Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/November
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2019 day arrangement | ||||||
November 1: Samhain and Beltane begin (Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively); Rajyotsava (Formation Day) in Karnataka, India (1956)
Stephen of Blois
- 1141 – The Anarchy: Stephen of Blois (pictured), recently freed from the captivity of his cousin and rival Matilda, released her strongest supporter from his custody, leading to a years-long stalemate in the civil war.
- 1914 – World War I: The first contingent of the First Australian Imperial Force departed Albany.
- 1956 – The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka were formally created under the States Reorganisation Act.
- 1968 – The voluntary Motion Picture Association of America film rating system came into effect for films released in the United States.
Józef Zajączek (b. 1752) · Jan Matejko (d. 1893) · Joan McCracken (d. 1961)
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Crew of Expedition 1
- 619 – Emperor Gaozu allowed the assassination of a khagan of the Western Turkic Khaganate by Eastern Turkic rivals, one of the earliest events in the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks.
- 1917 – British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued a declaration proclaiming British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
- 1943 – World War II: A U.S. Navy task force was able to turn away an Imperial Japanese Navy fleet in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, thus protecting the landings at Cape Torokina.
- 1990 – Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merged to form BSkyB, currently the largest pay-TV broadcaster in Europe.
- 2000 – Aboard Expedition 1, American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko (all pictured) became the first resident crew to arrive at the International Space Station.
Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1709) · John J. Loud (b. 1844) · Charmaine Dragun (d. 2007)
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November 3: Culture Day in Japan
Godzilla film poster
- 1793 – French playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas.
- 1812 – French invasion of Russia: As Napoleon's Grande Armée began its retreat, its rear guard was defeated at the Battle of Vyazma.
- 1948 – The Chicago Daily Tribune published the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" in its early morning edition shortly after incumbent U.S. President Harry S. Truman officially upset the heavily favored Governor of New York Thomas Dewey in the presidential election.
- 1954 – The first film featuring the giant monster known as Godzilla was released (poster pictured) nationwide in Japan.
- 1996 – Abdullah Çatlı, a leader of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves, was killed in a car crash near Susurluk, Balıkesir Province, Turkey, sparking a scandal which exposed the depth of the state's complicity in organized crime.
Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom (b. 1777) · Olav Aukrust (d. 1929) · Dawn Marie Psaltis (b. 1970)
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November 4: Flag Day in Panama
City & South London Railway locomotive
- 1780 – In the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, Túpac Amaru II led an uprising of Aymara, Quechua, and mestizo peasants as a protest against the Bourbon reforms.
- 1890 – London's City and South London Railway (locomotive pictured), the first deep-level underground railway in the world, officially opened, running a distance of 3.2 mi (5.1 km) between the City of London and Stockwell.
- 1960 – At the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Tanzania, Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee using a grass stalk to extract termites from a termite hill, the first recorded case of tool use by animals.
- 2010 – In the first aviation occurrence for an Airbus A380, Qantas Flight 32 suffered an uncontained engine failure and safely made an emergency landing at Singapore Changi Airport with no casualties.
Hu Zongxian (b. 1512) · La Belle Otero (b. 1868) · Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957)
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November 5: Constitution Day in the Dominican Republic (2018); Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries (1605)
Guy Fawkes
- 1605 – The arrest of Guy Fawkes (pictured), found during a search of the Palace of Westminster, foiled Robert Catesby's plot to blow up the House of Lords.
- 1757 – Seven Years' War: Prussian forces led by Frederick the Great defeated the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman/Austrian Empire at the Battle of Rossbach.
- 1925 – Sidney Reilly, a "super-spy" who was one of the inspirations for James Bond, was executed by the Soviet secret police.
- 1950 – Korean War: The 27th British Commonwealth Brigade succeeded in preventing a Chinese break-through at Pakchon in the Battle of Pakchon.
- 2013 – The Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, the nation's first interplanetary probe.
