1 NOV 2016 - Change Your Clocks

Daylight saving time ends for 2016 overnight between Saturday, 5 Nov, and Sunday 6 Nov, meaning that before you go to bed Saturday, make sure to turn the clocks in your house back one hour.

As the old expression goes, "spring ahead, fall back," meaning before bed on Saturday night, set your clock BACK one hour. You'll also be 'gaining' one hour of time (the same hour you 'lost' last Spring).

The International Association of Fire Chiefs and the Energizer battery company are also urging you to adopt the life-saving habit of changing the battery in your smoke detector when you change your clock. This simple and easy action will double a family's chance of surviving a home fire.

You will 'spring ahead,' or turn your clocks forward one hour next year on Sunday, 12 March 2017.

Tuesday, 8 NOV 2016 - Election Day

The Presidential election is coming up and control of the Congress continues to be the hot-button issue this year. If you are among the 60% who have not already voted early, remember to get out and vote. If you end up not liking the results and you did NOT vote, then shame on you!

By an act of Congress in 1845, the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November was designated Election Day for future presidential elections. The first such election took place on November 7, 1848. Whig Party candidate Zachary Taylor won out over Democrat Lewis Cass and Free-Soil candidate (and former president) Martin Van Buren. Taylor's running mate was Millard Fillmore, who became the nation's 13th president on July 10, 1850, upon Taylor's untimely death.

Veterans Day - 11 November 2016

Veteran's Day is November 11. It was originally called Armistice Day and meant to commemorate the end of the "war to end all wars" (World War I ended 11 November 1918). It was signed into law by Woodrow Wilson in 1919. The remembrance was extended in 1954 to cover the veterans of all wars after World War II and the Korean War.

This day is also known as Remembrance Day in Europe.

Let us take a moment to remember and thank all of our veterans, and render to them the respect they have truly earned.

Thanksgiving Day - 24 NOV 2016

The premier holiday of November is Thanksgiving. It is held on the 4th Thursday in November. The first Thanksgiving was given by the pilgrims in 1623. The first national Thanksgiving Day in United States proclaimed by President George Washington, November 26, 1789 did not become an official holiday until President Lincoln declared it in 1863. The holiday was created to give thanks for the plenty of the harvest. Today it is celebrated by family gatherings. A traditional dish for the event is roast turkey and dressing.

This is a day for us to give thanks for our many blessings. Even in these trying times, we are still the most blessed country in the world. Take the opportunity to share our gratitude with friends and loved ones on this special day.

Guy Fawkes' Day

The notorious Gunpowder Plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament failed, November 5, 1605. England celebrates this day as Guy Fawkes Day. Centuries later, the Occupy Wall Street protestors have adopted Guy Fawkes masks as a symbol of their movement to accomplish their stated aims (whatever they may really have been).

Fawkes' plot was discovered and he was arrested before he could accomplish his stated aims. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.

Nov 7, 1811 - William Henry Harrison is Victor at Tippecanoe

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States (1841), an American military officer and politician, the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, our 23rd president, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence. Harrison died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment.

Before election as president, Harrison served as the first territorial congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory, governor of the Indiana Territory and later as a U.S. representative and senator from Ohio. He originally gained national fame for leading U.S. forces against American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned the nickname "Tippecanoe" (or "Old Tippecanoe"). As a general in the subsequent War of 1812, his most notable contribution was a victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, which brought an end to hostilities in his region.

Nov 22, 1963 - JFK Assassination

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated 53 years ago at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC) on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and the latter's wife, Nellie, in a Presidential motorcade.

The ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963–1964 concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald before he could stand trial.

These conclusions were initially supported by the American public; however, polls conducted from 1966 to 2004 found that as many as 80 percent of Americans have suspected that there was a plot or cover-up.

Contrary to the Warren Commission, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1979 concluded that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The HSCA found both the original FBI investigation and the Warren Commission Report to be seriously flawed. While agreeing with the Commission that Oswald fired all the shots which caused the wounds to Kennedy and Governor Connally, it stated that there were at least four shots fired and that there was a "high probability" that two gunmen fired at the President. No gunmen or groups involved in the conspiracy were identified by the committee, but the CIA, Soviet Union, organized crime and several other groups were said to be not involved, based on available evidence. The assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios.

Statehood Dates

The following states achieved statehood in November:

Recap of Last Month's Bulletin Board entries

You will see a lot of new names. This is because all the RAFINCO members have joined RAFINO as part of the merger and have taken enthusiastically to our new self-help member record updating!

New Members Added to the Roster Last Month