November 1: Kerala Day
November 1st – All Saints Day among Roman Catholics,
November 1, 1700 – Charles II of Spain died and was succeeded by Philip V, resulting in the War of Spanish Succession.
November 1, 1848 – The first medical school for women opened in Boston.
November 1, 1936 – The Rome-Berlin Axis was proclaimed by Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini following a visit to Berlin by Italian Foreign Secretary Ciano.
November 1, 1993 – The European Union came into existence as a result of the Maastricht Treaty.
November 1, 1995 – The first all-race local government elections took place in South Africa, marking the end of the apartheid system.
November 2
November 2, 1721 – Peter I was proclaimed Emperor of all the Russias.
November 2, 1962 – During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy announced on TV, “the Soviet bases in Cuba are being dismantled, their missiles and related equipment being crated, and the fixed installations at these sites are being destroyed.”
November 3
November 3, 1534 – King Henry VIII became Supreme Head of the Church of England following the passage of the Act of Supremacy by Parliament.
November 3, 1839 – The first Opium War between China and Britain began after British frigates blew up several Chinese junks.
November 3, 1903 – Panama declared itself independent of Colombia following a revolt engineered by the U.S.
November 3, 1957 – Soviet Russia launched the world’s first inhabited space capsule, Sputnik II, which carried a dog named Laika.
November 4
November 4, 1842 – Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois.
November 4, 1890 – The first electrified underground railway system was officially opened in London.
November 4, 1942 – During World War II, British troops led by Bernard Montgomery defeated the Germans under Erwin Rommel at El Alamein after a twelve-day battle.
November 4, 1956 – Soviet Russian troops moved in to crush an uprising in Hungary.
November 4, 1979 – About 500 young Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Iran, and took 90 hostages, including 52 Americans that they held captive for 444 days.
November 5
November 5, 1733 – The first issue of the New York Weekly Journal was published by John Peter Zenger, a colonial American printer and journalist. A year later, he was arrested on charges of libeling New York’s royal governor.
November 5, 1911 – Aviator C.P. Snow completed the first transcontinental flight across America, landing at Pasadena, California. He had taken off from Sheepshead Bay, New York, on September 17th and flew a distance of 3,417 miles.
November 6
November 6, 1429 – Henry VI was crowned King of England at age eight. He had acceded to the throne at the age of nine months following the death of Charles VI.
November 6, 1860 – Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th U.S. President and the first Republican. He received 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote.
November 6, 1962 – The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning South Africa for its apartheid policies and recommended economic sanctions.
November 7
November 7, 1659 – The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed, ending the Franco-Spanish war of 1648-59.
November 7, 1885 – Canada’s first transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific, was completed in British Columbia.
November 7, 1944 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented fourth term, defeating Thomas E. Dewey. Roosevelt died less than a year later on April 12, 1945.
November 7, 1967 – Carl Stokes became the first African American mayor in the U.S., elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.
November 7, 1989 – The East German government resigned after pro-democracy protests.
November 7, 1989 – L. Douglas Wilder became the first African American governor in U.S. history, elected governor of Virginia.
November 7, 1990 – Mary Robinson became Ireland’s first female president.
Birthday – Christian evangelist Billy Graham was born near Charlotte, North Carolina, November 7, 1918. After his conversion at a revival meeting at age 16, he embarked on a career of preaching and has become known worldwide.
November 8
November 8, 1895 – X-rays (electromagnetic rays) were discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany.
November 8, 1939 – An assassination attempt on Hitler failed at the Buergerbraukeller in Munich. A bomb exploded soon after Hitler had exited following a speech commemorating the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Seven others were killed.
November 8, 1942 – Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa, began as 400,000 soldiers under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed at Morocco and Algeria.
Birthday – Astronomer and mathematician Edmund Halley (1656-1742) was born in London.
Birthday – Pioneering heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard (1922-2001) was born in Beaufort West, Cape of Good Hope Province, South Africa. He headed the surgical team that achieved the first-ever human heart transplant in 1967.
