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These are some of many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of November, listed by year. Dates provided for earlier time events may be approximate. Select another month
753 BCE, November 1 - Traditional date for the founding of Rome.
323 BCE, November 11 - Death of Alexander the Great in Babylon.
312 BCE, November 20 - The Battle of the Milvian Bridge, where Constantine the Great defeated Maxentius, leading to Constantine's rise to power.
284 BCE, November 17 - Diocletian is acclaimed as emperor by his soldiers. During his reign, he restored efficient government to the empire after the near anarchy of the 3rd century by reorganizing the fiscal, administrative, and military functions of the empire. and laying the foundation for the Byzantine Empire in the East. The last major persecution of Christians occurred during his reign.
218 BCE, November 3 - The Second Punic War begins with the Battle of the Trebia between Rome and Carthage.
207 BCE, November 2 - Scipio Africanus defeats Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula during the Second Punic War.
190 BCE, November 15 - The Battle of Magnesia takes place, ending the Seleucid War between the Roman Republic and the Seleucid Empire.
133 BCE, November 13 - Attalus III of Pergamon bequeaths his kingdom to Rome, leading to the establishment of the Roman province of Asia.
63 BCE, November 20 - Roman general Pompey captures Jerusalem, expanding Roman control in the Eastern Mediterranean.
47 BCE, November 7 - Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt, is captured by Julius Caesar after the Siege of Alexandria.
43 BCE, November 27 - The Second Triumvirate, consisting of Octavian (later Augustus), Mark Antony, and Lepidus, is formed in R
42 BCE, November 3 - The Battle of Philippi takes place in Greece, where the forces of the Second Triumvirate defeat the forces of Brutus and Cassius.
42 BCE, November 27 - The forces of the Second Triumvirate, consisting of Octavian (later Augustus), Mark Antony, and Lepidus, defeat the forces of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi.
40 BCE, November 27 - Parthian forces under Pacorus I defeat the Roman general Publius Ventidius at the Battle of Amanus, temporarily reversing Roman setbacks in the East.
31 BCE, November 2 - The Battle of Actium occurs, leading to the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra by Octavian (Augustus) and the establishment of the Roman Empire.
64 CE, November 18 - The Great Fire of Rome begins, lasting for six days and causing significant destruction.
284 CE, November 20 - Diocletian is proclaimed as the Roman emperor, marking the beginning of the Tetrarchy.
636 CE, November 7 - The Rashidun Caliphate, led by Caliph Umar, defeats the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Yarmouk, marking a significant event in the Arab-Byzantine Wars.
888 CE, November 21 - Pope Formosus dies, leading to a period of chaos and scandal in the papacy known as the Cadaver Synod.
996 CE, November 2 - Emperor Otto III of the Holy Roman Empire dies at the age of 21, leaving a power vacuum in Europe.
1002, November 30 - King Æthelred the Unready orders the St. Brice's Day massacre, leading to the killing of many Danish settlers in England.
1009, November 2 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by order of the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
1016, November 30 - Edmund Ironside, King of England, dies, leaving the throne to Cnut the Great, who becomes the King of all England.
1035, November 12 - King Cnut the Great of England, Denmark, and Norway dies, leading to a period of political instability.1050, November 9 - Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, is born.
1054, November 11 - The Great Schism occurs, leading to the separation of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
1071, November 24 - The Seljuk Turks, led by Alp Arslan, defeat the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert, marking a significant step in the decline of Byzantine power.
1078, November 25 - The coronation of Géza I as the first King of Hungary from the Árpád dynasty.
1087, November 24 - William II of England (William Rufus) is killed in a hunting accident, leading to the ascension of his brother Henry I to the throne.
1093, November 13 - Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Scotland, dies, eventually becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
1095, November 27 - Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade during the Council of Clermont in France. More
1096, November 27 - The People's Crusade, a precursor to the First Crusade, is launched by Peter the Hermit, with thousands of peasants and lower-class individuals embarking on a journey to the Holy Land.
1097, November 26 - The Crusaders, led by Bohemond of Taranto, capture the city of Antioch during the First Crusade.
1098, November 14 - The Siege of Ma'arrat al-Numan begins during the First Crusade, resulting in the capture of the town and its gruesome events.
1099, November 27 - The Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, enter Jerusalem during the First Crusade, resulting in the capture of the city.
1100, November 17 - William II of England (William Rufus) is buried at Winchester Cathedral, England, after his death in a hunting accident.
1100, November 26 - Henry I of England is crowned as King of England at Westminster Abbey.
1100, November 29 - The Treaty of Devol is signed between Bohemond I of Antioch and the Byzantine Empire, establishing Antioch as a vassal state.
1105, November 20 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, dies, and his son Henry V succeeds him.
1105, November 25 - King Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland dies, leading to a period of succession disputes.
1107, November 1 - Henry I of England's daughter, Matilda (Maud), marries Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, strengthening Anglo-German relations.
1107, November 17 - King Baldwin I of Jerusalem dies, and his sister's son, Baldwin II, succeeds him as King of Jerusalem.
1109, November 14 - The Council of Poitiers begins, addressing issues related to simony and clerical marriage within the Catholic Church.
1109, November 25 - King Alfonso I of Aragon captures the city of Zaragoza from Muslim control during the Reconquista.
1115, November 16 - A massive earthquake strikes Syria, resulting in significant destruction.
1120, November 25 - The White Ship, carrying King Henry I's heir and many nobles, sinks in the English Channel, resulting in the loss of many lives and a succession crisis.
1123, November 18 - The First Lateran Council, the first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, opens in Rome.
1138, November 6 - Empress Matilda's forces defeat King Stephen's troops at the Battle of the Standard during the Anarchy in England.
1154, November 7 - King Stephen of England dies, and Henry II becomes King, marking the end of the Anarchy.
1158, November 27 - Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) issues the "Privilegium Minus," which grants Austria special privileges within the Holy Roman Empire.
1170, November 29 - Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket is assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral, leading to a conflict between church and state in England.
1177, November 24 - Pope Alexander III and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I sign the Treaty of Venice, ending their long-running dispute.
1183, November 11 - The Peace of Constance is signed, ending the conflicts between the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I and the Lombard League.
1187, November 2 - Saladin captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders, leading to the Third Crusade.
1192, November 4 - Richard the Lionheart is captured in Austria while returning from the Third Crusade.
