Today's Puzzle
Why is a book your best friend and companion?
What Happened On
First African American Popularly Elected U.S. Senator
November 8, 1966
Edward Brooke III is elected to the Senate. He was the first African American U.S. senator (1967-79) since reconstruction and the first African American popularly elected to the U.S. Senate. He was also the Massachusetts Attorney General (1963-67), making him the highest ranking elected African American official in the U.S. at the time.
Aftermath of Elser's bomb
Photo Credit: Bundesarchiv
Aftermath of Elser's bombPhoto Credit: Bundesarchiv
Hitler Assassination Attempt
November 8, 1939
A bomb explodes shortly after Adolf Hitler leaves from giving a speech. The speech was his yearly speech given on the anniversary of his abortive 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Georg Elser had built a bomb with a 144-hour timer. He then spent several weeks secretly hollowing out a cavity in a stone pillar behind the speaker's platform where he knew Hitler planned on giving his speech. After installing the bomb, he set it to explode at 9:20 p.m., which would be halfway through Hitler's planned speech. However, due to a forecast of fog preventing him from flying back in the morning, Hitler moved his speech from 8:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and shortened it from 2 hours to about one hour so that he could catch a train. He finished the speech and left the building eight minutes before the bomb went off. Eight people were killed and over 60 others were injured, but Hitler was unharmed. Elser was captured that night and spent the next five years in Nazi concentration camps, where he was executed less than a month before Germany surrendered.
Germany had invaded Poland two months earlier starting World War II.
Adolf Hitler - Beer Hall Putsch
November 8, 1923
The future German leader Adolf Hitler organizes a revolt in Munich; it fails and he is imprisoned. He used the time in prison to write Mein Kampf, which included Hitler's plans for transforming Germany into a society based on race. The revolt became known as the Beer Hall Putsch.
Mein Kampf became a bestseller, earning Hitler about 1.2 million Reichsmarks by 1933 (over 200 times the German average annual income). Mein Kampf would go on to earn Hitler 7.8 million Reichsmarks (about $190 million in current inflation-adjusted US dollars).
Hitler used these earnings to help finance his political ambitions. In 1934, one year after becoming Chancellor and failing to pay a tax bill of 405,494 Reichsmarks, he had himself declared tax-exempt.
Bug Zapper
November 8, 1910
The first insect electrocution device is patented by William F. Frost of Spokane, Washington.
Roentgen's wife's hand
Roentgen's wife's hand
X-Rays
November 8, 1895
Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen makes his famous discovery. For this, he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in physics (1901). He took the first x-ray of a human the following month when he x-rayed his wife's hand. When she saw her skeleton, she exclaimed "I have seen my death!"
Berliner with a model of his first phonograph
Berliner with a model of his first phonograph
Flat Disc Record Player
November 8, 1887
The first flat disc record player is patented by Emile Berliner. Earlier recording devices by Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell used cylinders that were difficult to mass produce. His device was known as a "gramophone."
First Presidential Webcast
November 8, 1999
U.S. President Bill Clinton, live from Georgetown University, makes a two-hour internet broadcast entitled Townhall with President Clinton.
Dempsey 63-Yard Field Goal
November 8, 1970
Tom Dempsey breaks the NFL longest field goal record by kicking a 63-yarder for the New Orleans Saints to win (19-17) in the final seconds against the Detroit Lions. Dempsey was born without toes on his right foot and no fingers on his right hand. He wore a modified shoe with a flattened and enlarged toe surface.
This record stood until 2013, when Matt Prater kicked a 64-yarder for the Denver Broncos.
First Person to Win MVP for Both Major Baseball Leagues
November 8, 1966
Frank Robinson wins the American League MVP (Most Valuable Player) Award. He had won it for the National League in 1961.
Cuban Missile Crisis
November 8, 1962
The U.S. announces that the Soviet missile bases in Cuba have been dismantled.
First Jet-to-Jet Aerial Combat
November 8, 1950
A U.S. Air Force Lockheed F-80 destroys a Soviet MiG-15 over Korea, during the Korean War.
First African American Woman U.S. State Legislator
November 8, 1938
Crystal Bird Fauset is elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Civil Works Administration
November 8, 1933
The program is established with $400 million appropriated to place about 4 million unemployed on a self-sustaining basis.
First Socialist Congressman
November 8, 1910
Victor L. Berger of Wisconsin is elected to the House of Representatives.
