November 5th-10th is a week that brings us tons of Election Day historical happenings! This week I didn’t do an IGTV episode but I am bringing you events for each day of the week! How am I using these in my 5th grade classroom you ask? Well each day after morning work, our routine is to do 2 GoNoodle clips and then watch a Flocabulary.com unit before our read aloud. If possible, I try to pick one related to an event in history that happened on that day. I literally take 5 minutes to tell what events happened on that day and I have a bulletin board in the corner where I write the events with a dry erase marker. If I can tie in an event with our social studies lesson later I do!

You can find all previous IGTV episodes in my Instagram profile and a link to all of the blog posts at the bottom of this post.  And also some of my links below are to history.com. I love this site. Mostly. What I don’t love is that the videos auto-play. Right click on the browser tab and opt to “mute site” or “mute tab.” That tech tip comes straight to you from my 16 year old son! I also will link to applicable Flocabulary.com units. I LOVE this site and so do students. Please note that it’s a paid subscription site but well worth it. You can always start with a free trial to test it out. Nope, I am not a paid affiliate, just a brand ambassador as a Flocab MC Educator! Let’s get started with this week in history!

Monday 11/5

I have no qualms about sharing that I’m in my 40s. I feel like I am definitely not past my prime. And neither was George Foreman back in November  1994. Before the George Foreman grill, there was George the boxer. On this day, that George became the oldest heavyweight champ at age 45 when he defeated a 26 year old! Way to go George! Learn more here: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-foreman-becomes-oldest-heavyweight-champ

How did you get to work today? Horse and buggy? Probably not. For that we have George Selden to thank. On this day in 1895 he received a patent for a gas-powered car. Do you use the Smithsonian websites? You should! You can see a listing of their holdings on the site for use as great primary sources. Why do I mention this? Because part of their collection includes a model of the patented car. And boy this patent created some drama. Click the picture to learn more about the model and learn even more about the situation the patent created at this link: George Selden’s patent.

Tuesday 11/6

My, what a difference a year can make. As Lincoln so eloquently said and I am paraphrasing, “A house divided against itself can not stand.” That sentiment still rings true. We are all on the same team-Team America. But back in the 1860s we know America was on the verge of a Civil War. On November 6th, 1860 President Lincoln was elected POTUS. One year later, Jefferson Davis was also elected president. But this election was for the Confederate States of America. It’s easy to find info about Lincoln, but do you need more about Jefferson Davis? Click the picture for a great biography of him from American Battlefield Trust.

Also on this day is the birth of American composer John Philip Sousa! I found a great primary source timeline on the Library of the Congress website at this link: https://www.loc.gov/collections/john-philip-sousa/articles-and-essays/john-philip-sousa-timeline/.

Another presidential event to note was Teddy Roosevelt taking a trip to Panama on this day in 1906. This was notable because this was the first time a president had been on a trip of a diplomatic nature! During this trip President Roosevelt also visited Puerto Rico. Afterwards he expressed his opinion about how he felt it should be a state but with its own control. Obviously, Puerto Rico hasn’t become a state but is still a territory of the U.S. with that control!

Wednesday 11/7

The election week happenings continue on November 7th! Believe it or not 1989 was the first time an African American had been elected mayor of New York! This distinction went to David Dinkins. Also on this day Douglas Wilder became the first African American to be elected governor! Wilder wasn’t just the first African American to be elected governor of Virginia, he was the first of any state! Another historic candidate was Jeanette Rankin becoming a member of the House of Representatives for Montana in 1916! There is a great lesson plan for a primary source activity on the National Women’s History Museum site. Find it by clicking the picture!

Also on this day in 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected for a 4th term. My favorite FDR resource is undoubtedly his presidential library site which you can find at http://fdrlibrary.org! About 7 years after this unprecedented win, the 22nd Amendment was added to the Constitution. This guarantees that no president shall be elected more than 2 terms so as not to gain too much power. The amendment process is not very speedy. Something that was speedy on November 7, 1965 was a drag racer in Ohio named Art Afrons though! He set the land-speed record going over 576 miles per hour!!! WHOA!! If you have any racing fans in your class, send them to this link to learn all about it: Land-speed record.

Thursday 11/8

Happy birthday to Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell, who was born on this day in 1900. As a native Atlantan, I’ve always been fascinated by Mitchell and saddened by her untimely death. You can visit the house where she wrote the legendary novel. It’s now considered part of the Atlanta History Center but located off Crescent Avenue. Find out more details by clicking on the picture.

Also of note for November 8th are a German scientist discovering the x-ray, Bram Stoker’s birthday, and Hitler surviving an assassination attempt.

Friday 11/9

November 9th is the anniversary of the tragic night where Jewish people were targeted which essentially the began the Holocaust. This horrific day in 1938 was known as Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass” because many Jewish owned businesses were vandalized by Nazi soldiers. There are many phenomenal museums for the Holocaust. One museum I have visited is The Breman Museum in Atlanta. The Holocaust exhibit is very powerful. I also got the opportunity to hear some survivors speak as part of the Bearing Witness series, which I highly recommend. I shared my experience as part of a blog series I wrote for Atlanta 365. You can find a round-up of that by clicking the picture

Also on this day in 1970, the Supreme Court refused to rule on whether or not being involved in the Vietnam War was constitutional or not!

Saturday 11/10

What’s significant about November 10th? Well that would be the childhood classic Sesame Street debuting, the publication of All Quiet on the Western Front, and in 1903 patenting the first windshield wiper!

This wraps up the week of November 5th-10th! Don’t forget to check the link in the description to read the blog post and sign up for a weekly reminder at http://bit.ly/SShooks! You’ll get my free lesson hooks cheat sheet, too! But wait, there’s more! Are you in my Facebook group for teachers called Social Studies Salute? I’d love to have you!

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