November 8
1870 - The 21st governor of Tennessee John C. Brown, a Democrat, was born in Giles County. Brown, who began practicing law in Pulaski when only 21 years old, served as president of the state constitutional convention of 1870 "and performed his delicate and difficult duties as presiding officer with rare tact and tenacity." ("A History of Tennessee From 1663 to 1914" by G.R. McGee, page 233) He served two terms as governor from 1871 to 1875 and was the third "Brown" to hold that office. He was brother of Governor Neill S. Brown, who served our state from 1847 to 1849.

1927 - Clara Ann Fowler a.k.a. Patti Page, the singer who popularized one of our state songs, the hauntingly beautiful "Tennessee Waltz," was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

1947 - NASA astronaut Dr. Margaret Rhea Seddon was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A graduate of Murfreesboro Central High School, Dr. Seddon received a bachelor of arts degree in physiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate of medicine from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. In her first space flight, April 12 to 19, 1985, Dr. Seddon logged 168 hours in space in 109 Earth orbits on the Discovery. She flew two space flights on the Columbia, the first from June 5 to 14, 1991, and another October 18 to November 1, 1993. Dr. Seddon retired from NASA in November, 1997, and returned to Middle Tennessee to work with the Vanderbuilt Medical Group in Nashville as assistant chief medical officer. Learn more about her work with NASA.


November 9
1908 - Edward Ward Carmack, editor of the "Nashville Tennessean," was killed on Seventh Avenue in downtown Nashville by Duncan B. Cooper and his son, Robin Cooper. Five men from Paradise Ridge served as jurists in the case of the two men accused of his murder. "The Coopers were tried for murder and sentenced to serve twenty years each in the penitentiary. The cause given at trial for the origin of the difficulty was offensive editorials that had been published in the "Nashville Tennessean." The Coopers appealed to the Supreme Court. Robin Coopers trial was decided to have been technically wrong and was sent back to the lower court for retrial. Duncan B. Coopers sentence was decided to be right, but he was pardoned by Governor Patterson as soon as notice was received of the decree of the Supreme Court." (From "A History of Tennessee From 1663 to 1914," by G.R. McGee, page 216a) Carmack began practicing law in 1884, but soon became one of the editorial staff for the "Nashville American," and from there moved on to became editor of the "Nashville Democrat," the "Commercial Appeal" in Memphis, and in 1908 the "Nashville Tennessean." He served two terms representing the 10th District in Congress and served Tennessee as a U.S. senator for one term.


November 10
1801 - Tennessee became the first state in our country to outlaw "the evil practice of dueling," a European tradition that was brought to these shores by white settlers. In the early 1800's dueling was a common way for disagreements and questions of honor to be settled among gentlemen, and some of our state and national leaders were among the most notorious to engage in the practice. One of the most infamous duelists was Andrew Jackson, who like other Tennesseans, simply crossed the state line into Kentucky when there was a dispute to settle. In 1806, Jackson traveled just over the state line to Logan County (Adairville), Kentucky, just north of Springfield, to participate in his first recorded duel waged against Charles Dickinson. Jackson claimed Dickinson had slandered his wife, Rachel, by calling her a bigamist because of a legal error in her divorce from her first husband in 1791. Oral tradition of northern Middle Tennessee tells of the scene at the duel. The men, standing back to back, pistols held aloft, walked their paces, then turned. Dickinson fired and struck Jackson in the chest with a glancing bullet, breaking several ribs. The hot-tempered Jackson, it is believed, had deliberately not taken his shot. As Dickinson turned to walk away, Jackson called, "On your mark, sir," for each was entitled to his shot. Dickinson knew what was to come, but honor was all to these pioneer "gentlemen" and death was preferable to dishonor. So Dickinson took his mark and stood tall as Jackson with fierce deliberation slowly leveled his pistol, took aim, and shot his opponent dead. Jackson would duel several times to defend his wife against such allegations. In response to the sojourns of Tennesseans to Kentucky to stage duels, the Tennessee legislature passed a law in 1809, prohibiting duelers from holding public office. They strengthened that law in 1817 by requiring that all those elected to public office take an oath that they had not dueled since the 1809 law went into effect. In 1829, the punishment for dueling in the state was set at 10 years in the penitentiary.


November 11
1918 - At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, World War I, "the war to end all wars," ended as Germany, depleted of manpower and supplies, signed the armistice agreement. The toll in human lives to the participants from the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary was astronomical with nine million soldiers dead, 21 million wounded, and seven million taken prisoner or missing in action. At the end of the war the U.S. counted 51,000 dead. But the story did not end there as many soldiers went home with diseases that would end their lives even though technically they would never be listed among the casualties. One who ultimately gave his all as a result of the war was Jess Adcock, a soldier who came home to Paradise Ridge with the tuberculosis that would take his life less than two years later. His earthly remains are interred in a family cemetery on Seedtick, now known as Walker Road, in south Robertson County, where beloved mighty cedars, the sacred tree of his people, the Cherokee, shelter him in his rest. Peace, Uncle Jess.


November 12
1994 - Wilma Rudolph, who overcame polio to become the first American woman to win 3 Olympic gold medals, died at age 54 of brain cancer at her home in Nashville. A native of Clarksville, Tennessee, Rudolph, at age 16, won a bronze medal in the 4x4 relay at her first Olympic games. Four years later in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Rudolph won the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and ran the anchor on the first-place 400-meter relay team. She was then selected United Press Athlete of the Year and Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year in 1960, the first of many honors she was to receive for opening doors for women athletes. Never one to steer from a cause, Rudolph insisted that her homecoming parade in Clarksville be unsegregated, and for the first time at the parade and at a banquet that evening, blacks and whites celebrated together in her hometown.


November 13


November 14
1943 - Secretary of State Cordell Hull, a native of Pickett County, Tennessee, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a number of top U.S. military leaders were almost killed by friendly fire while traveling aboard the battleship "Iowa" to the Big Three Conference in Teheran, Iran, where the president was scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S.S.R. leader Joseph Stalin. While demonstrating capabilities, a nearby ship, the destroyer "William D. Porter," accidentally fired a live torpedo at the "Iowa." Luckily, the torpedo exploded before reaching the ship carrying the President and the Secretary of State. The entire crew of the destroyer was arrested by Marines when they docked in Bermuda. Never to live down the legacy, when entering port or joining other naval vessels, the "William D. Porter" is now often welcomed with the greeting "Do not shoot, we are Republicans."