1491 – The siege of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain, begins. They’re back now!

1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reaches its peak intensity which it maintains through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die. FEMA slow to respond. Bush widely blamed.

1867 – Alfred Nobel patents dynamite, taming the power of nitroglycerine.

1950 – The “Storm of the Century”, a violent snowstorm, paralyzes the northeastern United States and the Appalachians, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia, records 57 inches of snow. 323 people die due to the storm. Da*n that global warming!

1950 – The People’s Republic of China joins the Korean War, sending thousands of troops across the Yalu river border to fight United Nations forces. Otherwise, the war was over. Now it will drag on, fighting in earnest for three years, and then border incursions by North Korea for the next few decades.

1973 – Maximum speed limit cut to 55 MPH as an energy conservation measure. Communities get used to money from speeding tickets as a revenue stream. Federal fiat produces a nation of scofflaws and hundreds of local governments who cash in on traffic fines.

1984 – 36 top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. A fine example of self-important, deluded pricks using sympathy to peddle their wares to their ignorant fandom. Slacktivism at work.

1999 – The United Nations establishes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to commemorate the murder of three Mirabal Sisters for resistance against the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in Dominican Republic. Of course, violence against women in Muslim countries is roundly ignored, because it’s, like, their CULTURE, you know…