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THIS MONTH IN HISTORY
November
1016, November
King Edmund II (Ironsides) of England dies after reigning only a few months, and leaves the kingdom to his rival, Canute I.
1272, November 16
Died: Henry III of England, after a 56 year reign. [He was crowned at age 9.]
1312, November 13
Born: King Edward III of England.
1396, November 4
At Calais, Richard II marries Isabella, daughter of King Charles VI of France.
1512, November 1
Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were first exhibited to the public.
1520, November 28
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American straits that now bears his name.
1528, November
Cabeza de Vaca shipwrecked on Galveston Island. After trading in the region for some six years, he later explored the Texas interior on his way to Mexico.
1532, November 16
Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro captures Inca chief Atahuallpa and demands ransom. After the ransom is paid, Pizarro kills the chief… So much for chivalry.
1558, November 17
Elizabeth I ascended the throne upon the death of Queen Mary.
1601, November 30
Queen Elizabeth I delivers a speech to her last Parliament.
1604, November 1
400 years ago, William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello" was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.
1605, November 5
The "Gunpowder Plot" to blow up the English Parliament is uncovered when the cellars are discovered to be filled with gunpowder; the Catholic perpetrators led by Guy Fawkes are hanged by their Protestant opponents. [Of course, Protestants may have planted the gunpowder, or…]
1616, November 14
Sir Edward Coke is dismissed as Attorney General for "interference with the court of chancery and of disrespect to the king [James I] in the matter of commendams."
1619, November 19
Descartes has a vision for a new mathematical and scientific system.
1620, November 3
King James I grants a Charter of New England.
1620, November 10, 11 [O/S dates]
Nov 10: The Mayflower arrives off the coast of Massachusetts.
Nov 11: The Mayflower Compact is signed by 41 pilgrims of the Mayflower.
1636, November 15
The Plymouth Constitution, an update of the Mayflower Compact, is adopted by the settlers of New Plymouth.
1688, November
William of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands and son-in-law of King James II, invades England. James flees to France. William and James' daughter Mary take over in 1689 as William III and Mary II (William and Mary).
1708, November 15
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, is born at Golden Square, Westminister.
1718, November 22
English pirate Edward Teach — better known as "Blackbeard" — was killed during a battle off the Virginia coast.
1746, November 27
Robert R. Livingston, statesman and jurist, is born in New York City.
1752, November 19
George Rogers Clark (1752-1818), American frontier military leader, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia.
1755, November 2
Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna, Austria.
1758, November 25
During the French and Indian War, the British capture Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburg.
1763, November
General Thomas Gage becomes commander of British troops in America.
1765, November 1
The notorious British Stamp Act went into effect.
1765, November 14
Robert Fulton, American inventor, engineer, and artist, was born. He is best known for designing and building the Clermont, the first commercially successful steamboat. Put into service on the Hudson River, New York City to Albany.
1765, November 23
Frederick County, Md., repudiated the notorious British Stamp Act.
1775, November 3
On this date, British Lieutenant John André was captured by American forces led by Benedict Arnold in the surrender of Fort St. Johns. André was parolled in 1776. Major John André was hanged as a British spy, on October 2, 1780 for conspiring WITH Arnold for the British to take over West Point.
1775, November 7
To stifle rebellion, Lord Dunmore, loyalist Gov. of Virginia, declares martial law; offers freedom for slaves who will take up arms for Britain.
1775, November 10
The first U.S. Marines were organized under the authority of the Continental Congress.
1775, November 13
During the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal.
1776, November 5
The Virginia House of Burgesses appoints Thomas Jefferson, Pendleton, Wythe, George Mason and Thomas L. Lee to rewrite the laws of Virginia.
1776, November 16
American Revolution: British troops captured Fort Washington.
1777, November 15
The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation (AOC), a charter of governance between the 13 colonies kind of like today's United Nations charter. The AOC didn't work either, but the Founders had enough sense to scrap it in 1787 and write the Constitution.
1782, November 13
A provisional agreement for a Cessation of Hostilities between Britain and the United States is agreed upon but is not signed unitl January.
1782, November 30
The U.S. and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War. The final agreement, the Treaty of Paris, is signed in September, 1783.
1783, November 2
Gen. George Washington issued his "Farewell Address to the Army" near Princeton, New Jersey.
1783, November 25
The British evacuate New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War. [However, chasing them from the lands beyond the Western Frontier took another 35 years.]
1784, November 24
Zachary Taylor, the 12th U.S. president (1849-1850), was born in Orange County, Virginia. His 2nd daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor, married Lt. Jefferson Davis and his only son, Richard Taylor, became a general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
1785, November 28
The United States signs the Hopewell Treaty with the Cherokee Indian Nation.
1789, November 13
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
1789, November 20
New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1789, November 21
North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the Constitution.