Anna Maria van Schurman (b. 1607) · Hans Egede (d. 1758) · James Robert Baker (d. 1997)
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November 6: Gustavus Adolphus Day in Estonia, Finland, and Sweden (1632); Finnish Swedish Heritage Day in Finland; Diwali in South India (2018)
Red Cloud
- 447 – A powerful earthquake destroyed large portions of the Walls of Constantinople, including 57 towers.
- 1868 – Red Cloud (pictured), a leader of the Oglala Lakota Native American tribe, signed the second Treaty of Fort Laramie, ending his war and establishing the Great Sioux Reservation.
- 1935 – The Hawker Hurricane, the aircraft responsible for 60% of the Royal Air Force's air victories in the Battle of Britain, made its first flight.
- 1939 – As part of their plan to eradicate the Polish intellectual elite, the Gestapo arrested 184 professors, students and employees of Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
- 1995 – Madagascar's Rova of Antananarivo, which served as the royal palace from the 17th to 19th centuries, was destroyed by fire.
John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (d. 1461) · Else Ackermann (b. 1933) · Jerry Yang (b. 1968)
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November 7: Diwali (Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism, 2018)
Hillary Clinton
- 680 – The Sixth Ecumenical Council convened in Constantinople to take a position on the theological positions of monoenergism and monothelitism.
- 1811 – American forces led by William Henry Harrison defeated the forces of Shawnee leader Tecumseh's growing confederation at the Battle of Tippecanoe near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana.
- 1949 – Oil was discovered in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Azerbaijan, leading to the construction of Neft Daşları, the world's first offshore oil platform.
- 1987 – Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali deposed and replaced Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba, declaring him medically unfit for the duties of the office.
- 2000 – Hillary Clinton (pictured) was elected as a Senator, becoming the first First Lady to win public office in the United States.
Maldev Rathore (d. 1562) · Lise Meitner (b. 1878) · Eleanor Roosevelt (d. 1962)
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Shunzhi Emperor
- 1644 – The Shunzhi Emperor (pictured), the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, was enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
- 1861 – American Civil War: The USS San Jacinto stopped the British mailship Trent and arrested two Confederate envoys en route to Europe, sparking a major diplomatic crisis between the United Kingdom and the United States.
- 1940 – The Italian invasion of Greece failed as outnumbered Greek units repulsed the Italians in the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas.
- 1974 – British peer Lord Lucan disappeared without trace, a day after allegedly murdering his children's nanny Sandra Rivett.
- 2016 – The Government of India announced the demonetisation of certain banknotes, causing prolonged cash shortages in the weeks that followed and significant disruption throughout the economy.
Lettice Knollys (b. 1543) · Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz (d. 1773) · Stylianos Pattakos (b. 1912)
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November 9: Twin Holy Birthdays begin (Bahá'í Faith, 2018); Muhammad Iqbal's Day in Pakistan
Flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
- 1872 – The Great Boston Fire began, eventually destroying more than 750 buildings and causing $73.5 million in damages in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1918 – The government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic adopted the national flag (pictured) which is still used by the Republic of Azerbaijan today, with minor modifications.
- 1938 – Kristallnacht began as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed and ransacked Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in Germany and Austria, resulting in at least 90 deaths and the deportation of 30,000 men to concentration camps.
- 1967 – French comic book heroes Valérian and Laureline first appeared in Pilote magazine.
- 2016 – A tram derailed in Croydon, United Kingdom, killing seven people.
Johannes Narssius (b. 1580) · Neville Chamberlain (d. 1940) · Dylan Thomas (d. 1953)
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November 10: Noor Hossain Day in Bangladesh (1987)
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The Hope Diamond
- 1202 – The Fourth Crusade began the Siege of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia), the first time Catholic crusaders attacked a Catholic city.
- 1898 – White supremacists seized power in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in United States history.
- 1958 – Merchant Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond (pictured), the "most famous diamond in the world", to the Smithsonian Institution.
- 1975 – The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism.
