The Calendar of Songs

Napoleon won one of his greatest victories on December 2, 1805 when he defeated the armies of the Russian and Holy Roman Empires at the Battle of Austerlitz. Though outnumbered by the opposing host, the French forces decisively won the battle, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, which was one of the most important conflicts of the Napoleonic Wars. The defeat of Russia and the HRE on the Austrian battlefield that day would lead to the end of the War of the Third Coalition with the signing of the Treaty of Pressburg later in the month. The Battle of Austerlitz would feature prominently in the first volume of Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece, War and Peace. In 1958, Hollywood produced a film version of the tome, starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Academy Award-winning composer Nino Rota's score featured the piece "Battle of Austerlitz."

While riding on the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, AL, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus when driver James F. Blake asked her to move on December 1, 1955. The Montgomery City Lines buses were segregated at the time, and black people were forced to shift to the back of the bus when more white passengers got on. Coming home from work that day, Parks decided she wouldn't move back. Blake called the police, who came and arrested Parks for violating the segregation code. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. While Parks was by no means the first to defy the law, she served as an excellent figurehead for the boycott. In 1989, the Neville Brothers released Yellow Moon, featuring theirsong "Sister Rosa," about the civil rights activist and that fateful day.

A devastating blow to the Confederate Army was dealt on November 30, 1864 at the Battle of Franklin, part of the Franklin-Nashville campaign of the American Civil War. The Army of Tennessee, under Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. suffered major losses while making an unsuccessful attack on the Union fortifications. Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield's Army of the Ohio held off the Rebels, suffering about one-third as many total casualties, and only 189 deaths. Known as "The Pickett's Charge of the West," the Army of Tennessee lost 1,750, with over 4,000 more wounded, missing, or captured. Of those Confederate casualties, fourteen were generals: one captured, seven wounded, and six killed. In 2014, Navy veteran an Civil War reenactor Bill Radcliffe wrote "The Brightest Hearts Have Marched Away" in honor of the 150th anniversary of the battle. He performed the song at the official sesquicentennial celebration in Tennessee.

More than one hundred Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women and children, were brutally slaughtered by the United States Cavalry on November 29, 1964 in what is known as the Sand Creek massacre. The camp of almost 200 people in the Colorado Territory was flying the American flag and the white flag of surrender when Col. John M. Chivington ordered his men to open fire on Chief Black Kettle's camp. 24 US soldiers died in the attack, of the roughly 700 strong unit. Gila was a psychedelic rock band from Germany. They released "Black Kettle's Ballad" on their 19 album Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

In County Cork, outside Kilmichael, 36 IRA volunteers ambushed the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary on November 28, 1920, killing 17 on and injuring one. The attack was a week after the RIC had killed 14 Irish civilians at a Gaelic football match in retaliation for an IRA attack on British Army and RIC officers, on what became known as "Bloody Sunday." Tom Barry, the leader of the Irish Republican Army's West Cork Brigade, planned the attack on the RIC's convoy along their regular route. Three IRA volunteers were killed, two were shot after a false surrender by some of the RIC Auxiliaries. The British burned houses and barns in the area in response, and a few days later arrested, assaulted, and killed 3 IRA volunteers in Bandon. "The Boys of Kilmichael" is a traditional Irish rebel song about the ambush. This version is performed by the Wolfe Tones.

San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed in City Hall on November 27, 1978, by Dan White, a former Supervisor. During his term, the conservative White had butted heads with the liberal Moscone and Milk (Milk and White had both just been elected Supervisors in 1977). White, who had previously served as a police officer and firefighter, resigned his supervisor post on November 10, 1978, due to frustrations with city politics and increasing financial difficulties, related to his failing restaurant and insufficient city salary. Under law, Moscone would appoint his replacement, leading his conservative constituency to lobby White to ask for his old position back and pledge financial support. The mayor decided to appoint liberal housing official Don Horanzy to the position, with the formal appointment to take place on November 27. On that day, White went to City Hall with his loaded service revolver and extra bullets, and entered the building by climbing in through an open window. He shot the mayor in his office, reloaded, and intercepted Milk in the hallway, ducked into his former office, and shot Milk. As White fled the scene, Dianne Feinstein, then the President of the city's Board of Supervisors, found Milk, and inadvertently slipped her finger into one of his bullet wounds when checking for a pulse. She would later make the announcement to the public about the murders. White would turn himself in, denying premeditaton. His use of the now famous "Twinkie defense" (his Twinkie and junk food-heavy diet was evidence of his depressed mental state) ended up getting him found guilty of a lesser crime. In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, tens of thousands attended a candlelight march in the Castro district. Joan Baez and the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus performed. Singer/songwriter Holly Near was moved by the murder to write the protest song "Singing for Our Lives." The song has become a Unitarian hymn as We Are A Gentle, Angry People," and is also known as "Song for Harvey Milk."

