Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

November 30

1988
Largest merger to date: RJR Nabisco is purchased for $25 billion.

1954
Only known meteorite to injure a person: Mrs. Ann Hodges is struck by one in Alabama.

1930
Fred Allen makes his radio debut.

1924
RCA demonstrates wireless transmission of pictures from London to New York.

1782
Provisional treaty of peace is signed between Britain and the U.S., during the American Revolution.

1706
The Church of England is declared by law the official religion of South Carolina. This remained in effect until 1778.

1965
Ben Stiller, American comedian. TV: Saturday Night Live and The Ben Stiller Show.

1962
Bo Jackson, American football and baseball player. He is the only player in history named to both a baseball All-Star game and a football Pro-Bowl game.

1955
Billy Idol (William Broad), British singer. Music: Dancing With Myself (1980), White Wedding (1983), Rebel Yell (1984), Eyes Without a Face (1984), and Mony Mony (1987, #1).

1936     d. 1989
Abbie Hoffman (Abbott Hoffman), American political activist of the 1960s and leader of the Yippie youth movement.

1929
Dick Clark, American host. TV: American Bandstand.

1927
Robert Guillaume (Robert Peter Williams), actor. TV: Benson (Benson DuBois).

1927
Richard Crenna, American Emmy-winning actor. Film: The Flamingo Kid (1984). TV: Our Miss Brooks (Walter Denton) and The Real McCoys (Luke).

1923
Efrem Zimbalist Jr., American actor. TV: 77 Sunset Strip (Stuart Bailey) and The F.B.I (Lewis Erskine).

1894     d. 1980
Donald Ogden Stewart, American Oscar-winning screenwriter. Film: Laughter (1930), The Prison of Zenda (1937), and The Philadelphia Story (1940, Oscar).

1889     d. 1977
Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron of Cambridge, English physiologist, shared the 1932 Nobel Prize in medicine with Sir Charles Sherrington for work in the field of nerve impulses.

1874     d. 1965
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, English statesman. He coined the expression "Iron Curtain" (1946).

1835     d. 1910
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), American author, creator of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

1819     d. 1892
Cyrus West Field, American financier, laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable (1858). It failed after only a month of operation. He failed again in a second attempt in 1865 before succeeding in 1866.

1810     d. 1880
Oliver Fisher Winchester, American gun maker, developed the Winchester rifle (1866).

1667     d. 1745
Jonathan Swift, English author. Writings: Gulliver's Travels (1726).

1994     b. 1908
Lionel Stander, American actor. TV: Hart to Hart (Max the Chauffeur).

1990     b. 1915
Norman Cousins, American publisher, political journalist, editor of Saturday Review (1942-71). Quote: Nixon's motto was, if two wrongs don't make a right, try three. (source: Fifth 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said)

1979     b. 1901
Zeppo Marx (Herbert Marx), American comedian, one of the Marx Brothers.

1944     b. 1861
Albert Bacon Fall, American senator, first member of a president's cabinet convicted of a crime (1929). While Pres. Harding's Secretary of the Interior, he was convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe. He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $100,000.

1930     b. 1830
Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones), Irish-born American labor leader, agitator, and advocate for striking workers.

1922     b. 1856
James Robert Mann, American politician. He authored the Mann Act (1910), also known as the White Slave Act. It prohibited the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes.

1901     b. 1815
Edward John Eyre, British colonial governor, explorer, governor of St. Vincent (1854-60), Antigua (1860-62), and Jamaica (1864-66), and for whom Lake Eyre in South Australia is named.

1900     b. 1854
Oscar Wilde, Irish-born British author. He was imprisoned (1895-97) for his homosexuality. Writings: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898, which described his prison experience).

1896     b. 1797
Henry Engelhard Steinway, German piano maker, founder of Steinway and Sons (1853).

1830     b. 1761
Pius VIII, Italian religious leader, 253rd Pope (1829-30).

1694     b. 1628
Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician, founder of microscopic anatomy, and the first to view (1661) capillary circulation.

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