- 2006 – Prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politician and human rights lawyer Nadarajah Raviraj was assassinated in Colombo.
Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg (b. 1547) · Maria Jane Williams (d. 1873) · Canaan Banana (d. 2003)
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November 11: National Independence Day in Poland (1918); Anniversary of the Armistice of 11 November 1918 (signatories pictured)
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Signatories of the armistice ending World War I
- 1620 – The Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the Plymouth Colony, was signed by 41 of the Mayflower's passengers while the ship was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor.
- 1805 – War of the Third Coalition: French, Austrian and Russian units all suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Dürenstein.
- 1934 – The Shrine of Remembrance, a memorial to all Australians who have served in war, opened in Melbourne.
- 1965 – Rhodesia, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith, unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom.
Arsacius of Tarsus (d. 405) · David I. Walsh (b. 1872) · Charles Groves Wright Anderson (d. 1988)
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William Heffelfinger
- 1892 – William Heffelfinger (pictured) was paid $500 by the Allegheny Athletic Association, becoming the first professional American football player on record.
- 1912 – The bodies of Robert Falcon Scott and his companions were discovered, roughly eight months after their deaths during the ill-fated British Antarctic Expedition 1910.
- 1928 – At least 110 people died after the British ocean liner SS Vestris was abandoned as it sank in the western Atlantic Ocean.
- 1940 – World War II: Free French forces captured Gabon from Vichy France.
- 2011 – A blast in Iran's Shahid Modarres missile base led to the death of 17 members of the Revolutionary Guards, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program.
Claude of France (b. 1547) · William Henry Barlow (d. 1902) · Naomi Wolf (b. 1962)
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November 13: Feast day of Saint John Chrysostom (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Nevado del Ruiz
- 1642 – First English Civil War: The Royalist army engaged the much larger Parliamentarian army at the Battle of Turnham Green near Turnham Green, Middlesex.
- 1841 – Scottish surgeon James Braid observed a demonstration of animal magnetism, which inspired him to study the subject he eventually called hypnotism.
- 1940 – Walt Disney's Fantasia, the first commercial film shown in stereophonic sound, premiered at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.
- 1985 – The volcano Nevado del Ruiz (pictured) erupted, causing a volcanic mudslide that buried the town of Armero, Colombia, and killed approximately 23,000 people.
- 2015 – Terrorist attacks in Paris perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killed 130 people and injured 413 others.
Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (d. 1440) · Dorothea Erxleben (b. 1715) · Paul-Émile Léger (d. 1991)
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November 14: World Diabetes Day
The ruins of the old Coventry Cathedral
- 1680 – Gottfried Kirch, a German astronomer, discovered the Great Comet of 1680, the first to be found using a telescope.
- 1940 – Second World War: Coventry Cathedral (ruins pictured) and much of the city centre of Coventry, England, were destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the Coventry Blitz.
- 1960 – Ruby Bridges and the McDonogh Three became the first black children to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana as part of the New Orleans school desegregation crisis.
- 1975 – With the signing of the Madrid Accords, Spain agreed to withdraw its presence from the territory of Spanish Sahara.
- 1990 – Germany and Poland signed the German–Polish Border Treaty, confirming their border at the Oder–Neisse line, which was originally defined by the Potsdam Agreement in 1945.
Marie François Xavier Bichat (b. 1771) · John Lumsden (b. 1869) · Andrew Inglis Clark (d. 1907)
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November 15: Republic Day in Brazil (1889)
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Buran
- 1315 – A 1,500-strong force from the Swiss Confederacy ambushed a group of Austrian soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire on the shores of Lake Ägerisee in Switzerland.
- 1760 – The chapel of the new Castellania Palace in Valletta, Malta, was consecrated.
- 1859 – Sponsored by Greek businessman Evangelos Zappas, the first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: Heinrich Himmler ordered that Romanies were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps".
