Come 2014 it will be illegal to smoke in NYC if you're not 21, thanks to health and fitness guru Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The billionaire mayor has signed a bill raising the minimum age to 21 to buy tobacco products inside The Big Apple's 5 Burroughs.

This move is the latest in Bloomberg's public health initiatives, where he went from banning smoking in bars and restaurants to an ill fated attempt to ban large-sized sugary beverages.

The lame duck mayor has also outlawed discounts on cigarettes, set a price floor on a pack of smokes, and allow the city to harshly punish stores that try to get around collecting tobacco taxes.

Over a billion people will die from smoking around the world this century and he claims that he is trying to keep New Yorkers alive.

Talk with an National Cancer Institute smoking cessation counselor for help quitting and answers to smoking-related questions in English or Spanish - call toll free within the United States, Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

It has been 150 years to the day since US President5 Abraham Lincoln delivered The Gettysburg Address. Now that Google has put five versions of the speech online in extremely close detail. It underscores that even the great President Lincoln had to edit his work.

Today, the speech is set in the history books, but back in 1863, Lincoln was constantly fiddling with his message. The early editions of the great speech did not include "under God," while the phrase "a new birth of freedom," one of its most famous lines, wasn't added until after journalist Samuel Wilkeson used something similar to describe a battle in which his son died.

In fact, three versions in Google's exhibit were written down after Lincoln delivered the historic address.

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/lincoln-s-gettysburg-ad…

The nation's Midwest region experienced dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms on Sunday, killing six, injuring dozens and causing plenty of damage in several central Illinois communities, evacuating Chicago’s Soldier Field and delaying the Bears football game.

The death toll was kept low because officials sent warnings to portions of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, which were at the greatest risk of seeing tornadoes.

Showers with a chance of thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may be severe with damaging winds. Breezy. Near steady temperature in the upper 50s. South winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent.

Monday: Showers with a chance of thunderstorms in the morning... Then sunny in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may be severe with damaging winds. Windy with highs in the upper 60s. West winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent.

This Week in History, Nov 17 - Nov 23

Nov 17, 1558
Elizabethan Age begins. Queen Mary I, the monarch of England and Ireland since 1553, dies and is succeeded by her 25-year-old half-sister, Elizabeth. The two half-sisters, both daughters of King Henry VIII, had a stormy relationship during Mary's five-year reign. Mary, who was brought up as a Catholic, enacted pro-Catholic legislation and made efforts to restore the pope to supremacy in England. A Protestant rebellion ensued, and Queen Mary imprisoned Elizabeth, a Protestant, in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity. After Mary's death, Elizabeth survived several Catholic plots against her; though her ascension was greeted with approval by most of England's lords, who were largely Protestant and hoped for greater religious tolerance under a Protestant queen. Under the early guidance of Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, Elizabeth repealed Mary's pro-Catholic legislation, established a permanent Protestant Church of England, and encouraged the Calvinist reformers in Scotland.

Nov 18, 1991
Terry Waite released. Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years of captivity. Waite, looking thinner and his hair grayer, was freed along with American educator Thomas M. Sutherland after intense negotiations by the United Nations. Waite was a special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, had secured the release of missionaries detained in Iran after the Islamic revolution. He also extracted British hostages from Libya and even succeeded in releasing American hostages from Lebanon in 1986.

Nov 19, 1863
Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address. On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier, was the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over the course of three days, more than 45,000 men were killed, injured, captured or went missing. The battle also proved to be the turning point of the war: General Robert E. Lee's defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army's ultimate decline.