November

"How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.

At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow."
- Elsie N. Brady, Leaves

November

november

                                                      November means "ninth month" yet, it is the eleventh month in the
                                                     modern calendar. This anomaly has existed for over 2000 years. In the old
                                                     Roman calendar, (which was only ten months long) November was indeed
                                                     the ninth month. But this changed when two months were added on to the
                                                     year, and subsequently, in 153 B.C. the Roman Senate moved New Year's
                                                     Day to January 1st. Curiously, the names of the numbered months were
                                                     not changed to account for their new positions. November replaced
                                                     Blotmonað in the Old English Calendar. For them, this was the "blood
                                                     month" when animals were sacrificed and slaughtered for preservation
                                                     through the winter.
                                                     November began with 30 days, but Numa Pompilius, the second King of
                                                     Rome, took a day away in about 700 B.C. Julius Caesar added the day
                                                     back when he reformed the calendar in 46 B.C. July and August had been
                                                     named for the first two Roman Emperors, Julius and Augustus. The
                                                     Roman Senate offered to change the name of November to "Tiberius". He
                                                     wisely refused saying, "What will you do if you have thirteen emperors?"
                                                     November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar
                                                     and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days.
                                                     November retained its name (from the Latin novem meaning "nine") when
                                                     January and February were added to the Roman calendar.
                                                     November is a month of spring in the Southern Hemisphere and autumn in
                                                     the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, November in the Southern
                                                     Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of May in the Northern Hemisphere
                                                     and vice versa.
                                                     November starts on the same day of the week as February in common
                                                      years, and March every year.
                                                     November ends on the same day of the week as August every year.
                                                     In November in the Northern Hemisphere the cycle of the seasons
                                                     becomes most obvious as the harvest is complete and the plants are in
                                                     their winter mode. It is seen in literature either as a fun time of
                                                     approaching holidays or as a precursor to the final denouement of
                                                     December.

The premier holiday of November is Thanksgiving. It is held on the 4th Thursday in November. The first
Thanksgiving was given by the Indians, but it did not become an official holiday until President Lincoln
declared it in 1863. The holiday was created to give thanks for the plenty of the harvest.

Thanksgiving is the holiday on which we thank God for His bounty and blessings. Thanksgiving, with its
displays of pumpkins and pilgrims is one way Americans proclaim their love of Country. Yet, the true
origin of Thanksgiving and all its celebration reveal an unsettling combination of myths and facts. First,
pilgrims did not introduce the tradition; American Indians had observed autumn harvest celebrations for
centuries before the first Europeans arrived on the continent. Second, although George Washington set
aside days for national Thanksgivings, it was President Abraham Lincoln who proclaimed the day a
national holiday back ion 1863. Ironically, this was the same year he issued his historic "Emancipation
Proclamation" which symbolically at least, freed more than five million Black people from slavery.
Although the first "official" November Thanksgiving was the first holiday that all Black people in America
were able to give thanks for being free from the chains of servitude, no public connection was made
between the two events. Today it is celebrated by family gatherings. A traditional dish for the event is

roast turkey and dressing.

Veteran's Day is November 11. It was originally called Armistice Day and meant to commemorate the end

of the "war to end all wars" (World War I ended 11 November 1918). It was signed into law by Woodrow
Wilson in 1919. The remembrance was extended in 1954 to cover the veterans of all wars after

World War II and the Korean War.

Sadie Hawkins Day is the first Saturday in November. It was actually invented by a cartoonist, Al Capp,
who created the L'il Abner strip. It is a day when girls and women can ask their favorite boy or man to a
dance.
On the religious side, the 1st of November is All Saints day.