Arlo Guthrie, the 18-year old son of folk music icon Woody, was arrested on November 26, 1965 for littering the day before in Stockbridge, MA. The arrest would serve as the focal point of the counter-culture anthem "Alice's Restaurant Massacree." Arlo had been staying with his friends Alice and Ray Brock in their deconsecrated church in Great Barrington, when he and friend Rick Robbins tried to take a load of trash from the church to the dump on Thanksgiving, only to find it closed. The pair then dumped the trash off a cliff onto private property where, the following day, Stockbridge police chief William Obanhein searched through the trash to find envelopes addressed to Ray. Guthrie and Robbins were fined $25 each and forced to clean up the garbage. The young folk singer-songwriter incorporated the story into his 18-minute opus "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" on his debut album, 1967's Alice's Restaurant, both named after the restaurant owned and operated by Alice Brock (where no action from the story actually took place).

In the early morning hours of November 25, 1975, Francis Crossen, a 34-year old Catholic father of 2, was grabbed off the street in Belfast, beaten, and brutally murdered by members of an Ulster loyalist gang known as the Shankill Butchers. Based in the Shankill area of west Belfast, the gang consisted mostly of members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. While the gang was responsible for over 20 murders in the mid to late 1970s, Crossen's was the first of a string of 7 brutal murders perpetrated by the gang over a 2 year span using their signature MO: abducting random Catholic civilians off the streets of Belfast, savagely beating them, then hacking their throat with a butcher's knife. In early 1979, eleven of the Butchers were convicted of 19 murders, and sentenced to 42 life sentences, the most ever in a single criminal trial in British history. The Decemberists, an American indie rock band released their fourth album, The Crane Wife in 2006. The album featured "Shankill Butchers," a song about the murders written by band frontman Colin Meloy.

The only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history occurred on November 24, 1971, when a man only known as "Dan Cooper" jumped out of a hijacked airplane with $200,000 in ransom money into a stormy sky somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Known as "DB Cooper," thanks to confusion by a local reporter that wasn't caught until the story had caught the country's attention, the mysterious, well-dressed hijacker was never seen again, and no definitive evidence of his true identity has ever surfaced. On the day before Thanksgiving in 1971, "Dan Cooper" bought a one-way ticket on Northwest Orient Airlines flight 305 from Portland to Seattle. He wore a nice dark suit, with a rain coat and attaché case. After takeoff, he passed a note to the flight attendant alerting her that he had a bomb. He told her his demands for her to have the flight crew radio ahead, and have $200,000 in "negotiable American currency," 4 parachutes, and a fuel truck waiting for them in Seattle. There, the 727 was refueled, the parachutes and money were brought on board, and all other passengers and most of the flight crew were released. The flight then took off again, headed to refuel in Reno before continuing to Mexico. However, around 8pm, somewhere over the Cascadian wilderness, Cooper jumped out of the plane with 2 parachutes and the money. The plane landed safely in Reno with no one hurt. The search for "D.B. Cooper" and his money captivated the country and was arguably the most extensive manhunt in FBI history, yet even over 40 years later, little evidence has been recovered. A deer hunter found a placard from a 727 with instructions on lowering the aft stairs. Three packets of the badly deteriorated bills were uncovered on the banks of the Columbia River in 1980. Many other alleged pieces of evidence have turned up, but the placard and money have so far been the only verified evidence from the hijacking. In addition to the copycats, movies, and TV storylines inspired by D.B. Cooper, there have been a number of songs about the mysterious hijacker as well. In 1973, legendary folk-rock band The Byrds recorded "Bag Full of Money" about the hijacking, but wouldn't release their version until special remastered edition of their 1972 album Further Along. Lead singer Roger McGuinn included his version on his self-titled solo album in 1973.

After being found guilty of killing a police officer in Manchester, England, three members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood were publicly hanged on November 23, 1867 and would become known as the Manchester Martyrs. William Phillip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien were among the 30-40 members of the Brotherhood (dedicated to a free Ireland) that attacked a horse-drawn police van carrying two of the group's arrested leaders to Belle Vue Gaol. Sgt. Charles Brett was shot when the Fenians broke Timothy Deasy and Thomas J. Kelly free on that day in September. Brett was the first Manchester City officer killed on duty. Two others were also charged and found guilty, but escaped the noose. The American government intervened on behalf of citizen Edwin O'Meagher Condon. The evidence against Thomas Maguire was deemed insufficient. The Irish rebel song "God Save Ireland" was inspired by the Manchester Martyrs. When the guilty verdicts were announced in court, the three men shouted "God save Ireland!" Timothy Daniel Sullivan wrote the lyrics and set them to the music of American Civil War song, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" The song was treated as the unofficial anthem of Ireland until 1922.

One of the most shocking tragedies in American history (that would spawn one of its greatest conspiracies theories) occurred on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX. History holds that former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald shot at the President’s car (also hitting fellow passenger Governor Connally and onlooker James Tague) from a book depository building nearby. There were other theories claiming a second guman was involved, and many experts believe that the assassination was part of a larger conspiracy, but Oswald was killed 2 days later, silencing him forever. British metal band Saxon released their third studio album, Strong Arm of the Law, in 1980. The album featured the song “Dallas 1pm” about Kennedy’s assassination.

