On This Day 11-30

1700 – 8,000 Swedish troops under King Charles XII defeated an army of at least 50,000 Russians at the Battle of Narva. King Charles XII died on this day.

1782 – The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

1803 – Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France.

1835 – Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born. He wrote “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” under the name Mark Twain.

1897 – Thomas Edison’s own motion picture projector had its first commercial exhibition.

1939 – The Russo-Finnish War began when 20 divisions of Soviet troops invaded Finland.

1949 – Chinese Communists captured Chungking.

1954 – In Sylacauga, AL, Elizabeth Hodges was injured when a meteorite crashed through the roof of her house. The rock weighed 8½-pounds.

1988 – Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. took over RJR Nabisco Inc. with a bid of $24.53 billion.

1995 – President Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.
Sun Tzu

Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.
Sun Tzu

On This Day: 11-18

1865 – Samuel L. Clemens published “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” under the pen name “Mark Twain” in the New York “Saturday Press.”

1936 – Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.

1959 – William Wyler’s “Ben-Hur” premiered at Loew’s Theater in New York City’s Times Square.

1976 – The parliament of Spain approved a bill that established a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, Reverend Jim Jones persuaded his followers to commit suicide by drinking a death potion. Some people were shot to death. 914 cult members were left dead including over 200 children.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
– Aristotle, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
Mark Twain