Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) was an American author, poet and editor who worked with several notable 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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• The interim government of Egypt resigns amidst violent protests in which at least 30 people have been killed and more than 1,500 wounded.
• 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.
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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 helping two Irish nationalists escape from police custody.
• 1876 – William "Boss" Tweed, a 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, 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) won the Liberian general election, making her the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa.

More anniversaries: November 22 – November 23 – November 24