1791, November 4
Gen. Arthur St. Clair was overwhelmingly defeated near Fort Wayne by a smaller force of Native Americans led by Little Turtle of the Miami.
1794, November 19
Jay Treaty, (Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation) signed in London.
Gen. Daniel Morgan with his troops, starts the return trip home after helping President Washington put down the Whiskey Rebellion in western PA.
1795, November 2
Born: 11th U.S. president, James Knox Polk, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.
1796, November 4
Pres. John Adams sent delegates to Tripoli who promptly agreed to blackmail by the Muslims to stop their Barbary piracy. Adams repeated the mistake in Jan. 1797 at Algiers. Naturally, five years later, Pres. Thomas Jefferson had to land U.S. Marines on the shores of Tripoli to end the piracy.
1799, November 9
Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the government and effectively ended the French Revolution.
1800, November 17
Congress formally transferred from Philadelphia as it held the first session in Washington, D.C., in the partially completed Capitol.
1801, November 20
Alexander Hamilton's son, Philip, is killed in a duel in Weehawken, N.J. where the senior Hamilton is also killed on July 11, 1804.
1803, November 30
Spain formally gives possession of the Louisiana Territory to France so that Napoleon can complete an agreement to sell it to the U.S.
1804, November 23
Born: the 14th president of the U.S., Franklin Pierce, in Hillsboro, N.H.
1804, November 30
Supreme Court Justice (and signer of the Declaration of Independence) Samuel Chase went on trial, accused of political bias. (He was acquitted by the Senate.)(Caution, don't confuse this Samuel Chase with the Samuel P. Chase on your $10,000 bills.)
1805, November 7
Meriwhether Lewis and William Clark discover the mouth of the Columbia River — just in time.
1806, November 15
Explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now know as Pikes Peak.
1807, November 17
Treaty of Detroit signed with the Ottoway, Chippeway, Wyandotte, and Pottawatamie nations of Indians.
1811, November 7
William Henry Harrison suffers 190 casualties but repels Indians at Tippecanoe River, near West Lafayette, Indiana. The battle earned Harrison the nickname, "Old Tippecanoe."
1815, November 2
George Boole, mathematician and logistician (Boolean math), was born in Lincoln, England.
1815, November 12
American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Jamestown, N.Y.
1820, November 18
U.S. Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the frozen continent of Antarctica.
1825, November 4
The first barge to travel the entire length of the Erie Canal arrived in New York City.
1825, November 26
The first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.
1831, November 11
Former slave Nat Turner, who led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Virginia.
1831, November 19
Born: Future president James A. Garfield, in Orange, Ohio.
1832, November 26
Dr. Mary E. Walker, the only women ever awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, was born in Oswego, New York.
Public streetcar service began in New York City with a fare of 12½ cents.
1835, November 3, 8
Nov. 3: The Consultation met to consider options for autonomous rule for Texas and passed the Organic Law.
Nov. 8: The Grass Fight near San Antonio was won by the Texans under Jim Bowie and Ed Burleson. Instead of silver, however, the Texans gained a worthless bounty of grass.
1835, November 25
American industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland.
1835, November 30
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is born in Florida, Missouri.
1838, November
The Trail of Tears, 13 contingents of Cherokee cross Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois. Mississippi River crossing is held up by river ice floes.
1839, November
The Texas Congress first met in Austin, the frontier site selected for the capital of the Republic.
1842, November 4
Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois. The wedding was held in the house of Mary's sister, Mrs. Ninian Edwards, and Mary Todd Lincoln died in the same house in 1882.
1850, November 25
In a plan to settle boundary disputes and pay her public debt, Texas relinquished about one-third of her territory in the Compromise of 1850, in exchange for $10,000,000 from the United States.
1851, November 14
Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick was first published.
1859, November 24
British naturalist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which explained his theory of evolution.
1860, November 6
Former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates to win the presidency.
1861, November 1
General George B. McClellan was made General-in-Chief of the Union armies.
1861, November 6
Jefferson Davis, former congressman, senator and Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce, was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederate States of America.
1861, November 7, 8-9, 19
Civil War battles: fought in KY, MO, and OK.
1862, November 7, 28
Civil War battles: fought in AR and MO.
1863, November 3, 6, 7, 16, 23-25, 27, 29, 27-30
Civil War battles: fought in GA, TN, VA, and WVA.
1863, November 19
President Abraham Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address.
1864, November 4-5, 11-13, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30
Civil War battles: in CO(Indian massacre), GA, SC, and TN.
1864, November 16
Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops began their "March to the Sea" during the Civil War.
1864, November 29
Union forces massacre Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado.
1865, November 2
Born: 29th U.S. president, Warren Gamaliel Harding, near Corsica, Ohio.
1865, November 11
Rather than honor her request for a commission in the U.S. Army, President Andrew Johnson ordered that Dr. Mary Walker be granted the Congressional Medal of Honor instead. The medal was revoked in a purge in 1917 but restored in 1977.