1199, November 28 - King Richard the Lionheart dies, and his brother John becomes King of England.
1202, November 1 - The Fourth Crusade, after diverting from its original goal, begins the siege of Zara (present-day Zadar, Croatia).
1202, November 20 - The Fourth Crusade begins with the siege of Zara (present-day Zadar, Croatia), diverting the Crusaders from their intended target, Jerusalem.
1204, November 27 - Pope Innocent III grants his approval for the Fourth Crusade to capture Constantinople, leading to the sacking of the city in April 1204.
1208, November 4 - Pope Innocent III issues the papal bull "Ad Apostolicae Dignitatis Apicem," calling for the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heretics in southern France.
1208, November 17 - Otto IV is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in Rome.
1209, November 28 - The University of Oxford is officially founded in England, becoming one of the oldest universities in the world.
1215, November 4 - The Fourth Lateran Council, convened by Pope Innocent III, opens in Rome and addresses various church matters.
1215, November 15 - King John of England seals the Magna Carta at Runnymede, limiting the powers of the monarchy.
1217, November 21 - The Battle of Lincoln takes place during the First Barons' War in England, resulting in a victory for royalist forces.
1225, November 29 - Pope Honorius III approves the Dominican Order founded by Saint Dominic.
1248, November 23 - The Seventh Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, departs from France to reconquer the Holy Land.
1250, November 29 - King Louis IX of France is captured by Egyptian forces during the Seventh Crusade at the Battle of Al Mansurah.
1256, November 26 - Pope Alexander IV canonizes Saint Edmund of Abingdon, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
1267, November 29 - Pope Clement IV issues the papal bull "Ad Extirpanda," authorizing the use of torture during the Inquisition.
1272, November 16 - Edward I of England, also known as Edward Longshanks, ascends to the throne after the death of his father, Henry III.
1272, November 16 - Edward I of England departs on the Ninth Crusade, which eventually leads to his death in 1277.
1276, November 21 - Giovanni Gaetano Orsini is elected as Pope Nicholas III.
1282, November 18 - The Battle of Orewin Bridge takes place during the First War of Scottish Independence, resulting in a Scottish victory.
1284, November 15 - The Statute of Rhuddlan is enacted by King Edward I, reorganizing the governance of Wales.
1285, November 20 - Pope Martin IV is elected as the 189th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
1292, November 17 - John Balliol is chosen as King of Scots by Edward I of England, leading to the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence.
1295, November 3 - The Model Parliament of England is convened by King Edward I, representing a significant step in the development of English parliamentary institutions.
1296, November 30 - Edward I of England captures Berwick-upon-Tweed during the First War of Scottish Independence.
1300, November 30 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the papal bull "Unam Sanctam," asserting the supremacy of the papal authority over temporal powers.
1302, November 11 - Pope Boniface VIII is captured by agents of King Philip IV of France, leading to a conflict between the papacy and the French monarchy.
1302, November 18 - The Battle of the Golden Spurs occurs in Flanders, with the Flemish militia defeating the forces of the French king, Philip IV.1303, November 5 - The Battle of Roslin takes place during the First War of Scottish Independence, with Scottish forces led by William Wallace defeating the English.
1303, November 11 - Pope Boniface VIII is captured by agents of King Philip IV of France, leading to a conflict between the papacy and the French monarchy.
1307, November 27 - King Philip IV of France orders the arrest of the Knights Templar, leading to their suppression and persecution.
1312, November 16 - Pope Clement V, in his papal bull "Vox in Excelso," suppresses the Knights Templar, leading to their dissolution.
1314, November 5 - The Battle of Morgarten occurs in Switzerland, where Swiss forces defeat the Habsburg army.
1315, November 2 - The Council of Vienne, convened by Pope Clement V, opens in France to address various church matters, including the suppression of the Knights Templar.
1320, November 6 - The Declaration of Arbroath, a Scottish declaration of independence, is sent to Pope John XXII, asserting Scotland's sovereignty.
1327, November 17 - Edward III is crowned King of England, marking the beginning of his rule.
1329, November 20 - King Robert the Bruce of Scotland dies, and his son, David II, succeeds him as King.
1330, November 17 - The Battle of Posada takes place between the Wallachian forces and the Hungarian Empire, leading to a Wallachian victory.
1343, November 14 - King Edward III of England formally establishes the Order of the Garter, one of the most prestigious orders of chivalry.
1345, November 12 - Pope Clement VI officially consecrates the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
1347, November 28 - Emperor Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire grants privileges to the city of Prague, leading to its economic and political growth.
1356, November 24 - The Battle of Poitiers occurs during the Hundred Years' War, with English forces led by Edward, the Black Prince, defeating the French.
1362, November 1 - The Treaty of Calais is signed, ending the Breton War of Succession and recognizing John IV, Duke of Brittany, as ruler.
1378, November 18 - The Papal Schism begins with the election of Pope Urban VI, leading to a split within the Catholic Church.
1380, November 8 - The Battle of Kulikovo takes place, where the Russian forces under Dmitry Donskoy defeat the Golden Horde.
1394, November 4 - King Charles VI of France is first diagnosed with a mental illness that would affect his reign.
1399, November 1 - Henry IV of England is crowned as King of England, marking the beginning of the Lancastrian dynasty.
1400, November 9 - Death of Geoffrey Chaucer, the famous English poet known for "The Canterbury Tales."
1402, November 20 - The Battle of Ankara takes place between the forces of Timur (Tamerlane) and the Ottoman Empire, resulting in a decisive victory for Timur.
1406, November 27 - Construction of the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic, begins under the rule of Emperor Charles IV.
1417, November 11 - The Council of Constance begins, aiming to resolve the Western Schism and address other church issues.
1421, November 15 - The Siege of Meaux begins during the Hundred Years' War between England and France.
1421, November 18 - The St. Elizabeth flood, a massive storm surge hits Zeeland and southern Holland flooding several villages and transforming a segment of reclaimed land called Grote Ward into an inland sea. Some areas that were flooded in this storm remain under water today. I was estimated that more than 10.000 people perished. More
1431, November 10 - Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Paris, although his control over the French territory is limited.
1439, November 30 - The Council of Florence is convened in Italy, aimed at reunifying the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
1444, November 10 - The Battle of Varna takes place, with the Ottomans defeating a Christian Crusader army.
1456, November 24 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible, one of the earliest major books printed using movable type, is completed.
