On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery
at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War,
President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In fewer than 275 words, Lincoln
brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the
Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier, was
one of the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over the course
of three days, more than 45,000 men were killed, injured, captured
or went missing. The battle also proved to be the turning point of
the war: General Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army’s ultimate decline.

The original uncropped photo of the speakers stand at Gettysburg.

Abraham Lincoln’s original Gettysburg Address in an Illinois museum.

Sanford Koufax (87) nicknamed "the Left Arm of God"
and "Dandy Sandy."

On November 18, 1966, Sandy Koufax, the ace pitcher for the
Los Angeles Dodgers, retired from baseball. He was just 30
years old, and he was retiring after a great season–he’d led
the Dodgers to a National League pennant and won his third
Cy Young award. But he had chronic arthritis in his pitching
arm, and he was afraid that if he kept playing baseball,
eventually he wouldn’t be able to use his left hand at all.
“In those days there was no surgery,” he said much later.
“The wisdom was if you went in there, it would only make
things worse and your career would be over, anyway. Now
you go in, fix it, and you’re OK for next spring.”

On November 18, 1978, Peoples Temple cult founder Jim
Jones (above) led hundreds of his followers in a mass
murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in a remote
part of the South American nation of Guyana. Many of
Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch
while others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The final
death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; a third of those
who perished were children.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Film maker Martin Charles Scorsese emerged as one of the major
figures of the New Hollywood era. Scorsese has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards,
three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe
Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards.

He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in
1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the
Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in
2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have
been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of
Congress.

President John F. Kennedy decided to increase military aid to
South Vietnam without committing U.S. combat troops. He was concerned at the advances being made by the communist Viet 
Cong, but did not want to become involved in a land war in
Vietnam.

Kennedy hoped the military aid would be sufficient to strengthen
the Saigon government and its armed forces against the Viet
Cong. Ultimately it was not, and Kennedy ended up sending
additional support in the form of U.S. military advisors and
American helicopter units