Random News and Notes 11 November
On this Date:
- 1499 – Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is executed. Warbeck claimed to be Prince Richard, the younger of the two “Princes in the Tower” who had supposedly escaped being murdered by Richard III. He was put forward by the family of the deposed Yorkist kings.
- 1778 – Loyalist Captain Walter Butler and Mohawk war leader Thayendanegea (Chief Joseph Brant) led a combined force of about 200–500 Loyalist Rangers and 600 Haudenosaunee primarily Seneca and Mohawk) warriors in the Cherry Valley Massacre in Otsego County, New York. The attack killed more than 40 Americans and took at least an additional 70 prisoner.
- 1831 – Nat Turner, a slave who led a revolt against slave owners, is hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia.
- 1864 – On orders from Union General William T. Sherman, Union soldiers begin destroying all railroads, factories and commercial buildings in Atlanta, Georgia—anything that could help support the Confederacy’s military or economic goals.
- 1889 – Washington becomes the 42nd state of the Union.
- 1909 – Construction begins on the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
- 1918 – On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Armistice agreement ending the First World War goes into effect. The First World War left 9 million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least 5 million civilians died from disease, starvation or exposure.
- 1919 – The first two-minutes’ silence is observed in Britain to commemorate those who died in the Great War.
- 1921 – The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery is dedicated.
- 1922 – Canada’s Vernon McKenzie urges to fight U.S. propaganda with taxes on U.S. magazines.
- 1933 – The first of the great dust storms of the 1930s hits North Dakota.
- 1935 – Albert Anderson and Orvil Anderson set a new altitude record in South Dakota, when they float to 74,000 feet in a balloon.
- 1938 – Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” is performed for the first time by singer Kate Smith.
- 1942 – Congress approves lowering the draft age to 18 and raising the upper limit to age 37.
- 1942 – German troops roll out Operation Case Anton, occupying Vichy France, which had previously been free of an Axis military presence.
- 1944 – Private Eddie Slovik is convicted of desertion and sentenced to death for refusing to join his unit in the European Theater of Operations. Slovik would be executed in January and would be the only US soldier put to death fro desertion during WWII.
- 1953 – The polio virus is identified and photographed for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- 1966 – The United States launches Gemini 12, a two-man orbiter, into orbit.
- 1970 – U.S. Army Special Forces raid the Son Tay prison camp in North Vietnam but find no prisoners.
- 1973 – The Soviet Union is kicked out of World Cup soccer for refusing to play Chile.
- 1993 – Sculpture honoring women who served in the Vietnam War dedicated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.
- 2004 – Palestine Liberation organization confirms the death of its longtime chairman Yasser Arafat; cause of death has never been conclusively determined.
Before we get to the day’s news, lets take a quick look at the history of Veterans Day. As most of you know, what we now call Veterans Day began as Armistice Day marking the end of World War I, and evolved into a broader holiday celebrating every service member.
Following the 1918 armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day in 1919. Congress made it a legal federal holiday in 1938 to honor WWI veterans.
Following World War II and the Korean War, Congress amended the 1938 act at the urging of veterans’ groups to honor service members from all conflicts, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the change on June 1, 1954.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
in flanders fields
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae
Now, News!
There was yet another aviation incident yesterday. A twice deported illegal alien tried to breach the cockpit of a United flight Monday. Flight UA2174, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 with 46 passengers and six crew, departed Newark at 9:27 p.m. and arrived in New Orleans around 11:07 p.m. after crew herded the man to the rear. Pilots signaled a hijack alert with code 7500 and reported the highest threat level.
Jefferson Parish deputies arrested 34-year-old Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, a twice-deported Honduran national facing charges of felony bomb threat, terroristic threats, and disorderly conduct; no bomb was found. DHS confirmed his three prior illegal U.S. entries since 2011, including a 2019 release by an immigration judge pending proceedings, and ICE has now lodged a detainer.
I can’t get on a plane without a full body search and federally approved ID, but Ol’ Rony here can board a flight? What are we doing here?
This next one is a bit alarming. An Egyptian Court has issued sanctions against 35 European groups and 36 individuals in European countries. Why? Because they are Islamic terror organizations. The Cairo Criminal Court’s Second Circuit in Badr issued the ruling in Case No. 11108 of 2026, published November 10 in the Egyptian Gazette. It adds organizations like the Council of European Muslims, Muslims of France, and the Muslim Association of Britain, plus bodies such as the European Council for Fatwa and Research, operating in countries including France, Britain, and Germany.
Egyptian law now bans their activities, freezes assets, and blocks funding within Egypt’s jurisdiction, following the permanent terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood itself.
Yet the Euro jurisdictions these organizations exist in cannot and will not ban their activities. Something is rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark. . .
There is some automotive news to pass along. Toyota is relaunching their Scion brand. This time it will be Kei (mini) trucks. The Japan based automaker announced it will start building a re-branded version of the Daihatsu Hijet Jumbo for the US market. The KEI-01 will be assembled in Princeton, Indiana.
The KEI01 will be powered by a fuel-injected 660cc 3-cylinder KF-series engine. Transmissions include a 5-speed manual or a CVT automatic. Your editor wants. Wants badly.
There is some sad news to pass along. Actor Stacy Keach has passed. The versatile actor, best known for his role as private eye Mike Hammer and voices in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and The Simpsons, died at his family home in Poland after battling heart failure. Born in 1941, Keach starred in films like Fat City and The New Centurions, TV hits including Prison Break and Titus, and remained active on stage late in life.
Requiescat in pace.
This one is un peu amusant. Joe Biden made a surprise appearance at Trinity College in Dublin yesterday. For some reason Joe’s crackhead son was getting the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse from Trinity. Biden was heckled and had milk jugs thrown at him by protesters. At least two of the protesters were banged up by the Gardaí.
What were the Paddys protesting? Biden’s support of Israel. This editor has issues with the reflexive support his cousins on the emerald isle give to the Palis, and this is no exception. However, this is a kind of lesser of two weevils situation