1868, November 3
Ulysses S. Grant (R) won the presidential election over Horatio Seymour (D).
1869, November 17
The Suez Canal opened in Egypt.
1870, November 1
The U.S. Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations.
1871, November 10
Journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone in central Africa.
1871, November 24
The National Rifle Association (NRA) was incorporated.
1872, November 9
Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston.
1874, November 30
Winston S. Churchill is born Oxfordshire, England.
1877, November 21
Thomas A. Edison announced he had invented the phonograph.
1879, November 4
Born: humorist Will Rogers, in Oologah, Okla.
1880, November 4
The first cash register was patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.
1881, November 25
Born: near Bergamo, Italy, Angelo Roncalli (Pope John XXIII).
1883, November 18
The United States and Canada adopted a system of Standard Time zones.
1884, November 4
Grover Cleveland (D) was elected to his first term as president, defeating James G. Blaine (R). [In 1886 Cleveland married 22-year-old Frances Folsom in the only presidential wedding ever held in the White House. In 1888 Cleveland narrowly lost to Benjamin Harrison (R) but won in 1892 to become the only person to serve split-terms as president. In 1896 Cleveland lost his party's nomination to William Jennings Bryan who lost the general election to William McKinley (R).]
1886, November 18
Died: Past-President Chester A. Arthur, in N.Y.C. at age 56.
1888, November 6
Benjamin Harrison (R) defeated Grover Cleveland (D) by winning more electoral votes and more states even though Cleveland won more popular votes. There were 38 states: Harrison won 20 and Cleveland won 18.
1889, November 2
North Dakota became 39th and South Dakota became the 40th state admitted to the United States.
1889, November 8
Montana became the 41st state admitted to the United States.
1889, November 11
Washington became the 42nd state admitted to the United States.
1889, November 14
Inspired by Jules Verne's book, Around the World in Eighty Days, New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) set out to travel around the world in the allotted time. She made it in 72 days.
1890, November 22
Charles de Gaulle, future French general in World War II and later French president, was born in Lille, France.
1893, November 6
Composer Peter Ilyrich Tchaikovsky died in St. Petersburg, Russia, at age 53.
1893, November 7
Colorado, 17 years after becoming the 38th state, granted its women the right to vote. Amendment XIX, providing the right nationally, was ratified in 1920.
1896, November 3
William McKinley (R) defeated William Jennings Bryan (D) for the presidency.
1899, November 21
President McKinley's V.P., Garret A. Hobart, died in Paterson, N.J., at age 55.
1900, November 3
The first automobile show in the U.S. opened at New York's Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the Automobile Club of America.
1900, November 6
President William McKinley (R) was re-elected, beating William Jennings Bryan (D).
1900, November 14
Born, in New York City: Aaron Copland, one of America's leading composers of the 20th century.
1901, November
Joseph Stalin is formally accepted into the Russian Social Democratic Labor (Marxist) Party.
1901, November 27
The U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.
1903, November
Joseph Stalin, arrested in March, is transferred from prison and exiled to Siberia.
1903, November 3
With U.S. assistance, Panama gained independence from Columbia.
1903, November 18
Panama signed a treaty with the U.S. to build a canal.
1903, November 23
Singer Enrico Caruso made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, appearing in "Rigoletto."
1904, November 8
President Theodore Roosevelt, who had succeeded the assassinated William McKinley, was elected to a term in his own right as he defeated Democrat Alton B. Parker.
1906, November 6
Charles Evans Hughes (R) was elected governor of New York, defeating newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (D).
1906, November 22
The "S-O-S" distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin.
1907, November 16
Oklahoma became the 46th state admitted to the United States.
1908, November 3
William Howard Taft (R) wins presidency over William Jennings Bryan (D).
1910, November 20
Revolution broke out in Mexico, led by Francisco I. Madero.
1910, November 27
New York's Pennsylvania Station opened.
1911, November 5
Calbraith P. Rodgers arrived in Pasadena, Calif., completing the first coast-to-coast airplane trip in 49 days.
1911, November 11
The Great Blue Norther of 11/11/11 — The most severe weather variation in U.S. history as many midwest cities had record highs and record lows on the same day (Springfield, Mo., went from 80°F to 13°F in 10 hours).
1912, November 5
Woodrow Wilson (D) was elected president, defeating Progressive Party ("Bull Moose," splinter group of Rep. Party) candidate Theodore Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft (R). [Teddy, unhappy with Taft, was running again after retiring in 1909 and had entered the race to defeat Taft. Taft was delighted with the loss. He became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1921 where he had wanted to be all along.]
