• On Dec. 5, 1872, The Dei Gratia spotted the Mary Celeste sailing Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was in good condition and in full sail but no one was aboard and the lifeboat was missing. The personal belongings of the crew remained, as well as the cargo. No one knows where the crew went and remains one of the biggest maritime mysteries to this day.
• On Nov. 29, 1942, coffee rationing began due to World War II. Citizens were allowed one pound for every five weeks, which amounted to less than a cup a day. Rationing was employed in order to guarantee an equal distribution of resources between citizens, as well as give the military priority; one ad from this period reads, “Do with less— so they’ll have enough!” Coffee was only rationed for a year, but many with the extra money still turned to the black market. This rationing produced what was dubbed “Roosevelt coffee”, the name for a watery cup of coffee due to reusing the grounds.
• On Nov. 20, 1954, a 7-inch 8.5 lb Meteorite struck Elizabeth Hodges Sylacauga, Alabama. This sulfide meteorite crashed through her roof, bounced off her radio, and hit Mrs. Hodges, who was sleeping on the couch, in the hip. After hearing about this incident, a crowd flocked to her house. Shortly afterward, she was hospitalized where they found that she had a severe bruise, but was not permanently injured. People were in disbelief; what are the chances of a meteorite hitting you? Because of this, people thought the rock might have been debris from a plane wreck, or even from the Soviet Union. This, surprisingly, was not the first time a person was struck by a meteorite, but it was the first time a person was struck by a meteorite during modern times.
• On Dec. 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark, members of the Black Panther Party, were gunned down by 14 police officers while they slept in their Chicago apartment. Police reported that it was a gun battle, with over a hundred bullets fired. However, only one of the bullets was found to be from the Panthers; The rest empty shells were found to be fired by police weapons. Not only that, but the holes within the apartment that were originally claimed to be bullet holes were found to actually be nail holes created by the police as an attempt to cover up the attack. The use of excessive force and was fought about many years after this, and caused an upheaval in Chicago. Many took to the streets, hundreds of Panthers were arrested without cause. Despite the evidence of falsification, the first federal grand jury did not indict anyone. Additionally, even though the second grand did indict all the police officers involved, the charges were dismissed; none of the police officers involved were held accountable for their actions. In 1982, a civil lawsuit filed by relatives and survivors of the attack was settled and the families were given $1.82 million, which some believe to be admission wrongdoing.

• Before Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote his most famous novels, he faced awas faced a firing squad. On Nov. 16, 1849, Dostoevsky was convicted for high treason and sentenced to death due to activities related to a radical literary group that discussed banned books. After a month in prison, Dostoevsky was led to a firing squad but was pardoned at the last second. Instead of facing death, he was sent to work for four years at a Siberian labor camp. After that, he was forced to endure four years of military service. When he was released, he continued to be a soldier for two more years. Around 1859, he eventually founded a magazine and practiced as a journalist. However, Dostoevsky developed a gambling problem and his magazine went into debpt. It wasn’t until 1866 that when he published one of his most popular novels, Crime and Punishment. After marrying a stenographer in 1867, Dostoevsky fled to Europe to escape his debt. He published The Brothers Karamazov, his most famous book, in 1880 and died a year later.
• On Nov. 21 1934 Ella Fitzgerald made her most important debut when she won Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. Apparently, she had entered the competition on a bet and had intended to dance if called, b. But on a split-second decision, Fitzgerald decided to sing. This chance opportunity led her to become the musical legend that she is today. She won first place and the chance to sing for a week at the Apollo Theater. However, the theater didn’t afford her that prize due to her awkward and gangly appearance. A year later, she won the chance to perform for a week at the Harlem Opera House where she was introduced to Chick Webb who was trying to find a female singer. Despite her gawky and disheveled appearance, Webb claimed she was a diamond in the rough and offered to let her test with his band when they played at Yale University. This skyrocketed her career. Fitzgerald was singing till the end, when she died on June 15, 1966.
• On Nov 17, 1968, NBC made the decision to cut a football game short to air a scheduled showing of “Heidi.””. The game showcased a match betweenwas against the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets. Due to the intensity fueled by a strong rivalry, they suffered an abnormal amount of penalties and timeouts, which was causing the game to run long. Before the screens turned switched to Heidi, the Jets had a 32-29 lead. What everyone missed, besides those seeing it live, is what made this go down in history; the Raiders scored two touchdowns within nine seconds, winning the game 43-32. Unfortunately, no one outside the Oakland Coliseum knew. Apparently, NBC had planned to run Heidi no matter what, but changed their minds last second. However, they could get through to the NBC programmer, Dick Cline, due to the thousands of people calling NBC and telling them to run Heidi as scheduled, and even more football fans calling and telling them to let the game stay on there. Due to this, all the telephone lines were busy and any orders were unable to get through to Dick Cline. After NBC apologized, they guaranteed that all future games would be played out in full, even installing a special phone, dubbed the Heidi Pphone, so that a disaster like that would never happen again.