1461, November 2 - The Lancastrian King Henry VI of England is captured after the Battle of Tewkesbury during the Wars of the Roses.
1470, November 11 - Henry VI of England is restored to the throne briefly during the Wars of the Roses.
1477, November 28 - William Caxton, an English merchant, printer, and writer, publishes his first book, "The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophers," in London.
1483, November 2 - King Richard III of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey, marking the beginning of his short reign.
1485, November 22 - The Battle of Bosworth Field takes place, leading to the victory of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) and the end of the Wars of the Roses.
1491, November 20 - The Treaty of Granada is signed, allowing Muslims in Spain to practice their religion freely under the Catholic Monarchs.
1492, November 26 - Christopher Columbus and his crew aboard the ship "La Navidad" land on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti).
1493, November 3 - Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica during his second voyage to the Americas.
1493, November 19 - Christopher Columbus arrives at the island of Puerto Rico during his second voyage to the Americas.
1494, November 7 - The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed, dividing the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands.
1497, November 11 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama departs on his voyage to find a sea route to India.
1499, November 26 - Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York (one of the "Princes in the Tower"), is hanged for his role in conspiracies against King Henry VII.
1499, November 27 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches the Mozambique coast during his journey to India.
1500, November 22 - Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrives at Calicut, India, marking the beginning of Portugal's presence in India.
1503, November 18 - Pope Julius II lays the foundation stone for the new St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
1504, November 10 - The Treaty of Blois is signed, solidifying the alliance between France and Spain against the Republic of Venice.
1509, November 28 - Henry VIII becomes King of England after the death of his father, Henry VII.
1512, November 3 - The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, painted by Michelangelo, is first unveiled to the public. More
1519, November 8 - Hernán Cortés and his Spanish conquistadors arrive at the coast of Mexico, beginning their conquest of the Aztec Empire.
1520, November 8 - Stockholm Bloodbath: Danish forces under King Christian II execute a large number of Swedish nobles in Stockholm.
1520, November 28 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, sponsored by Spain, becomes the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic by sailing through the dangerous straits below South America. Although he was the mastermind of the expedition, he was killed in the Philippines before completing the trip. The first European to complete the circumnavigation was Magellan's second-in-command, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, who took over after his death. More
1528, November 6 - Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecks near Galveston Island. The raft held survivors of an ill-fated Spanish expedition to settle Florida and becomes the first know European to reach the future State of Texas. He lived for several years among Texas Indians, learning the tribes' languages and customs. In time, he reunited with three other survivors of the original expedition. The travelers gained a reputation as healers, and their fame spread as they slowly made their way to Mexico City in 1536 after traveling nearly 2000 miles during eight years. More
1532, November 16 - The Inca Atahualpa , taken completely by surprise is attacked and captured by Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro in Cajamarca, Peru. The Spanish forced him to pay a large ransom of tons of gold and silver. Although Atahualpa produced the ransom, the Spanish executed him anyway. More
1534, November 3 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII the head of the Church of England.
1534, November 26 - The Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro and his men reach the Inca Empire in Peru.
1542, November 18 - Portuguese explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho, sailing under the Spanish flag, explores the coast of California.
1558, November 17 - Queen Elizabeth I ascends to the English throne, marking the beginning of the Elizabethan era, a period, when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts. In 1559, she instituted The the Elizabethan religious Settlement (effected with the Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity).During her reign, the kingdom was also threatened by grave internal divisions and the emergence of poverty and cost inflation on a new major scale, made worse by harvest failures. The years of 1594 to 1577 were particularly difficult and remarkable by the misery they engendered. More
1572, November 4 - The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre occurs in France, resulting in the killing of thousands of Huguenots (Protestants).
1582, November 3 - William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
1587, November 16 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is imprisoned in England after seeking refuge there and remains in captivity for 19 years.
1588, November 19 - The English defeat the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines, marking a turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War.
1597, November 28 - The Second Battle of Myeongnyang takes place during the Japanese invasions of Korea, with Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin achieving a significant victory.
1599, November 30 - The Rosicrucian manifesto, "Fama Fraternitatis," is published in Kassel, Germany, promoting the Rosicrucian mystical movement.
1600, November 8 - The Battle of Sekigahara in Japan marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate and the end of the Sengoku period.
1600, November 25 - After being captured, the "Princes in the Tower," Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, are presumed to have died in the Tower of London.
1602, November 21 - The Dutch East India Company is founded, becoming one of the world's first multinational corporations.
1602, November 22 - Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to discover Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts, USA.
1605, November 5 - The Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England and blow up the House of Lords during the Opening of Parliament is discovered. The plan was organized by Robert Catesby, a devout English Catholic who hoped to kill the Protestant King James and establish Catholic rule in England. More
1609, November 21 - Henry Hudson, an English sea explorer, is set adrift in the Hudson Bay by his mutinous crew.
1611, November 1 - William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" is performed for the first time at Whitehall Palace in London.
1617, November 17 - The "First Thanksgiving" is celebrated by Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Native Americans in Massachusetts.
1620, November 9 - The Mayflower, with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew, spots land (current Cape Cod). The Mayflower and its companion the smaller vessel the Speedwell had originally departed from South Hampton, England on August 15 but the Speedwell was twice, forced to return to port and was declared unseaworthy. After taking on some of the Speedwell's passengers and supplies, the Mayflower set out alone from Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620 More
1620, November 11 - The Mayflower Compact is signed by Pilgrims on board the Mayflower ship in Cape Cod Bay, establishing self-government in the Plymouth Colony. More
1620, November 21 - The Mayflower lands on Cape Cod at what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts. More
1626, November 24 - St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is consecrated by Pope Urban VIII.
1639, November 13 - The first documented observation of a transit of Venus is made by English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks.
1642, November 24 - Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, becomes the first European to report the sighting the Island of Tasmania. He named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land and in 1856 it was renamed Tasmania in honor of the explorer Abel Tasman. More
1667, November 17 - Jean-Baptiste Lully, the Italian-born French composer, premieres his opera "Cadmus et Hermione" at the Palace of Versailles.
1676, November 19 - Danish scientist Ole Rømer presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.
1688, November 5 - The Glorious Revolution in England culminates with the landing of William of Orange, leading to the overthrow of King James II.
