This Day…

1876 – Indian Wars: In retaliation for the American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops sack Chief Dull Knife’s sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River.

1890 – Edison lab records the 1st surviving motion picture, “Monkeyshines No. 1”, shot by William am Kennedy Dickson and William Heise [date disputed between June 1889 and November 21–27, 1890]

1863 – Abraham Lincoln begins first draft of his Gettysburg Address

1935 – “A Night at the Opera”, comedy film directed by Sam Wood, starring the Marx Brothers, is released

1902 – “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad is first published in one volume (previously serialized) by William Blackwood in Edinburgh

1918 – WWI Armistice signed by the Allies and Germany comes into effect and World War I hostilities end at 11am, “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”

1880 – French actress Sarah Bernhardt makes her US debut at NY’s Booth Theater

1860 – Republican Abraham Lincoln of Illinois elected the 16th President of the United States of America

1841 – First wagon train arrives in California after a five and a half month and 1,730 mile journey over the Sierra Nevada from Missouri

1962 – The horror film “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” is released, directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, based on the novel by Henry Farrell