This Week in History: November 29th – December 5th

Welcome to this week’s edition of the staff blog’s ‘This Week in History!’ You will find historical facts, happenings, and associated books; #1 box office movies; and #1 NY Times best sellers from years gone by. This will be a weekly feature, so make sure to check out each week’s posting! NOTE: Click on any of the below book/movie titles to be taken to them in our online Café catalog!
NY Times Fiction Bestsellers
- 1945 (75 years ago): The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain
- 1970 (50 years ago): Love Story by Erich Segal
- 1995 (25 years ago): Five Days in Paris by Danielle Steel
- 2010 (10 years ago): Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci
- 2015 (5 years ago): Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
#1 Box Office Movies
- 1970 (50 years ago): Scrooge
- 1985 (35 years ago): Rocky IV
- 1995 (25 years ago): Toy Story
- 2000 (20 years ago): How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- 2010 (10 years ago): Tangled
- 2015 (5 years ago): The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2
This Week in History
- November 29th
- 1947- The United Nations passes a resolution for the partition of Palestine that would divide Palestine into two separate Arab and Jewish states. The resolution, however, is not implemented. (World)
- 1967- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation. (United States)
- 2001- George Harrison, the lead guitarist for the Beatles, dies at the age of 58 from cancer. (World)
- November 30th
- 1874- Winston Churchill is born. (World)
- 1982- Michael Jackson’s seminal album Thriller is released. (United States)
- 2004- Ken Jennings, after 74 consecutive victories, loses for the first time on Jeopardy! (United States)
- December 1st
- 1824- With no presidential candidate receiving a majority of the electoral votes needed for victory, Congress decides to turn over the presidential election to the House of Representatives, as dictated by the 12th Amendment. They end up selecting John Quincy Adams as the next president two months later, despite his main opponent, Andrew Jackson, receiving 15 more electoral votes and 44,804 more popular votes than Adams. (United States)
- 1955- Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger. (United States)
- 1959- Antarctica is declared to be a military-free continent by all major world powers, including the U.S. and the USSR. (World)
- December 2nd
- 1804- Napoleon is crowned emperor in France. (World)
- 1954- Joseph McCarthy is censured by the U.S. Senate. (Wisconsin/United States)
- 2001- Enron files for bankruptcy. (United States)
- December 3rd
- 1818- Illinois is admitted into the Union as the 21st state. (United States)
- 1947- The first television station in Wisconsin, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, is established. WTMJ was also the seventeenth overall TV station established in the US at the time and the first in the entire Midwest. (Wisconsin)
- 1967- The first human heart transplant occurs in South Africa. (World)
- December 4th
- 1783- General George Washington bids farewell to his officers as he resigns his commission and heads to Mount Vernon for a comfortable retirement as a private citizen (we all know how that turned out). (United States)
- 1947- Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Name Desire premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. (United States)
- 1992- U.S. President George H.W. Bush orders 28,000 troops to Somalia during the Somali Civil War. (United States/World)
- December 5th
- 1879- The Humane Society of Wisconsin is organized for the first time. (Wisconsin)
- 1933- The 21st Amendment is ratified and Prohibition ends. (United States)
- 2013- Nelson Mandela dies at the age of 95. (World)
Recommended Reading Related to Movies/Historical Happenings:
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
- Memoirs and Misinformation by Jim Carrey
- Holy Land, Whose Land?: Modern Dilemma, Ancient Roots by Dorothy Weitz Drummond
- Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam by H.R. McMaster
- George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door by Graeme Thomson
- The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill
- Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis
- Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker
- Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts
- Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy by Larry Tye
- Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron by Robert Bryce
- General Washington’s Christmas Farewell: A Mount Vernon Homecoming, 1783 by Stanley Weintraub
- A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
- Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham
- Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America by Edward Behr
- Nelson Mandela: A Life in Photographs by David Cohen