It was in 1974 on November 18th that Genesis released The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The album was their sixth studio album and the last album with involvement of singer Peter Gabriel.
The concept album centres around a journey of self-discovery of Rael, a Puerto Rican youth living in New York City and the bizarre incidents and characters he meets along the way.
After the release of the album the group went on tour begins on November 20th in Chicago, and ended on May 22, 1975 in Besançon, France. The band knew that Peter Gabriel was planning on leaving the group at the end of the tour.
Even though it wasn’t a big hit for Genesis when it was first released it peaked at No. 10 on the UK Album Chart and No. 41 on the US Billboard 200, it is now considered one of their best albums.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I ended with the signing of the Armistice. November 11th since that day has been referred to as Armistice Day.
President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 was the first President to proclaim this day.
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”
The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:
Whereasthe 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and Whereasit is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and
Whereasthe legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.
In 1954 Congress declared that November 11 would be a day to honor Veterans of all wars and not just WWI. They did this by using the official designation of Veterans Day and not Armistice Day.
In 1968 as part of the Uniforms Holiday Bill, Veteran Day was made one of the holidays that was moved to a Monday, for people to have a 3 day weekend. However after protests by veterans groups the holiday in 1978 reverted back to November 11th.
Veterans Day is largely intended to thank veterans for their service, to acknowledge that their contributions to United States national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served – not only those who died – have sacrificed and done their duty.
For those who don’t know the rhyme we spring ahead an hour in the spring and fall backward one hour, in the fall. Some people mistakenly call it Daylight Savings Time, but it is Daylight Saving Time. In 2007 with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that President George Bush signed into law in 2005, the new dates for Daylight Saving Time will begin on the second Sunday of March and end the first Sunday of November.
Daylight Saving Time is not a modern idea. Benjamin Franklin first mentioned it in a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784. He didn’t really say that the clocks should be changed, but that to take advantage of the extra daylight, one should arise from bed earlier.
It wasn’t put into practice until the German government put it in place in 1916 between April 30 and October 1. In the same year the United Kingdom adopted it from May 21 to October 1.
The U.S. Congress established it at the same time they formally adopted the Rail Road Time Zones in 1918, observing it for seven months in 1918 & 1919 It became so unpopular that the law for DST was repealed in 1919.
In 1942, during World War II, DST was reinstated in the U.S. although from the end of the war in 1945 until 1966, there wasn’t a Federal Law that addressed DST.
In 1966 DST was established and has been in place since, although the law gave states the capability to exempt themselves and a few, such as Arizona and Hawaii have. Many countries follow some sort of DST plan.
Halloween has many different names such as: All Hallows Eve, Samhain, All Hallowtide, The Feast of the Dead, Haloween and All Saints Eve.
All Hallows Eve has its origins as a pagan celebration that dates back over 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and on the night of October 31 the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. The tradition of wearing masks deals with hiding from the dead.
Orange and Black are used as Halloween colors. Orange represents the fall harvest while black is for the coming dark winter.
When the Irish immigrants came to America in the 1800s They brought with them the traditions of Halloween and the use of Jack-O-Lanterns. The lantern, carved from a turnip, potato, or beet and lit with a burning lump of coal or a candle, represented the souls of the departed loved ones and were placed in windows or set on porches to welcome the deceased. They also served as protection against malevolent spirits or goblins freed from the dead. Since turnips and gourds were not as readily available in the Americas the pumpkin was used as a replacement.
One possible origin of Trick-or-Treat may come from the Druids who believed that the dead would play tricks on mankind and cause panic and destruction. They had to be appeased, so country folk would give the Druids food as they visited their homes. Another is an old Irish practice of going door to door to items in preparation for the festival of St. Columb Kill.
Candy doesn’t have to be the only treats given out to those young ghouls and goblins that come knocking on the door. A couple of welcomed but not ordinary treats are packages of Hot Chocolate (great for those cool night) and small bags of microwave popcorn.
On October 29, 1971, the world lost one of the great Rock guitarist, Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band. In Macon, Georgia he was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle while trying to swerve to avoid a tractor-trailer. The motorcycle bounced into the air, landed on Allman and skidded another 90 feet with Allman pinned underneath. He was three weeks shy of his 25th birthday.
Allman began his career as a session guitarist and worked with many artists, including Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Laura Nyro, Wilson Pickett, Otis Rush, Percy Sledge, Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie, Doris Duke and jazz flautist Herbie Mann.
Slowly during 1969 he joined his brother, Gregg, to create the Allman Brothers Band. The brothers were joined by Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson (drums
The video is of the Allman Brothers Band preforming Whipping Post on 9/23/1970 at Fillmore East.
1806 John Cary map shows West Florida (including Pensacola, which was not part of the U.S. claim) in the hands of Spain, separate from the U.S.-held Louisiana Purchase.On October 27, 1810 President James Madison declared parts of the region known as West Florida as part of the United States. His reason for the annexation was he claimed it was part of the Louisiana Purchase. This ended the 90-day existence of the Republic of West Florida.
