November 20: ON THIS DAY in 1947, Princess Elizabeth says ‘I will’ in royal wedding
ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “(UP) — Princess Elizabeth today spoke a tremulous ‘I will’ in ancient Westminster Abbey and with those words the future queen of Britain became the wife of the newly created duke of Edinburgh … Despite postwar austerity and slate-colored skies, it was the most brilliant occasion Britain had known since the days before the war … A million persons lined the historic streets of London — the Mall, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square — for the spectacle … The wedding ceremony was carried by radio to every part of the British Empire, as well as to the United States, while television and movie cameras recorded the occasion. Twenty-seven kings, queens, princes and princesses of the ruling houses of Europe, all the ambassadors accredited to the Court of St. James, statesmen and the great of many lands were present.”
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On this day in 1863, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Mr. Everett at Gettysburg. — Mr. [Edward] Everett has let slip a great opportunity. A great occasion of adding to his fame as a national statesman was presented to him, and he was unwilling or unable to take advantage of it. Standing upon the ground beneath which reposes so many of the best and bravest of the youth of our country, he might have spoken in a voice which, though broken by sadness, might still reach above the roar of cannon, and bring before the offended and offending a more vivid picture of the terrible calamity in which war has involved our country. It was a place and an occasion in which a true orator and a real statesman might rise above the passions of the hour, and it would not have been unbecoming in one free from the trammels of office and in a great measure from allegiance to party, to warn and to advise as well as threaten and denounce.”