Independent New Hampshire Journalism · Northfield, NHA federal judge’s deadline sent Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne into two Ninth Ward schools in 1960, and the same date opened Charles Guiteau’s murder trial in 1881 and began a five-day federal shutdown in 1995.
Audio edition (9:04): a synthetic voice reads the article. The images, fact check and sources are on this page.
A court order is ink until someone carries it out. Several of the dates below show government power being put to that test: a federal judge’s deadline in New Orleans, a murder trial for the man who shot a president, an executive order that froze a foreign government’s money, and a funding law that ran out. Two more come from the Navy and NASA: a plane off a sloping wooden deck and a moon rocket through lightning.
November 14, 1960
A Judge’s Deadline Arrives in the Ninth Ward
The order was more than four years old. In February 1956 a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana struck down the Louisiana constitutional provision and state statutes that required segregated schools, and U.S. District Judge J. Skelly Wright ordered the city’s schools desegregated “with all deliberate speed,” according to the Federal Judicial Center’s account of Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board.
Very little moved. In July 1959 Wright ordered the city to produce a desegregation plan by May 1960. When officials refused, he imposed his own, starting with the first grade, and later agreed to push the start to November. The school board answered with a transfer scheme: it tested 137 Black applicants and approved five, a number that fell to four, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Wright set November 14, 1960, as the new deadline, according to 64 Parishes, the encyclopedia of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
On that date three first-graders, Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne, were placed at McDonogh 19. A fourth, Ruby Bridges, was placed at William Frantz Elementary. Both schools sat in the Ninth Ward. Deputy U.S. marshals escorted the girls through the crowds. The U.S. Marshals Service names deputies Herschel Garner and Charles Burks among the escorts and records that protesters threw things at the children and their parents.
The state fought the order in the open. In November 1960 the legislature passed an interposition law that barred federal officers, judges included, from acts the state deemed unconstitutional, and it authorized the arrest of federal officials who tried to enforce desegregation. A three-judge panel struck the law down and enjoined about 700 state and local officials from countermanding integration, decisions the U.S. Supreme Court later upheld. 64 Parishes reports that Mayor deLesseps Morrison kept city police from enforcing the court order.
Many white parents withdrew their children. 64 Parishes calls the November 14 desegregation a token effort. The Federal Judicial Center notes that Wright ordered grades one through six desegregated shortly before he moved to the federal appeals court in Washington in April 1961. His successor took a slower approach.
November 14, 1881
The President’s Assassin Goes on Trial
Charles Guiteau shot President James Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac train station in Washington on July 2, 1881, according to the National Park Service. His murder trial opened in Washington on November 14, 1881, according to a trial chronology on the Famous Trials site. Seating the jury took three days and 175 potential jurors.
Guiteau’s defense was insanity. The National Park Service explains why it failed: the rule of the day, the M’Naghten test, held a defendant responsible if he knew his act was unlawful and understood its consequences, and Guiteau knew both. The jury returned a guilty verdict on January 25, 1882. Judge Cox rejected a defense motion for a new trial, Guiteau was sentenced on February 4, and after President Arthur declined to intervene, he was hanged at the District of Columbia jail on June 30, 1882.
November 14, 1910
A Civilian Pilot Flies Off a Navy Cruiser
The test was the idea of Capt. Washington Irving Chambers, the officer the Navy had tasked with overseeing aviation matters, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. Workers built a wooden deck 85 feet long and 24 feet wide over the bow of the cruiser Birmingham. It sloped downward at five degrees, and its end sat 37 feet above the water.
On November 14, 1910, with the ship at anchor in Hampton Roads, Virginia, civilian pilot Eugene Ely took off in a Curtiss pusher. He dove to gain speed, and his wheels and propeller struck the water. He stayed in the air and landed on a beach near Fort Monroe. The command records it as the first takeoff from a U.S. Navy ship.