Beginning in the 17th century through 1763 the French, the Spanish and the English each laid claim, at different times, to the region that now includes parts of the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
At the conclusion of the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Year War) Great Britain received from the French portions of Louisiana between the Mississippi and Perdidio Rivers and the Spanish Colony of Florida. The British divided the region into East and West Florida. Boundaries of West Florida were the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee Rivers and North at the 31st parallel. The Gulf of Mexico was the Southern Boundary.
The colony had been invited to the 1st Continental Congress, but did not send representatives. They were one of 5 continental colonies that did not send representatives, the others being East Florida, Quebec, St. John’s Isle, and Nova Scotia.
The Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, the British set the American Boundary at the 31st Parallel and ceded the both Florida Colonies to the Spanish. This was just the beginning of a number of border disagreements between the United States, Spain and France.
In 1810, Americans who had settled in the region resented the Spanish Rule. This lead to a rebellion On September 23 the rebellion took the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge and the Republic of West Florida was born and lived for 90 days.
A promotional poster for the Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles (1894), showing dancers, clowns, trapeze artists, costumed dog, singers and costumed actors.Vaudeville was a style of entertainment, popular in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, that took the form of a series of separate, unrelated acts. The performance could include all or some of the following; musicians, dancers, comedians, animal acts, magicians, impersonators, acrobats, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, or later short films.
Prior to 1880 Vaudeville was thought to be vulgar. Tony Pastor cleaned it of its obscenity to make it more wholesome to the general public. On October 24, 1881 he staged the self-proclaimed “clean” vaudeville in New York City. It was an effort to lure more women into the male dominated saloon and variety halls.
Vaudeville’s popularity increased when B.F. Keith built a chain of Vaudeville stages in various east coast cities. This was the beginning of the Vaudeville Circuit, a single booking system contracting acts for regional and national engagement that could be from a few weeks to two years.
It was common for the performers to term a theatre by how much they were paid to perform at them. The three most common were the “small time”, the “medium time,” and the “Big Time”. When a performer reached the “Big Time” they were considered the best and most famous. The Big Time found its home in 1913 at New York City’s Palace. The Palace featured the best and brightest on its bill and many would consider playing there to be the apotheosis of their careers.
While Vaudeville never really died it just seemed to fade away as cinemas and radio gain popularity. Many of the early radio and cinemas stars, such as Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, Bob Hope, Edgar Bergen and Abbott and Costello began on the Vaudeville circuits
Even though vaudeville as entertainment is dead, it lives on in popular culture and entertainment. Many of the ‘entertainment slang’ came from vaudeville, such as “a flop” (an act that does badly) and “the limelight” (from the lime-green color of phosphorus lights). It’s not unusual to see common techniques and gags of vaudeville on television and in films today.
1972 saw a number of artists who began charting during the infancy of Rock and Roll in the 1950’s. Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson and Chuck Berry. Berry’s ‘My Ding-A-Ling’ was the only Number 1 by the 50’s rocker. It began a two week run at Number 1 on the US singles chart on October 21, 1972. It was his first and only US and UK No.1, 17 years after his first chart hit.
Also on October 21, 1972, Curtis Mayfield soundtrack to the movie “Superfly began a a four-week run at No.1 on the US album chart.
Department of the Interior. General Land Office. Surveying Division 1903 Map of the Louisiana Purchase. – National ArchivesPresident Thomas Jefferson was unsure whether the United States Constitution gave him the right to negotiate with a foreign government for the purchase of territorial rights in the area west of the 1803 United States. In fact he was under the impression that it didn’t, but he did understand the value of the Port of New Orleans and wish for it to be part of the United States.
The American negotiators, Robert Livingston and James Monroe were allowed to offer as much as $ 10 million dollars for New Orleans. France under the rule of Napoleon had at one time a plan to build a new French Empire in America, but with a defeat of his armies in present day Haiti and a possibility of war against Great Britain were in need for monetary resources. Livingston and Monroe were offered the entire region for $ 15 Million.
A treaty was signed on April 30, 1803 and the process began for what has become known as the Louisiana Purchase. The territory would double the size of the United States for a cost of less than 3 cents per acre. The total area was 529,911,680 acres with 523,446,400 acres of land and the rest water.
The ratification of the Louisiana Purchase treaty was by the Senate vote of 24 to 7 on October 20, 1803. On December 20, 1803 France formally turned New Orleans over to the United States at Cabildo, the seat of the colonial government in New Orleans. A ceremony at St Louis transferred the entire territory over to the United States.
Most of the territory was populated by Native Americans and in reality all that was accomplished with the treaty was the transfer of European territorial rights from France to the Unite States.
In the end the total paid to the French was $ 23,213,568. This figure included interest. The original cost was $ 11,2500,000 plus the cancellation of debts worth $ 3,750,000.
The Delmarva Peninsula has an agriculture heritage. But even with that heritage when traveling throughout the peninsula one will see many old barns that have been discarded, let to degrade and some even being fully coverage by foliage.
This old barn can be seen among the current construction in the middle of Middletown Delaware. One wonders how much longer it’ll be there.
