Today In History: Call Me Ishmael

November 14.  On this day in 1843, Mount Rainier erupted in Washington state, marking one of the volcano’s notable historical events. In 1851, Herman Melville’s now-classic novel Moby Dick was published in the United States for the first time. By 1965, the U.S. government had escalated its involvement in Vietnam, sending 90-thousand soldiers overseas. It was also a landmark date for blockbuster films: in 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone premiered, followed a year later by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and then in 2012 by The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Music history also made a mark on this date in 1995, when Tracy Chapman released her fourth studio album, New Beginning. Though its debut was modest, the blues-driven single “Give Me One Reason” quickly pushed the album’s sales to gold status within a week. And that’s today’s Almanac, on Northwest Newsradio.