1695, November 21 - English pirate Henry Every (also known as "Captain Kidd") and his crew capture the Ganj-i-Sawai, a wealthy Indian ship.
1697, November 10 - The Treaty of Ryswick is signed, ending the Nine Years' War and restoring peace in Europe.
1644, November 15 - The Battle of Fincastle takes place during the English Civil War, resulting in a victory for the Royalists.
1700, November 17 - Sweden's King Charles XII assumes the throne at the age of 18, beginning his long and eventful reign.
1701, November 23 - Anders Celsius, the Swedish astronomer and inventor of the Celsius temperature scale, is born.
1703, November 5 - The Eddystone Lighthouse in England, one of the world's earliest lighthouses, is destroyed in a storm.
1703, November 30 - The Great Storm of 1703, one of the most severe storms in British history, strikes southern England causing significant damage and loss of life.
1707, November 21 - The second Battle of Humenne takes place during the Rakoczi's War for Hungarian independence, with an Austrian victory.
1707, November 22 - The Treaty of Union is signed, merging the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1709, November 28 - A severe cold wave, known as the Great Frost, begins in Europe and continues into January 1710, causing widespread suffering and hardship.
1718, November 22 - The notorious pirate Blackbeard, whose name is believed to have been Edward Teach is killed off the coast of North Carolina by the Royal Navy, under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard. Teach had become the most feared pirate in the Americas practically overnight. More
1729, November 30 - Natchez Indians massacre French settlers in the Mississippi Territory, leading to conflicts between Native Americans and European colonists.
1733, November 22 - The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in the Danish West Indies (now part of the U.S. Virgin Islands).
1755, November 1 - Lisbon, Portugal, is struck by a devastating earthquake, tsunami, and fires, resulting in significant destruction and loss of life. Gigantic fissures of up to 15 feet wide tore through the center of Lisbon. Estimates of casualties range from 30,000 to 60,000. Major damage and casualties also occurred in Spain and Northern Africa. More
1765, November 1 - The Stamp Act takes effect in the American colonies, leading to widespread protests against British taxation without representation.
1775, November 10 - The United States Marine Corps is officially established by the Continental Congress. More
1776, November 16 - British forces capture Fort Washington in New York during the American Revolutionary War.
1776, November 16 - Sint Eustatius, then a Dutch possession island in the north eastern Caribbean Sea, becomes the first foreign government to officially recognize the nascent United States of America as the cannon at Fort Oranje fired a salute to the brig Andrew Doria, which was flying the new Stars and Stripes flag. The island was probably the major source of supplies for the rebelling North American British colonies. Sint Eustatius was considered to be speaking for the Netherlands in the matter and Great Britain lodged a complaint with The Hague in early 1777. Sint Eustatius is now a special municipality within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
1777, November 2 - John Paul Jones Sails to the British Isles. after given command of the newly built Ranger. He took several prizes before arriving in Brest, France in May 1778 where he was hailed as a hero. Operating out of Brest, Jones led a cruise to the Irish Sea capturing or destroying small vessels. This cruise made Jones a household name in Britain. More
1777, November 4 - General George Washington learns of a conspiracy to discredit him with Congress and have him replaced by General Horatio Gates. The conspiracy was led by to discredit him led by Thomas Conway (The Conway Cabal) More
1777, November 15 - The Continental Congress agrees to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Maryland was the last of the 13 States to ratify the agreement on March 1,1781. More
1783, November 21 - The first free flight of a hot air balloon carrying a human takes place in Paris, France. The balloon carried two men, Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent, Marquis of Arlanders. The hot air balloon made of paper and silk was made by the Montgolfier brothers. More
1783, November 25 - The last British troops evacuate New York City, marking the end of the American Revolutionary War.
1789, November 21 - North Carolina becomes the 12th U.S. state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1791, The Battle of the Wabash, also known as St. Clair’s Defeat, named after the expedition’s leader, Major General Arthur St. Clair, takes place against a multitribal confederation of Native Americans formed to resist colonial expansion into their historical homelands. The battle ends with the defeat of the large contingent of U.S. troops along the Wabash River in western Ohio. Of the 1,400 U.S. army and support personnel , 918 were killed and 276 wounded. More
1791, November 15 - The first U.S. Catholic college, Georgetown University, is founded in Washington, D.C.
1793, November 19 - French revolutionary Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne becomes Prime Minister, marking a phase of the French Revolution.
1794, November 19 - Jay's Treaty is signed between the United States and Great Britain, resolving disputes and avoiding war.
1799, November 9 - Napoleon Bonaparte stages a coup d'état, establishing himself as First Consul of France.
1799, November 12 - American astronomer, Andrew Ellicott sees the Leonid meteor shower and records and reports the event in what it is believed to be the first time a meteor shower was recorded in North America. The Leonids are a prolific annual meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel–Tuttle . They occur between 15 and 20 November each year and are also known for their spectacular meteor storms that occur about every 33 years.res They enter the atmosphere at 44 miles per second, and begin to glow at an altitude of around 96 miles. More
1800, November 17 - The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C., marking the city's official establishment as the nation's capital.
1800, November 19 - The U.S. Congress holds its first session in the partially completed Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
1800, November 30 - The United States conducts its first national census, showing a population of nearly 5.3 million people.
1804, November 6 - Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, is born.
1805, November 7 - Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first recorded expedition to cross North America.1
1805, November 15 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean, completing their journey to explore the western United States.
1806, November 15 - Lieutenant Zebulon Pike first lays eyes on Pikes Peak, which he described as a "small blue cloud" on the horizon. Pike was leading an expedition searching for the source of the Arkansas and Red Rivers in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, when they crossed the plains and reached the borderlands between the United States and Spain. Pike's writings about the mountain were published in several languages and were widely distributed. In the 1840s, explorer John C. Frémont renamed the mountain after Pike.
1806, November 21 - The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1806, November 6 - The Battle of Lübeck takes place during the War of the Fifth Coalition, with French forces defeating the Austrians.