Montana
November 8, 1889
Montana becomes the 41st U.S. state. The name Montana comes from the Spanish word "montaña", which comes from the Latin word "montanea", meaning "mountain" or more broadly "mountainous country"
Oldest U.S. Women's College
November 8, 1837
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, South Hadley, Massachusetts, opens with 80 students. It is the oldest school which was established from inception as an institution of higher education for women that is still a women's college.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Lewis and Clark Expedition
November 8, 1805
The famed explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reach the Pacific Ocean, completing their search for a route to the West.
Birthdays
Robert Tappan Morris
Born November 8, 1965
American computer scientist. He created the first Internet worm (1988). He also received the first felony conviction in the U.S. under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He claimed he wasn't trying to do any harm, it was just an experiment gone wrong. He said he was trying to gauge the size of the Internet. The worm was programmed to check each computer it found to determine if the worm was already present. If not present, it would copy itself. However, it also copied itself 14% of the time it did detect itself. Each copy of the worm slowed down the computer slightly. Some computers ended up with so many copies they became so slow they shut down.
Morris was sentenced to three years probation, 400 hours of community service, and a fine of $10,050 plus the costs of his supervision.
His father, Robert H. Morris, Sr., was the chief scientist at the National Computer Security Center, a division of the National Security Agency (NSA), at the time.
Darla of the Little Rascals
Darla Hood (Darla Jean Hood)
Born November 8, 1931 d. 1979
American actress. Film: Little Rascals series (1935-41, Darla). She appeared in 50 Our Gang films. She died at 47 years old from acute hepatitis she contracted from a blood transfusion given during an appendectomy.
Bram Stoker
Born November 8, 1847 d. 1912
Irish author. Bram Stoker is best known for his Gothic novel Dracula (1897). Stoker took the name for his count from Vlad III Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler.
Halley's Comet in 1910
Halley's Comet in 1910
Edmond Halley
Born November 8, 1656 d. 1742
English astronomer, mathematician. He was the first to correctly predict the return date of a comet by predicting the 1758 return of the comet of 1682. The comet was named "Halley's Comet" in his honor. Unfortunately, he died before he could witness its return.
Rickie Lee Jones
Born November 8, 1954
American Grammy-winning singer. Music: Chuck E's In Love (1979). She was the Grammy's 1979 Best New Artist.
Michael DeWayne Brown
Born November 8, 1954
American administrator. He resigned as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina disaster and amid allegations that he had falsified his résumé.
Alfre Woodard
Born November 8, 1952
American Emmy-winning actress. TV: St. Elsewhere (Dr. Roxanne Turner).
Mary Hart
Born November 8, 1950
American TV personality. TV: Entertainment Tonight (host).
Bonnie Raitt
Born November 8, 1949
American singer. Music: Don't It Make You Wanna Dance (1980).
Alain Delon (Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon)
Born November 8, 1935 d. 2024
French actor. Film: Le Samourai (1967) and Borsalino (1970). He was one of France's biggest screen stars of the 1960s and '70s.
Morley Safer
Born November 8, 1931 d. 2016
Canadian-born American Emmy-winning journalist. TV: 60 Minutes (1968-2016). He was known for his hard-hitting new coverage of such topics as the Vietnam War.
How Much Is that Doggie in the Window
Patti Page (Clara Ann Fowler)
Born November 8, 1927 d. 2013
American pop singer. Music: 
(How Much Is that) Doggie in the Window (1953, #1). She was the top-charting female vocalist and best-selling female artist of the 1950s, selling over 100 million records.
Jack St. Clair Kilby
Born November 8, 1923 d. 2005
Nobel-winning electrical engineer. Jack Kilby invented the first hybrid integrated circuit in 1958 made of germanium. Kilby is also the inventor of the handheld calculator and the thermal printer.
Robert Noyce invented the monolithic integrated circuit on silicon in 1959. Noyce's was more practical than Kilby's implementation and modern ICs are based on Noyce's design.
Christiaan Barnard
Born November 8, 1922 d. 2001
South African surgeon. He performed the first successful human heart transplant (1967). The patient survived for 18 days.
Esther Rolle
Born November 8, 1920 d. 1998
American Emmy-winning actress. TV: Maude (1972-74, Florida Evans) and Good Times (1974-77, 1978-79, Florida Evans).
Norman Lloyd (Norman Perlmutter)
Born November 8, 1914 d. 2021
American actor. Film: Saboteur (1942, the man who fell from the Statue of Liberty in the climax) and Dead Poet's Society (1989, Headmaster Gale Nolan). TV: Alfred Hitchcock Presents (co-producer), St. Elsewhere (terminally ill Dr. Auschlander).
