Category: Today

On Nov. 18, 1976, Spain’s parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

On Nov. 17, 1939, following student demonstrations in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Nazis executed nine students and professors, arrested and sent more than 1,000 students to concentration camps, and shut down universities. In 1989, on the 50^th anniversary, student protests broke out against Soviet occupiers, touching off national strikes that soon led to the end of Soviet rule.

On Nov. 16, 1938, philosopher Robert Nozick was born. Nozick is best known for his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which won the National Book Award in 1975. In that book he argued that a minimal state was just, that the case for a bigger, more intrusive government (like that of the present day) is untenable, and that the minimal state, while seemingly puny by its limitations, is nevertheless morally praiseworthy and conducive to a good society. Nozick taught at Harvard, and wrote several other major works on other philosophical topics before his death in 2002.

On Nov. 15, 1777, the Continental Congress, meeting in York, Pennsylvania, approved the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. It wasn’t until March 1, 1781, that the last of the 13 new states, Maryland, ratified the agreement.

On Nov. 14, 1982, Lech Walesa, leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, was released by authorities after being imprisoned for 11 months. Returning to his home in Gdansk, a large crowd of jubilant supporters lifted Walesa onto their shoulders.