November 2008 in History

Events in History

Election of Interest

Nov 4 Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate John McCain

Election of Interest

Nov 8 John Key leads the National Party to victory in New Zealand's general election, defeating nine year Prime Minister Helen Clark and her Labour-led coalition government

Nov 11 RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) sets sail from Southampton, England on her final voyage to Dubai
Nov 13 Equity research by Deutsche Bank states that Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines should not experience a recession, despite potential harm to economic growth from falling commodity prices and possible weaker exports
Nov 13 Germany's economy, Europe's largest, contracts by 0.5% in the third quarter after GDP fell 0.4% in the second quarter, putting it in recession for the first time in five years

Appointment of Interest

Nov 14 Elizabeth Warren is appointed to chair a Congressional Oversight Panel for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

Nov 14 Eurozone officially slips into recession for the first time since its creation in 1999, pushed down by recessions in Germany and Italy
Nov 14 Hong Kong becomes the second Asian economy to tip into recession, its exports hit by weakening global demand
Nov 14 Italy plunges into recession, its first since the start of 2005, after GDP contracts a steeper-than-expected 0.5% in the third quarter
Nov 17 Japan, the world's second-biggest economy, slides into its first recession in seven years
Nov 20 After critical failures in the US financial system began to build up after mid-September, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level since 1997.
Nov 23 Economists at the University of Hawaii report that the state entered recession in the previous quarter based on the drop in tourist figures and growing unemployment, with 8,800 jobs expected to be cut in 2009
Nov 25 A car bomb in St. Petersburg, Russia, kills three people and injures one
Nov 26 Terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India: Ten coordinated attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists kill 164 and injure more than 250 people in Mumbai, India.
Nov 28 Sweden technically enters the recession after experiencing contraction of 0.1% in the second and third quarter

Deaths in History

Nov 1 Jacques Piccard, Swiss ocean explorer (b. 1922)
Nov 4 Juan Camilo Mouriño, Mexican Secretary of the Interior (b. 1971)
Nov 5 Paul Greening, Royal Navy officer and master of Queen's household, dies at 80
Nov 12 Catherine Baker Knoll, 30th Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, (b. 1930)
Nov 14 Wilhelmus Norbert Schmelzer, Dutch foreign minister (KVP), dies at 87
Nov 20 Sven Inge, Swedish painter and modern artist (b. 1935)
Nov 22 MC Breed, American hip hop artist (b. 1971)
Nov 24 Cecil H. Underwood, Governor of West Virginia (b. 1922)
Nov 26 Edna Parker, American supercentenarian, the oldest person in the world following the death of Yone Minagawa of Japan on August 13, 2007, dies at 115
Nov 27 V.P. [Vishwanath Pratap] Singh, Indian politician, 7th Prime Minister of India (1989-90), dies at 77
Nov 30 Naomi Datta, British geneticist and bacteriologist (pioneer in investigating the development of resistance to antibiotics by bacteria), dies at 86