• On Nov. 7, 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman to win a seat in the U.S. Congress. After a career in social work, Rankin set to work towards the suffragette movement. Many believe that Rankins speaking and organizational efforts were a huge factor that led women to gain the right to vote in 1914. Four years later, she decided to run as a representative from Montana. Rankin ran on a nonpartisan campaign due to the animosity towards the parties; however, Rankin was a progressive and pledged to work for women suffrage and social welfare. Besides being the first Congresswoman, Rankin is also known as the only member of congress to vote against world war 1 and 2.
• On Nov. 3, 1957, Laika became the first creature to orbit space. Sent by the USSR, Laika was a husky-spitz mix that was rescued from the streets of Moscow. She was trained to go into space by subsisting on gel food, as well as being trained to be in small, dark places. She was to spend seven days in space, where she would eventually die from oxygen deprivation. Laika was originally known as Kudryavka, meaning “little curly”, but became known as Laika, “barker” when she barked when being introduced on public radio. Laika did not make it the seven days expected of her and was only able to orbit the earth once as she died of overheating and panic.
• On Nov. 6, 1962, the UN condemned apartheid in South Africa. Beginning in 1948, apartheid, meaning “apartness” in Afrikaans, was the legislation of segregationist policies against non-white people in South Africa. Under this legislation, non-white South Africans were forced to limit contact with white South Africans by living separately and using separate public facilities. This lasted for about 50 years when resistance began gaining momentum around 1960. The resistance woke the rest of the world up to what was happening, and the UN spoke up against apartheid. However, the legislation wasn’t officially struck down until a new constitution took effect in 1994.
• On Nov. 4, 2016, the ambitious international pledge to reduce carbon emissions, known as the Paris Agreement, came into effect. The main goal of this agreement was to keep the global average temperature from rising 2 degrees, however, many believed (and still believe) that this goal did not go far enough; this average had already risen 1.3 degrees and island nations and coasts were already in danger. While the US was initially a member of the agreement, Trump announced the intention to pull on June 1, 2017.

• On Oct. 25, 1929, Albert B. Fall was found guilty of accepting bribes from oil companies in what became known as the Teapot Dome Scandal. These bribes, totaling at $404,000 (about $5.79 million today), ensured that these oil companies would have exclusive rights to drill on federal land. This shocked the nation; they had never experienced this amount of corruption and greed. Ultimately, it drove Congress to conduct more investigation into government corruption and was known as the most appalling example of high-level corruption until the Watergate scandal.
• On Oct. 30, 1938, the American public became- convinced that the US was under Alien attack. It happened on Sunday evening when most Americans had their radio on. This broadcast started off normal but increasingly became more and more chaotic as the reporter described a crash site—wriggly, awful creatures in the darkness with weapons. It eventually became a full-on war and even employed realistic sound effects and voice acting. However, this was all a science fiction story by Orson Welles about a Martian invasion called “War of the Worlds”. It was so well-done that it caused widespread panic; thousands were calling their local police departments, national guardsmen wanted to know if they should report to duty, and one midwestern down even had a mob take to the streets.
• On Oct. 29, 1948, smog enveloped the town of Donora, Pennsylvania, and caused the death of 20 elderly people as well as many a thousand people seriously ill. Donora was surrounded by hills and had steel mills and a zinc smelting plant that emitted excessive amounts of sulphuric acid, carbon monoxide for years prior to this incidence. This caused a problem with air pollution. In fact, 20 years earlier, residents had been paid off for damages done by air pollution. Despite this, little to no regulation of air pollution was put in place to protect the citizens of Donora. Due to this incident, air pollution was put into the public eye and this incident can be credited for the creation of the Clean Air Act of 1955.
• On Oct. 26, 1984, Dr. Leonard L. Bailey performed the first successful baboon-to-human heart transplant. This procedure was performed on a 14-day-old girl, “Baby Fae”, who was born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, meaning all or some of this newborn’s left heart was missing. This was an extremely experimental procedure, as all other people who had received an animal-to-human heart transplant had died within 3 and a half days. Dr. Bailey argued that, due to her infant underdeveloped immune system, she would be more likely to survive. However, after 312days, her body began rejecting it. Baby Fae died after 20 days.