- 1988 – The Soviet Buran spacecraft (pictured), a reusable vehicle built in response to NASA's Space Shuttle program, was launched, unmanned, on its only flight.
Odo II, Count of Blois (d. 1037) · The Duke of Hamilton & Lord Mohun (d. 1712) · Gus Poyet (b. 1967)
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Louis Riel
- 534 – The Codex Repetitae Praelectionis, the second edition of the Codex Justinianus, the codification of Roman law by Justinian I, was published.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units captured Fort Washington from the Patriots.
- 1885 – After a five-day trial following the North-West Rebellion, Louis Riel (pictured), Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", was hanged for high treason.
- 1938 – Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first synthesized the psychedelic drug LSD at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.
- 1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signed an act authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline to transport oil from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Alaska.
Edmund of Abingdon (d. 1240) · Charles-Antoine Campion (b. 1720) · Chinua Achebe (b. 1930)
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Queen Elizabeth I of England
- 1558 – Elizabeth I (pictured) became Queen of England and Ireland, marking the beginning of the Elizabethan era.
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: French forces defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Arcole in a manoeuvre to cut the latter's line of retreat.
- 1968 – NBC controversially cut away from an American football game between the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets to broadcast Heidi, causing viewers in the Eastern United States to miss the game's dramatic ending.
- 2009 – Administrators at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia discovered that their servers had been hacked and thousands of emails and files on climate change had been stolen.
- 2013 – Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashed during an aborted landing at Kazan International Airport in Tatarstan, Russia, killing all 50 people on board and leading to the revocation of the airline's operating certificate.
Agnes of Jesus (b. 1602) · Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1818) · Robert Hofstadter (d. 1990)
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Congressman Leo Ryan
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: In the Bay of Bengal, a French frigate squadron captured three East Indiamen mainly carrying recruits for the Indian Army.
- 1865 – American author Mark Twain's story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", his first great success as a writer, was published.
- 1956 – In the Polish embassy in Moscow, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said "We will bury you" while addressing Western envoys, prompting them to leave the room.
- 1978 – Jim Jones led more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple to mass murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, hours after some of its members assassinated U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan (pictured).
- 1991 – The current flag of Uzbekistan was adopted, making the country the first newly independent republic in Central Asia to choose a new flag.
Thomas of Bayeux (d. 1100) · Chloë Sevigny (b. 1974) · Conn Smythe (d. 1980)
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November 19: International Men's Day; World Toilet Day
Reagan (left) and Gorbachev in Geneva
- 1794 – The United States and Great Britain signed the Jay Treaty, the basis for ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
- 1863 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: Inmates at the Janowska concentration camp near what is now Lviv, Ukraine, staged a failed uprising, after which the SS liquidated the camp, resulting in at least 6,000 deaths.
- 1985 – Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan (both pictured) held the first of five summit meetings between them in Geneva.
- 2002 – The Greek oil tanker Prestige split in half off the coast of Galicia, after spilling an estimated 17.8 million US gallons (420,000 bbl) in the worst environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history.
Nicolas Poussin (d. 1665) · Mikhail Kalinin (b. 1875) · James Ensor (d. 1949)
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November 20: Mawlid (Sunni Islam, 2018); Transgender Day of Remembrance; National Sovereignty Day in Argentina
Diocletian on a Roman coin
- 284 – Diocletian (pictured on coin) became Roman emperor, eventually establishing reforms that ended the Crisis of the Third Century.
- 1845 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: The Argentine Confederation was defeated in the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, but the losses ultimately made the United Kingdom and France give up the blockade.
- 1947 – Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI of the United Kingdom, married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who was given the title Duke of Edinburgh.
- 1969 – A group of Native American activists began a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
- 1990 – Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, with 52 murder convictions, was arrested in Novocherkassk.
Anton Rubinstein (d. 1894) · Meredith Whitney (b. 1969) · Ian Smith (d. 2007)
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November 21: World Hello Day; Armed Forces Day in Bangladesh
"God Defend New Zealand"
- 1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: After capturing the city of Port Arthur, the Japanese Second Army began a massacre of the residents of the city—soldiers and civilians.
