Mark Twain at age 31.

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Clemens was apprenticed to a printer at age 13 and later
worked for his older brother, who established the Hannibal
Journal. In 1857, the Keokuk Daily Post commissioned him
to write a series of comic travel letters, but after writing five
he decided to become a steamboat captain instead. He signed
on as a pilot’s apprentice in 1857 and received his pilot’s
license in 1859, when he was 23.

Clemens piloted boats for two years, until the Civil War halted
steamboat traffic. During his time as a pilot, he picked up the
term “Mark Twain,” a boatman’s call noting that the river was
only two fathoms deep, the minimum depth for safe navigation.

When Clemens returned to writing in 1861, working for the
Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, he wrote a humorous travel
letter signed by “Mark Twain” and continued to use the
pseudonym for nearly 50 years.

Henry Alfred Kissinger  (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023)

Henry Kissinger, the influential former U.S. Secretary of State
who earned a reputation as a sagacious diplomat but drew
international condemnation and accusations of war crimes
for his key role in widening the American presence in Vietnam
and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, died Wednesday.

He served as Secretary of State and national security adviser
under two Republican presidents, Richard Nixon and Gerald
Ford, and advised powerful leaders in both American political
parties for decades.

Henry Kissinger President Richard Nixon.

Kissinger and President Gerald Ford.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Natalie Wood (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981)

Natalie was a actress who began her career in film
as a child and successfully transitioned to young
adult roles.

As a teenager, she was nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in
Rebel Without a Cause (1955), followed by a part
in John Ford‘s The Searchers (1956).

At the age of only 43, Wood drowned in the Pacific
Ocean near Santa Catalina Island during a break
from production of her would-be comeback film
Brainstorm (1983).

Natalie Wood in WEST SIDE STORY (1961)

On November 29, 1942, coffee joined the list of items rationed
in the United States. Despite record coffee production in Latin
American countries, the growing demand for the bean from
both military and civilian sources, and the demands placed
on shipping, which was needed for other purposes, required
the limiting of its availability.

Scarcity or shortages were rarely the reason for rationing
during the war. Rationing was generally employed for two
reasons: (1) to guarantee a fair distribution of resources
and foodstuffs to all citizens; and (2) to give priority to
military use for certain raw materials, given the present
emergency.