selected Anniversaries/November

November 1: Samhain and Beltane in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively; Rajyotsava (Formation Day) in Karnataka, India (1956)

Ansel Adams

• 1214 – Byzantine–Seljuk wars: Seljuq Turks captured the important port city of Sinope.
• 1921 – Frances Kyle was called to the Bar of Ireland, becoming the first female barrister in Ireland or Great Britain.
• 1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams (pictured) shot Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, one of his most famous photographs.
• 1944 – World War II: An American F-13 Superfortress made the first flight by an Allied aircraft over Tokyo since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942.
• 1963 – Lê Quang Tung, loyalist head of the South Vietnam Special Forces, was executed in a U.S.-backed coup against president Ngô Đình Diệm following a period of religious unrest.

November 2:

An emu killed by Australian soldiers

• 619 – Emperor Gaozu of Tang allowed the assassination of a khagan of the Western Turkic Khaganate by Eastern Turkic rivals, one of the earliest events in the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks.
• 1932 – The Australian military began a "war against emus" (man with dead emu pictured), flightless native birds blamed for widespread damage to crops in Western Australia.
• 1943 – World War II: A U.S. Navy task force turned away an Imperial Japanese Navy formation at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, thus protecting the landings at Cape Torokina.
• 1960 – In the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, publisher Penguin Books was acquitted of obscenity for the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence.
• 2007 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the allegedly corrupt government of president Mikheil Saakashvili.

November 3: Culture Day in Japan

Truman showing the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline

• 1793 – French Revolution: Playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges was guillotined.
• 1898 – The Fashoda Incident ended with French forces withdrawing after several months of military stalemate with the British in Fashoda (now in South Sudan).
• 1942 – World War II: U.S. Marines and U.S. Army forces began an attempt to encircle and destroy a regiment of Imperial Japanese Army troops on Guadalcanal.
• 1948 – The Chicago Daily Tribune published the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" (pictured) in its early morning edition shortly after incumbent U.S. president Harry S. Truman officially upset the heavily favored governor of New York Thomas Dewey in the presidential election.
• 1957 – The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, carrying the space dog Laika as the first living creature to enter orbit around Earth.

November 4: National Unity and Armed Forces Day in Italy (1918)

Altare della Patria

• 1864 – American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest led a cavalry division in an attack on a Union Army supply base at Johnsonville, Tennessee, resulting in the capture of 150 prisoners.
• 1921 – The remains of an unknown soldier were buried with an eternal flame at the Altare della Patria (pictured) in Rome.
• 1952 – Robert A. Lovett, United States Secretary of Defense, issued a memorandum establishing the National Security Agency, with responsibility for all communications intelligence for the government.
• 1995 – Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing extremist, at a peace rally at Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv.
• 2010 – In the first aviation incident involving an Airbus A380, Qantas Flight 32 suffered an uncontained engine failure and made an emergency landing at Changi Airport in Singapore with no casualties.

November 5: Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries (1605)

Aline Chrétien

• 1138 – Lý Anh Tông was enthroned as the emperor of Đại Việt at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign.
• 1943 – World War II: An unknown aircraft dropped four bombs on Vatican City, which maintained neutrality during the war.
• 1995 – Aline Chrétien (pictured) thwarted André Dallaire's attempt to assassinate her husband, Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, by locking the bedroom door in 24 Sussex Drive, their official residence in Ottawa.
• 2003 – American serial killer Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of first-degree murder.
• 2013 – The Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary probe.

November 6: Gustavus Adolphus Day in Estonia, Finland and Sweden (1632), Constitution Day in the Dominican Republic (2023)

Tammy Baldwin

• 1217 – King Henry III of England issued the Charter of the Forest, re-establishing the rights of access of free men to royal forests.
• 1863 – American Civil War: A Union brigade defeated a Confederate force at the Battle of Droop Mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
• 1917 – First World War: Canadian forces captured Passendale, Belgium, after three months of fighting against the Germans at the Battle of Passchendaele.
• 1963 – Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ was appointed by the junta of General Dương Văn Minh to head the South Vietnamese government, five days after Minh deposed and assassinated President Ngô Đình Diệm.
• 2012 – Tammy Baldwin (pictured) became the first openly gay politician to be elected to the United States Senate.