1914, November
War in Europe: The Allies declared war on the Ottoman Empire; Turkish troops invaded Russia; Fighting broke out on the Arabian Peninsula, in Mesopotamia (now mostly Iraq), Palestine, and Syria. — Mid-Nov.: Allies stopped the German advance to the sea in the First Battle of Ypres in Belgium. — End-Nov.: The war reached a deadlock along the Western Front that lasted nearly 3½ years as the battlefront extended more than 450 miles across Belgium and northeastern France to the border of Switzerland.
1916, November
The useless Battle of Somme is halted by British General Douglas Haig after gaining 7 miles. Total casualties for all sides: 1,000,000 +.
1916, November 7
Jeannette Rankin (R) of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.
1917, November 7 (Oct. 25, old Russian calendar)
The October Revolution in Russia: Bolsheviks captured the Winter Palace, overthrowing the Provisional government of Alexander Kerensky. The revolt made Lenin the new ruler and he promptly withdrew Russia from WW I.
1917, November 10
In WWI, snow and ice bring a halt to the three-month old Third Battle of Ypres (Belgium), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele.
1917, November 15
Alvin C. York is inducted into the the U.S. Army at Oneida, Tennessee.
1917, November 17
Died: Sculptor Auguste Rodin, in Meudon, France.
1918, November 1, 7
Nov. 1: Alvin C. York's combat unit is sent into reserve.
Nov. 7: York is granted a 10-day furlough to Aix-les-Bains, France.
1918, November 9
World War I: Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II announced he would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.
1918, November 11
Armistice ends World War I; the "war to end all wars." — In the 11th month, 11th day, at the 11th hour (11:00 A.M.).
1919, November 10
The American Legion held its first national convention, in Minneapolis.
1919, November 19
The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55-39, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
1919, November 28
American-born Lady Astor becomes first female elected to the British Parliament.
1920, November 12
Major League Baseball got its first "czar" as Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected commissioner of both the American and National leagues.
1921, November 11
President Warren G. Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
1922, November 4
Howard Carter discovers King Tut's tomb; (Tutankhamun/Tutankhamen).
1922, November 14
The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), began its domestic radio service.
1923, November 8
The Beer Hall Putsch, in a Munich pub, Adolf Hitler proclaims a Nazi revolution.
1924, November 4
Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming was elected the nation's first female governor to serve out the remaining term of her late husband, William B. Ross.
1925, November 28
The Grand Ole Opry, Nashville's famed home of country music, made its radio debut on station WSM.
1926, November 15
The National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) debuted with a radio network of 24 stations.
1927, November 12
Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
1927, November 13
The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.
1928, November 2, 6
Nov. 2: For his first elective office, Herbert Hoover (R) is elected president over Alfred E. Smith (D). Hoover is the only one to ever take such a shortcut.
Nov. 6: In another first, the results of the election were flashed onto an electric sign outside the New York Times building in NYC.
1928, November 10
Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
1928, November 18
Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York. This was the first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon.
1929, November 12
Born, in Philadelphia: Grace Kelly, future film star and future Princess of Monaco.
1929, November 28-29
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd flies over the South Pole.
1930, November 2
Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
1932, November 8
New York governor Franklin Roosevelt (D) defeats incumbent Herbert Hoover (R) for the presidency.
1933, November 8
President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration, designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.
1933, November 16
The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. established diplomatic relations.
1934, November 17
Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as "Lady Bird."
1935, November 9
United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO).
1935, November 14
President Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth.
1935, November 22
A flying boat, the "China Clipper," took off from Alameda, Calif., carrying more than 110,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
1936, November 3
Franklin Roosevelt (D) wins in a landslide victory for re-election over challenger Alfred M. "Alf" Landon (R).
1936, November 18
Germany and Italy recognize the Spanish government of Gen. Francisco Franco.
1936, November 23
Life, the magazine created by Henry R. Luce, was first published.
1936, November 30
London's famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the International Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed in a fire.
1937, November 5
Adolf Hitler tells his generals of his plan to take over Europe.
1938, November 9
Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht."
1938, November 11
Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on network radio.
1939, November 15
President Franklin Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1939, November 30
The Societ Union invaded Finland and, after a bitter struggle, took a large portion of that country.
1940, November 5
President Franklin Roosevelt (D) won an unprecedented third term as he defeated Republican Wendell L. Wilkie.
1940, November 7
The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state collapsed during a windstorm.
1940, November 13
The Walt Disney animated movie "Fantasia" had its world premiere in New York.
1940, November 14
In World War II, German planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry, killing hundreds of civilians. From intercepted messages, Churchill was aware of the impending raid but did not alert the city for fear of compromising The Ultra Secret. [History has proven that his decision was correct.]
1940, November 15
Although President Roosevelt and Congress continued to assure the public that the U.S. would not join in the war in Europe, the first 75,000 men were called to armed forces duty under peacetime conscription.
1940, November 26
A half-million Jews of Warsaw, Poland, were forced by Nazis to live within a walled ghetto, and the world silently watched. [Now, history is repeating in France, Germany, and Spain and again the world watches… silently.]