November 9
November 9, 1918 – German Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his throne in the closing days of World War I and fled to Holland. In Germany, Philip Scheidemann, a Socialist leader, then proclaimed a democratic Republic and became its first Chancellor.
November 9, 1989 – The Berlin Wall was opened up after standing for 28 years as a symbol of the Cold War. The 27.9 mile wall had been constructed in 1961.
November 10
November 10, 1775 – The U.S. Marine Corps was established as part of the U.S. Navy. It became a separate unit on July 11, 1789.
November 10, 1871 – Explorer Henry M. Stanley found missionary David Livingstone at Ujiji, Africa.
Birthday – Reformation founder Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born in Eisleben, Saxony.
November 11
November 11th – Celebrated in the U.S. as Veterans Day (formerly called Armistice Day) with parades and military memorial ceremonies.
November 11, 1972 – The U.S. turned over its military base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese, symbolizing the end of direct American military participation in the Vietnam War.
November 11, 1973 – Egypt and Israel signed a cease-fire agreement sponsored by the U.S.
November 11, 1987 – In Russia, Boris Yeltsin was removed as Moscow Communist Party chief for criticizing the slow pace of Soviet reform.
November 11, 1992 – The Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.
Birthday – Abigail Adams (1744-1818) was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She was the wife of John Adams, the 2nd U.S. President.
November 12
November 12, 1867 – A major eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy began, lasting several months.
November 12, 1923 – Adolf Hitler was arrested in Germany after the failed Beer Hall Putsch.
November 12, 1942 – During World War II in North Africa, The city of Tobruk was captured by the British Eighth Army under General Bernard Montgomery.
November 12, 1948 – Japanese General Hideki Tojo and six others were sentenced to death by an Allied war crimes tribunal.
November 12, 1974 – The U.N. General Assembly suspended South Africa over its policy of apartheid.
November 12, 1982 – In Russia, Yuri Andropov was elected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist party following the death of Leonid Brezhnev.
November 13
November 13, 1927 – The Holland Tunnel was opened to traffic. The tunnel runs under the Hudson River between New York City and Jersey City and was the first underwater tunnel built in the U.S. It is comprised of two tubes, each large enough for two lanes of traffic.
November 13, 1956 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.
November 13, 1973 – A state of emergency was declared in Britain after power workers and coal miners began work slowdowns.
November 13, 1995 – Israel began pulling its troops out of the West Bank city of Jenin, ending 28 years of occupation.
November 14
November 14, 1666 – The first experimental blood transfusion took place in Britain, utilizing two dogs.
November 14, 1770 – Scottish explorer James Bruce discovered the source of the Blue Nile on Lake Tana in northwest Ethiopia.
November 14, 1994 – The first paying passengers traveled on the new rail service through the Channel Tunnel linking England and France.
Birthday – Steamboat developer Robert Fulton (1765-1815) was born in rural Pennsylvania.
Birthday – Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was born in Allahabad, India. He spent over 20 years working with Mahatma Gandhi to free India from British rule. Following independence in 1947, Nehru became India’s first prime minister, serving until his death in 1964.
November 15
November 15, 1777 – The Articles of Confederation were adopted by Continental Congress.
November 15, 1864 – During the American Civil War, Union troops under General William T. Sherman burned Atlanta.
November 15, 1889 – Brazil became a republic.
November 15, 1943 – During the Holocaust, Heinrich Himmler ordered Gypsies and part-Gypsies to be sent to concentration camps. The number of Gypsies killed by Nazis is estimated up to 500,000.
November 15, 1969 – The largest antiwar rally in U.S. History occurred as 250,000 persons gathered in Washington, D.C., to protest the Vietnam War.
November 15, 1980 – Pope John Paul II visited West Germany, the first papal visit to Germany in 200 years.
November 16
November 16, 1918 – Hungary was proclaimed an independent republic following the break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
November 16, 1933 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the U.S. and Soviet Russia had resumed diplomatic relations, suspended since 1919.
November 16, 1995 – The United Nations charged Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, with genocide.