• On Oct. 18, 1867, The United States bought Alaska from Russia for less than two cents per acre. The full purchase was $7.2 billion for all 586,412 square miles that made up Alaska. Russia didn’t want Alaska; it was undeveloped, unpopulated, difficult to attend to, and in the middle of nowhere. At the time, many Americans thought that this purchase was useless. Alaska was eventually recognized for its vast resources and great beauty. Although it’s still sparsely populated, 25% of America’s oils and 50% of America’s seafood comes from Alaska.
• On Oct. 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive a barrel ride down Niagra falls. Being a 63-year-old school teacher as well as a widower, she wished to secure her financial future by attempting this dangerous but attention-getting stunt. She ended up with a gash on her hand, and she advised no one else to try the same thing. Despite this, 15 people in the next 100 years attempted the same stunt; only 10 of which survived.
• On Oct. 22, 1962, JFK went on TV and notified Americans of what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union was building a missile site in Cuba, and they were almost done. This dramatic speech shocked the public as he urged Nikita Krushchev to remove the threat of nuclear war. Thankfully JFK and Khrushchev were able to find common ground, and by Oct. 28, the threat of Soviet weapons in Cuba was erased.
• On Oct. 21, 1967, a famous anti-war demonstration “The March on the Pentagon” became a defining event for the antiwar movement. In opposition to the Vietnam War, around 100,000 people—mostly young, white college students—descended onto the Pentagon. People were upset; they didn’t want more American deaths (which were nearing 20,000), and President Johnson was going to raise taxes to pay for the war. The day after this march, almost 700 people had been arrested for charges including attempted trespassing. It wasn’t until 1975 that America withdrew.
• On Oct. 19, 1985, the first Blockbuster opened in Dallas, Texas. At the time, most video-rental stores were small businesses that only had a select few titles on hand. However, Blockbuster opened up with around 8,000 tapes lining the shelves. It was a huge success, and by the 1990s they opened more than 1,000 stores. This success ran out when they filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Today, there are no company-owned Blockbusters left.

• On Oct. 11, 1793, the death toll in Philadelphia resulting from yellow fever reached 100. Yellow fever is a viral disease spread by female mosquitoes that quickly results in death due to the kidneys and liver losing the ability to function properly. By the time it ended in early November, 5,000 people had died. It wasn’t known until the nineteenth century that mosquitoes caused yellow fever, and now there is a vaccine to prevent people from contracting it. Despite this, thousands die from yellow fever a year.
• Mata Hari, an exotic dancer, was executed by the French on Oct. 15, 1917, after admitting to spying for the Germans. Hari claimed to have been raised in a sacred Indian temple, where she learned ancient dances from a priestess. However, this was a ploy to enchant audiences with her seductive dances in which she stripped. Her real name Margaretha Geertruida Zelle and she was born in a small village in Northern Holland. Despite this, she drew crowds of people who wanted to see her show. There are some people who believe that she was innocent due to the military trial being handled poorly and the French wanting a scapegoat for the many losses the French army was suffering.
• On Oct 17, 1931, Notorious gangster Al Capone was sentenced to prison. Ironically he was not sentenced to prison for anything that you would imagine a gangster be sentenced to prison for, but was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion. Capone was also fined $80,000. This is equivalent to $1,351,363.16 in today’s money. He spent his time in U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta and at Alcatraz. Some people have claimed to have seen Capone’s ghost at Alcatraz.
• On Oct. 14, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize due to his work encouraging nonviolent opposition to racial prejudice. At the time, Dr. King was only 35-years-old and was the youngest to receive this honor. He donated the prize money (approximately $54,600) to the civil rights movement. Four years later, Dr. King was assassinated by James Earl Ray.

