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War. (1969) Between a quarter of a million and a half million people gathered in Washington D.C. to protest the war. The demonstration included a "March Against Death."

  • Pike's Peak was discovered. (1806) The mountain peak was discovered by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike during his second expedition to the western US. The mountain was named after him.

  • The first "Fairtrade" label was introduced. (1988) "Fairtrade" is a system of certification, guaranteeing a product meets the labor, environmental and developmental standards set by the FLO International. The first "Fairtrade" label was launched by the Max Havelaar Foundation in the Netherlands.

  • Gypsies were deemed by the Nazis to be in the same class as Jews and ordered to be sent to concentration camps. (1943) Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler determined the Gypsies were an inferior race and asocial — both of which required them to be sent to concentration camps via the Nazi racial policies.

  • The National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) debuted in the US. (1926) The network opened with 24 radio stations. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) founded the broadcasting network, which was the first broadcasting network in the US.

  • The Jefferson Memorial cornerstone was laid. (1939) The cornerstone of the memorial, located in Washington D.C., was laid by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Construction took four years to complete.

  • Coventry, England, was bombed by the Germans during World War II as part of the "Blitz" campaign. (1940) The city was bombed for more than 10 hours, completely destroying the Coventry Cathedral and killing more than 500 people. The attack, called "Operation Midnight Sonata," was part of the "Blitz" campaign that began with bombing attacks in London on September 7 earlier the same year. Two days later, England retaliated by sending its Royal Air Force to bomb Hamburg.

  • The murder that became the basis for Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood occurred. (1959) Perry Smith and Richard Hickock murdered Herbert Clutter, his wife and two of their children. Capote published his book, which detailed the brutal crime, in 1966. The book is considered a pioneer of the true crime literary genre.

  • Georgetown University opened. (1791) Georgetown, located in Washington, D.C., was the first Catholic university to open in the US.

  • The first modern version of the Olympic Games took place. (1859) The first games were funded by philanthropist Evangelis Zappas and were held in Athens, Greece. Athletes from the Ottoman Empire and Greece participated.

  • The first League of Nations assembly was held. (1920) The first assembly was held in Geneva. The League of Nations was the predecessor of the United Nations.

Discussion Comments

Hazali

In relation to the second to last bullet point, I have to say that I really enjoy the Olympics. One thing however, that I really wonder is when it started to become televised, and became more well known around the world.

After all, televising any sort of event (especially if it relates to sports) is going to create a lot more news and publicity. I mean, just look at how popular the Olympics are in this day and age.

Also, even though the tidbit doesn't mention this, maybe the Olympics started off as a rather small event, which eventually became more vocal and public once it begin to hit the airwaves. While that's not certain, it's definitely possible.

Krunchyman

Unlike McDonald's and Burger King, Wendy's has always been one of my favorite places to get fast food.

Overall, even though it can still be considered another average fast food place, on the other hand, something about the food seems to be of higher quality than similar chain restaurants. Does anyone else agree with me?

However, I'll also admit that while I do enjoy Wendy's quite a bit, I don't go there very often.

One of the reasons why is because, despite the high quality of the food, too much of anything isn't good.

However, in spite of my opinion, I really enjoyed reading this tidbit about Wendy's. It's definitely a great place to eat.

Viranty

Even though I've definitely learned about the Vietnam War in high school, I still think it's a bit unexpected that there were many peaceful demonstrations, as that's one thing I didn't learn about.

Also, on another note, even though I don't know how often peaceful demonstrations occurred during wars, in my opinion, it's really something that would have helped to benefit the Iraq War. Does anyone else agree with me? I know the war has ended, but it's still something to think about.

While it's true that there were many people who were against the war in Iraq, on the other hand hand, you never really saw their opposition taken to these extreme levels.

However, considering the kind of war the Vietnam War was, perhaps it worked better in that case. After all, even though war is a terrible thing, all of them have different conflicts and reasonings.

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