November 7

Johann Sebastian Bach

• 680 – The Third Council of Constantinople convened to settle the Christological controversies of monoenergism and monothelitism.
• 1723 – O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60, a dialogue cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach (pictured) for Leipzig, was first performed.
• 1775 – Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the Colony of Virginia, signed a proclamation promising freedom for the slaves of Patriots if they joined the British Armed Forces.
• 1916 – In the congressional elections, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.
• 1987 – Tunisian prime minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali deposed and replaced President Habib Bourguiba by declaring him medically unfit for the duties of the office.

November 8

Trần Nhân Tông

• 1278 – Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of Vietnam's Trần dynasty, took up the title of retired emperor, but continued to co-rule with his son Nhân Tông (pictured) for eleven more years.
• 1957 – En route from San Francisco to Honolulu, Pan Am Flight 7 crashed into the Pacific Ocean due to unknown causes, killing all 44 people on board.
• 1971 – English rock group Led Zeppelin released their fourth album, which became one of the best-selling albums worldwide.
• 1974 – British peer Lord Lucan disappeared without a trace, a day after allegedly murdering his children's nanny Sandra Rivett.
• 2020 – Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: Azerbaijani forces defeated the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh in the Battle of Shusha, reclaiming the town after 28 years.

November 9:

The rebuilt Stari Most

• 1822 – USS Alligator engaged three pirate schooners off the coast of Cuba in one of the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United States.
• 1913 – A severe blizzard reached its maximum intensity in the Great Lakes Basin of North America, destroying 19 ships and 68,300 tons of cargo, and killing more than 250 people.
• 1938 – Kristallnacht began as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed and ransacked Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in Germany and Austria, resulting in at least 90 deaths and the deportation of 30,000 men to concentration camps.
• 1967 – The first issue of Rolling Stone, an American magazine focusing on music, politics and popular culture, was published.
• 1993 – Bosnian War: Croatian Defence Council forces destroyed the Stari Most, a 16th-century bridge crossing the river Neretva in the city of Mostar (rebuilt bridge pictured).

November 10

Henry Morton Stanley

• 1599 – At the culmination of a Swedish civil war, supporters of the deposed Sigismund III Vasa were publicly executed in what came to be known as the Åbo Bloodbath.
• 1865 – Henry Wirz, the Confederate superintendent of Andersonville Prison, was hanged after a controversial conviction, becoming the only American Civil War officer executed for war crimes.
• 1871 – Journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley (pictured) located missing missionary and explorer David Livingstone near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania.
• 1937 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas led a coup against his own constitutional government, establishing the dictatorial Estado Novo regime.
• 1945 – Indonesian National Revolution: Following the killing of Brigadier A. W. S. Mallaby on 30 October, British forces retaliated by attacking Surabaya.

November 11: Armistice Day; Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations; Singles' Day in China; Veterans Day in the United States

Shrine of Remembrance

• 1215 – The Fourth Lateran Council convened in Rome, defining the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, and mandating Jews to wear distinctive clothing or Jewish badges to prevent mixing with Christians.
• 1880 – Australian bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly was hanged in spite of sympathizers holding rallies for his reprieve.
• 1918 – Józef Piłsudski, appointed the commander-in-chief of Polish forces by the Regency Council, was entrusted with the creation of a national government for the newly independent Poland.
• 1926 – The plan for the United States Numbered Highway System was approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials.
• 1934 – The Shrine of Remembrance (pictured), a memorial to all Australians who have served in war, opened in Melbourne.

