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November 17th
1603 ~ English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.
1790 ~ Birthday of August Ferdinand Möbius, Mathematician. 1800 ~ The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC held its first session of Congress. 1869 ~ In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, was inaugurated. 1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. 1917 ~ Death of Auguste Rodin, Sculptor. 1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician. 1959 ~ Death of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian Composer. 1970 ~ Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the first computer mouse. 2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger wasinaugurated Governor of California. |
November 18th
1421 ~ A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike broke, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
1626 ~ St. Peter's Basilica was consecrated. 1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer. 1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert, Dramatist. 1883 ~ American and Canadian railroads instituted five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times. 1916 ~ World War I: First Battle of the Somme ended - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916. (Stalemate – Approx. 1,120,000 casualties, 310,000 killed or missing) 1928 ~ Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the Cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse. 1978 ~ Jonestown mass suicide: In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones lead his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children. 1991 ~ Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free. 2003 ~ The Local Government Act 2003, repealing Section 28, became effective. |
November 19th
1493 ~ Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on an island he only named the day before. He named it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico).
1794 ~ The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which attempted to clear up some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War. Interestingly, the American people were very displeased with this, and there were protests against Justice Jay and his treaty. Alexander Hamilton, however, convinced Washington it was the best treaty that could be expected, and Washington agreed to sign it. This action caused Thomas Jefferson to start forming an active and open opposition group to Hamilton and his associates. They began to call themselves Republicans, and would later morph in the Democratic Party. 1805 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and Suez Canal engineer. 1828 ~ Death of Franz Schubert, Austrian Composer. 1884 ~ Birthday of José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban Chess Grand Master. 1917 ~ Birthday of Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India. 1941 ~ World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sank each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen. 1977 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he met with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement. Much of the Arab world was outraged by the visit. 1990 ~ Pop group Milli Vanilli was stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals. 1998 ~ Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton. |
November 20th
1820 ~ An 80-ton sperm whale attacked the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).
1889 ~ Birthday of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer. 1908 ~ Birthday of Alistair Cooke, Journalist 1910 ~ Death of Leo Tolstoy, Novelist. 1917 ~ World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins – The first successful use of tanks; the British attack ended as another failure. 1924 ~ Birthday of Benoît Mandelbrot, Mathematician. 1945 ~ Nuremberg Trials began: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II started at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice. 1947 ~ The Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London. 1998 ~ A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declared accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. 2003 ~ Michael Jackson was arrested charges of child molestation. |
November 21st
1695 ~ Death of Henry Purcell, Composer.
1783 ~ In Paris, Jean Rozier and François Laurent made the first untethered hot air balloon flight (flight time: 25 minutes, Maximum height: 100m, distance: 9 km). 1787 ~ Birthday of Samuel Cunard, Shipping Magnate. 1877 ~ Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound. 1898 ~ Birthday of René Magritte, Belgian painter. 1953 ~ Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the "Piltdown Man" was a hoax. 1969 ~ The first ARPANET link was established. 1974 ~ The Birmingham Pub Bombings by the IRA killed 21 people. 1985 ~ United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested for spying (he was caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison). 1995 ~ Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery. |
November 22nd
1718 ~ Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") was killed in battle when a British boarding party cornered and then shot and stabbed him more than 25 times.
1890 ~ Birthday of Charles de Gaulle, general, President of France. 1900 ~ Death of Arthur S. Sullivan, Composer. 1913 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Britten, Composer. 1935 ~ The China Clipper took off from Alameda, California to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean. 1963 ~ Birthday of C. S. Lewis, Author. 1963 ~ Death of Aldous Huxley, Author. 1963 ~ In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy wss assassinated. 1977 ~ British Airways inaugurated regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service. 1990 ~ Margaret Thatcher resigned as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. |
November 23rd
1644 ~ ”Areopagitica” by John Milton was published. 1860 ~ Birthday of Billy the Kid, Bandit. 1869 ~ In Dumbarton, Scotland the clipper ship "Cutty Sark" was launched (it was one of the last clipper ships to be built, and the only one surviving to the present day). 1876 ~ Birthday of Manuel de Falla, Composer. 1887 ~ Birthday of Boris Karloff, Actor. 1888 ~ Birthday of Harpo Marx, Comedian. 1902 ~ Death of Walter Reed, Bacteriologist. 1955 ~ Death of Shemp Howard, actor, comedian (The Three Stooges) 1963 ~ The first episode of the sci-fi TV series "Doctor Who" debuts on the BBC. 1971 ~ The People's Republic of China was given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council. |
November 24th
1632 ~ Birthday of Baruch Spinoza, Philosopher.
