November 16th



1849: A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to death by reading his own books.


1945: Operation Paperclip: The United States Army secretly admits 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology... and complete the cast of "Hogan's Heroes."


1965: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus in search of scientific data and decent toilet paper.