1942, November 4
During World War II, Axis forces retreated from El Alamein in N. Africa in a major victory for the British commmanded by Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery.
1942, November 8
In Operation Torch, allied forces commanded by Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower land in Algeria and Morocco to take on the Vichy French that were fighting FOR the Nazis. — Naturally, the Vichy French, being French, had exhibited "The Stuff" that made them famous when Hitler invaded their country in 1940: they switched sides and joined the Nazis. Now, confronted by Eisenhower's forces, they demonstrated "The Stuff" again: They surrendered and begged to join the Allies.
1942, November 10
Winston Churchill delivered a speech in London in which he said, "I have not become the King's First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire."
1942, November 12
In the Pacific during WW II, the battle for Guadalcanal began.
1942, November 13
The minimum military draft age was lowered from 21 to 18.
1942, November 19
During World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against Germans along the Don River front.
1942, November 21
The Alaska highway across Canada was formally opened.
1942, November 26
President Franklin Roosevelt ordered nation-wide gasoline rationing, beginning December 1.
The motion picture "Casablanca," starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York.
1942, November 27
During World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis.
1942, November 28
Nearly 500 people died in a fire that destroyed the Cocoanut Grove night-club in Boston.
1943, November
World War II: Having taken Guadalcanal in Feb., American forces in the Pacific under Adm. William F. "Bull" Halsey reach Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
1943, November 10
During WW II in Italy, former Arkansas football star and captain of the Detriot Lions NFL team, Maurice "Footsie" Britt earns the Congressional Medal of Honor to become the first American soldier to win all of the top medals for bravery in a single war.
1943, November 14
Leonard Bernstein, the 25-year-old assistant conductor of the NY Philharmonic, made his debut with the orchestra as he filled in for the ailing Bruno Walter during a nationally broadcast concert.
1943, November 20
World War II: Adm. Chester W. Nimitz invades Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands: only 17 of 4,500 Japanese defenders survive. U.S. casualties are 3,000 (killed and wounded). The battles are over by Nov. 23 and Nimitz learns a lesson (island hopping) that serves U.S. forces well for the rest of the war.
1943, November 22
World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan.
1943, November 26
World War II: The H.M.T. Rohna, a British transport ship, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed, including 1,015 American troops.
1943, November 28
World War II: President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met in Teheran, Iran, to discuss strategy for the invasion of France in the Spring of 1944. [On Nov. 14, an American torpedo had been mistakenly fired at the U.S. battleship Iowa, which was carrying Roosevelt and his joint chiefs to the conference; the torpedo exploded harmlessly in the Iowa's wake.]
1944, November 5
British official Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by the Zionist Stern gang.
1944, November 7
President Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecendented 4th term. He took the oath on Jan. 20, 1945 and died Apr. 12, 1945.
1944, November 14
Tommy Dorsey and Orchesta recorded "Opus I" for RCA Victor.
1944, November 24
WW II: Bombers based on Saipan attacked Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese capital by land-based planes.
1944, November 25
Died: baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, age 78.
1945, November 20
Twenty-four Nazi leaders from World War II went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. Some of the highest profile trials lasted until 1949.
1945, November 23
WW II: Most wartime rationing of foods, like meat and butter, ended.
1945, November 27
Gen. George C. Marshall, military Chief of Staff to Pres. Roosevelt and Pres. Truman during WW II, was named special U.S. envoy to China to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists.
1946, November 5
Republicans capture control of both the Senate and the House in midterm elections.
1947, November 2
Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden airplane on its only flight, over Long Beach Harbor in California for about one minute. The plane then remained in a hanger on Long Beach and became known as the "Spruce Goose."
1947, November 20
Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, in a ceremony broadcast worldwide from Westminster Abbey.
1947, November 24
A group of producers and directors that became known as the "Hollywood Ten" was cited for Contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions of a Congressional Committee about Communist infiltration into the movie industry.
1947, November 29
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews. [The Jews accepted, creating the state of Israel. The rest, they say, is history.]
1948, November 2
President Truman surprised the experts by being re-elected in a narrow upset over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey.
1948, November 12
Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
1949, November 19
Monaco held a coronation for its new ruler, Prince Rainier III, six months after he succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis II. [Rainier later married American Film actress, Grace Kelly.]
1949, November 26
India adopted a constitution as a republic within the British Commonwealth.
1950, November 1
Two Puerto Rican terrorist tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington, D.C., to assassinate President Harry Truman. One terrorist was killed and the other arrested. [During Hillary Clinton's run for the Senate in NY, President Clinton pardoned more than a dozen Puerto Rican terrorist from the same group to bolster the Latino vote for Hillary in New York state.]
1950, November 26
China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the U.N., the U.S. and South Korea.
1951, November 10
Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, N.J., called his counterpart in Alameda, Calif.