- 1918 – Polish troops and civilians began a three-day pogrom against Jews and Christians in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine).
- 1922 – Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, albeit for only one day.
- 1977 – "God Defend New Zealand" (audio featured) became New Zealand's second national anthem, on equal standing with "God Save the Queen", which had been the traditional anthem since 1840.
- 2012 – A remote-controlled bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel, injuring at least 28 people on board.
Anne de Xainctonge (b. 1567) · Alexander Berkman (b. 1870) · Leopold Berchtold (d. 1942)
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November 22: Alphabet Day in Albania (1908); Thanksgiving in the United States (2018)
Blackbeard
- 498 – Following the death of Anastasius II, both Symmachus and Laurentius were elected pope, causing a schism that lasted until 506.
- 1718 – The pirate Blackbeard (pictured) was killed in battle by a boarding party of British sailors off the coast of North Carolina, ending his activity in the Caribbean.
- 1873 – The French steamship Ville du Havre collided with a Scottish iron clipper in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of 226 lives.
- 1968 – The Beatles released their eponymous double album, popularly known as "The White Album".
- 1988 – The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber of the United States Air Force was first displayed in public at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
Johann Christian Reil (d. 1813) · Katherine Plunket (b. 1820) · Scarlett Johansson (b. 1984)
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November 23: Guru Nanak Gurpurab (Sikhism, 2018); Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan
Edwin Hubble
- 1733 – African slaves from Akwamu in the Danish West Indies revolted against their owners, one of the earliest and longest slave revolts in the Americas.
- 1867 – The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while helping two Irish nationalists escape from police custody.
- 1924 – The New York Times published evidence from Edwin Hubble (pictured) that stated the Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is actually another galaxy—one of many in the universe.
- 1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked, then crashed into the Indian Ocean near the Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 people on board.
- 2012 – "Il Canto degli Italiani" officially became the national anthem of Italy, 66 years after it was provisionally chosen following the birth of the Italian Republic.
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (d. 1833) · Shangguan Yunzhu (d. 1968) · Miley Cyrus (b. 1992)
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November 24: Holodomor Remembrance Day in Ukraine (2018)
On the Origin of Species
- 1750 – Tarabai, former regent of the Maratha Empire, had Rajaram II, whom she had previously claimed was her grandson, arrested as an impostor.
- 1859 – On the Origin of Species (title page pictured) by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
- 1922 – Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Erskine Childers was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a semi-automatic pistol.
- 1943 – World War II: Following the American capture of Makin Atoll, USS Liscome Bay was sunk by a torpedo from Japanese submarine I-175, killing 644.
- 2012 – A fire at a clothing factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killed at least 117 people.
Junípero Serra (b. 1713) · Diego Rivera (d. 1957) · Beth Phoenix (b. 1980)
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November 25: Mawlid (Shia Islam, 2018); Feast of Christ the King (Roman Catholic Church, 2018); Evacuation Day in New York City (1783)
De Havilland Mosquitos
- 1034 – After Malcolm II of Scotland died at Glamis, Duncan, the son of his second daughter, instead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter, inherited the throne to become the King of Scots.
- 1510 – Afonso de Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India, led an armada to conquer the city of Goa.
- 1678 – Trunajaya rebellion: After a series of difficult marches, the allied Mataram and Dutch troops successfully assaulted the rebel stronghold of Kediri in eastern Java.
- 1917 – World War I: German troops invaded Portuguese East Africa in an attempt to escape superior British forces to the north and resupply from captured Portuguese materiel.
- 1940 – The de Havilland Mosquito (examples pictured) and the Martin B-26 Marauder, two of the most successful military aircraft in World War II, both made their first flights.
Osanna of Cattaro (b. 1493) · Hermann Kolbe (d. 1884) · George Best (d. 2005)
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November 26: Feast day of Sylvester Gozzolini (Catholic Church); Constitution Day in India (1949)
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
- 1805 – The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (pictured), the longest aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest canal aqueduct in the world, opened.