1807, November 27 - The Portuguese Royal Family, D João VI and its court of over 10,000 people, leave Lisbon for their colony of Brazil aboard 36 vessels to escape the invading Napoleonic troops. The travelers arrived in Rio on March 7, 1808. The stay lasted until 1820 when D João VI went back to Portugal leaving his eldest son Pedro in charge. Pedro remain in Brazil and in 1822 led the move for Brazilian independence from Portugal and declared himself Emperor. More
1808, November 10 - The Osage, were the largest tribe of the Southern Sioux people occupying what would later become the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Several treaties starting in 1808 between the Osages and the United States resulted in the Osage leaving their tribal lands and to settled in southeast Kansas on the Cherokee Strip. Later in 1865, in a decision that would eventually make them one of the wealthiest surviving Native American nations, the Osage tribe agreed to abandon their lands again, and move from Missouri and Arkansas to a reservation in Indian Territory in Oklahoma, site of present-day Osage County. More
1809, November 20 - The United States and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Amiens, ending hostilities during the Napoleonic Wars.
1809, November 21 - The first modern parachute is tested by André-Jacques Garnerin in France.
1810, November 6 - The Hidalgo Revolt, a precursor to the Mexican War of Independence, begins in Mexico.
1811, November 7 - Tecumseh's War culminates in the Battle of Tippecanoe, where U.S. forces led by William Henry Harrison defeat Native American forces.
1814, November 28 - The Times of London makes newspapers available to a mass audience by using automatic, steam powered presses built by German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer More
1820, November 23 - The American whaling ship Essex, under the command of Captain George Pollard Jr. is rammed by a sperm whale and later sank. Although all 20 crewmen initially survived, only 8 were rescued following an arduous journey that devolved into cannibalism. The sinking inspired in part the climactic scene in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851). More
1824, November 7 - The presidential election in the United States is decided by the House of Representatives, with John Quincy Adams becoming president.
1831, November 11 - Nat Turner's slave rebellion begins in Southampton County, Virginia.
1837, November 7 - Elijah Parish Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob while defending the site of his anti-slavery newspaper the St. Louis Observer. His death both deeply affected many individuals who opposed slavery and greatly strengthened the cause of abolition. More
1839, November 7 - The Newport Rising, a Chartist-led rebellion in Wales, is suppressed by British forces.
1844, November 5 - Democratic candidate James K. Polk defeated Whig Party candidate Henry Clay to become the eleventh president of the United States. More
1845, November 29 - The Sonderbund War, a civil war in Switzerland, begins over religious and political disputes.
1859, November 24 - Charles Darwin’s "On the origin of species by means of natural selection" was published in London. The book was popular and the first edition sold out on the first day. It is considered to be one of the most important books on biology ever printed. The book was translated into 11 languages during Darwin's life time. More
1860, November 6 - Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President of the United States, replacing James Buchanan. Before Lincoln’s election was certified on February 15, 1861, seven southern states had left the Union and the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as its President had been established. From 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the Union through the American Civil War and succeeded in defeating the insurgent Confederacy, abolishing slavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy. More
1863, November 19 - President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address during the ceremony to consecrate the grounds of what eventually became the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Four months earlier it had been the site the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, where more than 10,000 soldiers were killed or mortally wounded, 30,000 injured, and 10,000 captured or went missing. The Battle of Gettysburg proved to be the turning point of the war; Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat marked the last Confederate invasion of northern territory. It also marked the beginning of the southern Army’s decline. President Lincoln's 271 words, two minute speech, become one of the most memorable speeches in American history as it served as a reminder to a war-weary public as to why the Union had to fight and win the Civil War.
1864, November 26 - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, gives Alice the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, dedicating it as "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer's Day". and with illustrations by Carroll. The published version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is about twice the length of Alice's Adventures Under Ground and includes episodes, such as the Mad Tea-Party, that did not appear in the manuscript and all 42 wood-engraved illustrations are by John Tenniel. The only known manuscript copy of Under Ground is held in the British Library. Macmillan published a facsimile of the manuscript in 1886.
1867, November 15 - The first telegraphic ticker tape, goes live in New York city. It was the creation of Edward Calahan, who was an employee of the American Telegraph Company. Four years later, Thomas Edison improved upon Calahan's invention and patented it launching a revolution in the financial markets. The model 32A ticker was Edison's very first invention. The weakness of mechanical stock tickers showed itself during the Crash of 29, when prices were changing so quickly, that the tickers couldn't keep up. As technology evolved, that dissemination became faster and almost real-time, as we can see today. More
1869, November 17 - The Suez Canal opens after 10 years of construction. The Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It is a key trade route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal went through a major one year expansion in 2014 and reopened in 2015. More
1871. November 10 - Henry Morton Stanley meets Dr. David Livingstone after nearly eight months of search, in Ujiji, a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in present day Tanzania. Dr. Livingstone had been traveling in Central Africa without contact with the Western world for 7 years. The first words from Stanley were the now famous "Dr. Livingston I presume? More
1872, November 5 - Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage activists are arrested for voting in the U.S. presidential election. After casting her ballot in her hometown of Rochester, New York, she was arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted for voting illegally. She later described her trial as “the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded. More
1874, November 18 - The National Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded in the United States.
1876, November 7 - Rutherford B. Hayes is elected President of the United States in one of the most disputed elections in U.S. history.
1876, November 23 - New York City politician William Magear "Boss" Tweed, is handed over to N.Y. City authorities, after being captured in Spain where he had escaped to after being unable to make bail. Tweed had been the leader of a corrupt political organization which had systematically plundered New York City of sums estimated at between $30 million and $200 million (equivalent to $5 billion in 2023). Tweed dominated the Democratic Party in both the city and the state and had his candidates elected mayor of New York City, governor, and speaker of the state assembly. After his recapture he was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail in 1878. More .
1883, November 18 - The United States adopts Standard Time Zones, establishing the system still in use today.
1884, November 4 - Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine Becoming the 22nd President of the United States and the first Democrat to occupy the White House after the Civil War. President Grover Cleveland was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later becoming also the 24th President. More
1885, November 7 - Canada's transcontinental railway is completed as Donald Smith, later known as Lord Strathcona, drives the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at Craigellachie, BC. More
1889, November 2 - North Dakota is admitted to the United States of America becoming the 39th State.
1889, November 2 - South Dakota is admitted to the United States of America becoming the 40h State.
1889, November 8 - Montana is admitted to the United States of America becoming the 41st State.
1889, November 11 - Washington is admitted to the United States Union becoming the 42nd State.
1893, November 28 - Women in New Zealand become the first in the world to vote in a national election.
