- 498 St Symmachus begins his reign as Pope replacing Anastasius II
- 845 First King of all Brittany, Nominoe defeats Frankish King Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon, near Redon
- 1220 Frederick II crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Honorius III
- 1346 Street fights in Utrecht, Hollandsgezinde Gunterlingen statements
Event of Interest
1492 Pinta under Martín Alonso Pinzón separates from Christopher Columbus's fleet
Christopher Columbus
Event of Interest
1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope on way to first voyage from Europe to reach India
Vasco da Gama
Event of Interest
1675 English king Charles II adjourns Parliament
Charles II
- 1683 Purcell's "Welcome to All the Pleasures" premieres in London
- 1699 Treaty of Preobrasjensku Denmark, Russia, Saksen and Poland divide Sweden
- 1707 Prince Johan Willem Friso sworn in as viceroy of Friesland
- 1714 King Karel XII leaves Turkish captivity to return to Sweden
- 1794 Strasbourg Alsace-Lorraine, prohibits circumcision and wearing of beards
- 1809 Peregrine Williamson of Baltimore patents a steel pen
Election of Interest
1830 Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Charles Grey
- 1831 Opera "Robert Le Diable" is produced (Paris)
- 1842 Mount St Helens in Washington erupts
- 1851 Opera "La Perle Du Brésil" is produced (Paris)
- 1861 Battle of Fort McRee, Florida
- 1864 American Civil War Battle at Griswoldville, Georgia, ends after 650 casualties
- 1864 Union General O Howard orders plunderers be shot to death
- 1872 Franz Grillparzer's "Die Judin von Toledo" premieres in Prague
- 1884 T Thomas Fortune starts NY Freeman (NY Age) newspaper
- 1886 Victoria Street Cable Tram route begins in Melbourne, Australia
- 1898 Opera "Iris" premieres (Rome)
- 1899 -23] Battle at Willow Grange, Natal (British vs Boer army)
- 1900 Paul Kruger, exiled President of the Boer Republic of South Africa, is given a popular welcome when he lands at Marseilles, France
Event of Interest
1903 Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt are engaged
Eleanor Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1905 British, Italian, Russian, French and Austro-Hungarian fleet attacks Lesbos
- 1906 Peter Stolypin, Prime Minister of Russia, introduces agrarian reforms allowing peasants to withdraw from the communes and take their share of land for private ownership
- 1908 1st US-Japanese baseball game Reach All-Americans defeat Waseda U, 5-0
- 1910 Arthur Knight patents steel shaft golf clubs
- 1914 Ypres, Belgium, burned by German bombing
- 1914 Indian troops take Basra in Mesopotamia
- 1918 Grand Duke Frederik II, the last Grand Duke of Baden, resigns
- 1918 King Albert I's triumphant procession through Brussels
- 1918 Marshal Józef Pilsudski becomes 1st President (dictator) of Poland
- 1918 Polish forces attack Jewish community of Lemberg (Lvov)
- 1919 15,000 men are cremated at Domela Newenhouse, Amsterdam
- 1919 Labor conference committee in US urges 8-hour work day and 48-hour week
Election of Interest
1922 British Labour party elects Ramsay MacDonald as leader
Ramsay MacDonald
Event of Interest
1923 Calvin Coolidge pardons WW I German spy Lothar Witzke, sentenced to death
Calvin Coolidge
- 1924 Britain orders Egyptians out of Sudan
- 1926 Imperial Conference ends, giving autonomy inside British Commonwealth
- 1927 1st snowmobile patent granted to Carl Eliason (Sayner, Wisconsin)
- 1927 George Gershwin's "Funny Face" premieres in NYC
- 1927 Neil Simon Theater (Alvin) opens at 250 W 52nd St NYC
- 1927 Belgian government of Henri Jaspar falls
- 1928 "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel first performed publicly (Paris)
- 1930 1st Irish Sweepstake run
- 1930 1st US football game broadcast to England (Harvard 13, Yale 0)
Event of Interest
1930 Elijah Muhammad forms Nation of Islam in Detroit
Elijah Muhammad
- 1931 Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite" premieres
- 1932 Pump patented that computes quantity and price delivered
- 1934 "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" 1st heard on Eddie Cantor's show
- 1935 Flying boat "China Clipper" takes off from Alameda, California, carrying 100,000 pieces of mail on 1st trans-Pacific airmail flight
Golf Major
1936 19th PGA Championship: Denny Shute at Pinehurst CC Pinehurst, North Carolina
Denny Shute
Event of Interest
1939 Bugsy Siegel, Whitey Krakower, Frankie Carbo and Albert Tannenbaum kill Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg outside his apartment after Greenberg had threatened to become a police informant
Bugsy Siegel
Event of Interest
1942 Adolf Hitler orders Rommel's Africa Korps to fight to the last man
Erwin Rommel
Adolf Hitler
Event of Interest
1943 FDR, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek meet to discuss ways to defeat Japan
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Chiang Kai-shek
- 1943 France officially recognises the independence of Lebanon, releasing the imprisoned Lebanese government
- 1943 RAF begins air bombing of Berlin
- 1943 US troops land on Abemada, Gilbert Island
- 1944 Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry occupies Hoven at Geilenkirchen
- 1945 "Day before Spring" opens at National Theater NYC for 167 performances
- 1945 Jim Benton, Cleveland end, gains 303 yards (NFL record)
- 1950 7,021 see lowest NBA score, Ft Wayne Pistons 19, Minneapolis Lakers 18
- 1950 79 die in a train crash in Richmond Hills, NY
- 1952 As' Harry Byrd selected AL Rookie of Year
- 1954 Humane Society (US) forms in Washington, D.C.
