On this date in History (Nov. 12, 1815) - Birthday of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

from Library of Congress website article for November 12 --

On November 12, 1815, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, spokesperson for the rights of women, was born in Johnstown, New York. Stanton formulated the philosophical basis of the woman suffrage movement, blazing a trail many feared to follow.
In advocating suffrage for women as a central point in her manifesto of woman's rights, the "Declaration of Sentiments," Stanton forged ahead of Quaker minister, Lucretia Mott and other organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention of July 19 and July 20, 1848. As the suffragists gathered adherents to the cause, however, Stanton refused to limit her demands solely to the vote. She remained in the movement's vanguard, arguing vigorously for a woman's right to higher education, to a professional life, and to a legal identity that included the right to own property and to obtain a divorce.
Stanton's verbal brilliance combined with the organizational ability and mental focus of her lifelong collaborator Susan B. Anthony made the two women a formidable resource to the early cause.

Miss Anthony…invariably gave Mrs. Stanton credit for all that was accomplished. She often said that Mrs. Stanton was the brains of the new association, while she herself was merely its hands and feet; but in truth the two women worked marvelously together, for Mrs. Stanton was a master of words and could write and speak to perfection of the things Susan B. Anthony saw and felt but could not herself express. Anna Howard Shaw, The Story of a Pioneer, page 240.
Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910

Although Stanton served as president of the "radical" National Woman Suffrage Association and its successor the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), she found it increasingly difficult to maintain her leadership role. Interestingly, her agenda was far more radical than that of many younger, more conservative feminists.
Stanton's belief that organized religion subjugated women alienated some supporters. In The Woman's Bible, she brought considerable notoriety upon herself by criticizing the treatment of women in the Old Testament.
Elizabeth Cady was educated at Johnstown Academy, where she was the only girl in the higher classes studying Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Barred from obtaining a college degree because of her gender, she continued her studies at Emma Willard's academy, where she discovered natural rights philosophy. She read law with her father, Judge Daniel Cady, but was not admitted to the New York Bar because women were excluded. Her legal and philosophical studies and her own experiences convinced her of the discriminatory nature of the laws regarding women, and she resolved to work for the reform of those laws.
In 1840, Cady married anti-slavery activist Henry Stanton, refusing to use the word "obey" in the ceremony. The mother of seven children, she lectured on the subjects of family life and child rearing, abolition, temperance, and women's rights until her death at the age of eighty-seven. Her daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch followed in her footsteps to continue the fight for women's rights.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton died October 26, 1902, before the Woman's Suffrage Amendment was passed by Congress in 1919 . Her papers were donated to the Library of Congress' Manuscript Division.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/

American Airlines Flight 587 (crashed 11/12/01) -- Lessons learned (CBS News discussion)

from CBS NEWS dot-com posted article on Aeronautics lessons and observations --

For a few anguished hours on Nov. 12, 2001, Americans still in shock over the Sept. 11 attacks watched television footage of the blazing wreckage of a jetliner bound for the Dominican Republic that had just crashed in a Queens neighborhood, and wondered: Is it happening again?

It wasn't. By late afternoon, authorities were saying the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 looked like an accident, not terrorism. The country breathed a sigh of relief. The horror and grief lingered longer for the loved ones of the 265 dead, most of them Dominican.

Even after a decade, sadness lives on for people like William Valentine, whose partner and lover of 20 years, Joe Lopes, a flight attendant who died in the crash.

"I don't think an hour goes by," he said, suppressing a sob, "when I'm not thinking of Joe in some way."

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday morning at a seaside memorial on New York's Rockaway peninsula to mark the 10th anniversary of the crash, which killed everyone aboard the aircraft and five people on the ground. The wreck remains the second deadliest aviation accident on U.S. soil.

The ceremony, held on a cool but beautiful fall day, echoed the ones that have been held annually at ground zero where the World Trade Center once stood. At 9:15 a.m., a bell tolled and there was a moment of silence to mark the time the plane went down. The name of each victim was read, often tearfully, by relatives. Some lost several members of their family on the flight, from toddlers to aging patriarchs.

"Ten years have gone by, but as you know all too well, every day in the wake of tragedy is a day of remembrance," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The accident will remain forever linked to Sept. 11 because of its proximity in both time and distance to the disaster at the World Trade Center. Belle Harbor, the suburban beach neighborhood where the plane went down, has been a longtime enclave of police officers, firefighters and financial district workers, and was still holding funerals for its Sept. 11 dead when the accident happened.

The hardest blow, though, came for New York City's large community of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Flight 587 was bound for Santo Domingo when it went down. In some city neighborhoods, like Manhattan's Washington Heights, it seemed like everyone knew someone aboard the flight.

