November 30th

On this day – November 30^th 1982 – Thriller was released

The second solo album from Michael Jackson was called Thriller. With hits like "Thriller", "Beat it" and "Billie Jean" went on to sell 65 million copies, thus making it the best selling album of all time. At its peak the Album sold one million copies worldwide per week. The album was awarded eight Grammy awards in 1984 including Album of the Year. Thriller was the first album to successfully use music videos as a promotional tool. The music video for the "Thriller" track was 14 minutes long and it has been called the best music video ever. 

November 29th

On this day – November 29^th 1972 – Atari announces the release of Pong 

Pong was not the first video game but it was the first truly successful. It is a simple game that imitates a game of tennis. The first version was just two paddles on each end of the screen, a line dividing the middle,scores on the side of each player, and a ball. 

November 28th

On this day – November 28^th 1919 – Lady Astor elected member of Parliament

In December 1918 Constance Markievicz was elected as the first woman to sit in Parliament in the house of Commons, but she did not take the seat in the spirit of Sinn Fèin policy. It was the next year in 1919 Lady Astor (Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor) took her seat in the house of Commons as the first woman in Parliament history. Lady Astor served as a representative for the conservative party and held her seat until 1945 where she was persuaded to step down. Lady Astor had not been connected to the woman's suffrage movement and Markievicz critiqued her as being "of the upper class, out of touch". Her stance against alcohol consumption made her campaign harder and the lack of knowledge about local issues made it worse. The appeal of Astor's campaign became her earlier work with Canadian soldiers, her charitable work, her financial resources and her ability to improvise. She became known for her wit and her ability to turn the tables on any heckler. 

There are several quotes that are attributed to her and this is some of our favourites:  

"I married beneath me. All woman do" 

"We women talk too much, but even then we don't tell half what we know."

"The only thing I like about rich people is their money."

November 27th

On this day – November 27^th 1895 – Alfred Nobel signes his will

Alfred Nobel invented 350 patented items but is most known for inviting dynamite. Nobel filed for his first patent in 1857 at age 24, his first Swedish patent was granted in 1863. Alfreds father was also an inventer and the family firm produced armaments for the Crimean war. Alfred focused on the study of explosives and especially on nitroglyserin. In 1863 he invented a detonator and in 1865 he designed the blasting cap. His younger brother died in an accident where a shed for preparing nitroglycerin exploded, four other died in the accident. Nobel pushed on and focused on improving the stability of the explosives. In 1867 he succeed and created dynamite. In 1888 Alfreds brother Ludvig died and french newspapers published Alfreds obituary. The obituary condemned him for the invention of dynamite and stated "The merchant of death is dead". The bleak picture painted of Alfred bothered him and he decided that his aftermath should be better. His solution was to create different prices where the peace prize is the most known. The other prizes are for physical science, chemistry, medicinal science and literary work in an ideal direction. It was this day in 1895 in the Swedish-Norwegian club in Paris Alfred signed his will where 94% of his assets would go to the prizes. The assets were worth 31,225,000 Swedish Kroner that is when adjusting for inflation 3.1 billion Swedish Kroner in 2012 (472 million USD, 337 EUR). He died of a stroke a year later in 1896. 

November 26th

On this day – November 26^th 1942 – The first viewing of the movie Casablanca

Casablanca is a romantic movie set in Casablanca during the Second World War. It had its premier in New York on November 26^th and was released nationally on January 23, 1942. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid play the main characters in the movie. Apparently, Paul Henreid Laszlo never got along well with his co-actors. The movie was based on an unproduced stage play with the title “Everyone comes to Ricks”. The filming started in May and finished in August, just a few months later. Most of the movie was shot at Warner Bros. studio, although one scene was shot at Van Nuys Airport.

The participants in the creation of the movie did not expect it to become anything spectacular, it was seen as just another Hollywood movie at the time. It did however win three Oscars (academy award) for best picture, director and adapted screenplay at the time. The movie, the theme song and memorable lines have today become iconic, and the movie have several times ranked high on all-time best movie lists.

The Song “As times goes by” was a part of the original stage play, and although the composer for the movie, Max Steiner, wanted to compose his own theme song, was this (luckily) not done. The reason was simply because Ingrid Bergman had cut her hair short for her next role, and the scene could not be re-shot.

The quote “Round up the usual suspects” inspired the title for the movie “The Usual Suspects” from 1995.   

Casablanca can be bought or viewed here

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine -Rick (Humphrey Bogart)