1952, November 1
The United States exploded the first Hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
1952, November 4, 29
Nov. 4: Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) was elected president, defeating Adlai Stevenson (D).
Nov. 29: President-elect Eisenhower kept his campaign promise to visit Korea.
1953, November 9
Died: author-poet Dylan Thomas, in New York at age 39.
1953, November 27
Died: playwright Eugene O'Neill, in Boston at age 65.
1954, November 10
The Iwo Jima Memorial (WW II, Pacific) was dedicated in Arlington, VA.
1954, November 30
Elizabeth Hodges of Sylacauga, Ala., was slightly injured when an 8½-pound meteorite crashed through the roof of her house.
1955, November
The U.S.S.R. (Soviet Union) tested its first Hydrogen bomb.
1956, November 4
Soviet tanks roll into Budapest, Hungary after the Soviet Army had invaded in October.
1956, November 6
President Eisenhower (R) won re-election, defeating Adlai E. Stevenson (D).
1956, November 13
The Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.
1957, November 3
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik II, the 2nd manmade satellite, into Earth orbit; on board was a dog named "Laika," who was sacrificed in the experiment.
1957, November 25
President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke.
1958, November 28
The African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
1959, November 2
Game show contestant Charles Van Doren admitted to a House subcommittee that he'd been given questions and answers in advance when he appeared on the NBC TV program "Twenty-One."
1959, November 16
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" opened on Broadway.
1960, November 8
Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) defeated V.P. Richard M. Nixon (R-Calif.) for the presidency.
1961, November 16
Died: House Speaker Samuel T. Rayburn, in Bonham, Texas, having served as speaker since 1940 except for two terms.
1961, November 29
Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas Five spacecraft, which orbited the earth twice before returning.
1962, November 7
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, died in NYC.
1962, November 17
Washington's Dulles Airport was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy.
1962, November 30
U Thant of Burma was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.
1963, November 1
President Kennedy supported South Vietnam generals in a coup to oust President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, but "against Kennedy's wishes" Diem and Nhu were murdered. We know that Kennedy opposed the murders because historians now tell us that they remember Kennedy telling them so… afer the fact.
1963, November 9
Twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and 160 people died in a train crash.
1963, November 22
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas. Texas Governor, John B. Connally, riding in the same limousine as Kennedy, was seriously wounded.
V.P. Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes 36th President.
1963, November 24
Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy's assassin, was shot by night club operator Jack Ruby in the main parking garage of the Dallas Police station. The killing was broadcast live on national TV.
1963, November 28
President Lyndon Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral, Fla., would be renamed Cape Kennedy in honor of assassinated John F. Kennedy. [The name was changed back to Cape Canaveral in 1973.]
1963, November 29
President Johnson named a commission headed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.
1964, November 3
President Lyndon Johnson (D) soundly defeats Barry Goldwater (R) to win a White House term in his own right. Johnson's campaign theme was that Goldwater was a warhawk who would expand the Vietnam War. Huh…?
1964, November 21
New York's Verrazano Narrows Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island, opened.
1964, November 28
The U.S. launched the space probe Mariner Four on a course to Mars.
1965, November 9
The great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.
1965, November 26
France launched its first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.
1966, November 8
Actor Ronald Reagan, was elected governor of California.
1966, November 15
The flight of Gemini 12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic.
1966, November 18
U.S. Roman Catholic bishops voted to do away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.
1966, November 30
The former British colony of Barbados became independent.
1967, November 20
The Census Clock at the Commerce Department ticked past 200 million; the census of 2000 exceeded 381 million. — By July 2004, illegal immigration was adding 3 million new people per year.
1968, November 5
Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace.
1968, November 14
Yale University announced it was going co-ed.
1968, November 17
NBC-TV, claiming contractual obligations, outraged all true Americans by cutting away from the closing minutes of a NY Jets-Oakland Raiders football game to show… "Heidi." The network thus deprived us of our God-given right to see the ending in which the Raiders came from behind to beat the Jets 43-32. However, we neo-Minute Men recognized the obvious pro-Communist-pro-European-anti-American conspiracy and raised enough hell that NBC, showing greater wisdom than George III, offered to never do it again if we would agree not to dump all their cameras into NY Harbor. A few days later the now famous TV-NFL-Heidi Accord was reached, supplanting the Treaty of Paris as the most revered treaty in the evolution of the United States.
1969, November 10
The children's educational program "Sesame Street" made its debut on PBS.
1969, November 14, 19, 24
Nov. 14: Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon.
Nov. 19: Astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon in the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms).
Nov. 24: Apollo 12 returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific.
1969, November 18
Bootlegger-financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy, died in Hyannis Port, Mass. at age 81. [He had made his fortune during Prohibition (1920-33) by smuggling Scotch whiskey into the U.S. through Canada.]
