[Amnorix]

November 12

1847. Chloroform is used as an anesthetic for the first time.

1892. William "Pudge" Heffelfinger becomes the first professional football player in history when he is paid for his efforts in the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1927. Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, leaving Josef Stalin in undisputed command of the party, and the country. Trotsky will later be assassinated.

1936. The Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

1941. Temperatures around Moscow fall to -12C, or about 10 degrees F, and the USSR begins launching ski unit attacks on the freezing Germans for the first time.

1969. Independent journalist Seymour Hersh breaks a story alleging that American troops committed a massacre at the My Lai village in Vietnam.

1970. An 8 ton beached Sperm Whale is blown up by Oregon authorities using a half ton of dynamite. The result, somehow unexpected, is massive chunks of whale landing on buildings, cars, parking lots and other locations all around the beach. The news reporter on the scene relayed that "the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds."

1998. Daimler-Benz completes its acquisition of Chyrsler Motors. Let me pause to ask...what the HELL were they thinking?