Today in History, November 14th
On November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans. Plus Moby-Dick's US debut and Nellie Bly's race.
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November 14 is best known as the day in 1960 when six-year-old Ruby Bridges, escorted by federal marshals, walked into an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. The date also saw Moby-Dick published in the United States in 1851 and Nellie Bly set off to race around the world in 1889.
The big story: Ruby Bridges Walks Into William Frantz Elementary (1960)
On the morning of November 14, 1960, four federal marshals walked a six-year-old girl into William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges was one of four Black first graders that day, along with Leona Tate, Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost, who integrated the city’s all-white elementary schools. A crowd of white protesters jeered outside. Inside, parents marched in to pull their children out, and Ruby spent her first day sitting in the principal’s office. The next day, a young teacher from Boston named Barbara Henry began teaching her, and for the rest of the year the two worked alone in an otherwise empty classroom. The crowds thinned over time, and by the next year more Black students had enrolled. Norman Rockwell captured her walk in his 1963 painting The Problem We All Live With.
More events on November 14
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1732 | The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin and friends, signed a contract with its first librarian. |
| 1851 | Harper & Brothers published Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick in the United States, a few weeks after a British edition titled The Whale. |
| 1889 | Reporter Nellie Bly left Hoboken, New Jersey, on a race around the globe. She made it back in 72 days, six hours and 11 minutes. |
| 1922 | The BBC began daily radio broadcasts from its 2LO station in London. |
| 1940 | German bombers struck Coventry, England, in a raid that lasted about 11 hours, killed at least 554 people and destroyed the city’s cathedral. |
| 1969 | Apollo 12 launched for the Moon and was hit by lightning twice in its first minute. Quick thinking by flight controllers and the crew kept the mission going. |
| 1972 | The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time, at 1,003.16. |
Born on November 14
- 1840: Claude Monet, French painter and leading figure of Impressionism.
- 1889: Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of independent India.
- 1900: Aaron Copland, American composer of Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man.
- 1907: Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author who created Pippi Longstocking.
Sources
- Ruby Bridges, Britannica
- Nov. 14, 1960, Mississippi Today
- Today in History: November 14, Library of Congress
- Discover the Origins and Early Criticism of Moby-Dick, Smithsonian Magazine
- Nellie Bly Begins Her Journey Around the World, EBSCO Research Starters
- This week in broadcasting history: the BBC began daily transmissions, National Science and Media Museum
- 20 facts you might not know about the Coventry Blitz, Coventry City Council
- Apollo 12 lightning launch, Live Science
- 1972: DJIA 1,000, Goldman Sachs
- First G20 Leaders’ Summit: Washington D.C., UNSW Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation
- Claude Monet, Britannica
- Jawaharlal Nehru, Britannica
- Aaron Copland, Britannica
- Astrid Lindgren, Britannica