1895, November 8 - Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays while experimenting with cathode rays. More
1895, November 28 - The first auto race in the U.S. is held in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day. The race was promoted by H. H. Kohlsaat, the publisher of the Chicago Times-Herald. the Duryea, built and driven by J. Frank Duryea crossed the finish line first, 7 hours and 53 minutes later, with an average speed of 7 miles per hour. The official distance was 54.36 miles, and this was accomplished on 3.5 gallons of gas. More
1895, November 27 - Alfred Bernhard Nobel signed the final version of his will, leaving the bulk of his immense fortune to a fund for the financing of annual honorary awards to be made in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace. He died a year later on December 1896. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. More
1898, November 10 - A political coup and massacre in which the multiracial Fusionist (Republican and Populist) city government of Wilmington, North Carolina, was violently overthrown by a group of the state's white Southern Democrats conspiring and leading a mob of 2,000 white men to overthrow the legitimately elected local Fusionist biracial government in Wilmington. They expelled opposition black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the American Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed from an estimated 60 to more than 300 people. More
1903, November 3 - Panama declares independence from Colombia with U.S, Support while simultaneously negotiating a treaty granting the U.S. the right to construct the canal. The United States recognized Panama three days later The treaty that allowed the United States to build and operate a canal that traversed Panama. The treaty also gave the United States the right to govern a ten-mile wide Canal Zone that encompassed the waterway, which was completed in 1914. In 1979, the United States transferred control of the Canal Zone to Panama, and in 1999 transferred control and responsibility for the Canal to Panama. More
1903, November 10 - Mary Anderson is granted a patent for a windshield wiper. The United States Patent Office awarded Anderson patent number 743,801 for her Window Cleaning device which consisted of a lever inside the vehicle that controlled a rubber blade on the outside of the windshield. More
1907, November 16 - Oklahoma is admitted to the United States of America becoming the 46th State of the Union.
1910, November 3 - Dr. Crippen is convicted in London for the murder of his wife, making it one of the first cases solved with the help of wireless communication.
1910, November 20 - The Mexican Revolution begins as Francisco Madero, speaking at San Luis Potosi, in San Antonio, Texas, calls for an uprising against the elitist government and oligarchical policies of Porfirio Díaz who had already being in power for 33 years and had just just declared himself the winner after a mock election against Madero and was starting his 7th term as president. Although the revolt failed, it kindled revolutionary movements led by Pascual Orozco, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. All culminating with Díaz resignation in May 25,1911 and Madero being elected president, Madero was assassinated early in 1913 by Victoriano Huerta, a commander of the federal forces who dissolved the congress and assumed power. More upheavals followed and the revolution continued until 1920 when General Álvaro Obregón rose to power. More
1912, November 5 - Woodrow Wilson becomes the 28th President of the U.S. by defeating the incumbent William H. Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election with a landslide victory in the electoral college and just 41.8% of the popular vote, the lowest vote share for a victorious presidential candidate since 1860. More
1914. November 2 - Russia declares war on Turkey, following the shelling of Russian ports and the sinking of Russian ships in the Black Sea by Turkey,
1914, November 2 - Great Britain and France declared war on Turkey respecting their agreement with Russia, widening the conflict of World War I.
1916, November 7 - Jeannette Rankin becomes the first woman in the history of the nation to win a seat in the U.S. Congress. when she is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the State of Montana. More
1916, November 21 - The Hospital ship HM Britannic, Sister ship to the Titanic, sinks on her sixth voyage when she struck a mine and sank off the Greek coast in the Agean Sea. More than 1,000 crew, doctors and nurses were on board, and 30 people lost their lives. The Britannic sank in 55 minutes and was the largest ship lost in the First World War. More
1917, November 2 - The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The statement came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, More
1917, November 7 - The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia begins with the storming of the Winter Palace in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), leading to the establishment of Soviet power. More
1918, November 11 - WWI Armistice on the Western Front also known as the Armistice of Compiègne is officially signed. After more than four years of fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. The armistice between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending World War I. More
1919, November 11 - World War I ends with the signing of the Armistice of Compiègne, marking the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front.
1922, November 4 - The entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun is discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. More
1923, November 8 - Adolf Hitler's first attempted coup, the Beer Hall Putsch, is foiled in Munich, Germany.
1926, November 23 - The fifth Imperial conference, hosted by King-Emperor George V, ends. The Imperial Conference brought together the prime ministers of the Dominions of the British Empire and it was held in London. The conference was notable for establishing the principle that the dominions are all equal in status, and "autonomous communities within the British Empire" not subordinate to the United Kingdom. The term "Commonwealth" was officially adopted to describe the community.
1929, November 28 - Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN along with pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot/radioman Harold June, and photographer Ashley McKinley, make their historic first-flight over the South Pole, in 18 hours, 41 minutes. More
1930, November 5 - Sinclair Lewis wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first American to receive the honor. More
1935, November 22 - The Flying boat "China Clipper" lifts off the waters of San Francisco Bay, California, carrying 58 mailbags, weighing 1,837 lbs, containing 110,865 specially stamped letters on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight. More
1936, November 25 - The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed between Germany and Japan, laying the groundwork for the Axis Powers during World War II. More
1938, November 9 - Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, a massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout Greater Germany takes place. The German authorities looked on without intervening as Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked and buildings were demolished. The name Kristallnacht (literally 'Crystal Night') comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the attack. More
1939, November 30 - The Soviet Union invades Finland starting what is sometimes call the "Winter War". Though small and under-resourced, the Finnish Army was resilient, well-led and was able to use knowledge of the terrain to good effect. Despite the overwhelming odds, Finland resisted for three months with little outside assistance. However, it was only a matter of time before the balance of power tipped in the Soviet Union’s favor. Finland was forced to sign the Treaty of Moscow on 12 March 1940, which ceded 11 per cent of its territory to the Soviet Union. More
1940, November 5 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected as President of the United States for an unprecedented third term. More
1940, November 7 - The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapses More
1942, November 8 - Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa during World War II, begins.
