* On Nov. 18, 1966, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax retired from baseball at age 30 due to chronic arthritis in his pitching arm and the fear that if he kept on playing he eventually would lose the use of his left hand. “In those days there was no surgery,” he said later. “The wisdom was if you went in there, it would only make things worse and your career would be over anyway.”
* On Nov. 19, 2003, an arrest warrant was issued for singer Michael Jackson on child molestation charges. Though he was acquitted two years later of each criminal count on which he was tried, the “King of Pop’s” reputation still suffered many additional blows.
* On Nov. 20, 1820, the American whaling ship Essex, out of Nantucket, Massachusetts, was attacked by an 80-ton sperm whale 2,000 miles off the coast of South America. The 20 crew members escaped in three open boats, but only eight survived. Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick” was partially inspired by the tragedy.
* On Nov. 21, 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
* On Nov. 22, 1909, Clara Lemlich addressed a meeting at the Great Hall of New York City’s Cooper Union to consider a general strike in protest against poor working conditions across the garment industry. The ensuing months-long “Uprising of 20,000” eventually earned employees such concessions as a 52-hour workweek, four paid holidays a year and no fees for work-related materials.
* On Nov. 23, 2005, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia, becoming the first woman to lead an African nation.
* On Nov. 24, 1928, the Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the first women’s federal prison, opened in Alderson, West Virginia. One judge described it as a “fashionable boarding school,” as the institution’s main purpose was to reform rather than punish the inmates, most of whom were serving time for drug and alcohol charges. Prisoners farmed the land and performed office work in order to learn how to type and file, and also cooked and canned vegetables and fruits.
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