• On Oct. 5, 1775, General Washington informed Congress of espionage. Washington received a coded letter that had been intercepted between Dr. Benjamin Church, a surgeon from the continental army, and General Sir Thomas Gage, a British commander. This letter came into Washingtons’ possession via “woman who was kept by Doctor Church”, who turned out to be his mistress. After interrogation, the woman admitted that Doctor Church had been spying for the British. After further investigation, it was found out that he had been spying since 1772. Church was convicted of treason and given a life sentence.
• On Oct 6, 1866, The Reno brothers stopped a train and made off with $13,000. This was the first time a train robbery had been conducted on a moving train. The huge success sparked a wave of train robberies, all following the same method; stop the train in the middle of nowhere so there is no chance of running into the police or curious bystanders. This became such a huge problem that train and railroad owners began placing armed personnel on board in order to deter robbers. By the end of the 19th century, many train robbers were captured, killed, or never heard from again.
• On Oct. 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire, also known as The Chicago Fire of 1871, began in a barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O’Leary on the Southwest side. No one knows the true cause of the fire but legend has it that a cow tipped over a lighted lantern within the O’Leary barn. This fire quickly grew out of control, and by Oct. 10 an estimated 300 people died and 100,000 ended up homeless. This tragedy sparked a three day-long period of looting and lawlessness, causing troops of soldiers to come to Chicago and enacting martial law. Despite the huge misfortune, this disaster is what made Chicago into what it is now; a booming city with more than 100 skyscrapers. On the same day of the Great Chicago Fire, The Peshtigo Fire burned more than 280,000 acres of land in Wisconsin, killing about 1,500 people, injuring another 1,500, and forcing 3,000 onto the streets. After this fire, only two buildings remained intact.
• On Oct 7. 1975, Irving Kaufman, a State Supreme Court judge reversed John Lennon’s deportation order. John Lennon was very outspoken against the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration. Protestors of the peace movement even sang Lennon’s song, “Give Peace a Chance” at gatherings. This, coupled with Lennon’s influence with the 18 to 20-year-olds who were about to be able to vote, caused the Nixon administration to order an FBI investigation into Lennon. While this investigation did not uncover any illegal activities, they did find out about a 1968 marijuana conviction in England. This sparked a deportation proceeding against Lennon. After a long fight to remain in the U.S., the court decided not to deport Lennon. Judge Kaufman wrote, “The courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds… Lennon’s four-year battle to remain in our country is testimony to his faith in this American dream.”
• On Oct. 8, 2009, a famous self-help guru, James Arthur Ray, caused the death of two and the hospitalization of a dozen others when they attended a botched sweat lodge ceremony near Sedona, Arizona. Part of a five day retreat, this exercise is a Native American tradition meant for purification.  This incident sparked outrage from indigenous groups who were angry about Ray’s misuse of their sacred tradition. After a four month trial, Ray was sentenced to three two year prison sentences and had to pay $57,000 in compensation to the victim’s families. Only two years after his sentence on Jul. 12, 2013, Ray was released under supervision.