November 14, 1969
Lightning Strikes Apollo 12, and Mission Control Finds the Switch
Apollo 12 lifted off at 11:22 a.m. EST into a dark, rainy sky, with Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard F. Gordon and Alan L. Bean aboard, according to NASA’s mission history. The first 36 seconds went normally. Then, at about 6,600 feet, observers on the ground saw lightning strike the launch pad. The crew saw a bright flash, and much of the spacecraft’s electronics went offline, taking the three power-producing fuel cells with them. A second event at 52 seconds knocked out the guidance system.
In Mission Control in Houston, a young engineer named John W. Aaron, who was monitoring the spacecraft’s systems, worked out that a piece of equipment called the Signal Conditioning Equipment had been upset. The fix was a seldom-used switch moved from Normal to Auxiliary. Bean remembered where it was on his panel and flipped it, and the systems came back. NASA credits Aaron’s quick action with saving the launch. Conrad radioed: “I think we need to do a little more all-weather testing.” He and Bean later made a pinpoint landing in the Ocean of Storms, within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 probe, and the crew splashed down in the Pacific 244 hours and 36 minutes after liftoff.
November 14, 1979
Carter Freezes Iran’s Money by Executive Order
On November 14, 1979, Iran’s acting foreign minister, Abol Hasan Bani-Sadr, told reporters in Tehran that Iran would move about $12 billion deposited in U.S. banks to banks that could not block the money, according to the State Department’s Office of the Historian. The same day President Jimmy Carter issued Executive Order 12170.
The order found the situation in Iran to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy” of the United States, declared a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and blocked all property of the Government of Iran, its instrumentalities and controlled entities, and the Central Bank of Iran within U.S. jurisdiction. Treasury Secretary William Miller told reporters that Iran’s liquid assets came to less than $6 billion, the largest piece $1.3 billion in Treasury notes held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The freeze left private individuals’ assets alone, the former Shah’s included. The Federal Register’s codification of the order lists a presidential notice continuing the emergency every year from 1980 through 1988.
November 14, 1995
The Money Runs Out, and 800,000 Federal Workers Are Furloughed
A continuing resolution, Public Law 104-31, funded the federal government through November 13, 1995. That day President Bill Clinton vetoed a second continuing resolution, H.J.Res. 115, and a debt limit extension, H.R. 2586, and instructed agencies to begin shutdown operations, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The shutdown began November 14 and ended November 19. An estimated 800,000 federal employees were furloughed over its five full days. It was the first of two shutdowns that fiscal year; the second ran from December 1995 into January 1996.
Every entry above rests on records anyone can open: federal court histories, a trial chronology, Navy and NASA histories, a State Department documentary record, an executive order and a congressional research report. The links are below. Read the originals.
Your Turn
Tell us: Which New Hampshire court order, school decision or budget fight belongs in this almanac? Write to granitestatereport@gmail.com.