- 1842 – The University of Notre Dame was founded by Rev. Edward Sorin, of the Congregation of Holy Cross, as an all-male institution in South Bend, Indiana, U.S.
- 1943 – Second World War: The British troop ship HMT Rohna was sunk in the Mediterranean by a Luftwaffe bomb, killing more than 1,100 people.
- 1983 – Six robbers broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport in London and stole three long tons (3,000 kilograms) of gold bullion, much of which has never been recovered.
- 2008 – A coordinated group of shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai began, ultimately killing at least 174 people and wounding more than 300 others.
Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan (b. 1678) · Marshall Taylor (b. 1878) · Fatima Massaquoi (d. 1978)
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Artist's impression of planet HD 209458 b
- 1161 – A Song dynasty fleet defeated Jin dynasty ships in a naval engagement on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars.
- 1835 – James Pratt and John Smith became the last people executed in England for sodomy.
- 1856 – King-Grand Duke William III unilaterally revised the constitution of Luxembourg, greatly expanding his powers.
- 1940 – The Iron Guard killed 64 political detainees at a penitentiary near Bucharest and followed up with several high-profile assassinations, including that of former Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Iorga.
- 2001 – The Hubble Space Telescope detected sodium in the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 209458 b (artist's impression pictured), the first planetary atmosphere outside our solar system to be measured.
Charles A. Beard (b. 1874) · Jean Albert Gaudry (d. 1908) · May Gibbs (d. 1969)
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Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill in Tehran
- 936 – Shi Jingtang was enthroned as the first emperor of the Later Jin by Emperor Taizong of Liao, following a revolt against Emperor Fei of Later Tang.
- 1895 – The first automobile race in the United States, the Chicago Times-Herald race, was held in Chicago.
- 1912 – At the All-Albanian Congress, the Assembly of Vlorë was constituted, which declared the independence of the Albanian Vilayet from the Ottoman Empire.
- 1943 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin (all three pictured) met at the Tehran Conference to discuss war strategy against the Axis powers.
- 2002 – Suicide bombers blew up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, but their colleagues failed in their attempt to bring down an Arkia Israel Airlines charter flight with surface-to-air-missiles.
Esther Wheelwright (d. 1780) · `Abdu'l-Bahá (d. 1921) · Whitney Engen (b. 1987)
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Pong screenshot
- 903 – The Abbasid Caliphate captured the Qarmatian leadership in the Battle of Hama in Syria, opening the way for the reconquest of Tulunid Egypt.
- 1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong, running low on water, began the killing of more than 130 African slaves by throwing them into the sea to claim insurance.
- 1847 – Oregon missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, along with about a dozen others, were killed by members of the Cayuse and Umatilla tribes, sparking the Cayuse War.
- 1972 – Atari released Pong (screenshot pictured), one of the first video games to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home console markets.
- 2012 – The United Nations General Assembly voted to accord non-member observer state status to Palestine.
George Brown (b. 1818) · Mary Somerville (d. 1872) · Emma Morano (b. 1899)
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November 30: Saint Andrew's Day
John Sentamu
- 1700 – Great Northern War: Swedish forces led by King Charles XII defeated the Russian army of Tsar Peter the Great at the Battle of Narva.
- 1872 – The first international football match took place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
- 1954 – The first verified case of a human being injured by an extraterrestrial object took place in Sylacauga, Alabama, U.S., when a meteorite crashed through a roof and hit a sleeping woman.
- 1982 – Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album of all time, was released.
- 2005 – John Sentamu (pictured) was enthroned as Archbishop of York, becoming the first black person to serve as an archbishop in the Church of England.
Richard Farrant (d. 1580) · Jagadish Chandra Bose (b. 1858) · Joan Ganz Cooney (b. 1929)
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Selected anniversaries/On this day archive – All
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