- 306 St Marcellus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 722 Pope Gregory II names Boniface as missionary bishop
- 1016 Cnut the Great (Canute), King of Denmark, claims the English throne after the death of Edmund 'Ironside'
- 1215 Pope Innocent III closes 4th council of Lateranen
- 1406 Angelo Correr elected Pope Gregory XII
German Beer Purity Law
1487 The first German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), is promulgated in Munich by Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria stating beer should be brewed from only three ingredients – water, malt and hops
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- 1678 Roman Catholics banned from English parliament
- 1700 King Charles XII of Sweden defeats Russia at Narva [NS]
- 1700 Utrecht, Overijssel, Buren, Leerdam and IJsselstein go on Gregoria calendar
- 1731 Beijing hit by an earthquake; about 100,000 die
- 1735 States of Holland forbid Free Masonry
- 1747 Dutch State of Zealand declare governorship hereditary for women
Event of Interest
1753 Benjamin Franklin receives the Godfrey Copley medal "on account of his curious Experiments and Observations on Electricity"
Benjamin Franklin
Event of Interest
1776 Captain James Cook begins 3rd and last trip to the Pacific
James Cook
- 1782 Britain signs agreement recognizing US independence
Event of Interest
1786 Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II promulgates a penal reform, making his the 1st state to abolish the death penalty. November 30 commemorated as Cities for Life Day.
Leopold II
- 1787 Spanish governor leaves the Philippines
- 1803 Spain cedes her claims to Louisiana Territory to France
- 1804 Impeachment trial of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase begins
- 1813 Prince Willem Frederik returns to Netherlands
- 1824 First ground is broken at Allenburg for the building of the original Welland Canal
- 1829 First Welland Canal opens for a trial run, 5 years to the day from the groundbreaking
- 1838 Mexico declares war on France
- 1861 Harper's Weekly publishes EE Beers' "All quiet along the Potomac"
- 1863 Confederate troops vacate Fort Esperanza, Texas
- 1864 Battle of Franklin, Tennessee: Confederate attack fails, 7,700 casualties
- 1864 Battle of Honey Hill, South Carolina (Broad River) 96 dead, 665 wounded
- 1866 Work begins on 1st US underwater highway tunnel in Chicago
- 1868 The inauguration of a statue of King Charles XII of Sweden takes place in the King's garden in Stockholm
Event of Interest
1876 Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann finds the gold Mask of Agamemnon at Mycenae (modern Greece) "the Mona Lisa of prehistory"
Heinrich Schliemann
- 1886 First commercially successful AC electric power plant opens, Buffalo, NY
- 1886 The Folies Bergère stages its first revue
- 1887 1st indoor softball game in Chicago
- 1891 Pope Leo XIII's encyclical "Rerum novarum" published
- 1900 A German engineer patents front-wheel drive for automobiles
- 1900 The First Isthmian Canal Commission, appointed by the President having examined possible routes for a canal, issues its report favoring that through Nicaragua over the Panama route
- 1902 American Old West: Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang Kid Curry Logan sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor
- 1907 Pike Place Market dedicated in Seattle
- 1908 The US Secretary of State and Japan's ambassador to the US exchange notes in what becomes known as the Root-Takahira Agreement: they affirm support for an independent China with an 'open door' policy and for the status quo in the Pacific
Event of Interest
1909 British House of Lords rejects David Lloyd George's 'People's Budget', which tried to shift tax burden to the wealthy. Leads to the Parliament Act; intent to stop unelected house overruling will of the elected house.
David Lloyd George
Adolf Hitler
Historic Invention
1928 Vladimir K. Zworykin receives patent on Iconoscope TV system
Vladimir Zworykin
- 1931 His Master's Voice and Columbia Records merge into EMI
- 1933 CCC Camps are established in Cleveland Park District
- 1936 London's Crystal Palace (built 1851) destroyed by fire
- 1938 Fascist coup in Romania fails
- 1938 Germany bans Jews being lawyers
- 1939 Paul Osborn's "Mornings at 7" premieres in NYC
- 1939 USSR invades Finland, bombs Helsinki
- 1941 101 year old Nyack-Tarrytown (NY) ferry makes its last run
- 1942 U-boats sink and damage 142 allied ships this month (877,774 tons)
- 1942 -Dec 1st: Sea battle at Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal
- 1942 German supply vessel Uckermark (formerly called the Altmark) explodes & sinks off Yokohama
- 1944 Biggest & last British battleship HMS Vanguard launched
- 1947 Day after UN decree for Israel, Jewish settlements attacked
- 1948 Player-manager Lou Boudreau is selected AL MVP
- 1948 Soviets set up a separate municipal government in East Berlin
Election of Interest
1949 New Zealand general election won by Sidney Holland's National party, ousting Peter Fraser's Labour government
Peter Fraser
- 1949 Chinese Communists captured Chungking
- 1950 US President Harry Truman threatens China with atom bomb
- 1953 French parachutist under Colonel De Castries attacks Dien Bien Phu
- 1953 Edward Mutesa II, kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda
- 1954 Ann Hodges is bruised by a meteor at Sylacauga, Alabama in first modern instance of a meteorite striking a human
- 1954 John Strydom succeeds D. F. Malan as premier of South Africa
- 1955 Argentine government disbands Peronistic party
- 1956 1st use of videotape on TV (Douglas Edwards & the News)
Assassination Attempt
- 1958 1st US guided missile destroyer launched - the Dewey at Bath Iron Works, Maine
- 1960 French Senate condemns building own nuclear weapons
- 1960 Tad Mosels "All the Way Home" premieres in NYC
- 1961 USSR vetoes Kuwaits application for UN membership
- 1962 U Thant of Burma becomes the 3rd Secretary-General of the United Nations
- 1963 Martin Walser's "Überlebensgross Herr Krott" premieres in Stuttgart
- 1964 USSR launches Zond 2 towards Mars; no data returned
