November 18 in Pop Culture History

November 18 History, Trivia, and Fun Facts

November 18 History Highlights

  • November 18 Birthday (fictional) Mickey Mouse, Disney
  • 1993 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was approved by the US House of Representatives.
  • 1963 – The first push-button telephones went into service.
  • 1978 – Over 900 members of Jim Jones’ cult suicided, and several US representatives were killed in Jonestown, Guyana.
  • 1993 – South Africa adopted its modern constitution.
  • 2013 – Wii U released, Video Game Console
  • 2001 – GameCube released, Video Game Console
  • 2011Minecraft (video game) was released
  • If you were born on November 18th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… February 25th (same year)

November 18 Traditions

326 – The old St. Peter’s Basilica was consecrated.
1626 – The new St Peter’s Basilica was consecrated.

November 18 is…

Apple Cider Day
Mickey Mouse Day
National Princess Day (since 1994)
Occult Day
William Tell Day

November 18 Birthday Quotes

“It’s a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction, everyone assumes that the people and events in it are disguised biography, but if you write your biography, it’s equally assumed you’re lying your head off.”
– Margaret Atwood

“War is what happens when language fails.”
– Margaret Atwood

“We’re all puppets, Laurie. I’m just a puppet who can see the strings.”
– Alan Moore, via Dr. Manhattan, in Watchmen

“I was brought up in an environment to believe that my opinion was important, that I had something to say, and that it was no less powerful because I was young, a girl, at the time really unattractive, definitely not the smartest kid in the class.”
– Megyn Kelly

“There are people. There are stories. The people think they shape the stories, but the reverse is often closer to the truth.”
– Alan Moore

November 18 Birthdays

1787 – Louis Daguerre, French physicist, and photographer, developed the daguerreotype (a father of photography, died in 1851)
1810 – Asa Gray, American botanist and academic (died in 1888)
1901 – George Gallup, American statistician and academic (died in 1984)
1908 – Imogene Coca, American actress, comedian, and singer (died in 2001)
1909 – Johnny Mercer, American Singer/Songwriter, and producer (co-founded Capitol Records, died in 1976)
1923 – Alan Shepard, American admiral, pilot, and astronaut (died in 1998)
1939 – Brenda Vaccaro, American actress
1939 – Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer
1942 – Linda Evans, American actress
1952 – John Parr, English Singer/Songwriter, and guitarist
1953 – Alan Moore, English author (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Batman: The Killing Joke and From Hell)
1953 – Kevin Nealon, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1956 – Katy Sagal, American actress
1960 – Elizabeth Perkins, American actress
1961 – Steven Moffat, Scottish screenwriter, and producer (Doctor Who)
1968 – Owen Wilson, American actor, producer, comedian, and screenwriter
1970 – Mike Epps, American comedian, actor, and producer
1970 – Megyn Kelly, American lawyer, and journalist
1974 – Chloë Sevigny, American actress, and fashion designer
1981 – Christina Vidal, American actress, and singer
1985 – Christian Siriano, American fashion designer (Project Runway)
2115 – 100 Years,  a Robert Rodriguez-directed sci-fi short film starring John Malkovich as “the protagonist,” Shuya Chang as “the female protagonist,” and Marko Zaror as “the antagonist” will be released, 100 years after most people expected to see it.

November 18 History

401 – The Visigoths, led by king Alaric I, crossed the Alps and invaded northern Italy.

1307 – William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head with an arrow.

1421 – St. Elizabeth’s Flood – A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike in the Netherlands breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people.

1477 – First English dated printed book Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers was published by William Caxton.

1626 – St. Peter’s Basilica was consecrated. Replaced the earlier Basilica, which was consecrated on this same date in 326 AD.

1727 (Earthquake) Tabriz, Iran – an estimated 77,000 people were killed.

1805 – Thirty women met at Mrs. Silas Lee’s home in Wiscasset, Maine, and organized the Female Charitable Society of Wiscasset, the first woman’s club in America. They actually published a 32-page book upon their centennial.

1865 – Mark Twain’s short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was published in the New York Saturday Press.

