NOVEMBER 9 — 191 Teddy Roosevilt sets up Navy Yard in Philippines; INVENT/PATENT: 1903 Pincus (The Pill), 1801 Happy Birthday Gail Bordon (condensed milk); 2013 Sophie Smith wins record for longest cat fur
NOVEMBER 9
1901 – Teddy Roosevelt establishes a naval base in the Philippines. In one of America’s more embarrassing eras, Subic Bay was taken by the US as territory won from the Spanish American war. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, President McKinley waged a brutal war on the Philippine insurgents who wanted independence.
Now that the Filipinos had freedom from the Spanish, they wanted freedom from their liberators, the Americans. McKinley wouldn’t give it to them, instead engaging in the Philippine-American war in which up to over 200,000 Filipinos, mostly civilians, perished. When President McKinley, aka the Ohio Napoleon, was assassinated in March 901, Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt took over as president. He was determined to expand America’s influence into the Pacific and then Latin America.
On November 9, 1901, he issued the executive order to establish a naval base at Subic Bay. Teddy Roosevelt realized that other nations had their eye on taking over the Philippines, namely Germany and Japan, and understood the strategic necessity of controlling the land. Your college professor will no doubt go into graphic detail of how the Americans were brutal towards the Filipinos, and he’d be correct. It was ugly and, notwithstanding the realities of the Germans and Japanese, let alone the Spanish, taking control of the area, it could have and should have been handled by the Americans in a much more civil manner. But.
The Americans did grant autonomy to the Philippines, although it wouldn’t come until much later. Just remind your professor of one thing: how badly the Filipinos missed General Douglas MacArthur and the Americans during WWII and couldn’t wait for Americans to return their independence from the Japanese. If your professor is still trying to tell you how bad America is for the world, tell him that on this day in 1944 and 1945 the American Red Cross won Nobel prizes for its positive contributions to the world. Yea, you’re welcome. Also in 1961 the Caucasian only rule was abolished in the PGA.
1903 – Gregory Pincus invents The Pill. Because as the saying goes, kids in back seats of cars may cause accidents, but accidents in back seats of cars cause kids. So don’t forget to take that.
1801 – Happy birthday Gail Borden from New York. He invented condensed milk in Texas. He was actually working on a dehydrated meat biscuit, but abandoned that because, first off it was a failure, and second, he was coming back from England on a ship with unknowingly diseased cows. The cows died, and so did the children who drank their toxic milk.
1961 – The X-15 rocket plane achieved a world record speed of 4,093mph, or Mach 6.04, and reached 101,600 fee, which is over 19 miles, altitude. According to Wikipedia, As of 2015, the X-15 holds the official world record for the highest speed ever reached by a manned, powered aircraft. Its maximum speed was 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h), or Mach 6.72.
2013 — Sophie Smith wins record for having the longest cat fur.
Guess how long it was. Over 10”. It’s catastrophic. Or something. Her owner, Jami Smith, in Oceanside California, about 45 minutes north of San Diego, says she came across Sophie one day while going for a walk. She said a truck pulled over, a man stuck a paper bag out the window to hand to her and asked her if she wanted a kitten. Sure enough, she walked up to the truck, took the bag, and there was a meaowing little kitten in there. Sophie’s fur actually beat the old record held by Colonel Meow by over an inch. Congratulations Sophie, you fine feline you!
1991 – Ropin the Wind by Garth Brooks beat out Guns N Roses, Prince, and Metallica. Quite epic, especially considering Prince also had the number one pop hit with Cream at the time.