November 17
November 17, 1558 – Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne of England at the age of 25, reigning until 1603 when she was 69. Under her leadership, England became a world power, defeating the Spanish Armada, and witnessed a golden age of literature featuring works by William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and others.
November 17, 1869 – The Suez Canal was formally opened after more than 10 years of construction.
November 17, 1954 – General Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egyptian head of state after forcing out General Mohammed Naguib.
November 17, 1989 – Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Prague demanding an end to Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Riot police and army paratroopers then moved in to crush the revolt.
November 18
Birthday – Photography inventor Louis Daguerre (1789-1851) was born in Cormeilles, near Paris. In 1839, at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, he announced his daguerreotype process, the first practical photographic process that produced lasting pictures.
November 19
November 19, 1493 – Puerto Rico was discovered by Columbus during his second voyage to the New World.
November 19, 1703 – The “Man in the Iron Mask,” a prisoner of Louis XIV in the Bastille prison in Paris, died.
November 19, 1863 – President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during ceremonies dedicating 17 acres of the Gettysburg Battlefield as a National Cemetery.
November 19, 1939 – Construction of the first presidential library began as President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone next to his home in Hyde Park, New York. Roosevelt donated the land, but public donations funded the library building which was dedicated on June 30, 1941.
November 19, 1942 – The Russian Army began a massive counter-offensive against the Germans at Stalingrad during World War II.
November 19, 1969 – The first news reports emerged that American troops in Vietnam had massacred civilians in My Lai Village back in March of 1968.
November 19, 1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
November 19, 1978 – The biggest mass suicide in history occurred as Reverend Jim Jones led over 900 followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana. Members of his “Peoples Temple” religious cult were ordered to drink a cyanide-laced fruit drink.
November 19-20, 1990 – The Cold War came to an end during a summit in Paris as leaders of NATO and the Warsaw Pact signed a Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, vastly reducing their military arsenals.
November 19, 1996 – Pope John Paul II and Cuban leader Fidel Castro held their historic first meeting in the Vatican.
Birthday – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was born in Allahabad, India. She served from 1966-75 and later from 1980 to 1984, when she was assassinated by her own bodyguards as she walked to her office.
November 20
November 20, 1789 – New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
November 20, 1917 – The first use of tanks in battle occurred at Cambrai, France, during World War I. Over 300 tanks commanded by British General Sir Douglas Haig went into battle against the Germans.
November 20, 1947 – England’s Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten. Elizabeth was the first child of King George VI and became Queen Elizabeth II upon the death of her father in 1952.
November 20, 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis concluded as President John F. Kennedy announced he had lifted the U.S. Naval blockade of Cuba stating, “the evidence to date indicates that all known offensive missile sites in Cuba have been dismantled.”
Birthday – American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) was born in Marshfield, Missouri. He pioneered the concept of an expanding universe. The Hubble Space Telescope was named in his honor. It was deployed from the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, allowing astronomers to see farther into space than they had ever seen from telescopes on Earth.
Birthday – Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.
November 21
November 21, 1920 – The IRA (Irish Republican Army) shot and killed 14 British soldiers in Dublin in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
November 21, 1992 – The Anglican Church of Australia voted to allow women to become priests. The largest of the dioceses voted against the bill, however, it still received the required two-thirds approval.
Birthday – French author and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) was born in Paris (as Francois-Marie Arouet).
November 22
November 22, 1497 – Portuguese navigator Vasco Da Gama, leading a fleet of four ships, became the first to sail round the Cape of Good Hope, while searching for a sea route to India.
.November 22, 1975 – Juan Carlos was sworn in as King of Spain, following the death of General Franscisco Franco who had ruled as dictator since 1939.
November 22, 1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced she would resign after 11 years in office, the longest term of any British Prime Minister in the 20th century.
Birthday – Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) was born in Lille, France. He led the Free French against the Nazis during World War II and later became President of France, serving from 1958-69.
November 23
November 23, 1890 – Ten-year-old Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands upon the death of her father William III. Her mother Queen Emma acted as Regent until 1898.
