Today in History for Nov. 25, 2015

Paul Siple

Nov. 25, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, the Massachusetts General Court established a Superior Court to pardon remaining witches.

Nov. 25, 1783 - Nearly three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution, the last British soldiers withdrew from New York City, the last British military position in the United States. After the last Redcoat departed New York, U.S. General George Washington entered the city in triumph to the cheers of New Yorkers. The city had remained in British hands since its capture in September 1776, and four months after New York was returned to the victorious Patriots, the city was declared to be the capital of the United States.

Nov. 25, 1813 – The United Grand Lodge of England was organized.

Nov. 25, 1825 – John Murphy of Monroe County, Ala. was inaugurated Governor of Alabama. Born in 1786 in Robeson County, N.C., he died Sept. 21, 1841 in Clarke County.

Nov. 25, 1829 – John Murphy’s term as Alabama’s governor officially ended.

Nov. 25, 1835 – American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland.

Nov. 25, 1861 – The Confederate Rest section (originally called Soldiers Rest) was added to the New Burial Ground cemetery (now Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, Ala.) for Confederate soldiers.

Nov. 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of War, ordered captured bridge burners in East Tennessee to the tried and hanged if found guilty.

Nov. 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, the Confederate Naval Department was in the process of converting the USS Merrimack into the Confederate iron-clad, renamed the CSS Virginia. It was a race against time and the USS Monitor, and time was running out for Commander Catesby ap Roger Jones of the Confederate navy. It was well known (at least in the higher reaches of the Confederate Navy Secretary’s office) that the Federal Navy was working on a revolutionary armor-plated warship. The South needed a counterpart, and the solution had been to refloat the partially-burned hulk of a ship called Merrimack which had been sunk in Norfolk Navy Yard when the Federal forces abandoned the area. The parts of the vessel damaged by fire were mostly areas that would have had to be removed to accommodate the new design anyway. The first load of armor plate was on Nov. 25, received by Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory, and sent on to Jones to become the skin of the reborn CSS Virginia.

Nov. 25, 1863 – During the Battle of Missionary Ridge at Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant broke the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg. The Confederates suffered some 6,600 men killed, wounded and missing, and the Union lost around 5,800. Grant missed an opportunity to destroy the Confederate army when he chose not to pursue the retreating Rebels, but Chattanooga was secured.

Nov. 25, 1864 – A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan started fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City.

Nov. 25, 1864 – The last issue of The Claiborne Herald newspaper was published in Claiborne, Ala.

Nov. 25, 1865 – German explorer and scholar Heinrich Barth died in Berlin at the age of 44. Barth is thought to be one of the greatest of the European explorers of Africa, as his scholarly preparation, ability to speak and write Arabic, learning African languages, and character meant that he carefully documented the details of the cultures he visited. He was among the first to comprehend the uses of oral history of peoples, and collected many.

Nov. 25, 1881 – Pope Saint John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli in Lombardi, Italy.

Nov. 25, 1909 – Prominent Monroeville, Ala. lawyer Francis W. Hare married Mary Stallworth.

Nov. 25, 1914 – National Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder Joe DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California. He played his entire career for the New York Yankees. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1955.

Nov. 25, 1915 – On this Thanksgiving Thursday, “Monsieur Lecoq,” starring William Morris and Florence LaBadie, was to be shown at the Arcade Theatre in Evergreen, Ala.

Nov. 25, 1915 – The Monroe Journal reported that E.L. Covan, who lived in northeastern Monroe County, Ala., had killed a 17-month old shoat that dressed out at 522 pounds. The pig was of the Duroc-Bekshire-Tamworth strain. He also killed three older pigs with a combined dressed weight of 1,115 pounds.

Nov. 25, 1915 – Einstein submitted his paper “The Field Equations of Gravitation” for publication. The paper included 10 equations, which made up his Theory of General Relativity.

Nov. 25, 1921 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a football game was aired in College Station, Texas via an amateur radio station. The game was between the University of Texas and Texas A&M in Austin.

Nov. 25, 1923 – Former Evergreen mayor Henry Albert “H.A.” Shields passed away at the age of 74 in Evergreen, Ala. Thirty-five years before his death, Shields first came to Evergreen as the roadmaster of the L&N Railroad. He was a leading member of the local Methodist Church and for many years was Sunday School superintendent. He served several terms as Evergreen’s mayor and also served as Evergreen’s town clerk and treasurer. He also served as Worshipful Master of the local Masonic Lodge. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery (and his tombstone says he passed away on Dec. 4, 1923).

Nov. 25, 1937 - The movie “Nothing Sacred,” story by James H. Street, was released.

Nov. 25, 1940 - Capt. W.D. Lewis, commander of the Evergreen, Alabama’s national guard unit, Battery C, 117th Field Artillery, ordered all men under his command to report to the armory on this Monday morning at 8 a.m. for “preparatory duty prior to the unit’s departure for Camp Blanding, Fla., where they will spend a year in intensive military training.” About 99 men are expected to make the trip, and the unit was expected to arrive at Blanding on or around Dec. 11, when they were to become a unit in the regular army.

Nov. 25, 1950 – The Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950, known at the time as the "Storm of the Century", struck New England with hurricane force winds resulting in massive forest blow-downs and storm surge damage along the Northeast coast including New York City. This storm also brought blizzard conditions to the Appalachian Mountains and Ohio Valley, becoming one of the worst storms of all time. The storm paralyzed the Northeast, with winds up to 100 miles per hour, sub-zero temperatures, and 57 inches of snow. Three hundred fifty-three people died in the event.

Nov. 25, 1960 – John F. Kennedy Jr. was born in Washington, D.C., two weeks after his father, John F. Kennedy Sr. was elected president of the United States. His mother was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

Nov. 25, 1963 – NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar was born in Youngstown, Ohio. He would go on to play for the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins.

Nov. 25, 1965 - The first color broadcast of an NFL game aired on CBS. The Detroit Lions and the Baltimore Colts played to a 24-24 tie.

Nov. 25, 1968 – American geographer and explorer Paul Siple died at the age of 59 at the Army Research Center in Arlington, Virginia. Siple took part in six Antarctic expeditions, including the two Byrd expeditions of 1928–1930 and 1933–1935, representing the Boy Scouts of America as an Eagle Scout. With Charles F. Passel he developed the wind chill factor, and Siple coined the term.

Nov. 25, 1974 – Monroe Academy football standout Keith Pugh announced that he would sign a scholarship with the University of Alabama on Dec. 14.

Nov. 25, 1976 - O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills ran for 273 yards against the Detroit Lions.

Nov. 25, 1976 – NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb was born in Chicago, Ill. He went on to play college football at Syracuse and was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft. During his NFL career, he played for the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins and the Minnesota Vikings.

Nov. 25, 1984 - The television program “The Word Processor of the Gods,” teleplay by Alabama author Robert McDowell, was broadcast as part of the “Tales from the Darkside” series.

Nov. 25, 2000 – Pensacola, Fla. firefighter Marvin M. Bartholemew was killed in the line of duty.

Nov. 25, 2002 - Pete Rose and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig met secretly to discuss Rose's lifetime ban from baseball.

Nov. 25, 2008 – Uriah, Ala. native Lambert C. Mims, who served four terms as Mobile’s mayor, passed away in Mobile, Ala. at the age of 78.