1421 – A storm in the North Sea battered the European coastline. The resulting storm surge caused waves to burst hundreds of dikes all over Grote Waard. The city of Dort was devastated and 20 whole villages were wiped off the map.
The flooding was so extensive this time that the dikes were not fully rebuilt until 1500. This meant that much of Zeeland and Holland – the area that now makes up the Netherlands – was flooded for decades following the storm. The town of Dordrecht was permanently separated from the mainland. Approximately 10,000 people died.
1558 – Queen Mary I, the monarch of England and Ireland since 1553, died and was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth, who would rule until 1603. During her reign, England became a world power.
1863 – Confederate General James Longstreet placed the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, under siege. He had taken 17,000 troops from Chattanooga in early November and moved toward Knoxville. Facing him was General Ambrose Burnside and 5,000 Yankees. After two weeks and one failed attack, he abandoned the siege and rejoined General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
1869 – The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas, was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. When it opened, the Suez Canal was only 25 feet deep, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 to 300 feet wide at the surface. Consequently, fewer than 500 ships navigated it in its first full year of operation. Major improvements began in 1876, however, and the canal soon grew into the one of the world’s most heavily traveled shipping lanes.
1941 – Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cabled the State Department (for the second time) that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor. Once again, his cable was ignored.
1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implemented an anti-communist loyalty oath. Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, pledged “We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods.”
The ability to work in Hollywood’s motion picture industry strictly depended on whether or not your name appeared on a list of suspected Communist activists or sympathizers. The blacklist. Based on the growing threat of Communism at that time – real or perceived – the era was a full-scale assault on individuals and groups who had promoted political change and social reform in America.
1962 – President John F. Kennedy formally dedicated Washington Dulles International Airport.
1968 – The Oakland Raiders scored two touchdowns in nine seconds to beat the New York Jets and no one saw it, because they were watching the movie Heidi – even if they didn’t want to. With just 65 seconds left to play, NBC switched off the game in favor of its previously scheduled programming, a made-for-TV version of the children’s story about a young girl and her grandfather in the Alps. Viewers were outraged, and they complained so vociferously that network execs learned a lesson they’ll never forget: “Whatever you do,” one said, “you better not leave an NFL football game.”
1972 – Wealthy socialite Barbara Baekeland was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife by her 25-year-old son, Antony, in her London, England penthouse. When police arrived at the scene, Antony was calmly placing a telephone order for Chinese food. Barbara and Antony’s tempestuous mother-son relationship (which was bizarre by anyone’s standards) had long worried her friends. Over the years, the two had several threatening arguments involving knives.
After the murder, Antony was institutionalized at Broadmoor until a bureaucratic mistake resulted in his release in July 1980. He then relocated to New York City, where he lived with his grandmother for a short time until he beat and stabbed her in 1980. She survived. Antony was sent to Riker’s Island, where he killed himself by suffocation on March 21, 1981.
The murder of Barbara Baekeland was the inspiration for the 2007 film, Savage Grace.
1973 – In the midst of the Watergate scandal that eventually ended his presidency, President Richard Nixon told a group of newspaper editors gathered at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida that he was “not a crook.”
Nixon made the now-famous declaration during a televised question-and-answer session with Associated Press editors. Nixon, who appeared “tense” to a New York Times reporter, was questioned about his role in the Watergate burglary scandal and efforts to cover up the fact that members of his re-election committee had funded the break-in. Nixon replied “people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.” He did, however, admit that he was at fault for failing to supervise his campaign’s fund-raising activities.
At one point during the discussion, Nixon gave a morbid response to an unrelated question about why he chose not to fly with back-up to Air Force One when traveling, the usual security protocol for presidential flights. He told the crowd that by taking just one aircraft he was saving energy, money and possibly time spent in the impeachment process. “If this one [plane] goes down,” he said, attempting to be humorous, “they don’t have to impeach me.”
2003 – Actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California. He had won a special election to serve out the remainder of former governor Gray Davis’ term. “The Governator,” as he was dubbed, was re-elected in November 2006 to serve a full term in office.
2006 – Bo Schembechler, head football coach at the University of Michigan from 1969-1989, died of heart failure at the age of 77. In his 21 seasons as the head coach of the Wolverines, Schembechler’s teams amassed a record of 194–48–5 and won or shared 13 Big Ten conference titles.
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