Parts of Saturday's ceremony were conducted in Spanish, including a reading of verses by the Dominican poet Pedro Mir. A line from his poetry also graces the Flight 587 memorial: "Despues no quiero mas que paz," translated as "Afterward I want only peace."

Investigators ultimately determined that the plane's tail had detached in midair because of stress put on the plane's rudder as the co-pilot tried to steady the aircraft in another jet's turbulent wake. Since then, steering systems for some airliners have been redesigned so pilots can have greater awareness of movements in the tail rudder.

"Before this crash, pilots probably didn't have an understanding that this kind of accident could occur," said Steve Pounian, a lawyer at the law firm Kreindler & Kreindler, which represented the families of 90 crash victims. Well over 250 lawsuits were brought because of the accident. All have since been settled, for undisclosed amounts that Pounian said totaled more than $500 million.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57323672/nyc-marks-10th-anniversary-of-flight-587-crash/?tag=stack

Keep the lights burning (Niles, MI AMTRAK depot) - Dec. 3 plans announced - Christmas Open House 2011

As publicized in Niles Daily Star (11/11/11) - nilesstar.com/

From 4:30 to 6 p.m.  Dec. 3, the Four Flags Garden Club will host its 20th annual Hometown Christmas Celebration at the Historic Amtrak Depot, 600 Dey St., Niles.
The impetus for this free, annual event is the last scene of the 1991 John Candy movie Only the Lonely, which was filmed at the depot on a warm summer night. To create a Christmas scene, the studio placed lights on the roofline and fake snow on the ground.  Many Niles locals served as  stand-ins.
After the filming, the studio left the lights behind and the garden club, along with community members campaigned to “Keep the Lights Burning.”
This was a fundraising endeavor to rewire the depot in order to use the lights, as the movie company had used portable generators.
Now, two sets of lights later — the most recent being energy-efficient LEDs — the event marks its 20th anniversary.
Everyone is invited to visit the depot to enjoy the holiday decorations, visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus and enjoy homemade cookies, cider and candy.
The depot interior and exterior will be decorated with fresh greens, window topiaries, wreaths and handmade ornaments on the Fraser fir tree donated by Pinecrest Christmas Tree Farm of Galien.
Entertainment will be provided by Lake Effect Winds, a woodwind quartet from St. Joseph, performing music ranging from classical to 20th century.
Niles Mayor Mike McCauslin will address the group, and community royalty will stop by.
A drawing will be held at 5:45 p.m. for two round- trip tickets, compliments of Amtrak, from Niles to Chicago for two lucky people.  The tickets are free, and you must be present to win.
The official lighting of the Depot outside lights will be at 6 p.m.

Feast day of St. Martin of Tours -- Nov. 11 -- A day of feasting -- A time of harvest

from WIKI article on "St. Martin's Day"

From the late 4th century to the late Middle Ages, much of Western Europe, including Great Britain, engaged in a period of fasting beginning on the day after St. Martin's Day, November 11. This fast period lasted 40 days, and was, therefore, called "Quadragesima Sancti Martini", which means in Latin "the forty days of St. Martin." At St. Martin's eve, people ate and drank very heartily for a last time before they started to fast. This period of fasting was later shortened and called "Advent" by the Church.
In Ireland, on the eve of St. Martin's Day, it is tradition to sacrifice a cockerel by bleeding it. When the blood was collected, it was sprinkled on four corners of the house. Also in Ireland, no wheel of any kind was to turn on St. Martin's Day because Martin was thrown into a mill stream and killed by the wheel and because of that, it was not right to turn any kind of wheel on that day.
In some parts of the Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, children make their own lantern and go door to door with the lantern, and sing St. Martin songs, in exchange for sweets.
Many churches in Europe are named after Saint Martinus. St. Martin is the patron saint of Szombathely in Hungary, with a church dedicated to him, and also the patron saint of Quillota in Chile and Buenos Aires.
In Latin America, Martin has a strong popular following and is frequently referred to as San Martín Caballero, in reference to his common depiction on horseback.
Though no mention of Saint Martin's connection with viticulture is made by Gregory of Tours or other early hagiographers, he is nonetheless credited with a prominent role in spreading wine-making throughout the Touraine region and facilitating the planting of many vines. The Greek myth that Aristaeus first discovered the concept of pruning the vines after watching a goat eat some of the foliage has been appropriated to Martin.^[2] Martin is also credited with introducing the Chenin Blanc grape varietal, from which most of the white wine of western Touraine and Anjou is made.
Martin Luther was named after Saint Martin, as he was baptized on November 11 (St. Martin's Day), 1483.
SECTION on "Customs" -- Wiki article

Nov. 11 (8:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.) Reading of the names of the fallen (Indiana Univ., South Bend, IN)

from WSBT (CBS affliate)  dot-com

Students from IUSB have joined a nationwide grass-roots effort to honor American service men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and aAfghanistan during the past decade. On Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, campus and community volunteers at more than 100 college and universities across the nation will read the names of the 6,300-plus casualties of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF), now called Operation New Dawn. At IUSB, members of the Student Veterans Organization will begin reading at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 11, in the Student Activities Center foyer. They will be reading names for the next seven hours. At 2 p.m. there will be a moment of silence for the fallen.