1942, November 19 - Operation Uranus: Soviet Marshal Georgi Zhukov’s trap for the German Army at Stalingrad is ready and a devastating attack is unleashed. More
1943, November 29 - The Tehran Conference, a four day meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begins in Tehran, Iran. The three leaders coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number of important decisions concerning the post World War II era. More
1944, November 7 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term by defeating Thomas Dewey by more than three and a half million votes and a 333 Electoral College vote margin. FDR would die on April 12, 1945, at the age of 63 from complications of high blood pressure. More
1945, November 20 - The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals begin in Germany. More
1946, November 23 - The Haiphong Incident occurred on November 23, 1946, when The French Cruiser, Suffren and several smaller ships bombard the Vietnamese coastal city of Haiphong, killing between 2,000 and 6,000 Vietnamese people. The incident, also known as the Haiphong Massacre is thought of as the first armed clash in a series of events that would lead to the Battle of Hanoi on December 19, 1946, and the official outbreak of the First Indochina War. More
1947, November 2 - Howard Hughes flies the H-4 Hercules nicknamed the Spruce Goose. It was the largest, heaviest and most expensive plane ever built. Yet aside from a one-mile test flight at 70ft (20m), it never flew again. The plane was designed under an Air Force contract to carry 750 troops or one Sherman tank up to 5,000 miles and at a cruising speed above 250 mph at up to 21,000ft (6,400m) across the Atlantic, thus avoiding Nazi U-boats.. Shortages of materials and in-fighting with business partner Henry Kaiser meant that the only prototype ever built was not completed until 1947, two years after the war ended. More
1947, November 29 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution (not implemented) calling for the partition of Palestine into two separate states—an Arab and a Jewish one — (Map) that would retain an economic union with Jerusalem internationalized (Resolution 181 (II) More
1950, November 25 - “The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950,” system blanketed areas from western Pennsylvania southward deep into West Virginia with over 30 inches of snow for several days. Some locations received more than 50 inches of snow, and Coburn Creek, West Virginia, reported a staggering 62 inches of snow fall. More
1952, November 4 - The United States conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test, code-named "Ivy Mike." More
1952, November 4 - Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president. A popular World War II general who ran on the slogan “I Like Ike,” Eisenhower easily defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson becoming the the 34th president of the United States.
1953, November 13 - Mrs. Thomas J. White of the Indiana Textbook Commission calls for a ban of the "Robin Hood" book and references to it, for promoting communism because "he stole from the rich to give to the poor". The call came at a time when 50 percent of the country supported McCarthyism. The Indianapolis superintendent of schools stated that he could not find anything particularly subversive about the story. The attempt to censor Robin Hood failed. More
1954, November 12 - The Ellis Island Immigration Gateway is officially closed. The processing center began receiving arriving immigrants on January 1, 1892. Over the next 62 years, more than 12 million, mostly working class immigrants, would arrive in the United States via Ellis Island. About 40% of people in the US are descendants of people who travelled through Ellis Island. First and second-class passengers bypassed the island and now could go straight ashore. But third class passengers were subjected to medical and legal checks. After 1924, Ellis Island changed from being a processing center to being a detention and deportation facility. More
1954, November 30 - A meteorite crashes through the roof of a home near Sylacauga, Talladega County, Alabama, striking resident Ann E. Hodges. Hodges was the first person in modern history to have reportedly been injured by a meteorite. The meteorite, which weighs about eight and one-half pounds, is on permanent display at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. More
1956, November 1 - The Suez Crisis begins when Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula, leading to international tensions and intervention. More
1956, November 4 - Soviet troops move against Budapest with great force to crush a nascent rebellion in Budapest, the capital of the Soviet satellite state of Hungary. Over the course of the next several days, thousands of Hungarians were killed by Red Army troops. Hundreds of thousands more fled to the West, seeking asylum. More
1957, November 3 - The Soviet Union launches a dog into space. The dog, named Laika, was the first animal in Orbit More
1960, November 2 - The obscenity trial of Penguin Books for publishing DH Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover ends with their acquittal. The verdict is seen as a major victory for freedom of expression in Britain and liberalizing the cultural landscape. It is also believed that it helped shift views on major human rights issues including legalization of homosexuality and abortion, the abolition of the death penalty and divorce reform. More
1962, November 6 - The U.N. General Assembly requested Member States to take specific measures to bring about the abandonment of apartheid in South Africa, including breaking of diplomatic, trade and transport relations. It also established a Special Committee to follow developments and report to the General Assembly and the Security Council. More
1963, November 2 - Generals in the South Vietnamese Army depose President Ngo Dinh Diem and assassinate Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. More
1963, November 22 - President John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. More
1968, November 5 - Richard Nixon is elected as the 37th President of the United States (1969-1974) after previously serving as a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from California. He became the only President to ever resign the office, as a result of the Watergate scandal. More
1969, November 10 - Sesame Street, a beloved educational children's television program, premieres in the United States.
1970, November 12 - The Bhola cyclone, the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times occurred on this day in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. and India's West Bengal. The estimated fatalities were at least 300,000 and possibly as many as 500,000. primarily as a result of the storm surge that flooded much of the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta. More
1971, November 12 - Congress changes the status of Arches to National Park in recognition of over 10,000 years of human history that flourished in this now-famous landscape of rock. Located in eastern Utah, U.S., on the Colorado River just north of Moab and northeast of Canyon lands National Park, it had been previously established as a National Monument in 1929. More
1971, November 24 - An unidentified man hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft, in United States during a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington. The hijacker, nicknamed D. B. Cooper by the media tells a flight attendant he is armed with a bomb, demanded $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to about $1,500,000 in 2023). He later parachuted out of the aircraft with the ransom money; despite an extensive manhunt, he was never identified or caught. More
1972, November 7 - Richard Nixon is re-elected President of the United States after defeating Senator George McGovern, Democrat from South Dakota. On the evening of August 8, 1974, President Nixon addressed the nation and announced his intention to resign. The President’s resignation letter is addressed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who initialed it at 11:35 a.m. More
1974, November 13 - Karen Silkwood, an American chemical technician and whistleblower, dies under suspicious circumstances while investigating safety concerns at a nuclear facility. More
1974, November 24 - Fossils of one of the oldest known human ancestors, an Australopithecus afarensis specimen nicknamed “Lucy,” were discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia's Awash Valley. Lucy, about 3.2 million years old, stood only a meter (3.5 feet) tall. She had powerful arms and long, curved toes that paleontologists think allowed her to climb trees as well as walk upright. More
1977, November 19 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat makes a historic visit to Israel during which he offered a peace plan to its parliament. It was the first visit of its kind by an Arab leader to Israel. At that time, the two countries were considered at war. The visit was a major step toward the Camp David Accords, signed by President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978, established a framework for a historic peace treaty concluded between Israel and Egypt in March 1979. Sadat, was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo On 6 October 1981. More
1979, November 4 - Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the Chargé d’Affaires to the most junior members of the staff, as hostages. The Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days. More
1979, November 29 - New Zealand's flight TE901 crashes on Antarctica' s Mt Erebus volcano during a sightseeing trip. All 257 people on board were killed.