November 12

Artist's impression of Rosetta with Philae

• 1892 – William Heffelfinger was paid $500 by the Allegheny Athletic Association, becoming the first professional American football player.
• 1945 – Sudirman was elected the first commander-in-chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces.
• 1970 – The deadliest tropical cyclone in history made landfall on the coast of East Pakistan (Bangladesh), killing at least 250,000 people.
• 1973 – The first episode of Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running television sitcom in history, premiered on the BBC.
• 2014 – The European Space Agency lander Philae (artist's impression shown) touched down on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a comet.

November 13

• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot forces captured Montreal without significant opposition as part of the Invasion of Quebec.
• 1927 – The Holland Tunnel (eastbound trip shown) opened, connecting Manhattan with Jersey City under the Hudson River.
• 1982 – South Korean boxer Kim Duk-koo suffered fatal brain injuries during a match with American Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, leading to significant rule changes in the sport.
• 1992 – The High Court of Australia ruled in Dietrich v The Queen that, although there is no absolute right to have publicly funded counsel, a judge should grant any request for an adjournment or stay in most circumstances in which an accused is unrepresented.
• 2015 – Coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris perpetrated by the Islamic State killed 130 people and injured 413 others.

November 14: World Diabetes Day; Dobruja Day in Romania

Great Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam

• 1680 – German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovered the Great Comet of 1680 (pictured), the first comet to be discovered by telescope.
• 1941 – World War II: German troops, aided by local auxiliaries, murdered nine thousand residents of the Słonim Ghetto in a single day.
• 1960 – Ruby Bridges and the McDonogh Three became the first black children to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana as part of the New Orleans school desegregation crisis.
• 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: Croatian naval commandos attacked the Yugoslav patrol boat Mukos, starting the Battle of the Dalmatian Channels.
• 2015 – A train derailed in Eckwersheim, France, while performing trials on the high-speed rail line LGV Est.

November 15

Evangelos Zappas

• 1859 – Sponsored by Greek businessman Evangelos Zappas (pictured), the first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens.
• 1908 – As a result of numerous atrocities in the territory, the Congo Free State was annexed to Belgium to form the Belgian Congo.
• 1922 – During a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador, police and military fired into a crowd, killing at least 300 people.
• 1943 – The Holocaust: In the Romani Holocaust, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler ordered that the Romani were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps".
• 1988 – The Soviet spacecraft Buran, a reusable vehicle built in response to NASA's Space Shuttle program, was launched, uncrewed, on its only flight.

November 16

SARS Virus

• 1914 – World War I: Austro-Hungarian forces launched an assault against Serbian defensive positions at the Kolubara river, beginning the Battle of Kolubara.
• 1973 – U.S. president Richard Nixon signed an act authorizing the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to transport oil from the Beaufort Sea to the Gulf of Alaska.
• 1997 – Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, released on ostensibly medical grounds after spending eighteen years in prison, was deported to the United States.
• 2002 – The first case of SARS (pictured), a zoonotic respiratory coronavirus disease, was recorded in Guangdong, China.
• 2020 – The El Dorado Fire in California, United States, was extinguished after 71 days, having destroyed 20 structures and killed one firefighter.

November 17

Deir el-Bahari

• 1292 – John Balliol was chosen to be King of Scots over Robert de Brus.
• 1943 – World War II: Australian forces launched an assault on Sattelberg, New Guinea, against Japanese forces, initiating the Battle of Sattelberg.
• 1989 – Walt Disney Pictures released The Little Mermaid to theatres, starting the Disney Renaissance.
• 1997 – Sixty-two people were killed by Islamist terrorists outside Deir el-Bahari (pictured) in Luxor, one of Egypt's top tourist attractions.
• 2013 – An outbreak of 77 confirmed tornadoes occurred in seven U.S. states; it became the largest November tornado outbreak in Illinois and Indiana.

November 18

Flag of Solomon Islands

• 1583 – The Siege of Godes­berg, the first major siege of the Cologne War, began.
• 1977 – Solomon Islands ratified the adoption of a new flag (pictured).
• 1978 – Jim Jones led more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple to mass murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, hours after some of its members assassinated U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan.
• 2003 – With its ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court made the state the first in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage.
• 2017 – Cyclone Numa, a rare "medicane", made landfall in Greece to become the worst weather event that the country had experienced since 1977.