November's Birthstone is Topaz
                                                     Topaz is a common gemstone that has been used for centuries in jewelry. Its
                                                     golden brown to yellow color is classic but is confused with the less valuable citrine,
                                                     which is sold under the name topaz. The blue topaz that is often confused with
                                                     aquamarine is rarely natural and is produced by irradiating and then heating clear
                                                     crystals. The structure of Topaz is controlled by a chain like structure of connected
                                                     irregular octahedrons. These octahedrons have an aluminum in the middle
                                                     surrounded by four oxygens. Above and below the aluminum are the hydroxide or
                                                     fluoride ions. The chains of octahedrons are held together by individual silicate
                                                     tetrahedrons but it is the octahedron chains that give topaz its crystalline shape.
                                                     Topaz is the hardest silicate mineral and one of the hardest minerals in nature.
                                                     However, it has a perfect cleavage, which is perpendicular to the chains and is
                                                     caused by planes that break the weaker Al-O, Al-OH and Al-F bonds. None of the
                                                     stronger Si-O bonds cross these planes.    Topaz crystals can reach the incredible
                                                     size of several hundred pounds. Topaz can make very attractive mineral specimens
                                                     due to their high luster, nice colors and well formed and multifaceted crystals.
Physical Characteristics:
 Color is clear, yellow, orange, red, blue and green.
 Luster is adamantine to vitreous.
 Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent.
 Crystal System is orthorhombic; 2/m 2/m 2/m
 Crystal Habits include a prismatic crystal with usually two different prisms that produce a rounded or sharp
     diamond-shaped cross-section. The termination is typically capped by a dome forming a roof like top. Another
     dome can modify the termination producing a point at the juncture of the two domes. A basal pinacoid can flatten
     the prisms termination or truncate the top of the domes. The pinacoid, multiple domes and occasionally
     orthorhombic pyramid faces can produce a complex, multifaceted and well formed termination. Topaz can be
     granular and massive.
 Cleavage is perfect in one direction, basal.
 Fracture is conchoidal.
 Hardness is 8.
 Specific Gravity is approximately 3.4 - 3.5+ (above average)
 Streak is white.
 Associated Minerals include quartz, tourmalines, micas, brookite, cassiterite and fluorite.
 Other Characteristics: index of refraction is 1.61 - 1.64. Prism faces maybe striated lengthwise.
 Notable Occurrences include Minas Gerias, Brazil; Pakistan; San Diego Co, California; Ural Mountains, Russia;
     Mexico and the Thomas Range, Utah.
 Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, color, density and hardness.

The festivities of Black History Month are no longer recognized however, it is now a historical event that will be
celebrated every single day for the next 365 days.
Happy Black History Day!!!

Click Play & Double-click video to enlarge

                       "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached
                       in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
                       -Booker T. Washington (DOB: April 5, 1856)
                                       Born a slave and deprived of any early education, Booker Taliaferro Washington nonetheless became
                                                       America's foremost Black educator of the early 20th century. He was the first teacher and principal of the
                                                       Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, a school for Black African Americans where he championed
                                                       vocational training as a means for Black self-reliance.

Black Historical Quotation

It hit us by surprise when we elected a Black African American with a Muslim name as the leader of the free world.
The fruit of the Civil Rights Movement has hit a new high. The Black vote (98% for Obama) clearly made the
difference 43 years after the passing of the Voting Rights.

Click Play & Double-click video to enlarge

November's Characteristics

Additional November Holiday Celebrations

According to Connie Schultz, all Americans – Black, white, red, green and yellow - should revisit “Roots.”
Click HERE for Connie Schultz’s “Watching Roots in 2010.”

November's History

November's Birth Flower is Chrysanthemum
                                                     Chrysanthemum (sinense; nat. ord. Compositae), one of the most popular of
                                                     autumn flowers. It is a native of China, whence it was introduced to Europe. The
                                                     first chrysanthemum in England was grown at Kew in 1790, whither it had been
                                                     sent by Mr. Cels, a French gardener. It was not, however, till 1825 that the first
                                                     chrysanthemum exhibition took place in England. The small-flowered pompons,
                                                     and the grotesque-flowered Japanese sorts, are of comparatively recent date, the
                                                     former having originated from the Chusan daisy, a variety introduced by
                                                     Mr. Fortune in 1846, and the latter having also been introduced by the same
                                                     traveler about 1862. The Japanese kinds are unquestionably the most popular for
                                                     decorative purposes as well as for exhibition. They afford a wide choice in color,
                                                     form, habit and times of flowering. The incurved Chinese kinds are severely neat
                                                     looking flowers in many shades of color. The anemone-flowered kinds have long
                                                     outer or ray petals, the interior or disk petals being short and tubular. These are to
                                                     be had in many pleasing colors. The pompon kinds are small flowered, the petals
                                                     being short. The plants are mostly dwarf in habit. In the single varieties the outer
                                                     or ray florets alone are large and attractively colored.