- 1955 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Contract of Interest
1955 RCA Records make its best investment paying $35,000 to Sun Records for Elvis Presley's contract
Elvis Presley
- 1956 16th modern Summer Olympic Games open in Melbourne, Australia; first to be staged in Southern Hemisphere and Oceania, as well as first to be held outside Europe and North America
Event of Interest
1956 Bill Sharman (Boston) begins NBA free throw streak of 55 games
Bill Sharman
Event of Interest
1957 Mickey Mantle wins AL MVP for the 2nd time
Mickey Mantle
Music Concert
1957 Miles Davis Quintet debuts a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall in NY
Miles Davis
NBA Record
1961 St Louis Hawk Bob Pettit sets NBA record, hitting 19 of 19 free throws
Bob Pettit
Event of Interest
1961 Producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman announce expensive publicity campaign to make Sean Connery (James Bond) a star
Sean Connery
Event of Interest
1963 Lyndon B. Johnson sworn in as the 36th US President after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
1963 American President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas
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Boxing Title Fight
1965 In his second title defence, Muhammad Ali scores 12th-round KO of Floyd Patterson at Las Vegas Convention Center to retain his world heavyweight boxing championship
Muhammad Ali
Floyd Patterson
- 1966 32nd Heisman Trophy Award: Steve Spurrier, Florida (QB)
- 1967 BBC unofficially bans "I Am the Walrus" by Beatles
- 1967 Silver hits record $2.17 an ounce in New York
- 1967 UN Security council passes resolution 242; Israel must give back occupied land
- 1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1968 1st interracial TV kiss (Star Trek - Captain Kirk and Uhura)
- 1968 Beatles release "Beatles" (White Album), their only double album
- 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1968 Terence O'Neill, then Northern Ireland Prime Minister, announced a package of reform measures granting concessions to the Catholic minority, in response to protest movement
- 1969 Isolation of a single gene announced by scientists at Harvard University
- 1970 20th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Bobby Isaac wins
- 1971 "Only Fools Are Sad" opens at Edison Theater NYC for 144 performances
- 1971 A member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) is killed in a premature bomb explosion in Lurgan, County Armagh
- 1972 Belgium government of Eyskens resigns
- 1972 Flyers beat New York Islanders and start them on 15 game winless streak
- 1972 Pitts Penguins set NHL record for scoring fastest 5 goals (2:07)
- 1972 US ends 22 year travel ban to China
- 1973 Italian Fascist organization Ordine Nuovo disbands
- 1974 Lake Buena Vista Club opens
- 1974 Test Cricket debut of Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards, at Bangalore
- 1974 UN General Assembly recognizes Palestine right to sovereignty
Event of Interest
1975 Juan Carlos I proclaimed King of Spain as monarchy restored after 31 years
Juan Carlos I
- 1975 Drummuckavall Ambush: 3 British Army soldiers are killed and one captured when the Provisional Irish Republican Army attack a watchtower in South Armagh, North Ireland
- 1976 Algeria Constitution goes into effect
- 1976 Comic strip "Cathy" by Cathy Guisewite debuts
- 1977 Regular Concorde passenger service between NY and Europe begins
- 1980 Georgia tanker at Pilottown Lousiana, spills 1.3 million gallons of oil after an anchor chain causes a ship to leak
- 1981 "Marlowe" closes at Rialto Theater NYC after 48 performances
- 1981 CFL Grey Cup, Olympic Stadium, Montreal: Edmonton Eskimos 4th consecutive Championship; beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 26-23; final Grey Cup game for Rough Riders, fold in 1996
- 1981 Browns' QB Brian Sipe sets club record by being intercepted 6 times
- 1981 SD Charger Dan Fouts passes for 6 touchdowns vs Oakland (55-21)
- 1981 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1981 31st NASCAR Sprint Cup: Darrell Waltrip wins
- 1982 Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB, Texas
Event of Interest
1984 Fred Rogers of PBS "Mr Rogers Neighborhood" presents a sweater to Smithsonian Institution
Fred Rogers
Boxing Title Fight
1986 20 year old Mike Tyson becomes youngest heavyweight champion in history when he stops Trevor Berbick in the 2nd round to earn the WBC title at the Las Vegas Hilton
Mike Tyson
- 1986 Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton, became 13th NHLer to score 500 goals
- 1987 Patriots shutout Indianapolis 24-0
- 1987 Jack Sikma (Milwaukee) ends his NBA free throw streak of 51 games
- 1987 Two Chicago television stations are hijacked by an unknown pirate dressed as Max Headroom.