November 19: International Men's Day; World Toilet Day; Liberation Day in Mali (1968)

Ronald Reagan (left) and Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva

• 1863 – American Civil War: Confederate forces began the Siege of Knoxville against Union fortifications, surrounding most of the city.
• 1921 – Rioting broke out in Bombay, India, during the visit of Edward, Prince of Wales, leading to at least 58 deaths.
• 1933 – The Union of the Right, a coalition of right-wing parties, won the majority of seats in the 1933 Spanish general election, the first election in the country with suffrage extended to women.
• 1985 – The first of five summits (pictured) between Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. president Ronald Reagan began in Geneva.
• 2013 – A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killed 23 people and injured at least 160 others.

November 20

Nuremberg trial defendants

• 1845 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: The Argentine Confederation was defeated in the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, but the losses ultimately made the United Kingdom and France give up the blockade.
• 1945 – The Nuremberg trials (defendants pictured) of 24 leading Nazis involved in the Holocaust and various war crimes during World War II began in Nuremberg, Germany.
• 1947 – Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI, married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who was given the title Duke of Edinburgh.
• 1990 – Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, was arrested in Novocherkassk.
• 2003 – Suicide bombers blew up the British consulate and the headquarters of HSBC Bank in Istanbul, killing 31 people, including consul general Roger Short and actor Kerem Yılmazer.

November 21: Armed Forces Day in Bangladesh

La Ronde in 1973

• 1386 – Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur captured and sacked the Georgian capital Tbilisi and forced King Bagrat V to convert to Islam.
• 1877 – Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a device able to record and play sound.
• 1950 – Two trains collided near Valemount, Canada, killing 21 people; the subsequent trial brought future prime minister John Diefenbaker to greater political attention.
• 1961 – La Ronde (pictured), the first revolving restaurant in the United States, was inaugurated.
• 2009 – An explosion in a coal mine in Heilongjiang, China, killed 108 miners.

November 22

Magnus Carlsen

• 1574 – The Spanish explorer Juan Fernández discovered the islands off the coast of Chile which now bear his name.
• 1797 – The Geisel School of Medicine, the fourth oldest medical school in the United States, was founded by the physician Nathan Smith.
• 1968 – The Beatles released their eponymous double album, popularly known as the White Album.
• 1987 – Two television stations in Chicago had their broadcast signals hijacked with footage of an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask and costume.
• 2013 – Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen (pictured) defeated India's Viswanathan Anand to become world chess champion.

November 23: Thanksgiving in the United States (2023)

Title page of Areopagitica

• 1644 – In opposition to licensing and censorship during the English Civil War, John Milton's Areopagitica (title page pictured) was published, arguing for the right to free expression.
• 1700 – A papal conclave, which had been deadlocked due to concerns over how a successor would respond to the impending death of Charles II of Spain, ended with the election of Clement XI.
• 1867 – The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for involvement in a scheme to free two Irish nationalists from custody in which a police officer was killed.
• 1876 – William "Boss" Tweed, a New York City politician who had been arrested for embezzlement, was handed over to US authorities after having escaped from prison and fled to Spain.
• 1963 – The first episode of Doctor Who, the world's longest-running science fiction television show, was broadcast on BBC television, starring William Hartnell as the first incarnation of the title role.

November 24

Skeleton of Lucy

• 1221 – Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire: Genghis Khan defeated the renegade Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din at the Battle of the Indus.
• 1922 – Irish Civil War: Irish nationalist author Erskine Childers was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a semi-automatic pistol.
• 1925 – The Eugene O'Neill Theatre opened on Broadway, New York, with a production of the musical Mayflowers.
• 1941 – The Holocaust: The Theresienstadt Ghetto was founded as a waystation to Nazi extermination camps and a "retirement settlement" for elderly and prominent Jews to mislead their communities about the Final Solution.
• 1974 – A group of paleoanthropologists led by Donald Johanson discovered a 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton in Ethiopia, nicknaming it Lucy (pictured) after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