November 24
November 24, 1859 – Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was first published, theorizing that all the living creatures descended from a common ancestor.
November 24, 1863 – The Battle of Chattanooga took place during the American Civil War as General Ulysses Grant’s soldiers scaled heavily fortified Lookout Mountain and overran Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s army.
November 24, 1874 – Joseph Glidden patented his invention of barbed wire.
November 25
November 25, 1783 – At the end of the Revolutionary War, the last British troops left New York City.
November 25, 1936 – Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement to collaborate in opposing the spread of Communism.
November 25, 1963 – Three days after his assassination, John F. Kennedy was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
November 25, 1974 – Britain outlawed the IRA (Irish Republican Army) following the deaths of 21 persons in a pub bombing in Birmingham.
November 25, 1992 – The parliament in Czechoslovakia voted to divide the country into separate Czech and Slovak republics.
November 25, 1995 – By a margin of less than one percent, Ireland voted to legalize divorce, the closest vote in the nation’s history.
Birthday – Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) was born in Sotte il Monte, Italy (as Angelo Roncalli). He became the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 1958 and served until his death in June of 1963.
November 26
November 26, 1703 – A “Great Storm” lasting two days struck southern England, flooding the Thames and Severn Rivers, killing at least 8,000 persons.
November 26, 1789 – The first American holiday occurred, proclaimed by President George Washington to be Thanksgiving Day, a day of prayer and public thanksgiving in gratitude for the successful establishment of the new American republic.
November 26, 1832 – The first horse-drawn streetcar carried passengers in New York City along Fourth Avenue between Prince Street and 14th Street.
November 26, 1979 – After an absence of 21 years, the International Olympic Committee voted to re-admit China
November 26, 1992 – British Prime Minister John Major announced Queen Elizabeth II had agreed to pay taxes on her personal income.
November 26, 1998 – In Dublin, Tony Blair became the first British Prime Minister to appear before the Irish Parliament, which had been created 80 years earlier in defiance of the British government.
November 27
November 27, 1701 – Anders Celsius (1701-1744) was born in Sweden. He invented the centigrade (Celsius) temperature scale commonly used in Europe.
November 28
November 28, 1821 – Panama declared itself independent from Spain and joined the fledgling nation of Gran Colombia.
November 28, 1905 – Irish political party Sinn Fein was founded in Dublin by Arthur Griffith.
November 28, 1919 – Lady Nancy Astor was elected as the first female in the British House of Commons.
November 28, 1934 – FBI agents killed bank robber George “Baby Face” Nelson near Barrington, Illinois.
November 28, 1942 – Fire erupted inside the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston killing nearly 500 persons who had become trapped inside.
November 29
November 29, 1890 – The first Imperial Diet was opened in Japan, consisting of a House of Peers and a House of Representatives.
November 29, 1929 – American explorer Richard Byrd and Bernt Balchen completed the first airplane flight to the South Pole.
November 29, 1947 – Palestine was partitioned into Jewish and Arab land by the U.N. General Assembly, resulting in the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel the following year.
November 29, 1989 – Forty-one years of Communist rule came to an end in Czechoslovakia following a twelve day revolution sparked by the beating of protesters.
Birthday – British author C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was born in Belfast, Ireland (as Clive Staples Lewis). He wrote books on Christian teachings including The Pilgrim’s Regress, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, and The Screwtape Letters.
November 30
November 30, 1700 – The Battle of Narva occurred as eight thousand Swedish troops under King Charles XII invaded Norway, defeating a force of 50,000 Russians.
November 30, 1782 – A provisional peace treaty was signed between Great Britain and the United States heralding the end of America’s War of Independence. The final treaty was signed in Paris on September 3, 1783. It declared the U.S. “…to be free, sovereign and independent states…” and that the British Crown “…relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof.”
November 30, 1939 – Finland was invaded by more than 20 Russian divisions in the Winter War.
November 30, 1995 – Bill Clinton became the first American president to visit Northern Ireland.
Birthday – Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was born in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England.
