World/nation trivia: The week of Nov. 10-16

Nov. 10:

1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

1898, in Wilmington, North Carolina, a mob of as many as 2,000 white supremacists killed dozens of African Americans, burned Black-owned businesses and forced the mayor, police chief and aldermen to resign at gunpoint, before installing their own mayor and city council in what became known as the “Wilmington Coup.”

1975, the Great Lakes freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank after being caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior; all 29 crew members were lost.

Nov. 11:

1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed the Mayflower Compact, calling for a “civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation.”

1918, fighting in World War I ended as the Allies and Germany signed an armistice aboard a railroad car in the Forest of Compiègne in northern France.

1938, Irish-born cook Mary Mallon, who’d gained notoriety as the disease-carrying “Typhoid Mary” blamed for the deaths of three people, died on North Brother Island in New York’s East River at age 69 after 23 years of mandatory quarantine.

2020, Georgia’s secretary of state announced an audit of presidential election results that he said would be done with a full hand tally of ballots because the margin was so tight; President-elect Joe Biden led President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes out of nearly 5 million votes counted in the state. (The audit would affirm Biden’s win.)

Nov. 12:

1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., and gave the green light to traffic.

1954, Ellis Island officially closed as an immigration station and detention center. More than 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States via Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.

1970, the Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. The deadliest tropical cyclone on record claimed the lives of an estimated 300,000-500,000 people.

2021, a judge in Los Angeles ended the conservatorship that had controlled the life and money of pop star Britney Spears for nearly 14 years.

Nov. 13:

1775, during the Revolutionary War, American troops captured Montreal under the command of Continental Army Gen. Richard Montgomery.

1909, 259 men and boys were killed when fire erupted inside a coal mine in Cherry, Illinois.

2001, U.S.-backed Northern Alliance fighters in Afghanistan entered Kabul as Taliban forces retreated from the capital city.

2015, Islamic State militants carried out a set of coordinated attacks in Paris at the national stadium, in a crowded concert hall, in restaurants and on streets, killing 130 people in the worst attack on French soil since World War II.

Nov 14:

1889, journalist Nellie Bly began an attempt to travel around the world in 80 days; she would successfully complete the journey in a little more than 72 days.

1960, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first Black child to desegregate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.

1970, a chartered Southern Airways plane crashed while trying to land in West Virginia, killing all 75 people on board, including the Marshall University football team and its coaching staff.

2020, supporters of President Donald Trump unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory gathered in cities across the country including Washington, D.C., where thousands rallied.

Nov. 15:

1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation.

1806, explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now known as Pikes Peak in present-day Colorado.

1969, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War.

2012, the Justice Department announced that BP had agreed to plead guilty to a raft of charges in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and pay a record $4.5 billion, including nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines.

Nov. 16:

1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of an 800-mile (1,290-kilometer) oil pipeline from the Alaska North Slope to the port city of Valdez.

1982, an agreement was announced in the 57th day of a strike by National Football League players.

2001, the first film in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (U.S. title: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”) debuted in theaters around the world.

2018, a U.S. official said intelligence officials had concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

– Associated Press