1980, November 4 - Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
1980, November 12 - The U.S. space probe Voyager 1 reaches the planet Saturn. More
1982, November 13 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated. The most prominent feature of the memorial is a massive wall that lists the names of the more than 58,000 servicemen and women who lost their lives during the Vietnam War. About 2,7 Million U.S. Service members served in Vietnam. including 265,000 women. It's the most-visited memorial on the National Mall in Washington, attracting more than 5 million people each year. More
1985, November 13 - The volcano Nevado del Ruiz, located about 130 kilometers from Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá, erupts spewing a violent mix of hot ash and lava into the atmosphere and causing nearly 30 meters high mudflows through the countryside where more than 23,000 people were killed most of them in the town of Armero. More
1985, November 19 - The Geneva Summit, the first meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev starts. The two leaders met for two days to discuss the Cold War-era arms race, primarily the possibility of reducing the number of nuclear weapons. Hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting was the first American-Soviet summit in more than six years. More
1985, November 20 - US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard arrested for spying and passing classified information to Israel; he received a life sentence on Nov. 1, 1987. He was paroled in 2015 after 30 years in prison and is now living in Israel.
1986, November 25 - The Iran-Contra scandal unravels - On a televised press conference, President Reagan assures viewers that he was “not fully informed on the nature of the activities undertaken in connection with this initiative” and announces that he was relieving the officials involved of their duties. Prior to this, on October 5, a US aircraft loaded with materials for the Contras was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinista government. On November 3, the Lebanese weekly Al-Shiraa unveiled the whole affair which consisted of secretly selling weapons to Iran, and using the profits to fund the Contras. In 1985 the US made two shipments of arms to Iran via Israel. The following year, it handled the shipments itself. One was delivered to Tehran at the end of May 1986 by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a member of the NSC. North also delivered a bible signed by President Reagan. More
1988, November 16 - Benazir Bhutto is elected prime minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman in modern history to lead a Muslim country. She went on to serve as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. Bhutto was murdered on 27 December 2007 by a 15-year-old suicide bomber. More
1988, November 22 - The first B-2 is displayed to the public as it was rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California. Its first flight was July 17, 1989. More
1989, November 9 - The Berlin Wall, which had divided East and West Berlin for nearly 30 years, is opened, leading to the eventual reunification of Germany. More
1990, November 12 - Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web, laying the foundation for the internet as we know it. More
1990, November 25 - The 50-year old Seattle's Lacey V. Murrow Bridge breaks apart and plunges into the mud beneath Lake Washington after a week of high winds and rain while undergoing $35.6 million renovation. It is later discovered that hatchways into the concrete pontoon air pockets were left open, allowing water to enter. A new Lacey V. Murrow Bridge opened the following year. More
1993, November 1 - The European Union is officially established as the Maastricht Treaty comes into force. More
1995, November 4 - Yitzhak Rabin, the fifth prime minister of Israel, is assassinated. The assassin, an Israeli ultra nationalist named Yigal Amir, radically opposed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords. More
1998, November 20 - The first module of the International Space Station, named Zarya, is launched into orbit.
2000, November 2 - NASA Astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev become the first crew to reside onboard the station. Expedition 1 spent four months onboard completing tasks necessary to bring the ISS "to life" and began what is now more than 20 years of continuous human presence in space. More
2000, November 7 - The United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore leads to a disputed result, eventually resolved by the Supreme Court in favor of Bush.
2001, November 10 - American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300-600, N14053, crashes in Queens, New York, shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport. All 260 people on board and five people on the ground died in the crash. More
2003, November 7 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a Joint Statement on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Holodomor – a deliberate famine inflicted in 1932-’33 by the Soviet regime that resulted in the starvation of millions of Ukrainians- which states: “The Holodomor – The Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine – took life from 7 to 10 million innocent people and became a national tragedy for the Ukrainian people” The Holodomor has been defined as an act of genocide by many nations around the world. It is commemorated on the 4th Saturday in November, More
2003, November 12 - The United States launches Operation Iron Hammer during the Iraq War.
2004, November 2 - George W. Bush is reelected as President of the United States, defeating John Kerry.
2005, November 9 - A series of coordinated bombings in Amman, Jordan, target three hotels, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds.
2008, November 4 - Barack Obama is elected President of the United States defeating Republican John McCain, thus becoming the first Black president of the United States,
2012, November 6 - Barack Obama is reelected as President of the United States, defeating Mitt Romney.
2013, November 5 - India launched its first interplanetary spacecraft, the Mars Orbiter Mission. India built Mangalyaan (“Mars craft” in English) to study the Red Planet and test key technologies required for exploring the inner solar system. The Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit on September 23, 2014, More
2013, November 24 - A historic agreement is reached between Iran and six world powers, known as the Joint Plan of Action, to limit Iran's nuclear program.
2014, November 3 - One World Trade Center, also called "Freedom Tower", officially opened its doors on November 3rd, 2014. This tallest building in the United States has a total height of 1,776 feet, in reference to the year the Declaration of Independence was approved by the United States Continental Congress. One WTC was built on the site of the former Twin Towers, which were destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. More
2014, November 12 - The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander successfully lands on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
2015, November 13 - A series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, France, leave 130 people dead and hundreds injured.
2016, November 4 - The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change enters into force. It was originally adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France. on December 12, 2015. Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” More
2016, November 8 - Donald Trump is elected as President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton.
2017, November 18 - The Zimbabwean military initiates a coup d'état, leading to the resignation of President Robert Mugabe after 37 years in power.
2018, November 11 - The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I is commemorated worldwide.
2019, November 20 - SpaceX launches its Starship prototype for the first time on a suborbital flight.
2020, November 3 - Joe Biden is elected as the 46th President of the United States, defeating incumbent President Donald Trump.
2020, November 10 - Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech announce positive results from their COVID-19 vaccine trial.
2020, November 28 - Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is assassinated near Tehran, leading to tensions in the region.
2020, November 30 - NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully collects a sample from the asteroid Bennu.
2021, November 4 - The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) concludes in Glasgow, Scotland, with commitments to address climate change.
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