The History Channel
• On Nov. 16, 1849, a Russian court sentences author Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for alleged antigovernment activities. Instead, he received a last-minute reprieve and was sent to a Siberian labor camp, where he worked for four years. In 1866, Dostoevsky published “Crime and Punishment,” one of his most popular works.
• On Nov. 11, 1852, the Saturday Evening Gazette publishes “The Rival Painters: A Story of Rome,” by Louisa May Alcott, who would later write the beloved children’s book “Little Women” (1868).
• On Nov. 12, 1889, DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader’s Digest, is born in St. Paul, Minn. The first issue, printed in his basement in February 1922, had an initial run of 1,500 copies. By the end of the 20th century, Reader’s Digest had the largest circulation of any publication in the world, with more than 17 million readers in dozens of countries and some 20 languages.
• On Nov. 14, 1996, pop star Michael Jackson marries his second wife, Deborah Rowe. The couple had two sons, Prince and Paris, before divorcing in 1999. Jackson’s first wife was Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis.
STRANGE BUT TRUE
By Samantha Weaver
• Statistics show that widows outnumber widowers by a ratio of 5 to 1.
• Holstein cows are known to be prolific milkers. A good heifer can produce her own weight in milk in just a couple of weeks.
• Soup is often served as a first course in Western cuisine, but if you travel to China and eat traditional meals, you’re more likely to have it as the last course.
• Are you ambisinister? Don’t worry, it’s just a fancy way of saying that you’re clumsy with both hands. The literal meaning is “with two left hands” — the manual equivalent of having two left feet.
• It’s been reported that gangster Al Capone paid, in today’s dollars, upward of $300,000 in bribes every week.
(c) 2008 King Features Synd. Inc.