1969, November 21
The Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynesworth, the first such rejection since 1930. [In 2002, Senate Democrats decided that they have a higher calling and if the President is a Republican, the they will override the Constitution and for the first time in history, invoke an arcane Senate rule to require a 60-percent approval vote instead of the constitutionally mandated 51-percent.]
1970, November 9
Died: Former French president Charles De Gaulle, at age 79.
1970, November 17
The Soviet Union landed the Lunokhod I on the moon; an unmanned, remotely controlled vehicle.
1970, November 27
Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was wounded at the Manila airport by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.
1971, November 13
The U.S. space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars.
1971, November 23
The People's Republic of China was seated in the U.N. Security Council.
1971, November 24
Hijacker "D.B. Cooper" parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom. His fate remains unknown.
1972, November 11
The U.S. Army turned over it's base at Long Bihn to the South Vietnamese army, ending direct U.S. military combat involvement in the Vietnam War. [Liberal historians claim that the war lasted another 2 years. Balderdash! The North Vietnamese spent the next 2 years systematically murdering South Vietnam soldiers, politicians, and their families that were not able to escape.]
1972, November 14
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 level for the first time.
1973, November 1
Following the "Saturday Night Massacre," Acting Attorney General Robert H. Bork appointed Leon Jaworski to be the new Watergate special prosecutor, succeeding Archibald Cox.
1973, November 7
The unconstitutional War Powers Act was passed over the veto of President Nixon. [See Constitution and let us know if you can find the Article or Clause that permits Congress to take over military duties of the Commander In Chief.]
1973, November 16
Skylab III, carrying a crew of three astronauts, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on an 84-day mission.
President Nixon signed the Alaska Pipeline measure into law.
1973, November 17
President Richard Nixon told a gathering of AP news editors in Orlando, Florida: "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."
1973, November 21
President Richard Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18½ minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to the Watergate investigation.
1973, November 26
President Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she had accidentally caused part of the 18½-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.
1973, November 27
The Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president to succeed Spiro T. Agnew. Agnew (R-MD) had resigned as part of a plea bargain in a case of bribes and kick-backs. He had been charged with crimes that had occurred while he was county executive in Maryland.
1974, November 5
Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
1974, November 13
Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.
1975, November 10
The United Nations General Assembly proudly and publicly announced that the U.N., as a whole, was anti-Semitic by approving a resolution equating Zionism with racism. — [Such perverted logic is equivalent to saying that members of the Augusta National Golf Club hate women, or that Boy Scouts are anti-female. In Dec. 1991, the U.N. decided it would be advantageous to go underground with its systemic hatred of Jews and repealed the 1975 resolution… but action speaks louder than words.]
Also, on this date, The ore-hauling ship Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 vanished during a storm in Lake superior.
1975, November 20, 22
Nov. 20: Spain's Gen. Francisco Franco died after nearly four decades of absolute rule and two weeks before his 83rd birthday.
Nov. 22: Juan Carlos is proclaimed King of Spain.
1975, November 28
President Gerald Ford nominated Federal Judge John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by William O. Douglas.
1976, November 2
Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter became the first candidate from the Deep South since the Civil War to be elected president as he defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford.
1976, November 6
Benjamin L. Hooks was chosen to be the new executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, succeeding Roy Wilkins.
1977, November 1
The Soviet Tu-144 SST flew from Moscow to Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, making its first passenger flight. [A total of 17 Tu-144's were manufactured.]
1977, November 12
New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest "Dutch" Morial.
1977, November 13
The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.
1977, November 19
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
1977, November 22
Air France begins Concorde service between Paris and New York.
1978, November 18
Calif. Congressman Leo J. Ryan and four others were murdered in Guyana by members of Jim Jones' religious cult. Those deaths were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide with Jones and his thugs killing cult members and themselves. All together, 917 people died.
1979, November 1
Died: former first lady Mamie Eisenhower, Washington, D.C., age 82.
1979, November 4
The Iranian hostage crisis began as militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. For some of the hostages, it was the start of 444 days of captivity.
1979, November 21
A mob attacked the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing two Americans.
1979, November 28
An Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
1980, November 4
Ronald Reagan won the White House as he defeated President Jimmy Carter in a landslide.
1980, November 21
87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
1980, November 23
Some 4,800 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.
1981, November 29
Movie actress Natalie Wood, age 43, accidently drowned off Santa Catalina Island, Calif.
1981, November 30
The United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.
1982, November 10, 13
Nov. 10: The newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, D.C.
Nov. 13: The Memorial was formally dedicated.
1982, November 10
Died: Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev, at age 75.
1982, November 12
Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.
1983, November 8
W. Wilson Goode (D) is elected the first black mayor of Philadelphia.
Martha Layne (D) is elected the first female governor of Kentucky.
1983, November 11
President Reagan became the first U.S. chief executive to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.
