19 th November

1620 The Mayflower arrived off the coast of Cape Cod. (See July 22nd and November 21st entries.)

1620 Peregrine White was born aboard the Mayflower.

1745 Lord Chesterfield wrote about wisdom.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

1917 Indira Gandhi was born. (See January 19th and June 6th entries.)

1942 The Alaska Highway was formally opened. (See June 12th entry.)

1993 The U. S. Senate voted 61 to 38 in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement. (See November 17th entry.)

On this day, in 1620, the Mayflower arrived off Cape Cod. Peregrine White, the first English child born in New England, who was born on this day aboard the Mayflower, wasn’t expected to make such a dramatic debut.

The Earl of Chesterfield was a fountainhead of good advice for his son; and he wrote most of his suggestions in a journal. On this date, in 1745, Lord Chesterfield’s advice was this: “Be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so.”

On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln dedicated a national cemetery with a few brief remarks. He stood at the site in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and delivered an address that he had written on a paper bag during the train trip from Washington. Not all great words are divined by professional writers nor developed from days of toil.

Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister, headed a government caught in a political whirlwind. Freedom from British rule was not followed by peace; extremists representing numerous political and religious sects demanded to be heard—and sometimes violently. Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi—who was born on this day in 1917—entered an equally unsettled world during her four terms as India’s prime minister. During her last term in office, Sikh extremists instigated riots and used terrorist tactics in an attempt to be heard. Gandhi sent armed forces to their holiest shrine—the Golden Temple of Amristar in the Punjab—where reportedly six hundred lives were lost in a violent confrontation. To avenge the death of their compatriots, Gandhi herself was assassinated by Sikh terrorists who took full responsibility.