Celebrations Today – November 1
Holidays and observances
- All Saints’ Day a holy day of obligation (a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries), and its related observance:
- Day of the Innocents, The first day of Day of the Dead or El Dia de los Muertos celebration. (Mexico, Haiti)
- Anniversary of the Revolution (Algeria)
- Chavang Kut (Mizo people of Northeast India, Bangladesh, Burma)
- Christian feast day:
- Coronation of the fifth Druk Gyalpo (Bhutan)
- Earliest day on which Arbor Day can fall, while 7 November is the latest; celebrated on the first Friday in November. (Samoa)
- Earliest day on which Children’s Day can fall, while 7 November is the latest; celebrated on the first Saturday in November. (South Africa)
- Earliest day on which Health Day can fall, while 7 November is the latest; celebrated on the first Saturday in November. (Turkmenistan)
- Earliest day on which National Bison Day can fall, while 7 November is the latest; celebrated on the first Saturday in November. (United States)
- Haryana Foundation Day (Haryana, India)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Antigua and Barbuda from the United Kingdom in 1981.
- Karnataka Rajyotsava (Karnataka, India)
- Kerala Foundation Day (Kerala, India)
- Liberty Day (United States Virgin Islands)
- International Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome Awareness Day
- National Brush Day (United States)
- National Awakening Day (Bulgaria)
- Self-Defense Forces Commemoration Day (Japan)
- The first day of winter observances:
- Calan Gaeaf, celebrations start at sunset of October 31. (Wales)
- Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere and Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere, celebrations start at sunset of October 31 (Neopagan Wheel of the Year)
- World Vegan Day
Celebrations Today – USA: November 1
National Calzone Day*
National Authors’ Day
National Family Literacy Day
National Cook For Your Pets Day
National Vinegar Day
National Deep Fried Clams Day
National Brush Day
National Stress Awareness Day – First Wednesday in November
National All Saints Day
National Give Up Your Shoulds Day
National Author’s Day
National Go Cook For Your Pets Day
National Prime Meridian Day
World Vegan Day
Today in US History: November 1
Library of Congress Building Opens
The Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress,
Jim Higgins, photographer.
Jefferson’s Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress
America is justly proud of this gorgeous and palatial monument to its National sympathy and appreciation of Literature, Science, and Art.guidebook, ca. 1897.
quoted in John Y. Cole,
“The Buildings.”
Jefferson’s Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress
On November 1, 1897, the new Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public. Previously, the Library had been housed in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol. In the twentieth century, two additional buildings were added to the Library of Congress complex on Capitol Hill.
Main Reading Room. View from Above Showing Researcher Desks. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.,
Carol Highsmith, photographer, 2007.
Highsmith Archive
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
In 1871, Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Spofford first suggested the construction of a separate building for the Library, which had outgrown its cramped quarters. According to Library historian John Y. Cole, Spofford envisioned “a circular, domed reading room at the Library’s center, surrounded by ample space for the Library’s various departments.” After much debate and two design competitions, Congress finally approved the plan in 1886, designed in the Italian Renaissance style by Washington architects John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz. The building was an important step towards Spofford’s overall goal of establishing the Library of Congress as an American national library. When completed, it was the largest and costliest library building in the world.
Brigadier General Thomas Lincoln Casey and Bernard R. Green of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assumed control of the project in 1888. They soon began to focus on the interior of the building, which they hoped to make a showcase for the talents of American artists and artisans. “The elaborate embellishment” of the building’s interior, writes Cole in Jefferson’s Legacy, “is worth careful attention, for few structures represent human thought and aspiration in such dramatic fashion.”
In 1980, the building was renamed the Thomas Jefferson Building in honor of the nation’s third president. Jefferson sold his personal collection of 6,487 books to the Library of Congress in 1815, after its holdings were destroyed when the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. Jefferson’s wide-ranging interests as reflected in his books decisively expanded the scope of the Library’s mission. Today, Thomas Jefferson’s Library continues to be available for the use of researchers, but it is also displayed for visitors to the Library’s exhibit halls in the Jefferson Building, and on the World Wide Web.
Learn more about the Library of Congress, its buildings, and its history:
- Read Herbert Small’s Handbook of the New Library of Congress in PDF or Page view for a detailed discussion of the Jefferson Building’s architecture and ornamentation, published at the time of its completion.
- Panoramic Photographs: Taking the Long View, 1851-1991, includes a series of images of the construction of the Library of Congress building dating from 1890 through 1893, including photographs of the excavation of the site with views of surrounding buildings. Search the collection on Jefferson Building.
- On These Walls: Inscriptions and Quotations in the Buildings of the Library of Congress includes a history of the Jefferson Building, which officially reopened to the public in 1997 after more than a decade of restoration.
- Search on Jefferson Building in the Highsmith Archive for extensive photographs of the recently restored Jefferson Building, and in Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920 and Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959 to see older images of the building’s exterior, as well as its interior decoration.
- See the online guide Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building: Art and Architecture for even more links and information.
Today in History – November 1-External Links
Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia