Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) was an American author, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid magazine writer of his day. For a time, he was the employer of former slave and future writer Harriet Jacobs. Born in Portland, Maine, Willis came from a family of publishers. He developed an interest in literature while attending Yale College and began publishing poetry. After graduation, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the New York Mirror. He eventually moved to New York and began to build his literary reputation. In 1846, he started his own publication, the Home Journal, which was eventually renamed Town & Country. Shortly after, Willis moved to a home on the Hudson River where he lived a semi-retired life until his death in 1867. Willis embedded his own personality into his writing and addressed his readers personally, specifically in his travel writings, so that his reputation was built in part because of his character. Critics, including his sister in her novel Ruth Hall, occasionally described him as being effeminate and Europeanized. Despite his intense popularity for a time, at his death Willis was nearly forgotten. (more...)

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• ... that Paralympic gold medallist Brendan Burkett (pictured) is the director of the Centre for Healthy Activities, Sport and Exercise at the University of the Sunshine Coast?
• ... that St Edwen's Church, Llanedwen, is one of the few churches in Wales to be lit only by candles?
• ... that the armored cruiser Admiral Makarov was one of the ships that represented the Russian Empire at the coronation of Nicholas I of Montenegro in August 1910?
• ... that the interlocking at the Harris Switch Tower in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, still simulates train movements using timetables from the early 1940s?
• ... that less than six weeks after winning the 2011 National Rugby League premiership, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles sacked their head coach, Des Hasler?
• ... that Punta Brava, Cuba, has been the site of a number of notable deaths, including those of Antonio Maceo Grajales (1896) and Quentin Bandera (1906)?
  
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• In auto racing, Tony Stewart (pictured) wins the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
• The People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, wins a majority in the Spanish general election.
• Scientists announce the development of the world's lightest solid material.
• Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, banned in Burma since May 2010, announces that it will re-register as a political party.
• Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia sign a cooperation agreement, setting a target of establishing the Eurasian Union by 2015.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency releases a report accusing Iran of conducting research and experiments to develop nuclear weapons.
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November 23: St George's Day in Georgia; Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan

• 1867 – The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while assisting two Irish nationalists, who had played important roles in the failed Fenian Rising, to escape from custody.
• 1876 – William "Boss" Tweed, a major New York City politician who had been arrested for embezzlement, was handed to US authorities after having escaped from prison to Spain.
• 1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden encountered a garrison of Somalis in Italian service at Walwal, which led to the Abyssinia Crisis.
• 1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked by three Ethiopians seeking political asylum, then crashed into the Indian Ocean near Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 people on board.
• 2005 – Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (pictured) was declared the winner of the Liberian general election, making her the first democratically elected female head of state of an African country.

More anniversaries: November 22 – November 23 – November 24