November is Black History Month

November 1, 1945 - First issue of Ebony magazine published by John H. Johnson. The first issue sold
25,000 copies. (65 years ago)
November 2, 1983 - President Ronald Reagan signed law designating the third Monday in January
Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (27 years ago)
November 3, 1868 - John W. Menard became the first Black elected to Congress, defeating his white
candidate with a 5,107 to 2,833 vote in the election of Louisiana’s Second Congressional District. (142
years ago)
November 3, 1750 - Birth date of Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable, Black pioneer, trader and founder of
the settlement that later became the city of Chicago. (260 years ago)
November 5, 1968 - Shirley Chisholm became the first Black African-American woman to be elected
to the US Congress. (42 years ago)
November 6, 1900 - James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson composed “Lift Ev’ry Voice and
Sing.” (110 years ago)
November 7, 1876 - Edward A. Bouchet received his Ph.D. in physics at Yale University and became
the first Black to receive a doctorate at an American university. (134 years ago)
November 8, 1966 - Edward W. Brooke (Republican, Massachusetts), was elected the first Black US
senator in eighty-five years. (44 years ago)
November 3, 1731 - Benjamin Banneker, Black inventor and scientist, was born in Ellicott’s Mills,
Maryland. (279 years ago)
November 10, 1960 - Andrew Hatcher named first Black associate press secretary to the president.
(50 years ago)
November 11, 1925 - Louis Armstrong recorded the first of “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven” recordings
that influenced the direction of jazz. (85 years ago)
November 12, 1977 - Ernest Nathan Morial was elected the first Black mayor of New Orleans, LA. (33
years ago)
November 13, 1956 - Supreme Court upheld lower court decision that banned segregation on City
buses in Montgomery, Alabama. (54 years ago)
November 14, 1934 - William Levi Dawson’s Symphony No. 1, “Negro Folk Symphony,” was the first
symphony on Black folk themes by a Black composer to be performed by a major orchestra. (76 years
ago)
November 15, 1979 - Professor Arthur Lewis of Princeton was awarded the Nobel Prize in
economics. He was the first Black cited in a category other than peace. (31 years ago)
November 16, 2001 - Representing Nigeria, Agbani Darego was the first Black African to be crowned
“Miss World.” (9 years ago)
November 17, 1980 - WHMM-TV in Washington, D.C. became the first Black African-American
broadcasting television station. (30 years ago)
November 18, 1787 - Abolitionist and orator, Sojourner Truth was born. (223 years ago)
November 19, 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, calling for a “new
birth of freedom.” (147 years ago)
November 20, 1923 - Garrett T. Morgan patented the traffic signal. (87 years ago)
November 21, 1991 - President George H. W. Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen
federal civil rights legislation. (19 years ago)
November 22, 1930 - Elijah Muhammad founded the Nation of Islam in Detroit. (80 years ago)
November 23, 1897 - J.L. Love patented the pencil sharpener. (113 years ago)
November 24, 1865 - Mississippi passed the so-called “Black Codes” that barred Blacks from jury
service, testifying against whites in trials, bearing arms and attending white schools. (145 years ago)
November 25, 1841 - Thirty-five Amistad survivors were returned to Africa. (169 years ago)
November 26, 1970 - Charles Gordone received the Pulitzer Prize for his play “No Place to be
Somebody.” (40 years ago)
November 28, 1961 - Ernie Davis, football great, became the first African-American to win the
Heisman Trophy. (49 years ago)
November 29, 1955 - Alice Childress became the first African-American woman to receive an Obie
Award for her play, “Trouble in Mind.” (55 years ago)
November 30, 1889 - S.R. Scratton patented the curtain rod. (121 years ago)

November's Black History Events

November's Poem

November's Events

November Facts:

 Middle English: Novembre
 Latin: November
 Latin: Novembris mensis "nineth month"
(November Fact: Novembris had 30 days, until Numa when it had 29 days after Julius, it became 30 days long.)

