Random News and Notes 12 November
On this date:
- 1276 – Suspicious of the intentions of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales, English King Edward I resolves to invade Wales.
- 1799 – Andrew Ellicott, an early American astronomer, witnesses the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys.Ellicott’s journal entry is the first known record of a meteor shower in North America.
- 1859 – The first flying-trapeze circus act is performed by Jules Leotard at the Circus Napoleon.
- 1863 – Confederate General James Longstreet arrives at Loudon, Tennessee, to assist the attack on Union General Ambrose Burnside’s troops at Knoxville.
- 1903 – The Lebaudy brothers of France set an air-travel distance record of 34 miles in a dirigible.
- 1923 – Adolf Hitler is arrested for his attempted German coup, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He would spend the next 13 months in jail.
- 1927 – Canada is admitted to the League of Nations.
- 1928 – The ocean liner Vestris sinks off the Virginia cape with 328 aboard, killing 111.
- 1944 – U.S. fighters wipe out a Japanese convoy near Leyte, consisting of six destroyers, four transports and 8,000 troops.
- 1944 – The German battleship Tirpitz is sunk in a Norwegian fjord. Sister ship to the Bismarck and the heaviest European battleship ever built, she was targeted by 32 Lancaster bombers carrying 12,000-pound Tallboy earthquake bombs. One Tallboy ripped through the deck and detonated near the ammunition magazine for Turret Caesar (or the aft magazine), causing a massive explosion that blew the 700-ton gun turret into the air. Between 950 and 1,200 crew members lost their lives out of a complement of roughly 1,700.
- 1948 – Hikedi Tojo, Japanese prime minister, and seven others are sentenced to hang by an international tribunal.
- 1954 – Ellis Island, the gateway to America, shuts it doors after processing more than 12 million immigrants since opening in 1892
- 1960 – The satellite Discoverer XVII is launched into orbit from California’s Vandenberg AFB.
- 1968 – The U.S. Supreme Court voids an Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools.
- 1969 – In a cable filed through Dispatch News Service and picked up by more than 30 newspapers, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals the extent of the U.S. Army’s charges against 1st Lt. William L. Calley at My Lai.
- 1970 – The Oregon Highway Department uses around a half a ton of dynamite to blow up a dead, beached Pacific Gray whale near Florence Oregon. It goes about how you’d expect.
- 1979 – , President Jimmy Carter responds to a potential threat to national security by stopping the importation of petroleum from Iran.
- 1982 – Following the death of long-time Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev two days earlier, Yuri Andropov is selected as the new general secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.
- 1987 – Boris Yeltsin is fired as head of Moscow’s Communist Party for criticizing the slow pace of reform.
- 1990 – Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan.
- 1996 – A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collides with a Kazakh Ilyushin II-76 cargo plane near New Delhi, killing 349. It is the deadliest mid-air collision and third-deadliest aircraft accident.
- 1997 – Ramzi Yousef convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
- 2001 – An American Airlines flight out of John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport in New York City crashes into a Queens neighborhood after takeoff on November 12, 2001, killing 265 people. Although some initially speculated that the crash was the result of terrorism, as it came exactly two months after the September 11 attacks, the cause was quickly proven to be a combination of pilot error and wind conditions.
- 2003 – The first Italians to die in the Iraq War are among 23 fatalities from a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base in Nasiriya, iraq.
We start the news with a breaking story. At least 4 people have been shot in what authorities in Washington D.C. have classified as an active shooter incident in the Northwest portion of the city near Logan Circle. The shootings happened in and around Vida fitness in Logan Circle.
Police reports indicate the shooter, a white male, heavy-set and possibly wearing a gray shirt, has barricaded himself inside a building on Logan Circle. Video of the area shows smoke from a small fire in the part of the building the suspect is holed up in.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as more details become available.
From the MVAP Sports desk, the Baseball Postseason awards continue. On the mound, the BBWAA recognized Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees and Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers as the American and National League Cy Young Award winners. Relief pitching also had a landmark year with the inaugural BBWAA Reliever of the Year awards going to Louis Varland (Blue Jays) and Mason Miller (Padres), with Miller also capturing the NL Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year alongside AL Mariano Rivera winner Bryan Baker (Rays). In the dugout, Will Venable of the Chicago White Sox and Pat Murphy of the Milwaukee Brewers earned Manager of the Year honors for guiding their clubs through successful campaigns.
Beyond the top BBWAA selections, several players took home major offensive, defensive, and league-wide accolades. Yordan Álvarez of the Houston Astros had a massive week, capturing the AL Hank Aaron Award, AL Comeback Player of the Year, and the Edgar Martinez Outstanding DH Award, which snapped Shohei Ohtani’s multi-year streak. In the National League, Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong claimed both the NL Hank Aaron Award and the NL Platinum Glove Award—matching AL Platinum Glove winner Cody Bellinger of the Yankees—while Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler was named NL Comeback Player of the Year. Other notable honors included Francisco Lindor receiving the Roberto Clemente Award, Bobby Witt Jr. winning the Heart & Hustle Award, and Rays executive Erik Neander taking home Executive of the Year.
Awards week continues tonight with the announcement of the MVPs for both leagues.
A three-story mixed-use building in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn collapsed into an adjacent excavation site on Wednesday afternoon, November 11, 2026, killing at least eight people. The 1930s-era structure at 1321 Flatbush Avenue, which housed a ground-floor business and upper-level apartments, gave way around 4:00 p.m. and tumbled into an open construction pit next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue. At least 17 others were injured in the disaster, including seven children and multiple firefighters, while the collapse also sheared the exterior wall off a neighboring three-story.
More than 250 FDNY firefighters, police officers, and emergency personnel responded within a minute of the initial 911 call to launch a prolonged technical search-and-rescue operation. Crews worked overnight using search dogs, drones, pickaxes, and vacuum trucks to navigate unstable rubble and pull trapped residents and construction workers from the wreckage. While the official cause remains under investigation by law enforcement and the NYC Department of Buildings, officials confirmed that active excavation was underway next door at a site with a recent history of stop-work orders and safety violations.
The Navy has removed Rear Adm. Brian Monahan, the attending physician to Congress, and his deputy from their positions. The U.S. Navy took Monahan, who has held the position since 2009, out of his post due to an ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct, sources confirm.
An inspector general report detailing the matter is expected soon, though specific allegations remain undisclosed.
I have questions as to why military personnel are treating members of Congress. Outside of very specific military aides/attaches/advisors for senior members of Congress, there should be no troops involved with Congress.