November 25: Evacuation Day in New York City (1783)

Moraine Lake at Banff National Park

• 1034 – After Malcolm II of Scotland died at Glamis, Duncan, the son of his second daughter, rather than Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter, inherited the throne to become the King of Scots.
• 1491 – Reconquista: The Granada War was effectively brought to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Granada between Castile-Aragon and the Emirate of Granada.
• 1885 – Banff National Park (pictured), the oldest national park in Canada, was established as the Banff Hot Springs Reserve.
• 1951 – The left-wing Japanese novelist Wataru Kaji disappeared, leading to a government inquiry in which CIA involvement was investigated; Kaji stated he was kidnapped and held against his will by intelligence officers, which the United States denied.
• 2013 – English-Irish boy band One Direction released their third studio album Midnight Memories which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became the best-selling album of 2013.

November 26: Feast day of Saint Sylvester Gozzolini (Catholicism); Constitution Day in India (1949)

Bombardment of Salé

• 1835 – Texas Revolution: Texian forces attacked a Mexican pack train, capturing 40 saddlebags of grass.
• 1851 – The French navy bombarded Salé, Morocco (pictured), damaging the city's infrastructure and its Great Mosque.
• 1940 – The Iron Guard killed 64 political detainees at a penitentiary near Bucharest and followed up with several high-profile assassinations, including that of former Romanian prime minister Nicolae Iorga.
• 1942 – Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiered at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City to coincide with the Allied invasion of French North Africa and the capture of Casablanca.
• 2008 – A coordinated group of shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai began, ultimately killing at least 174 people and wounding more than 300 others.

November 27: Guru Nanak Gurpurab (Sikhism, 2023)

William III

• 1835 – James Pratt and John Smith became the last people to be executed in England for sodomy.
• 1856 – William III (pictured) unilaterally revised the constitution of Luxembourg, greatly expanding his powers as grand duke.
• 1950 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army launched multiple attacks against United Nations forces, beginning the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
• 1963 – President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the "Let Us Continue" speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress five days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in which he advocated for civil-rights legislation and national cohesion.
• 2009 – Lady Gaga performed the first concert of The Monster Ball Tour, which became the highest-grossing tour in history for a debut headlining artist.

November 28: Bukovina Day in Romania (1918)

Skanderbeg

• 1443 – Having deserted the Ottoman army, Skanderbeg (pictured) arrived in the Albanian city of Krujë and, using a forged letter from Sultan Murad II to the governor of Krujë, became lord of the city.
• 1895 – The Chicago Times-Herald race, the first automobile race in the U.S., was held in Chicago.
• 1903 – SS Petriana struck a reef near Point Nepean, leading to Australia's first major oil spill and a debate over the White Australia policy.
• 1966 – In a military coup, Michel Micombero abolished the Burundian monarchy and declared the country a republic with himself as president.
• 2016 – LaMia Flight 2933 crashed near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 people, many of whom were players from Chapecoense Football Club.

November 29: Liberation Day in Albania (1944)

Screenshot of a game of Pong

• 1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong, running low on water, began the killing of more than 130 African slaves by throwing them into the sea to claim insurance.
• 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: British troops rendezvoused at Grand Baie to launch an invasion of Isle de France, now known as Mauritius.
• 1963 – Five minutes after taking off from Montréal–Dorval, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831 crashed in bad weather, killing all 118 people on board.
• 1972 – Atari announced the release of Pong (screenshot pictured), one of the first video games to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home-console markets.
• 2012 – In resolution 67/19, the United Nations General Assembly voted to accord the status of a non-member observer state to Palestine.

November 30: Saint Andrew's Day (Christianity)

U Thant

• 1700 – Great Northern War: Swedish forces led by King Charles XII defeated the Russian army at the Battle of Narva.
• 1934 – Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive officially to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h).
• 1999 – A series of protests by anti-globalization activists against the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle forced the cancellation of the opening ceremonies.