November 18 in History

Though there is no specific origin to the celebration of Occult Day, it is not hard to understand why a day such as this would exist.  We all wonder if there is a world that remains unseen yet is as real as our own and with power that can be obtained. Our fascination with witches goes far back as Hansel and Gretel and as recent as Bewitched and Harry Potter.  

Witchcraft and wizardry can easily be traced back to philosophy, possibly our earliest form of science.  Alchemy, or the desire to turn ordinary metals into gold, was probably the first area in which the supernatural was studied.  Now witchcraft, astrology, numerology, the Ouija Board, Tarot cards, and other forms of fortune telling are tied into the occult.

Here in America, we have our history of witch trials.  In particular are the trials that were held in Salem, Massachusetts in the early 1690s.  Many of the townspeople were tried, convicted, and executed as witches.  This is now known as a gross miscarriage of justice, and yet, at the same time, Salem has become a place of pilgrimage for many practicing the occult. 

How to celebrate this day is easy.  Go have your palm read, or your fortune told.  Or have a Harry Potter Movie marathon.  Read your horoscope, all of which would acknowledge the weird world of the occult.

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, 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 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. Before 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

1928 – Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse first appeared 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!

1932 – Flowers & 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

1962 – ‘Ma’ Bell Telephone introduced the push button telephone.

1963 – The Touch-Tone telephone with 10 push buttons, manufactured by the Western Electric Manufacturing of the Bell System, was released commercially.

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. Kevin Clash usually puppeteered him. Since Clash’s controversial resignation in late 2012, he has been puppeteered by Ryan Dillon.

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 House approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 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

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.