1872 – The first US patent (#133,188) for an adding machine capable of printing totals and subtotals, called a “calculating machine,” was issued to E.D. Barbour of Boston, Massachusetts.

1872 – American suffragette Susan B Anthony was arrested after voting on the 5th of November in Rochester New York. She was found guilty and never paid the $100 fine.

1874 – National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union organized in Cleveland.

1878 – Soprano Marie Selika Williams became the first Black artist to perform at the White House, Washington DC.

1883 – ‘Standard Time’ in the United States went into effect at noon for the first time. Prior to this, towns across the US set their own times by observing the position of the sun.

1902 – Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michtom named the teddy bear he invented after US President Teddy Roosevelt. He founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in 1907.

1913 – The first airplane in the U.S. to perform a loop-de-loop was piloted by Lincoln Beachey over North Island, San Diego, California

November 18 Birthday (fictional) Mickey Mouse, Disney

1928 – Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse’s first wide appearance in NY in Steamboat Willie. It seems that every time this is brought up, someone points out that Walt Disney did the original voice, and he did! Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse!

1932Flowers & Trees received the first Academy Award for a cartoon.

1949 – National League batting leader (.342) Jackie Robinson won the NL MVP.

1950 – #1 Hit April 29, 1950 – July 14, 1950: Anton Karas – The Third Man Theme

On November 18th, 1963 – The Touch-Tone telephone with 10 push buttons, made by Western Electric, was released commercially. People could not buy them, you had to lease them from the phone company. 
It wasn’t until 1976, that the FCC started letting people buy their own phones. By the mid-1980s, you could buy a landline phone for less than $20. They became disposable.  There are still some people in the USA paying $5.00 (or more) each month leasing phones from the phone company.

1970 – Linus Pauling declared that large doses of Vitamin C could ward off the common cold.

1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, 918 members of Peoples Temple were murdered and/or committed suicide under the leadership of cult leader Jim Jones. The bodies of over 400 of those who died are buried in a mass grave at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California.

1982 – Yentl, Amityville 3-d and A Christmas Story were released in US theaters.

1985 – Sesame Street’s Elmo was introduced. He was usually puppeteered by Kevin Clash. Since Clash’s controversial resignation in late 2012, he has been puppeteered by Ryan Dillon.

1985 – The Howard Stern radio show debuted on New York’s WXRK.

1992- The Seinfeld episode titled The Contest was broadcast. It was a controversial episode that later won an Emmy and was named the number one episode of all time by TV Guide magazine.

1993 – WWF boss Vince McMahon was charged with steroid distribution.

1993 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was approved by the House of Representatives.

1999 – 12 people were killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when a massive bonfire under construction collapsed.

2000 – #1 Hit November 18, 2000 – February 2, 2001: Destiny’s Child – Independent Women

November 18, 2001 – GameCube released, Video Game Console

November 18, 2013 – Wii U released, Video Game Console

2115 – 100 Years: The Movie You Will Never See is a secret film written by and starring John Malkovich. 100 Years is kept in a high-tech safe in bulletproof glass that will open automatically on November 18, 2115, the date of the film’s release. The plot remains a complete mystery.

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

The Aurora Ice Hotel in Alaska was made entirely of ice. Ice walls, ceiling, beds, bar, barstools, even martini glasses were made of ice. It was closed by the fire marshall for not having smoke detectors.

Tina Turner – Real Name: Annie Mae Bullock

<ordering cake over the phone>
“What would you like the cake to say?”
<covers phone to ask the wife>
“Do we want a talking cake?”

If I was a serial killer, I’d leave a Klondike bar wrapper at every murder scene, letting everyone know exactly what I would do for a Klondike bar.

Boyz n the Hood director John Singleton and heavy metal rocker Rob Zombie were production assistants on Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

The Capital of Cyprus is Nicosia

Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato were both cast members on Barney and Friends.

“Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) in Forrest Gump, 1994

A group of Polecats is called a Chine.

A study published in the American Journal of Physics confirmed a mathematician’s model suggesting that straight hair is more likely to tangle than curly hair.

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