On This Day, November 10th

1. 1775: The Marine Corp founded

Photo: wiki

Photo: wiki

Photo: wiki

Photo: wiki

It was on this date in 1775 that possibly the most hardcore division of the United States military was founded in order to serve as a landing force for the Continental Navy. Future President, John Adams, drafted a resolution that stated “two Battalions of Marines be raised” which was passed by the Second Continental Congress. The new division of Continental Marines played a major part in the Revolutionary War, but as soon as it ended both the Continental Navy and Marines were disbanded. Although it was resurrected later in 1798 in the preparation of the Quasi-War with France. At that time is when they officially received the name United States Marine Corp or U.S.M.C. One of the Marines most famous events of that time period was the battle against the Barbary Pirates during the Barbary War 108-1805.

2. 1969: Sesame Street makes its debut

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Photo: tumblr

Photo: wiki

Photo: wiki


One of the most viewed children’s programs in the entire world made its debut on this date in 1969. Created by Joan Ganz Cooney who had worked as a producer for documentaries on public television, Sesame Street was a show that would help teach kids how to count, do their alphabet, as well as manners and many other skills. Cooney wanted to create a program that would help prepare children ages 3-5 for when they started attending kindergarten. Sesame Street was a combination of actors, puppets, and the occasional animation. Considering that children are known for having short attention spans, the show was broken down into short segments and almost always featured a puppet to lighten the mood and make it seem fun while also trying to teach them something. Cooney hired famous puppeteer Jim Henson who created some of the most iconic puppet characters known to the world today such as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and of course Bert and Ernie.

3. 1975: SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior

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Photo: pinterest


It was on this date in 1975 what was considered to be largest and fastest ship running on the Great Lakes sank. It was called the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and she was over 729 feet long and at the time was carrying 26,116 tons of iron-ore pellets. They day before, the mighty ship had departed from Superior, Wisconsin loaded to the brim with iron ore headed for Detroit, Michigan just like it had done so many times before. However, on this particular day, the ship ran into a severe storm that caused massive waves with wind speeds well over 60 mph. Apparently, the ships captain, Ernest McSorely who was a seasoned veteran with over 44 years experience, contacted another ship traveling in the area to let them know about the “worst seas he had ever been in”. Captain McSorely also reported that the ships radar equipment was taken out in the storm and the Fitzgerald was badly leaning to one side. Another ship reported they had made contact a few hours later and the Fitzgerald was still holding its own. However, what seemed like minutes later the massive cargo ship just disappeared from radars. It had sunk just 17 miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay. Unfortunately, none of the 29 crewmembers onboard survived. There were many different speculations as to what caused the massive ship to sink, but most feel it was either due to overloading, the load itself shifting, or even rogue waves. This would go down as one of the worst single accidents in the history of Lake Superior and since then many shipping practices have been changed in an attempt to prevent something like this from happening again.