Daily Archives: November 21, 2014

Cole Porter’s ‘Anything Goes’ opens on Broadway 80 years ago tonight (Nov 21 1934)


ETHEL MERMAN - ANYTHING GOES 1979

(Wednesday, November 21, 1934) — The Cole Porter musical Anything Goes, starring Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney and set aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London, opened today at the Alvin Theatre (now known as the Neil Simon Theatre) on Broadway in New York.

President Lincoln signs Bixby letter 150 years ago today (Nov 21 1864)


Video: 'George C. Marshall reads Abraham Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixbey'

(Monday, November 21, 1864; during American Civil War) — A letter was signed tdoay by President Abraham Lincoln expressing condolences to Lydia Bixby, a widow in Boston whose five sons supposedly died while fighting in the Civil War.

As it turned out, only two of Mrs. Bixby’s sons had been killed in battle. Also, historians are not certain that Lincoln actually wrote the letter.

Still, the text has been widely praised as one of Lincoln’s finest works of writing alongside the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address