Veterans Day 2011 observances (POTUS): News of diverse activities

AP story details :

President Barack Obama is taking part in Veterans Day observances in Washington and San Diego before heading to Hawaii for an Asia-Pacific summit.
The president is hosting a veterans breakfast Friday at the White House, then laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns before speaking at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Soon after, Obama flies to California to take part in the first-ever Carrier Classic, basketball game between Michigan State and No. 1 North Carolina aboard the USS Carl Vinson.
The Veterans Day observances come a day after the Senate approved Obama's call for a tax credit for those who hire jobless veterans. In a written statement, he said the vote is a fitting way to help honor those who've served their country.

On this date in 1821 -- Happy 190th Birthday to Russian novelist Dostoevsky

from Writer's ALMANAC - (Garrison Keillor, American Public Radio):

Today (Nov. 11) is the birthday of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky (books by this author), born in Moscow (1821). He published his first novel -- a short novel in letters called Poor Folk -- in 1846, and was hailed as a great new voice of Russian literature. The most important Russian literary critic, Vissarion Belinsky, proclaimed that Dostoyevsky was the new Gogol. But Dostoyevsky's arrogance got the better of him -- he wrote to his brother, "Everywhere I am the object of an unbelievable esteem, the interest in me is, quite simply, tremendous." Ivan Turgenev responded by publishing a satirical poem about Dostoyevsky, mocking him for being so arrogant that he wanted a special border printed around his work. His next novels got terrible reviews, and he fell out of the good graces of Belinsky and his circle. It was generally assumed that Dostoyevsky wouldn't live up to his promise.
In 1849, Dostoyevsky was arrested for his affiliation with a group of radical thinkers called the Petrashevsky Circle. He was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to four years of hard labor in a maximum-security prison in Siberia. He wrote a letter describing his experience: "In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold. All the floors were rotten. Filth on the floors an inch thick; one could slip and fall. The little windows were so covered with frost that it was almost impossible to read at any time of the day. An inch of ice on the panes. Drips from the ceiling, draughts everywhere. We were packed like herrings in a barrel. [...] There was no room to turn around. From dusk to dawn it was impossible not to behave like pigs." He wrote in another letter: "There were moments when I hated everybody I came across, innocent or guilty, and looked at them as thieves who were robbing me of my life with impunity. The most unbearable misfortune is when you yourself become unjust, malignant, vile; you realize it, you even reproach yourself -- but you just can't help it."
After he was released from the prison camp, things were looking brighter for a while. Dostoyevsky married, served his time in the army, and was allowed to return to St. Petersburg. He joined his brother Mikhail in editing two literary journals. But in the year 1864, both his wife and his brother died. Already in debt, Dostoyevsky took on his brother's publishing debts and the financial burden of his brother's family. He thought gambling would help him manage his debt, but instead he became addicted to gambling and ended up losing more and more money. In July of 1865, he went abroad with the hopes of getting some writing done and making back his money by gambling; it only took him five days to lose everything. He had to ask for a loan from Turgenev -- he promised to repay it in a month, which of course he was unable to do. The future looked bleak.
Then, less than two months later, he wrote a letter to a publisher outlining his idea for a new story, or maybe novella -- at this point he had no idea it would turn into a novel. He wrote: "It is the psychological report of a crime. The action is contemporary, set in the present year. A young man, expelled from the university, a petit-bourgeois in origin and living in the direst poverty, through light-mindedness and lack of steadiness in his convictions, falling under the influence of the strange, 'unfinished' ideas afloat in the atmosphere, decided to break out of his disgusting position at one stroke. He has made up his mind to kill an old woman, the wife of a titular counselor who lends money at interest. The old woman is stupid, stupid and ailing, greedy [...] Almost a month passes after this until the final catastrophe. No one suspects or can suspect him. Here is where the entire psychological process of the crime is unfolded. Insoluble problems confront the murderer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart. Heavenly truth, earthly law take their toll and he finishes by being forced to denounce himself."
That book would become Crime and Punishment (1866).