Thanksgiving was first celebrated in the U.S. in 1789.

From the scorching deserts of Sinai to the frozen tundras of Siberia, Orthodox Christianity has a history of building its churches and monasteries in inhospitable places. But only a few can rival Trinity Church on King George Island. The southernmost Orthodox church in the world, Trinity was built near Bellingshausen Station, Russia’s permanent outpost in Antarctica.

In the mid-1990s Patriarch Alexius II of Moscow gave his blessing for this audacious project. The church was constructed in Russia and transported by a supply ship to its present location. One or two monks from Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, considered the most important Russian monastery as it is the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church, volunteer to man the church year-round.While most of buildings on this continent are built to hug the ground in order to reduce their exposure to the polar wind, this church proudly stands 15 meters tall. It is a wooden structure built from Siberian pine and carved in the traditional Russian style by master carpenters of Altay.

The priests manning the church take care of the spiritual needs of the staff of nearby Russian, Chilean, Polish, and Korean research stations. Their obligations include praying for the souls of 64 Russians who lost their lives in various expeditions, and the very occasional, very chilly, baptism.

While the church is large enough to accommodate 30 visitors, it is rarely filled to capacity. Recently however, the church performed its first wedding – the first wedding ever celebrated in a church in Antarctica – between Chilean and Russian researchers.

Source: http://atlasobscura.com/place/trinity-church-on-king-george-island

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is about to lose a little of its street cred—it’s no longer the world’s further leaning tower. The Guinness World Record now goes to Abu Dhabi’s Capital Gate building, which leans 18 degrees—a slant nearly five times greater than Pisa’s, reports the Huffington Post. But Italy’s tower can take comfort in the fact that it still one-ups Abu Dhabi’s in one key way: The Capital Gate tower was built to lean, with floor plates staggered to achieve the effect.

Source: http://www.newser.com/story/91913/pisa-no-longer-worlds-furthest-leaning-tower.html

56-year-old Ashrita Furman has set 312 official Guinness Records since 1979 and currently holds 120 standing records including the official record for the most records held at the same time by an individual.
Source: http://www.ashrita.com/about/index.html

* John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

* Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was given in November 1863.

* The US and Canada celebrate the end of WWI on November 11.

* Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States November 1860.

* Montana became the 41st State November 1889.

* Charles Darwin publishes his theory on evolution “On the Origin of the Species”, sparking great controversy November 1859.

* The United Stated and Great Britain sign a peace treaty in Paris, formally ending the Revolutionary War November 1782.

November comes from the Latin word root “novem”, which means nine. It was originally the 9th month in the Roman Calendar.

Approximately 1% to 2% of the human population has red hair.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair

In 48 states, prisoners are not allowed to vote; however, they are allowed to run for office. A recent example of this phenomenon occurred back in 2004 during the presidential election. Leonard Peltier, a criminal sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for murdering a pair of FBI agents, was on California’s ballot as the candidate for the Peace and Freedom party. Peltier ended up receiving 27,607 votes – 0.2% of the overall total for the state!