November's birthstone is Topaz.
November's birth is chrysanthemums

In the pagan wheel of the year, November begins at or near Samhain in the northern hemisphere and Beltaine
in the southern hemisphere.
For Western Christians, Advent usually begins on a Sunday during the last week of November.
November 1st is National Adoption Day.
November 1st is All Saints' Day (formerly All Hallows Day), a Christian holy day, is celebrated on November 1.
The day before, Halloween, is therefore "All Hallows Eve". In Sweden the All Saints' official holiday takes place
on the first Saturday of November.
November 1st is the Day of the leaders of the Bulgarian national revival.
November 1st is regarded as the first day of Winter in Ireland.
November 1st is called "November Day" (Lá Samhna) in Celtic tradition and is thus named in the Irish
Calendar, where the month is called Mí na Samhna.
November 2nd is All Souls Day in the Roman Catholic calendar. It is known in Mexico as el Día de los
Muertos (Day of the Dead), and the whole month of November is especially dedicated to praying for the dead.
November 5th, Britain and New Zealand celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, the anniversary of the failed Gunpowder
Plot.
November 10th is known as the National Heroes Day in Indonesia.
 November 11th is Remembrance Day and is celebrated in the Commonwealth of Nations and various
European countries (including France and Belgium) to commemorate World War I and other wars. It is known
as Veterans' Day in the United States.
November 10th is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps.
November 11th is Independence Day in Poland.
November 14th is Children's Day in India and is the birthdate of first Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru.
November 17th is when the Leonids meteor shower is most likely to reach its peak.
November 18th is Lativan Independence Day.
November 19th is International Men's Day.
November 19, 1493: Discovery to the Eastern World of Puerto Rico by Christopher Columbus.
November 20th is Día de la Revolución, or Revolution Day in Mexico.
November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance in the United States.
November 22nd is Independence Day in Lebanon.
November 24th: Lachit Divas is celebrated statewide in Assam, India, to commemorate the heroism of the
great general Lachit Borphukan and the victory of the Assamese army over the Mughal army at the battle of
Saraighat in 1671.
November 25th is Thanksgiving Day in the United States and Puerto Rico.
November 25th is Independence Day in Suriname.
November 30th is St Andrews Day in Scotland.

                                                     Recently, I was asked why I allowed others to post and/or took so much time in directing people to
                                                     Black history links. Well, my answer is simple: Out here, there is a lot – too many – Black
                                                     youngsters who do not know their history – mainly Black history. I want them to know. It is important
                                                     to me that they know. Yes, it is important to me that everyone embraces God and I appreciate most –
                                                     but not all – biblical postings. When or if I   said ‘all biblical postings,’ I would set myself up for a
                                                     controversial religious dialogue and I don’t want that, so I leave that up to those who actually study the
                                                     Word.
                                                     Anyway, when it comes to Black history, I find that my generation and those that follow have not taken
                                                     time to teach our children about Black African American history. When juveniles join gangs because
                                                     they are searching for a family and/or say ‘they’ve never had anything, so why should they be about
                                                     anything.’ Well, I want – need – them to know that it is not true. There are plenty of Black African
                                                     americans who struggled and made something out of nothing, and these youngsters can do the same.
                                                     If Barack Obama can be president of these divided states, then all Black African americans can
                                                     achieve the unthinkable and climb to immeasurable heights.
                                                     I need us and all Americans to know the history of Black African Americans, their plight, their fight
                                                     and their victorious accomplishments.
                                                     I am proud to be a Black African american and I hope, want and need our young Black brothers and
                                                     sisters to be just as creditable; embracing their Blackness.
To quote the late James Brown, “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud!”

November is Black History Month!!!

November 2010_1 Odd & Unusual Holidays

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
	1	2 Election Day! Angel Eggs Day Looking 4 Circles Day	3 Housewife's Day Sandwich Day	4 King Tut Day	5 Guy Fawkes Day Gunpowder Day	6 Book Lover's Day Marooned w/out a Compass Day Saxophone Day
7 Bittersweet Chocolate w/Almonds Day	8 Cook Something Bold Day Dunce Day	9 Young Readers Day Chaos Never Dies Day	10 USMC Day Forget-Me-Not Day	11 Veterans Day	12 Chicken Soup 4 The Soul Day	13 World Kindness Day Sadie Hawkins Day National Indian Pudding Day
14 Operating Room Nurse's Day	15 National Philanthropy Day America Recycles Day Clean Your Refrigerator Day	16 Button Day Have A Party w/Your Bear Day	17 World Peace Day Electronic Greeting Card Day Homemade Bread Day Take A Hike Day	18 Great American Smokeout Day	19 Have A Bad Day Day	20 Universal Children's Day National Adoption Day Beautiful Day Absurdity Day
21 World Hello Day False Confession Day	22 Go 4 A Ride Day	23 Eat A Cranberry Day National Cashew Day	24	25 Thanksgiving Day (Giving Thanks to GOD for all that we have!) National Parfait Day	26 Black Friday Buy Nothing Day Shopping Reminder Day You're Welcome Day	27 Pins & Needles Day
28 Red Planet Day Make Your Own Head Day	29 Square Dance Day Electronic Greetings Day	30 Stay @ Home Because U R Well Day