- 1966 Barbados gains independence from Great Britain (National Day)
- 1966 Radio time signal WWV moves from Greenbelt, Maryland
- 1967 Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower announce their engagement
- 1967 Kuria Muria Islands ceded by Britain to Oman
- 1967 People's Democratic Republic of Yemen declares independence from the UK
Event of Interest
1967 Senator Eugene McCarthy announces he will run for the US presidency on an anti-Vietnam war platform
Eugene McCarthy
- 1967 The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who becomes its first Chairman later as the Head of state and Head of government after the 1971 Civil War
- 1968 A Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Armagh is stopped by Royal Ulster Constabulary because of the presence of a Loyalist counter demonstration led by Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting
- 1969 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1971 The government of the Republic of Ireland states that it will take the allegations of brutality against the security forces in Northern Ireland to the European Court of Human Rights
- 1972 Illegal fireworks factory explodes killing 15 in Rome, Italy
- 1973 M T Ghani scores 104 on FC debut for Commerce Bank (Pak) age 44
- 1973 Firestone Professional Bowling World Tournament of Champions won by Jim Godman
- 1974 Most complete early human skeleton (Lucy, Australopithecus) discovered by Donald Johanson, Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens and Tim White in the Middle Awash of Ethiopia's Afar Depression
- 1975 Dahomey renamed People's Republic of Benin
- 1978 France performs nuclear test
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1980 Uruguay's new constitution rejected by referendum
- 1981 Porn star John Holmes arrested on fugitive charges
- 1981 South Africa anti-apartheid advocate Bulelani Ngcuka arrested
- 1981 Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17)
- 1982 STS-6 vehicle moves to launch pad
- 1982 US submarine Thomas Edison collides with US Navy destroyer in South China Sea
- 1982 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1983 Police free kidnapped beer magnate Alfred Heineken in Amsterdam
- 1983 Radio Shack announces Tandy Model 2000 computer (80186 chip)
- 1983 Raúl Alfonsín wins Argentine presidential election
- 1983 Sam Shepards "Fool for love" premieres in NYC
- 1987 Afghanistan Constitution adopted
- 1988 Cyclone lashes Bangladesh, Eastern India; 317 killed
- 1988 France performs nuclear test at Fangataufa Island
- 1988 Soviets stop jamming Radio Liberty; 1st time in 38 yrs
- 1988 UN General Assembly (151-2) censures US for refusing PLO's Arafat visa
- 1988 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for $25.07 billion USD.
- 1989 Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb
Event of Interest
1990 US President George H. W. Bush offers to send Secretary of State James Baker to Baghdad to meet with Saddam Hussein
George H. W. Bush
Saddam Hussein
Event of Interest
1993 President Clinton signs Brady Gun Control Bill
Bill Clinton
- 1994 Cruise ship Achille Lauro destroyed by fire at Somalia, 4 die
- 1994 Man Mohan Adhikary sworn in as 1st communist premier of Nepal
- 1995 Official end of Operation Desert Storm
- 1998 Deutsche Bank announces a US$10 billion deal to buy Bankers Trust, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world
- 1999 In Seattle, Washington, United States, protests against the WTO meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies
- 1999 British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merge to form BAE Systems, Europe's largest defence contractor and fourth largest aerospace firm in the world
Event of Interest
2002 Ina Garten's cooking show "Barefoot Contessa" premieres on the Food Network
Ina Garten
Event of Interest
2006 American folk artist Grandma Moses' "Sugaring Off" sells for a record $1.3 million for the artist by Christie in New York
Grandma Moses
Event of Interest
2007 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign office hostage crisis: Leeland Eisenberg enters campaign office of Hillary Clinton in Rochester, New Hampshire with suspected bomb and holds three people hostage for 5 hours
Hillary Clinton
- 2009 Canada begins its recovery from the recession; economic growth is at 0.4% after 14 months of economic stagnation
Event of Interest
2009 José Mujica announced as the winner of the run-off election in Uruguay the day before and president-elect
José Mujica
- 2012 At least 32 people are killed in a Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane crash in the Congo
- 2014 Australia experiences its hottest spring and second-hottest November recorded
- 2014 Tabaré Vázquez is re-elected President of Uruguay
- 2015 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP21 begins in Paris
Papal Visit
2015 Pope Francis urges peace while visiting controversial mosque in Bangui's PK5 district in Central African Republic
Pope Francis
- 2016 UNESCO adds Belgian beer to its Cultural Heritage List
- 2017 Def Jam founder Russell Simmons steps down from his companies after allegations of sexual misconduct
- 2017 World's longest recorded rainbow - 8 hrs 58 min in Taipei's Yangmingshan mountain range
- 2018 7.0 magnitude earthquake near Anchorage, Alaska
- 2018 Marriot Hotels reveal massive data breach - 500 million guests affected in one of largest-ever company hacks
November in History
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
Artist's 'Rocket' Shot Down in Flames
Artist James Whistler sought £1,000 libel damages from an art critic but was told by a jury on this day that he could whistle for it!
November 26, 1878
Wrong Address for Shakespeare Tourist Attraction
Millions of tourists around the world still have souvenirs of the house where William Shakespeare’s mother was born and grew up. Sadly, it’s the wrong house.
November 29, 2000
Humble Beginnings of Churchill, the Political Giant
Winston Churchill, Britain’s legendary wartime Prime Minister was born on this day. Surprisingly the great statesman arrived in this world in a very unusual way.
November 30, 1874