Fact check
| # | Claim | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | In February 1956 a three-judge federal panel struck down Louisiana’s school segregation provisions, and Judge J. Skelly Wright ordered New Orleans schools desegregated “with all deliberate speed.” | VERIFIED | Federal Judicial Center, Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board teacher handout |
| 2 | Wright ordered a plan by May 1960 (July 1959 order), imposed his own first-grade plan, and later agreed to delay the start to November; the board tested 137 Black applicants and approved five, later four. | VERIFIED | Federal Judicial Center handout |
| 3 | Wright set November 14, 1960, as the new deadline; 64 Parishes calls the desegregation that day a token effort. | ATTRIBUTED | 64 Parishes (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities), “New Orleans School Crisis” |
| 4 | Tate, Prevost and Etienne were placed at McDonogh 19 and Bridges at William Frantz; both in the Ninth Ward. | ATTRIBUTED | 64 Parishes; the Federal Judicial Center handout does not name the schools |
| 5 | Deputy U.S. marshals escorted the girls; deputies Herschel Garner and Charles Burks are named; protesters threw things at the children and their parents. | VERIFIED | U.S. Marshals Service, “Deputy U.S. Marshals Escort Ruby Bridges to School in 1960” (Nov. 14, 2024) |
| 6 | The November 1960 interposition law and its arrest authorization; a three-judge panel enjoined about 700 officials; the Supreme Court upheld the decisions. | VERIFIED | Federal Judicial Center handout |
| 7 | Mayor deLesseps Morrison kept police from enforcing the court order. | ATTRIBUTED | 64 Parishes |
| 8 | Wright ordered grades one through six desegregated before moving to the D.C. Circuit in April 1961; his successor was slower. | VERIFIED | Federal Judicial Center handout |
| 9 | Guiteau shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac station on July 2, 1881; the M’Naghten rule and why the insanity defense failed. | VERIFIED | National Park Service, Garfield’s assassin biographical sketch |
| 10 | The trial opened November 14, 1881; jury seated after three days and 175 potential jurors; guilty January 25, 1882; sentenced February 4; Arthur declined to intervene; hanged June 30, 1882. | ATTRIBUTED | Famous Trials, “The Charles Guiteau Trial: A Chronology”; NPS confirms the trial began in November 1881 |
| 11 | Ely’s November 14, 1910, takeoff from the cruiser Birmingham at Hampton Roads; deck dimensions, slope and height; wheels and propeller struck water; landed near Fort Monroe; Chambers’s role; first takeoff from a U.S. Navy ship. | VERIFIED | Naval History and Heritage Command, “Eugene Ely Makes Naval Aviation’s First Shipboard Launch” |
| 12 | Apollo 12 launched at 11:22 a.m. EST on November 14, 1969; crew; 36 seconds; about 6,600 feet; second event at 52 seconds; Aaron and the SCE switch; Conrad’s quote; Ocean of Storms near Surveyor 3; 244 hours 36 minutes to splashdown. | VERIFIED | NASA, “55 Years Ago: Apollo 12 Makes a Pinpoint Landing on the Moon”; NASA photo S69-58883 caption |
| 13 | Bani-Sadr said on November 14, 1979, that Iran would move about $12 billion; Carter issued EO 12170 the same day; Miller’s under-$6 billion and $1.3 billion figures; private assets including the former Shah’s unaffected. | VERIFIED | Office of the Historian, FRUS 1977–1980, Vol. XI, Part 1, Document 30 |
| 14 | EO 12170’s text: emergency finding, IEEPA authority, the property blocked; continuation notices listed from 1980 through 1988. | VERIFIED | National Archives, Office of the Federal Register, EO 12170 codification |
| 15 | P.L. 104-31 funded the government through November 13, 1995; Clinton vetoed H.J.Res. 115 and H.R. 2586; shutdown November 14–19; about 800,000 furloughed; second shutdown December 1995–January 1996. | VERIFIED | Congressional Research Service, R41759, “Past Government Shutdowns: Key Resources” |
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Related GSR coverage: November 12 in U.S. History: The Supreme Court Struck Down Arkansas’s Ban on Teaching Evolution in 1968; Why the Government Shut Down, and Who’s Really to Blame.
Editor’s note. This edition draws on the Federal Judicial Center, the U.S. Marshals Service, 64 Parishes, the National Park Service, the Famous Trials chronology, the Naval History and Heritage Command, NASA, the State Department’s Office of the Historian, the Office of the Federal Register, the Congressional Research Service and the Library of Congress. The names of the two New Orleans schools and of the three McDonogh 19 students come from 64 Parishes; the Federal Judicial Center handout does not name them, and the Marshals Service account agrees that Bridges attended William Frantz. The Library of Congress catalog record for the Guiteau engraving lists no artist; the Davidson credit is read from the caption printed on the engraving. No New Hampshire connection to these entries was established in the sources consulted.
Corrections: Granite State Report corrects verified errors promptly and appends a dated note identifying what changed and when. The corrections policy and the corrections register are public, and correction notes are never removed.
