1942

Today in History 11/26 (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)

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An illustration from 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (© The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)(1865) ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ published in US
Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) captures the imaginations of adults and children with his story of a girl who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world. It will quickly become a hit and later inspire adaptations for the stage, movies, and TV.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course, structure, characters, and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.
Author: Lewis Carroll
First published: Nov 26, 1865
Number of pages: 12
Characters: Hatter · Alice · Cheshire Cat · White Rabbit · Queen of Hearts · March Hare · Caterpillar · Duchess · Knave of Hearts · Dormouse · Gryphon · Dodo · Mock Turtle · Bill the Lizard · Mouse
Adaptations: Alice in Wonderland (2010) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Alice in Wonderland (1999) · Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972) · Alice in Wonderland (1985) · Alice in Wonderland (1903) · Alice (1988) · Alice in Wonderland (1933) · Alice in Wonderland (1949) · Alice in Wonderland (1966) · Alice in Wonderland (1915) · Alice’s Adventures in …
Followed by: Through the Looking-Glass

Manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground (f. 45v / p. 88)
Page from the original manuscript copy of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, 1864
wiki/Alice’s_Adventures_in_Wonderland
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(1865) ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ published in US.
Also on this day,

1941 | FDR backpedals, abandons “Franksgiving”
After bowing to public pressure, US President Franklin Roosevelt signs a bill to set Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November. Two years prior, in a bid to boost retail sales, Roosevelt had shifted the holiday a week earlier, a move met with public outrage and derided as the creation of “Franksgiving.”
1942 | Rick’s Café Américain opens its doors as ‘Casablanca’ premieres
At its premiere, few involved in the production expect ‘Casablanca’ to cause much of a stir, despite its star power in Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. But the film will go into wide distribution in January, and as time goes by, its characters, theme song, and dialogue will go on to reach iconic status.
1975 | Squeaky Fromme guilty in Ford assassination attempt
A jury finds Fromme, a follower of serial killer Charles Manson, guilty of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford. On September 5, Fromme, dressed as a nun, pointed a gun at the president but was quickly subdued. She will be sentenced to life in prison, but then will be granted parole in 2009.

Today in History 11/26/17

Queen Elizabeth II smiles to photographers as she arrives at St James's Palace 26 November 1992 (© AFP/Getty Images)(1992) Queen Elizabeth agrees to pay income tax
In a surprise announcement, Queen Elizabeth II breaks with tradition to become the first British monarch to pay income tax since the 1930s. The move is seen as a public relations move to appease a public weary of supporting the monarchy during a prolonged recession, though Buckingham Palace denies this.
The British royal family is financed mainly by the hereditary revenues of the Crown. The British Parliament uses a percentage of the Crown Estate, a part of the Crown's hereditary revenues belonging to the sovereign that is placed at the disposal of the House of Commons, to meet the costs of the sovereign's official expenditures. This includes the costs of the upkeep of the various royal residences, staffing, travel and state visits, public engagements, and official entertainment. Other sources of income include revenues from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, a parliamentary annuity, and income from private investments. The Keeper of the Privy Purse is Head of the Privy Purse and Treasurer's Office and has overall responsibility for the management of the sovereign's financial affairs.
wiki/Finances_of_the_British_Royal_Family
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Today in History 10/03 (Germany Reunited)

Young people light flares in front of Berlin's Reichstag early October 3, 1990, to celebrate German unification (© Diether Endlicher/AP)(1990) A nation carved up by the Cold War is made whole
In what will later be celebrated as ‘Unity Day,’ a country torn in two after the Second World War is reunited as the once Soviet-controlled East Germany is dissolved and its territory and citizens merged with the Federal Republic of Germany, formerly known as West Germany.
The Day of German Unity is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a united Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled again. Therefore, the name addresses neither the re-union nor the union, but the unity of Germany. The Day of German Unity on 3 October has been the German national holiday since 1990, when the reunification was formally completed.
Observed by: Germany
Significance: Commemorates the German reunification in 1990
Frequency: annual
Date: 3 October

Berlin, deutsche Vereinigung, vor dem Reichstag
For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. ADN-ZB-Grimm-3.10.90-Berlin: Vereinigung/Hunderttausende waren dabei, als vor dem Reichstag die schwarz-rot-goldene Bundesfahne gehißt wurde.
wiki/German_Unity_Day
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(1990) A nation carved up by the Cold War is made whole.
Also on this day,

52 BCE | Caesar conquers the Gauls at Battle of Alesia
The Gallic Wars have raged for eight years, with Julius Caesar leading much of the Roman Republic’s charge against the tribes of Gaul in Western Europe. An inability to band together against their common enemy dooms the Gallic tribes, and the struggle ends at the Battle of Alesia.
1895 | Crane sees the Civil War through a young soldier’s eyes in ‘The Red Badge of Courage’
Stephen Crane’s novel ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ is released in book form for the first time. Not yet born when the Civil War ended, the young author weaves a narrative of America’s great cataclysm, now 30 years gone, with such verisimilitude that critics will call him a master of Realism.
1942 | V-2 rocket crosses a cosmic threshold
A new Nazi ‘Wunderwaffen,’ or ‘weapon of wonder,’ is fired in a test flight, and the missile’s top 52.5-mile altitude is so high it becomes the first manmade object to enter outer space. In less than two years Germany will begin launching thousands of V-2 rockets, mainly against Belgium and the UK.

Today in History 10/03/17

Launching site for V2 rockets in Germany during WWII (© Roger Viollet/Getty Images)(1942) Missile crosses a cosmic threshold
A new Nazi 'Wunderwaffen,' or 'weapon of wonder,' is fired in a test flight, and the missile's top 52.5-mile altitude is so high it becomes the first manmade object to enter outer space. In less than two years Germany will begin launching thousands of V-2 rockets, mainly against Belgium and the UK.
The V-2, technical name Aggregat 4, was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile with a liquid-propellant rocket engine was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon", assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into outer space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.
Sectional view of the missile Aggregat 2 / V 2
Layout of a V-2 rocket

wiki/V-2_rocket
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