The deadliest act of the Troubles took place on November 21, 1974, when bombs planted at two pubs in Birmingham, England exploded, killing 21 people, and injuring 182 more. The Provisional Irish Republican Army never officially claimed responsibility for the blasts at Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town, but a former senior officer admitted their involvement decades later. The"Birmingham Six." the six Irishmen arrested and sentenced to life in prison for the the terrorist attack (the worst in Britain between World War II and the 2005 London bombings) maintained their innocence, claiming police coercion, and their convictions were overturned 16 years later. Formerly of British rock band Electric Light Orchestra, Dave Scott-Morgan wrote "21 Today" with Phil Hatton in honor of the 21 victims of the bombings.

An explosion of indeterminate origin occurred in the Consol No. 9 coal mine in West Virginia at about 5:30am on November 20, 1968, with 99 miners in the mine, of whom only 21 made it out alive. The mine, located near Farmington and Mannington, WV, had been in operation nearly 60 years. The explosion was felt 12 miles away in Fairmont, and alerted nearby miners, who knew what the explosion meant and rushed to the mine to help. The flames were up to 150 feet high, and made rescue operations difficult. After about a week, rescue operations were ceased and the mine was sealed to smother the fire. The disaster led Congress to pass the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act, which increased federal inspections, strengthened safety standards, and expanded miners' health and safety rights. American bluegrass icon Hazel Dickens was known for her songs about coal miners. The West Virginia native wrote "The Mannington Mine Disaster" in 1969.

At about a quarter to 4 in the afternoon on November 19, 2010, a methane explosion caused a cave-in at the Pike River Mine near Greymouth, New Zealand, trapping and killing 29 people in the mine. Only two of the miners in the coal mine at the time escaped. Rescue attempts were made to reach the 16 miners and 13 contractors, but no signs of life were found. A second explosion on November 24 removed any doubt that there would be no survivors found. The bodies have still not been recovered. Dave Dobbyn, considered a musical icon in his native New Zealand, wrote "This Love" after visiting the mine and meeting with the victims' families. The song also features the Orpheus Choir of Wellington providing vocals.

At the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, a commune in Guyana more commonly known as "Jonestown," 918 people (almost entirely American cult members) died on November 18, 1978, mostly of cyanide poisoning. Jonestown was the home of the Peoples Temple, a cult founded by Jim Jones in the 1950s in Indiana, before relocating to California in the '60s, then to the South American jungle in the '70s. The cult also held communist political leanings and despised capitalism. California Congressman Leo Ryan had flown to the compound the previous day, investigating reports from his constituents that their family members were being held there. He arrived with a group of journalists, photographers, and a contingent of concerned family members, and were greeted warmly by Jones and the cult members. Some approached Ryan and asked for help escaping, and on November 18 Ryan's delegation was ambushed by Jones's followers at an airstrip, killing 5: Congressman Ryan, an NBC reporter and cameraman, an Examiner photographer, and a defector. Back at the commune, Jones put forth the order for his followers to engage in "revolutionary suicide" and they began consuming a cyanide-laced beverage. It was the largest mass suicide in modern times, and the 909 Americans who died in the massacre constituted the largest single deliberate loss of American life until September 11. 304 of the victims were minors. While Jones used Flavor Aid, it was commonly referred to as Kool-Aid, which inspired the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid," meaning to blindly adhere to a philosophy. Manowar is a heavy metal band from Auburn, NY. In 1984, they released their fourth album, Sign of the Hammer. The album featured "Guyana (Cult of the Damned)," a song about the massacre.

Herman Mudgett, better known as Dr. H. H. Holmes, was arrested on November 17, 1894 in Boston, charged with being one of the first modern serial killers. He was convicted of 9 murders, confessed to 27, but is estimated to have killed up to 200 people. For years he operated out of his own "Murder Castle," the World's Fair Hotel he operated in Chicago. Holmes built the block-long hotel with a variety of secret passageways and rooms in which he murdered people and dissected their bodies. After his arrest and trial, Holmes was hanged in 1896 in Philadelphia. Chicago metal band Macabre is known for their songs about serial killers, so it wasn't long before they wrote a song about Holmes. "Dr. Holmes (He Stripped Their Bones)" was included on their 1989 album Gloom.

William Becknell, a Virginia-born trader from Missouri, arrived in Santa Fe, NM on November 16, 1822, after blazing a trail that would become the Santa Fe Trail. For nearly 60 years before the railroads arrived, the trail was a commercial route from Independence, MO to Santa Fe, which sat at the junction with a vital Mexican trade route. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro travelled from San Juan Pueblo in the north to end in Mexico City. The Trail was used by the US Army in 1846 to invade New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. After the war, it served an integral part in expansion in the newly acquired Southwest. The traditional cowboy ballad "The Santa Fe Trall" became popular in the 19th century, but was first published in 1911. It was recorded by British folk singer Peter Bellamy on his 1983 collection of English, Irish, Australian, and American folk songs, For Annie.