With a career that started in 1923 and spanned over 90 years, he worked in theater, radio, television, and film. Lloyd's final film, Trainwreck, was released in 2015, after he turned 100.
June Havoc (Ellen June Hovick)
Born November 8, 1912 d. 2010
Canadian-born American actress. Film: My Sister Eileen (1942).
Margaret Mitchell
Born November 8, 1900 d. 1949
American Pulitzer-winning author. Writings: Gone with the Wind (1937, Pulitzer).
Austin driving an Austin Seven
Photo Credit: Birmingham Museums Trust
Austin driving an Austin SevenPhoto Credit: Birmingham Museums Trust
Lord Herbert Austin
Born November 8, 1866 d. 1941
English automaker. He founded the Austin Motor Co. (1905), which became one of Britain's largest automakers.
John Dickinson
Born November 8, 1732 d. 1808
American statesman, author, member of the Colonial Congress (1765). He wrote the Farmer's Letters (1767-68), expressing opposition to the Townshend Acts of 1767.
Deaths
Photo Credit: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS
Photo Credit: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS
Alex Trebek
Died November 8, 2020 b. 1940
Canadian-American Emmy-winning game show host. TV: The $128,000 Question (1977-78) and Jeopardy! (1984-2020).
Bil Keane (William Aloysius Keane)
Died November 8, 2011 b. 1922
American cartoonist. Creator of The Family Circus (1960) and Channel Chuckles (1954). Quote: "Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present."
Norman Rockwell
Died November 8, 1978 b. 1894
American illustrator, known for his covers on the Saturday Evening Post.
Sliced Bread
Otto Frederick Rohwedder
Died November 8, 1960 b. 1880
American inventor and engineer. He created the first automatic bread-slicing machine for commercial use (1927). His bread slicer also wrapped the bread.
In 1930 Continental Baking Company introduced Wonder Bread as a sliced bread, which was a hit and soon other major companies followed.
Sliced bread was briefly banned during World War II to conserve wrapping paper ("the ready-sliced loaf must have a heavier wrapping than an unsliced one if it is not to dry out") and the steel used in the slicing machines. The ban was quickly rescinded due to the large public outcry.
Pennsylvania oil well c1862
Pennsylvania oil well c1862
Pioneered Oil Well Drilling
Edwin Drake
Died November 8, 1880 b. 1819
American oil industry pioneer. He pioneered the use pipes to drill oil and drilled the first successful U.S. oil well (1859, near Titusville, Pennsylvania). He devised the idea to drive a pipe into the ground to prevent the drill hole from collapsing. Until then, oil production was limited to collecting surface oil. The ability to drill for oil launched the oil industry. The drilling of Drake's first well was slow, only progressing about three feet per day. Crowds would gather and jeer at his well, calling it "Drake's Folly." He drilled down to a depth of 69.5 feet (21 m) before striking oil, which was then hand pumped out of the well.
Unfortunately, while others grew rich from the oil industry he started, he died broke.
Anya Seton (Ann Seton)
Died November 8, 1990 b. 1904
American author of historical romances. Writings: Dragonwyck and Foxfire. Her father, Ernest Thompson Seton, was a founding pioneer of the Boy Scouts of America.
Molotov (left) and soldier with Molotov Cocktail
Molotov (left) and soldier with Molotov Cocktail
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (V.M. Skryabin)
Died November 8, 1986 b. 1890
Soviet Communist leader, Soviet foreign minister (1939-49, 1953-56), and for whom the Molotov cocktail is named. He and Joseph Stalin founded the party newspaper Pravda (1912).
The term "Molotov cocktail" was coined by the Finns during the Winter War as pejorative reference to Molotov. Molotov declared on Soviet state radio that bombing missions over Finland were actually airborne humanitarian food deliveries for their starving neighbors. The Finns then called the Soviet cluster bombs "Molotov bread baskets". When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the "Molotov cocktail", as "a drink to go with his food parcels".
John Milton
Died November 8, 1674 b. 1608
English poet. Writings: Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671).
John Duns Scotus
Died November 8, 1308 b. circa 1265
Scottish philosopher, one of the most influential theologians of medieval Europe. His followers, called "dunces," were known for their closed mindedness.
Louis VIII (Louis the Fat)
Died November 8, 1226 b. 1187
King of France (1223-26).
Saint Deusdedit
Died November 8, 618 b. ????
Italian religious leader, 68th Pope (615-618). Also known as Adeodatus I. He authorized the celebration of more than one mass by a church on Sunday. The term "Papal Bull" originated from his use of a leaden seal, known as a "Bulla."