Mickey Mouse, Mark Twain & William Tell-9 News Items of November 18

Mickey Mouse, Mark Twain & William Tell-9 News Items of November 18

By Cupertino REALTOR® Michelle Carr Crowe

“Mickey Mouse, Mark Twain and William Tell have what in common?”

All three share an important newsworthy anniversary on November 18^th.

Curious to learn more about Mickey Mouse, Mark Twain and William Tell? Read to find out about these and other interesting tales that happened on November 18^th.

·         1307 – William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.

·         1493 – Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico.

·         1865 – Mark Twain's short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published in the New York Saturday Press.

·         1883 – American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.

·         1926 – George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."

·         1928 – Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey's birthday.

·         1963 – The first push-button telephone goes into service.

·         1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder–suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.

·         1988 – War on Drugs: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law allowing the death penalty for drug traffickers.

While these interesting facts about Mickey Mouse, Mark Twain and William Tell on November 18th have nothing to do with my real estate business selling Silicon Valley homes to families in San Jose, Cupertino and Saratoga in Santa Clara County, Calif., they add fun and entertainment to life.

For more fun facts and information on Silicon Valley real estate, homes and careers, subscribe for free to Michelle Carr-Crowe’s blog at http://www.activerain.com/results.

Images courtesy of Michelle Carr-Crowe’s private collection, the public domain, the U.S. government or www.freedigitalphotos.net.Facts compiled from Wikipedia, Smithsonian, HistoryOrb and MentalFloss among others.

Thanks for reading “Mickey Mouse, Mark Twain & William Tell-9 News Items of November 18”.