1642 ~ Here’s on for Grumble! Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania). 1853 ~ Birthday of Bat Masterson, Gunslinger, Policeman, Sports Reporter. 1859 ~ British naturalist Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species”, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sold out its initial print run). 1868 ~ Birthday of Scott Joplin, Musician. 1947 ~ Red Scare: After refusing to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives voted 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10. 1963 ~ Death of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassination suspect. 1993 ~ In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention"). 1991 ~ Death of Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen). 1998 ~ America Online announced it would acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion. |
November 25th
311 ~ Execution of Peter of Alexandria, "The Seal of the Martyrs", believed to be the last one to lose his life for the faith in the Diocletian Persecutions.
1783 ~ American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris. 1844 ~ Birthday of Karl Benz, Engineer. 1913 ~ Birthday of Lewis Thomas, Physician & Essayist. 1926 ~ Birthday of Poul Anderson, Science Fiction writer. 1940 ~ Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the film "Knock Knock". 1947 ~ New Zealand ratified the Statute of Westminster and thus became independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom. 1968 ~ Death of Upton Sinclair, Journalist, Politician, Writer. 1984 ~ 36 of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gathered as Band Aid to record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. 1992 ~ The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly voted to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993. |
November 26th
1607 ~ Birthday of John Harvard, after whom Harvard University is named.
1778 ~ Captain James Cook discovered Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands. 1862 ~ Lewis Carroll sent the handwritten manuscript of “Alice's Adventures Underground” to 10-year-old Alice Liddell. 1894 ~ Birthday of Norbert Wiener, mathematician, founder of cybernetics. 1922 ~ Birthday of Charles M. Schulz, Cartoonist. 1922 ~ Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun; the first in over 3000 years. 1942 ~ The film “Casablanca” premiered in New York City. 1956 ~ Death of Tommy Dorsey, Big Band leader. 1983 ~ In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million were stolen from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. 2003 ~ Last ever flight by Concorde. |
November 27th
8 BC ~ Death of Horace, poet. Remembered for “carpe diem”, (seize the day) among other things.
1095 ~ Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. 1895 ~ Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he died. 1907 ~ Birthday of L. Sprague de Camp, Science Fiction writer. 1921 ~ Birthday of Alexander Dubček, Czech politician. 1942 ~ Birthday of Jimi Hendrix, musician. 1946 ~ Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster". Guess what country subsequently developed nuclear weapons and a missile delivery system? 1953 ~ Death of Eugene O'Neill, playwright. 1978 ~ In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White. 2001 ~ A hydrogen atmosphere was discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet. |
November 28th
1520 ~ Three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.
1632 ~ Birthday of Jean-Baptiste Lully, Composer. 1820 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Engels, social philosopher. 1859 ~ Death of Washington Irving, writer. 1905 ~ Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin as a political party whose goal is the independence for all of Ireland. 1919 ~ Lady Astor was elected to be the first female member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. 1939 ~ Death of James A Naismith, creator of basketball. 1954 ~ Death of Enrico Fermi, Physicist. 1969 ~ The Rolling Stones released the classic album Let It Bleed. 1989 ~ Cold War: Velvet Revolution - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced it would give up its monopoly on political power. |
November 29th
1643 ~ Death of Claudio Monteverdi, Composer.
1777 ~ San Jose, California, was founded as ‘el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe’. It was the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California. 1797 ~ Birthday of Gaetano Donizetti, Opera Composer. 1832 ~ Birthday of Louisa May Alcott, Writer. 1890 ~ In West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeated the United States Army 24 to 0 in the first Army-Navy football game. Go Navy! 1898 ~ Birthday of C. S. Lewis, Writer. 1947 ~ The United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews. 1982 ~ Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passed United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that the Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan. 1990 ~ Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passed UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991. 2001 ~ Death of George Harrison, musician. |
November 30th
1667 ~ Birthday of Jonathan Swift, Writer & Satirist.
1782 ~ American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain signed preliminary peace articles which were later formalized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. 1835 ~ Birthday of Mark Twain, Writer. 1872 ~ First ever international football match played at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland. 1874 ~ Birthday of Sir Winston Churchill , British political leader & Writer. 1936 ~ In London, the Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire (it had been built for the 1851 Great Exhibition). 1900 ~ Death of Oscar Wilde, Writer. 1954 ~ In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound meteorite crashed through her roof and hit Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio. This is the only documented case of anyone being hit by a meteorite. 1989 ~ Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen was killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb. 1999 ~ In Seattle, Washington, the first major mobilization, in the United States, of the anti-globalization movement caught police unprepared and forced the cancellation of opening ceremonies of a World Trade Organization meeting. |
December 1st
1083 ~ Birthday of Anna Comnena, Byzantine historian.
1640 ~ Portugal regained its independence from Spain. 1824 ~ U.S. presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the House of Representatives was given the task to decide the winner, as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment. 1835 ~ Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales. 1918 ~ The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed. 1935 ~ Birthday of Woody Allen, Film Director & Actor &Comedian. 1955 ~ American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws (Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr. later led the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott as a result). 1959 ~ Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed - 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, signed a treaty which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent. This was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. 1964 ~ Death of J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist. 1990 ~ Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France met 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first ground connection between the island of Great Britain and the mainland of Europe since the last ice age. |
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