November 20 in Pop Culture History

November 20 History, Trivia, and Fun Facts

November 20 History Highlights

  • Birthday boy Chester Gould’s friend, Al Gross invented the walkie-talkie, and that was the inspiration for Dick Tracey’s wrist radio in January 1946.
  • In 1789, New Jersey became the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
  • In 1820, An 80-ton sperm whale attacked and sank the Essex, a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts. Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick is in part inspired by this story.
  • 1962 – In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation, ending The Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • November 20, 1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released.
  • 1945 – The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials began, finishing on October 10, 1946.
  • If you were born on November 20th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… February 27th (same year)

November 20 is…

Beautiful Day
Future Teachers of America Day
National Absurdity Day
Peanut Butter Fudge Day
Universal Children’s day

November 20 Birthday Quotes

“The pathways of crime are clearly marked. There’s a doublecross on every corner. I usually start with a repulsive character and go on from there. I decided that if the police couldn’t catch the gangsters, I’d create a fellow who could.”
-Chester Gould, creator of Dick Tracy

“One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”
-Robert F. Kennedy

“You can’t be a legend in your parent’s basement.”
– Joe Walsh

“Many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant Reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. “Give me a place to stand,” said Archimedes, “and I will move the world.” These men moved the world, and so can we all.”
– Robert F. Kennedy

November 20 Birthdays

1889 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer and cosmologist (died in 1953)
1890 – Robert Armstrong, American actor (King Kong “it wasn’t the airplanes, t’was beauty killed the beast” died in 1973)
1891 – Reginald Denny, English actor (died in 1967)
1900 – Chester Gould, American cartoonist, creator of Dick Tracy (died in 1985)
1908 – Alistair Cooke, British-American journalist and author (died in 2004)
1913 – Judy Canova, American actress, and comedian (died in 1983)
1916 – Evelyn Keyes, American actress (died in 2008)
Robert Byrd, American politician, (died in 2010)
1925 – June Christy, American singer (died in 1990)
1925 – Robert F. Kennedy, American politician (assassinated in 1968)
1927 – Estelle Parsons, American actress (The Golden Girls)
1942 – Joe Biden, American lawyer, and politician, (47th Vice President of the United States)
1942 – Bob Einstein, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (Super Dave Osbourne d. 2019)
1942 – Norman Greenbaum, American Singer/Songwriter, and guitarist
1947 – Joe Walsh, American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
1956 – Bo Derek, American actress, and producer
1959 – Sean Young, American actress, and dancer
1961 – Jim Brickman, American Singer/Songwriter, and pianist
1963 – Ming-Na Wen, Chinese-American actress (Mulan, Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.)
1966 – Jill Thompson, American author, and illustrator
1971 – Joel McHale, American comedian, actor, and producer
1975 – Dierks Bentley, American Singer/Songwriter, and guitarist
1989 – Cody Linley, American actor (Hannah Montana)
2002 – Madisyn Shipman, American actress (Game Shakers)

November 20 History

1866 – US patent (#59,745) for a yoyo, called a “Whirligig” or “Bandalore” in the paperwork, was issued to James L. Haven and Charles Hettrick of Cincinnati, Ohio.

1866 – The US patent (#59,918) on a rotary crank bicycle was issued to Pierre Lallemont of Paris, France.

1888 – Willard LeGrand Bundy was issued the first U.S. patent (#393,205) for a time recording clock. His company went on to help start TCR in 1911, which evolved into IBM.

1906 – Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce formed Rolls-Royce.

1929 – First broadcast of The Goldbergs on NBC radio. The original title was ‘The Rise of the Goldbergs’, until 1936, when it moved to CBS. It was also on television, in various forms from 1949 to 1956. ABC began it’s own The Goldbergs on September 24, 2013.

1945 – The Nuremberg Trials with an International Military Tribunal made up of four judges one from each country United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and France begin when charges against Germany’s Nazi leaders.

1952 – Broadway Show – The Seven Year Itch (Play) November 20, 1952

1959 – WABC fired Alan Freed over the payola scandal. The early rock and roll DJ died in 1965, and in 2002 his ashes were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

1962 – USSR agreed to remove bombers from Cuba, & US lifted the blockade.

1965 – #1 Hit November 20, 1965 – December 3, 1965: The Supremes – I Hear A Symphony

1966 – Broadway Show – Cabaret (Musical) November 20, 1966

1969 – Cleveland, Ohio’s The Plain Dealer published explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

1971 – #1 Hit November 20, 1971 – December 3, 1971: Isaac Hayes – Theme From Shaft

1973 – A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired on CBS for the first time.

1982 – Drew Barrymore, at age 7, hosted Saturday Night Live. She was starring in the hit film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at that time.

1983 – The made-for-television movie The Day After, depicting the start of a nuclear war, was shown on ABC. Over 100 million people saw the broadcast.

1985 – A successful heart transplant to a 4-day-old infant, Eddie Anguiano, known then as Baby Moses, was performed by Dr. Leonard Lee Bailey of the Loma Linda University Medical Center. Eddie is still living and living in Las Vegas as far as we know.

1995- Daytime soap opera One Life To Live aired its 7,000th episode on ABC.

November 20, 1996 (fiction) Sgt. John Spartan was sentenced to 70 years in cryoprison, Demolition Man, Film

1999- John Carpenter became the first world-wide winner of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The $1 million question was, “Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series ‘Laugh-In’?”, with the choices being A) Lyndon Johnson, B) Richard Nixon, C) Jimmy Carter, and D) Gerald Ford. He knew the answer and used his lifeline to call his father to tell him that he was winning a million dollars.

2003 – Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of multiple counts of child molestation, later acquitted on all charges. He was on a $3 million bond.

2010 – #1 Hit November 20, 2010 – December 3, 2010: Rihanna featuring Drake – What’s My Name?

2013 – Two campus police officers who pepper-sprayed peaceful student protesters at a close range at the University of California were suspended. The memes made the incident immortal.

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

TV Quotes… “Good night, and good luck” (Edward R. Murrow) on “See It Now”

“I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine.” #songlyrics

“In Switzerland, they had brotherly love – and 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” – Harry Lime (Orson Welles) #moviequotes

Krispy Kreme’s Original Glazed Donut is Only 190 Calories.

A NASCAR driver maintains the same heart rate – 120 to 150 beats per minute for 3-plus hours – as a serious marathon runner for about the same length of time.

In 1972, Canada had a contest to complete the saying “As Canadian as…”. The winner was “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.”

1986’s Top Gun had a production budget of only 15 million dollars.

The world record for most Rubik’s Cubes solved while blindfolded is held by Marcin Kowalczyk, who solved 41 out of 41 cubes in 54 minutes.

“You eeeediot!” – Ren (Ren & Stimpy)

US President #31 Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) His inaction to rebound the economy during the Great Depression led to shanties inhabited by the homeless to be referred to as “Hoovervilles.”

The tool used to cut diamonds, a scaif, was invented in the 1400s and uses olive oil and diamond dust to uniformly polish and cut diamonds. It is still in use today.

The Capital of Cote d’Ivoire is Yamoussoukro (official); Abidjan (de facto)

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