Events November 22 1880 - Lillian Russell made her vaudeville debut -- in New York City. 1899 - The Marconi Wireless Company of America was incorporated under laws of the State of New Jersey. 1906 - Delegates attending the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference in Germany voted to use SOS (...---...) as the letters for the new international signal. The international use of SOS was ratified in 1908. Its meaning? No, not “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls” as many believe. Its only meaning was as a distress signal, quick to transmit by Morse code and not easily misread. It is not an acronym. Incidentally, how did SOS pads come to use the same initials? They’re named after a patented process, Soap on Steel. 1909 - Helen Hayes appeared for the first time on the New York stage. She was a member of the cast of Old Dutch, which opened at the Herald Square Theatre. 1910 - Arthur F. Knight of Schenectady, New York patented the steel shaft. Not a big shaft, actually, but one to replace the less durable hickory wood shafts used to that time -- in golf clubs. 1917 - The National Hockey League came into being. Its official formation was in Montreal, Canada. 1935 - The first transpacific airmail flight left San Francisco with over 20,000 folks waving good-bye. The China Clipper began its 8,000-mile journey with 110,865 letters on board, piloted by Captain Edwin Musick. The Pan American Martin 130 took off from San Francisco. 59 hours and 48 minutes later, it landed at Manila in the Philippines. 1938 - Bunny Berigan and his orchestra waxed Jelly Roll Blues on Victor Records. The tune became a standard for the band. 1950 - This was a slow night in the NBA. The lowest score recorded in the National Basketball Association was posted. The Fort Wayne Pistons (later Detroit Pistons) whipped the tar out of the hometown Minneapolis Lakers (later Los Angeles Lakers) by the score of 19-18. 1955 - RCA paid the unheard of sum of $25,000 to Sam Phillips of Memphis, TN for the rights to the music of a truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi: Elvis Presley. Thanks to negotiations with Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, RCA tossed in a $5,000 bonus as well -- for a pink Cadillac for Elvis’ mother. 1957 - The Miles Davis Quintet debuted with a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. 1961 - A Man for All Seasons opened at the ANTA Playhouse in New York City. The play starred George Rose as the Common Man, Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More, Albert Dekker as the Duke of Norfolk, Leo McKern as Thomas Cromwell, Keith Baxter as King Henry VIII and Olga Bellin as Margaret More. A Man for All Seasons ran for 637 performances, closing on Jun 1, 1963. 1965 - The production of Man of La Mancha, including the classic The Impossible Dream, opened in New York City for the first of 2,328 performances. 1975 - Dr. Zhivago appeared on TV for the first time. The production, including Somewhere My Love, had earned $93 million from theatre tickets over ten years. NBC paid $4 million for the broadcast rights. 1984 - “Time to clear out the closet in the neighborhood...” Fred Rogers of PBS’ Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood presented a sweater, knitted by his mother, to the Smithsonian Institution as “a symbol of warmth, closeness and caring,” according to museum officials. 1986 - Mike Tyson was only 20 years and 4 months old, becoming the youngest to wear the world heavyweight boxing crown. He knocked out Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas, NV. 1990 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher failed to win reelection as leader of the Conservative Party (over differences on European Community policy) and announced her resignation after eleven years in office. 1991 - Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt for Foreign Affairs, was chosen to be United Nations Secretary-General. Ghali was both the first Arab and the first African to hold the post. 1997 - After 41 days, one hour and 55 minutes at sea, New Zealanders Rob Hamill and Phil Stubbs rowed triumphantly into the marina at Port St. Charles, Barbados. They had just set a new Atlantic Ocean rowboat record, knocking over 30 days off the previous one, held by Mike Nester and Sean Crowley (set in 1986). Hamill and Phil Stubbs started from Los Gigantes on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands) Oct 12. (Stubbs was killed in a plane crash in New Zealand Dec 20, 1998.) 1998 - It was week 12 of the NFL football season as Denver Broncos QB John Elway passed (pun intended) the 50,000-yard career-passing mark. He joined Dan Marino as the only passers to throw for more than 50,000 yards in a career. And Elway threw four touchdowns passes the following week to move into third place on the all-time TD pass list. 1999 - ‘The Great One’, Wayne Gretzky, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. On June 23, 1999 it had been announced that Gretzky would be the tenth, and last, player to have the three-year waiting period waived by the hall-of-fame selection committee “by reason of outstanding pre-eminence and skill.” Gretzky held 61 NHL records. 2000 - First-run flicks opening in the U.S.: 102 Dalmations (“Meet Two Unlikely Heroes with a Bone to Pick.”), with Glenn Close, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Evans and Tim Mcinnerny; and Unbreakable (“Are You Ready for the Truth?”), starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Penn Wright and Charlayne Woodard.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 14:23:49 +0000
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