• On Sept. 30, 1630, John Billington became the first pilgrim man to be executed after shooting John Newcomen during a quarrel. He was one of the original passengers on the Mayflower. The Billington family was known as a family of troublemakers in the first Colony.
• On Sept. 28, 1918, Philadelphia held a WWI “Liberty Loan” parade that exposed thousands of onlookers to Spanish flu. Within 4 days, all the beds in Philadelphia’s thirty-one hospitals were filled. Philadelphia officials closed public places, and eventually put the whole city on lockdown. There are many parallels to how COVID-19 is impacting cities. The Smithsonian said, “Understaffed hospitals were crippled. Morgues and undertakers could not keep pace with demand. Grieving families had to bury their own dead. Casket prices skyrocketed. The phrase ‘bodies stacked like cordwood’ became a common refrain.” Despite Influenza usually affecting the elderly and the very young, the Spanish Flu seemed to infect young people in their prime who were considered strong and healthy. By the end of the following summer, around 10,000 people were dead. By the end of this pandemic, it’s estimated that around 675,000 Americans died.
• An accidental discovery was made on Sep. 28, 1928, when Sir Alexander Fleming left a plate of staphylococcus bacteria uncovered while on vacation with his family. When he came back home, mold had grown on this plate. What was strange was that there were no bacteria around the mold! After multiple experiments with different bacteria, Fleming found a juice that he named Penicillin. While he was unable to isolate the penicillin for mass production, this discovery revolutionized modern medicine and led to the saving of many lives.
• On Sept 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan met in Berlin, Germany, and signed the Tripartite Pact. With this, they became known as the Axis Powers and vowed to provide assistance should they be attacked by a country not already involved in the war. As America had not entered the war yet, this pact was designed to warn the United States against siding with the Allies. A year later, on Dec. 7, 1941, The U.S. joined the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
• On Sept. 29, 1988, Stacy Allison became the first American woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the world’s tallest mountain. Allison is from Portland, Oregon, and began climbing while in college at Oregon State University. It’s estimated that Mt. Everest gets about ¼” higher each year. This means that Mt. Everest has gotten about 8” higher than when Allison conquered the tallest mountain in the world.

This Tuesday USG hosted a voter registration drive. Michigan Tech has been listed as one of Washington Monthly’s 2020 Best Colleges for Student Voting. Efforts such as this are why Michigan Tech’s voting rate went up 7.2% to 34.3% from 2012 to 2016 according to the campus report of the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE). However, according to the same source, Michigan Tech is not doing as great as other campuses. This data shows that Michigan Tech has a difference of 16.1% compared to other institutions.

NSLVE data also shows that students who are studying Mathematics and Statistics have the worst voting rates, while those pursuing education and other majors have the best voting rates.

Find out more here.

• On Sept. 22, 1692, the Salem witch trials came to an end as the last eight people were hanged. This brought the death toll to 25, five of which died in prison and one who was pressed to death. One of the people executed on this day was a woman named Martha Corey. Martha did not believe in witches and even encouraged people to dismiss the things that children were saying; in response, she got a shoe thrown at her. Only three days earlier, her husband, Giles Cory, had defended her which got him labeled as a wizard. After refusing to stand trial and confess, he suffered a slow death as he got crushed under layers and layers of stones. The famous quote, “More weight!” is said to have been the only thing Giles responded when asked for a confession.
• The first Supreme Court was established on Sept. 24, 1789, when Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 and it was signed by President George Washington. The same day, President Washington nominated the first 6 Supreme Court Justices that would serve till their death. The first session wasn’t until Feb. 1, 1790, but quickly grew to become the most important judicial body in the country.
• A little known fact is that President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation twice. The first one was on Sept. 22, 1862, when Lincoln told the southern states that if they did not stop the war, he would issue the final Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves in rebelling states. When they did not cease the rebellion, he did exactly that. While this only freed the slaves in the southern, rebellious states, it paved the way for the abolition of slavery across the nation.
• On Sept. 21, 1893, Charles Duryea and his brother Frank took a gasoline-powered American automobile for a test ride. Deemed the Duryea Motor Wagon, this is believed to be the first successful commercial gasoline-powered automobile. This automobile had four horsepower and used one cylinder and had friction transmission, spray carburetor, and low tension ignition. After winning a race that gained them fame, Frank Duryea put the car into storage in 1894 where it lay untouched until 1920 when it was given to the  United States National Museum.
• During a campaign speech on Sept. 23, 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt defended his dog when Republicans had made him the center of a political attack. Fala, a black Scottish Terrier, was always by FDRs side. In fact, Fala slept at the foot of FDR’s bed. Not only this, but the president wouldn’t allow anyone but himself to feed him. Eleanor Roosevelt was said to be very against having a dog in the White House. However, when FDR died, Fala lived with Eleanor until his death in 1952 when Fala was buried beside the president.
• On Sept. 25, 1957, nine black students began their first day at previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Only a few weeks before, on Sept. 4, Governor Orval Faubus ordered the National Guard to the school. Instead of protecting the black students, the National Guard, along with a mob of white students, parents, and community members refused to let the students enter the school. This went on until they were escorted by 1,000 heavily armed paratroopers sent by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. These troops remained at the school throughout the year. Despite this, the Little Rock Nine were subjected to physical and verbal harassment.