Calendar for November 18th, 2009

1307: William Tell shot an apple off of his son's head

Born 1786: Carl Maria von Weber (composer)

Born 1810: Asa Gray (botanist)

1820: Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered Antarctica

1865: Mark Twain's, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, was published

Born 1870: Elizabeth Gilmer (journalist)

Born 1874: Clarence Day (author)

1883: U.S. railroads adopted four standard time zones

Died 1886: Chester Arthur (21st U.S. president)

Born 1906: George Wald (chemist)

Born 1908: Imogene Coca (actress)

Died 1922: Marcel Proust (novelist)

Born 1923: Alan Shepard, Jr. (astronaut)

Born 1928: Mickey Mouse (cartoon character)

1928: The animated short, Steamboat Willie, was released featuring Mickey Mouse

Born 1939: Margaret Atwood (author)

Born 1942: Linda Evans (actress)

1959: Ben-Hur, the film epic starring Charlton Heston, premiered in N.Y.C.

Born 1960: Elizabeth Perkins (actress)

Died 1962: Niels Bohr (physicist)

Born 1968: Owen Wilson (actor)

Died 1969: Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (patriarch of the Kennedy family)

Born 1975: David Ortiz (baseball player)

1985: Bill Watterson's comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, made its debut

Died 1994: Cab Calloway (bandleader)

Died 1998: Norma Connolly (actress)

Died 2002: James Coburn (actor)