Jonestown, the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, was the home of an American religious organization lead by Jim Jones. On November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement, at the nearby airstrip, and in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. Of the 909 who died in the … Continue reading
On November 21, 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement was initialed, bringing to an end three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Richard Holbrooke, then the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, helped to broker the agreement. In this video from the day the … Continue reading
On November 24, 2012 a fire erupted in the Tazreen Fashion factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At least 120 people, mostly factory workers, lost their lives. Mukta Begum survived the blaze, though she was taken to the hospital with injuries.
The 14th Dalai Lama officially took his title on November 17, 1950. In this video, the Dalai Lama describes happiness by saying: “I usually describe happiness in the sense of more satisfaction, happiness is not necessarily some pleasure experience, but neutral sort of experience that can bring deep satisfaction.” When … Continue reading
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist and professor, and is best known for his first novel Things Fall Apart. In this video, Achebe discusses what led him to write Things Fall Apart, saying: “I knew that something needed to be done. That was, my place in the world. My story. … Continue reading
On November 23, 2005, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President of Liberia and became the first woman to lead an African country. In this video, Johnson Sirleaf discusses the position of women in Liberia, saying: “Traditionally, Liberian women have been strong. In our whole history we have had that, but … Continue reading
In July of 1974, the White House released subpoenaed tapes of White House conversations. One of these tapes became known as the “smoking gun”, a tape recorded on June 23, 1972, just six days after the Watergate break-in. On the tape, Nixon can be heard agreeing that the Director and … Continue reading
On November 12, 1969, Seymour Hersh, an independent investigative journalist, broke the story of the My Lai Massacre. On March 16, 1968, U.S. Army soldiers had participated in the mass killing of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in the South Vietnam hamlets of My Lai and My Khe. Hersh’s … Continue reading
Hear the final radio transmissions from the SS Edmund Fitzgerald which sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975. The ship sank along with its entire crew of 29. The wreck was immortalized in the Gordon Lightfoot song–”The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” When the ship launched on … Continue reading
Hear the final radio transmissions from the SS Edmund Fitzgerald which sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975. The ship sank along with its entire crew of 29. The wreck was immortalized in the Gordon Lightfoot song–”The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” When the ship launched … Continue reading