1984, November 2
Velma Barfield, convicted of the poisoning death of her boyfriend, was put to death by injection in Raleigh, N.C., becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
1984, November 12
Space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared a wandering satellite in history's first space salvage. The Palapa B-2 satellite was secured in Discovery's cargo bay for return to Earth.
1984, November 15
Baby Fae, a month-old infant, died at a California medical center almost three weeks after receiving a baboon's heart in a transplant.
1984, November 19
Nearly 500 people died in a firestorm set off by a series of explosions at a petroleum storage plant on the edge of Mexico City.
1984, November 25
William Schroeder of Jasper, Indiana, became the second man to receive a Jarvik-7 artificial heart, at Humana Hospital Audubon in Kentucky. He lived 620 days on the device.
1985, November 12
Xavier Suarez was elected Miami's first Cuban-American mayor.
1985, November 13
Some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a gigantic mudslide buried the city.
1985, November 19
President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.
1985, November 24
The hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner parked on the ground in Malta ended violently as Egyptian commandos stormed the plane. Fifty-eight people died in the raid, in addition to two others killed by the hijackers.
1985, November 27
The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord giving Dublin a consultative role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.
1986, November 25
The Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.
1986, November 26
President Reagan appointed a commission headed by former Sen. John Tower to investigate his National Security Council staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.
1987, November 24
The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles.
1988, November 8
Vice President George H.W. Bush (R) won the presidency, defeating Mass. Gov. Michael Dukakis.
1988, November 9
Died: former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, a major figure in the Watergate scandal, in Washington at age 75.
1989, November 1
Cold War: Communist East Germany opened its border with Czechoslovakia, allowing tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the West… The beginning of the end for the Eastern Bloc of Nations.
1989, November 9
Cold War: Communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.
1989, November 21
The proceedings of Britain's House of Commons were televised live for the first time.
1989, November 24
Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu was unanimously re-elected Communist Party chief. (A month later on Christmas Day, he was overthrown in a popular uprising and executed along with his wife, Elena.)
1989, November 27
107 people were killed when a bomb blamed by police on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian jetliner.
1990, November 22
Margaret Thatcher gave notice of her intended resignation as prime minister of the United Kingdom. [On Nov. 28 she resigned during an audience before Queen Elizabeth II who conferred the premiership on John Major. In 1992, Thatcher was made a baroness and a member of the House of Lords.]
1990, November 29
The U.N. Security Council voted to give members permission "to use all necessary means" to expel Iraq from Kuwait if Iraq did not withdraw by Jan. 15, 1991. Iraq provoked the Gulf War by refusing to withdraw.
1991, November 21
The United Nations Security Council chose Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt to be the new Secretary-General although it is well known that Egypt harbors and actively supports Islamist terrorist. [The United States provides about 17-percent of the funds needed to run the U.N.]
1992, November 20
Fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
1993, November 11
A bronze statue honoring the more than 11,000 American women who'd served in the Vietnam War was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
1993, November 22
Mexico's Senate overwhelmingly approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1993, November 30
President Clinton signed into law the Brady bill, which originally required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.
1994, November 8
Republican Party wins majority of seats in the House to give GOP control of congress for first time in forty years.
1996, November 22
Democrat National Committee admits accepting campaign contributions from foreign sources. Returns $450,000 to Indonesians.
1996, November 23
A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the waves off Comoros Islands, killing 125 of the 175 people on board.
1997, November
The FBI concludes that there was no criminal act involved in the crash of TWA flight 800 off the coast of Long Island NY on July 17, 1996.
1997, November 19
Iowa seamstress Bobbi McCaughey gave birth to four boys and three girls — only the second set of septuplets known to have been born alive.
2000, November 8
In the hours just past midnight, it becomes apparent that the 2000 presidential election will be close nationally. Although Oregon, New Mexico, Iowa, Wisconsin, and other states are still in doubt, both Bush and Gore have won enough electoral votes to make Florida's 25 votes critical to the overall outcome. In the early morning hours, the networks, led by CBS, call Florida for Bush which would give him victory with 271 Electoral College votes (270 needed to win). Gore telephones Bush and concedes the election. Within minutes Gore's staff informs him that the Bush lead in Florida has shrunk to just a few hundred votes. Gore quickly calls Bush again and "un-concedes."
2002, November 17
Died: Israeli statesman Abba Eban, near Tel Aviv, age 87.
2002, November 25
President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head.
2004, November 2
Election day 2004: Incumbent George W. Bush (R-TX) is challenged by Socialist Senator John Kerry of Mass. — Kerry, like other socialist Senators, calls himself a "Progressive Democrat" to camouflage his true political ideology.
President Bush won re-election and increased Republican control in the Senate and House of Representatives, producing the longest consecutive reign (1994-2006) of the GOP in Congress since 1933.
2004, November 11
Died: Yasser Arafat, (Yassar Arafat, Yassir Arafat) terrorist, founder and head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in Paris, France, at age 75.
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