It was on this date, November 18, 1978, that over 900 members of the People’s Temple religious cult, along with their leader Jim Jones, committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, South America. To read more, go to THIS LINK. Originally published October 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.

It was on this date, November 18, 1647, that French writer and philosopher Pierre Bayle was born in Carla-le-Comte in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the son of a Protestant minister. In his youth he weighed the merits of Catholicism and Protestantism and apparently chose the wrong team. When the king expelled the Huguenots from […]

It was on this date, November 17, 2001, that the directorial debut of film actor Bill Paxton, entitled Frailty, was first viewed at the Deep Ellum Film Festival, Texas. Paxton, who played “Dad,” was born in Texas, as were his co-stars, Matthew McConaughey, playing the character introduced as Fenton Meiks, and Powers Boothe, playing FBI […]

It was on this date, November 16, 1933, that the United States recognized the Soviet Union when President Roosevelt established diplomatic relations with the USSR — sixteen years after the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Union, so the popular story goes, was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. This […]

It was on this date, November 12, 1815, that feminist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York, the daughter of a lawyer. To read more, go to THIS LINK. Originally published October 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.

It was on this date, November 7, 1879, that Russian revolutionist Leon Trotsky (Лев Троцкий) was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн) in Yanovka, Ukraine, the son of an illiterate but prosperous Jewish farmer. To read more, go to THIS LINK. Originally published November 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.

It was on this date, November 6, 1835, that Italian-Jewish anthropologist and criminologist Cesare Lombroso was born Ezechia Marco Lombroso in Verona, Italy. To read more, go to THIS LINK. Originally published November 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.

It was on this date, November 6, 1931, that American film director and screen writer Mike Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky, into a Russian-Jewish family, in Berlin, Germany. To read more, go to THIS LINK. Originally published November 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.

It was on this date, November 5, 1885, that the chief author of The Story of Civilization (11 vols., 1954-1975), William James Durant, was born in North Adams, Massachusetts. To read more, go to THIS LINK. Originally published November 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.

It was on this date, November 5, 1892, that British biochemist and geneticist John Burdon Sanderson Haldane was born in Scotland. To read more, go to THIS LINK. Originally published November 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.