November 20th, 2008

Today in History

1994:
The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (in 1995 localized fighting resumed).

1983:
An estimated 100 million people watch the controversial made-for-television movie The Day After, depicting the start of a nuclear war.

1969:
Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

1820:
An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).

1468:
Joanot Martorell's book Tirant lo Blanc is published for the first time.