November 20th


1789: New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights... and it would have done it even sooner if it hadn't been for all the usual traffic on the Turnpike.


1820: An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex near Nantucket. The whale mistook the ship for a condom.



1969: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. But there is no reaction as readers mistake them for tramautized Indians and Browns fans.