November 18 ...

In 1820 US Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the continent of Antarctica. In 1865 Mark Twain's short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was published in the New York Saturday Press. In 1883 the United States and Canada adopted a system of Standard Time zones. In 1886 21st president of the United States Chester A. Arthur died in New York at age 56. In 1903 the United States and Panama signed a treaty granting the US rights to build the Panama Canal. In 1928 the first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York. In 1936 Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco. In 1978 California Congressman Leo J. Ryan and four other people were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 912 cult members. In 1987 the congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides. In 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled, 4-3, that the state constitution guaranteed gay couples the right to marry. In 2004 former President Bill Clinton's library opened in Little Rock, AR; in attendance were President George W. Bush, former President George H. W. Bush, and former President Jimmy Carter.