November 18
1820
Captain Nathaniel Palmer discovered Antarctica.
1883
Standard time began in the United States.
1886
Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States (1881–1885), died in New York at 56.
1928
Mickey Mouse made his debut in Steamboat Willie.
1976
Spain’s parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
1978
Jim Jones, a U.S. pastor, led 914 of his followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink. Cult members who refused to swallow the drink were shot.
2003
The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the right to same sex marriage was guaranteed by the state constitution.
2004
The UN Security Council held a two-day session in Nairobi. This was the first time it had convened outside of New York headquarters.
Birthdays
Sir William Gilbert
1836–1911, English Playwright and Poet.
Louis Daguerre
early pioneer of photography (1789)
Ignace Paderewski
pianist, composer (1860)
Clarence S. Day
essayist (1874)
Eugene Ormandy
conductor (1899)
George Horace Gallup
originator of the Gallup poll (1901)
Alan B. Shepard
astronaut (1923)
Margaret Atwood
novelist and poet (1939)
Wilma Mankiller
former chief of the Cherokee Nation (1945)
Alan Moore
writer (1953)
Owen Wilson
actor (1968)
Chloë Sevigny
actor (1974)