Droll, odd, tragic, and awkward moments from the many Novembers of Las Vegas history
November 1, 1915: A newspaper ad for “Dr. and Mrs. Dr. Chamley & Co., the greatest cancer specialists living,” promises to cure folks in their homes, using a rare island plant, “of any cancer or tumor, without knife or pain, before it poisons deep glands or attaches to bone.”
November 2, 1982: Little-known Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chic Hecht, “in the most stunning election upset in the nation,” defeats longtime Nevada Democrat Senator Howard Cannon.
November 3, 1955: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren’s daughter, Nina “Honey Bear” Warren, 22, has surprised her father by eloping to Vegas to marry Dr. Stuart Brien, 33, of Beverly Hills.
November 4, 1960: Four days before the presidential election, bookmakers here list Sen. John F. Kennedy an 8-5 favorite over Republican candidate Richard Nixon.
November 5, 1982: Gaming industry head honchos are “infuriated” after Las Vegas FBI Chief Joe Yablonsky “compares legalized gambling with legalized prostitution.”
November 6, 1955: Suspected ice cream parlor burglar Alden Kelley, 34, has admitted to shooting and killing police officer Wilber McGee, 33.
November 7, 1918: With more than 125 reported cases of influenza in our city, including 12 deaths this week, there is “difficulty getting sufficient caskets for the dead, as C.B. Faust, the town’s undertaker, is also bedridden with the flu.”
November 8, 1939: The Green Shack nightclub on Boulder Highway celebrates its seventh anniversary.
November 9, 1958: Handyman Jack Rainsberger, 23, has confessed to recently murdering local stenographer Erline Folker, 23, by slashing her throat “in a human sacrifice ritual in the desert.”
November 10, 2006: The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld a lap-dance ordinance “prohibiting exotic dancers from fondling patrons with the intent to sexually arouse them, including rubbing breasts against patrons’ faces and grinding buttocks into patrons’ groins.”
November 11, 1905: Frank Manuel, the blacksmith, “is building a cottage at Bonneville and First streets for his family arriving here in a few days from Maine.”
November 12, 189,998,619 BCE: Dinosaurs the size of Doberman Pinschers walk through the wet sands of the Vegas Valley on talon-tipped toes.
November 13, 1963: In the news, President Kennedy recommits to his Space Program proposal to Congress more than two years ago “to put a man on the moon by 1970.”
November 14, 1934: Inspector Ken Rankin, 33, is the first person killed working at Boulder Dam when “crushed by a bucket carrying eight cubic yards of liquid concrete.”
November 15, 1916: Gov. Boyle has proclaimed today as “Nevada Honey Day, hoping to stimulate the culture of bees in the state.”
November 16, 1992: Funeral services are held for popular former UNLV cheerleader Valerie Pida, 25, who died recently after a 12-year battle with Hodgkin’s disease.
November 17, 1963: A Gallop Poll survey shows, a year before the next presidential race, that President Kennedy (who spoke in Las Vegas two months ago) leads all possible opponents “by a wide margin, due to his appeal to women voters.”
November 18, 1973: In a Review-Journal headline President Richard Nixon declares, “I’M NOT A CROOK!”
November 19, 1973: Scientists at Chemtec Corporation, located in the BMI Complex in Henderson, are developing a promising plan to process cow manure into food.
November 20, 1934: At Ward’s Cash Stores, hamburger is 10 cents a pound.
November 21, 1963: A Rutgers University study has concluded that “Nevada has the highest percentage of alcoholics and per capita alcohol consumption of the 50 states,” inspiring local pundits to suggest changing the state’s motto from “Battle Born” to “Bottle Born.”
November 22, 1963: Today’s Review-Journal headline reads: “JFK DEAD.” Below it is a black and white photo of the doomed president in the back seat of his limousine, with the caption, “Kennedy grasps head after assassin’s bullet hit.”
November 23, 1992: Regarding the increase of teenage thrill-killing in Vegas, prosecutor Dan Seaton says, “In my 22 years on the job, the biggest change in violent crime is that more young people are using violence to make themselves happy.”
November 24, 1958: Casino executives see the possibility of the new government taking over Mexico in December as “a real threat to legalizing wide-open gambling there.”
November 25, 2011: Endorsed by County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, Occupy Las Vegas, a local offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, a group protesting against corporate greed, takes to the Strip and local shopping malls to repeatedly yell at holiday shoppers and tourists: “It’s time to change the planet! It’s time to change the planet!”
November 26, 1930: Police round up “at least 40 undesirables per day,” as people out of work across the nation flock to town.
November 27, 1958: John “Bunny” Breckenridge, an actor in the soon-to-be-released film Plan 9 From Outer Space, has been arrested in California for allegedly having an orgy in Las Vegas with two boys, ages 11 and 13.
November 28, 1930: Nevada officials propose a bill to the Legislature for a $5 per day wage for work on Boulder Dam, and that “aliens be prohibited from employment on the project.”
November 29, 1973: Area resident Haakon Hanson, 40, reports seeing a UFO over VoTech High School.
November 30, 1934: Some Las Vegans are still thinking about Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who spoke here this past week.