- 1987 37th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Dale Earnhardt wins
- 1989 Aneta Kreglicka of Poland, 24, crowned 39th Miss World
- 1989 Conjunction of Venus, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and the Moon
- 1989 Kirby Pucket signs record $3,000,000 per year Minnesota Twins contract
- 1989 US 63rd manned space mission STS 33 (Discovery 9) launches into orbit
- 1989 Eastern Airlines pilots and flight attendants end their strike, but most are not rehired
Event of Interest
1990 George H. W. Bush visits US troops in Saudi Arabia
George H. W. Bush
Event of Interest
1990 Margaret Thatcher announces her resignation as British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
- 1990 Professor Amos Sawyer installed as interim President of Liberia
Event of Interest
1991 NY Knicks pay Patrick Ewing a record $18.8 million for 2 yr extension
Patrick Ewing
Film Release
1991 "Phool Aur Kaante", the film debut of famous Indian actor Ajay Devgan, is released
Ajay Devgan
Event of Interest
1992 Yugoslavian tennis star Monica Seles beats Martina Navratilova for the second consecutive year to win WTA Tour Championship 7–5, 6–3, 6–1 in NYC; her 3rd straight end of season title
Monica Seles
Martina Navratilova
- 1993 "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" opens at Richard Rodgers NYC for 320 performances
- 1995 Rosemary West found guilty in England of killing 10 women
- 1995 "Toy Story", the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery, directed by John Lasseter and starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, is released
- 1995 OPEC states that it will roll over its current oil production quota of 25.42 million barrels per day
Event of Interest
1996 O.J. Simpson takes stand as hostile witness in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against him, saying it is "absolutely not true"
O.J. Simpson
Event of Interest
1998 Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis beats American Lindsay Davenport 7–5, 6–4, 4–6, 6–2 in the WTA Tour Championship final at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Martina Hingis
- 1999 Elian Gonzalez, Cuban boy at the center of a heated 2000 controversy involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, and his mother are sighted off of Florida's coast by U.S. Coast Guard
- 1999 "How Do You Like Me Now?!" single released by Toby Keith (Billboard Song of the Year 2000)
- 2002 In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest
- 2003 In Tbilisi, Georgia, opponents of President Eduard Shevardnadze seize the parliament building and demand the president's resignation
- 2003 5th Rugby World Cup: England beats Australia 20-17 at Sydney
- 2004 The Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections
Event of Interest
2005 Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany
Angela Merkel
Music Awards
2005 32nd American Music Awards: Gwen Stefani, Will Smith and Kelly Clarkson win
- 2008 YouTube hosts the largest ever live broadcast, YouTube Live
Event of Interest
2008 Patrick Roy's #33 jersey is retired by the Montreal Canadiens
Patrick Roy
- 2008 13th Rugby League World Cup: New Zealand beats Australia 34-20
Music Awards
2009 36th American Music Awards: Taylor Swift & Michael Jackson win
Michael Jackson
Taylor Swift
Event of Interest
2009 President Hugo Chávez states that Venezuela is in recession as the economy contracted 4.5% in the third quarter
Hugo Chávez
Event of Interest
2014 Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona sets a new goal scoring record in La Liga of 253 goals
Lionel Messi
- 2015 In Argentine elections Mauricio Macri (PRO) wins a narrow election victory over his left-wing opponent
Event of Interest
2015 Serbian tennis star Novak Đoković makes it 4 straight season-ending ATP World Tour Finals tennis titles beating Roger Federer 6-3, 6-4 in the final in London, England
Novak Đoković
Roger Federer
Event of Interest
2016 US President Barack Obama posthumously awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to pioneering computer scientist and Navy Admiral Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper
Barack Obama
- 2016 'Vegas Golden Knights' is revealed as the Las Vegas NHL expansion team's name
Event of Interest
2017 Ratko Mladic the "Butcher of Bosnia" is convicted of genocide and other atrocities during the Bosnian war and jailed for life in The Hague
Ratko Mladić
- 2017 Uber admits hackers stole personal information affecting 57 million people worldwide and paid $100,00 to keep quiet
- 2017 Vanellope Wilkins, born with her heart outside her body, is first UK baby to survive birth and operations to reinsert her heart
- 2018 Leaning Tower of Pisa's tilt reduced by 4 cm in 20 year project to stabilise it
November in History
Nuremberg War Trials Bring Nazis to Justice
The Trial of Major War Criminals began on this day, the first of a five-year series of hearings at Nuremberg where WW2 Nazis were held to account.
November 20, 1945
Bare Bones of the Great Ape-Man Hoax
On this day the Piltdown Man skull, which had been hailed as the missing link proving an evolutionary relationship between man and apes, was revealed as a hoax.
November 21, 1953
Grace Darling, the Lighthouse Heroine
Raging seas were no deterrent when lighthouse-keeper’s daughter Grace Darling determinedly set out in a rowing boat to rescue survivors of a shipwreck.
November 24, 1815
Theatregoers Still Caught in The Mousetrap
It began in 1952 with a fresh-faced young actor called Richard Attenborough in the lead role. Since then, The Mousetrap has smashed all theatrical records.
November 25, 1952