11th NOVEMBER
Louis de Bougainville (b. 1729)
Paul Signac (b. 1863)
Édouard Vuillard (b. 1868)
George Patton (b. 1885)
René Clair (b. 1898)
Pat O'Brien (b. 1899)
Sam Spiegel (b. 1903)
Ivy Benson (b. 1913)
Stubby Kaye (b. 1918)
Lord (Roy) Jenkins of Hillhead (b. 1920)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr (b. 1922)
LaVern Baker (b. 1929)
Robert White (b. 1936)
Elizabeth Glaser (b. 1947)
Sören Kierkegaard (d. 1855)
Ned Kelly (d. 1880)
Queen Liliuokalani (d. 1917)
Jerome Kern (d. 1945)
Sir AP Herbert (d. 1971)
Berry Oakley (d. 1972)
Dmitri Tiomkin (d. 1979)
Dame Elizabeth Maconchy (d. 1994)
Sir Vivian Fuchs (d. 1999)
Yasser Arafat (d. 2004)
Lord (Patrick) Lichfield (d. 2005)
Henry I marries Matilda, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland, 1100
Chrysantheums introduced to England from China, 1790
Mail 1st carried by railway, Liverpool-Manchester, 1830
Work begins on the Manchester Ship Canal, 1887
Washington, the Evergreen State, admitted as 42nd state, 1889
Milano makes 1st balloon crossing the Alps, 1906
1st Battle of Ypres ends, 1914
Allies & Germans sign Armistice, 1100 hr, Compiègne, 1918
Two Minutes Silence for World War dead 1st observed, 1919
Unknown Warrior buried, Westminster Abbey, 1920
Cenotaph unveiled by George V, Whitehall, 1920
1st Poppy Day held by British Legion, 1921
Palace of Legion of Honour dedicated, 1924
Robert Millikan announces discovery of cosmic rays, 1925
Stevenage becomes 1st designated new town, 1946
Government increases vegetarians' potato rations, UK, 1947
John Mullin and Wayne Johnson demonstrate 1st video-recorder, Beverley Hills CA, 1952
Panorama 1st transmitted, BBC, 1953
Hank Ballard & the Midnighters record The Twist, 1958
Ben Hur premiered, London, 1959
Ian Smith declares unilateral independence, Rhodesia, 1965
Live debut of Velvet Underground, Summit NJ, 1965
Gemini 12, final Gemini flight, launched, Cape Kennedy FL, 1966
Tarantula by Bob Dylan published, US, 1970
Cease-fire between Israel and Egypt agreed, 1973
New Covent Garden fruit market opened, Nine Elms, 1974
Angola becomes independent, 1975
Columbia space shuttle makes 1st commercial flight, Cape Canaveral FL, 1982
Synod of Church of England votes in favour of women priests, 1992
Belly play last show, Dragonfly, Los Angeles CA, 1995
155 die in a cable car fire in an Alpine tunnel, Austria, 2000

12th NOVEMBER
Amelia Opie (b. 1769)
Elizabeth Stanton (b. 1815)
Auguste Rodin (b. 1840)
Sun Yat-sen (b. 1866)
Ben Travers (b. 1886)
Booker (Bukka) White (b. 1906)
Chad Varah (b. 1911)
Roland Barthes (b. 1915)
Julius Rosenberg (b. 1918)
Princess Grace of Monaco (b. 1929)
John McGahern (b. 1934)
Mort Shuman (b. 1936)
Lucia Popp (b. 1939)
Grover Washington Jr (b. 1943)
Canute II (The Great), King of England & Denmark (d. 1035)
Duncan II, King of Scotland (d. 1094)
Sir John Hawkins (d. 1595)
Thomas Fairfax, Lord Fairfax of Cameron (d. 1671)
Jean Sylvain Bailly (d. 1793)
Charles Kemble (d. 1854)
Elizabeth Gaskell (d. 1865)
Percival Lowell (d. 1916)
Lady (Emmuska) Orczy (d. 1947)
Dolly Good (d. 1968)
Malcolm Muggeridge (d. 1990)
Eve Arden (d. 1990)
Jan Oort (d. 1992)
Jill Tweedie (d. 1993)
Michael Innes (d. 1994)
Rainer Ptacek (d. 1997)
Tony Miles (d. 2001)
Ira Levin (d. 2007)
Day of Dupes, France, 1630
Bunyan arrested for preaching without a licence, 1660
Wolfe Tone sentenced to be hanged, 1798
1000s of fireballs from Leonids visible over East Coast, US, 1833
Jewish Chronicle, 1st UK Jewish paper, 1st published, 1841
Chloroform 1st used as an anaesthetic, UK, 1847
Mount Vesuvius erupts, 1867
Conservative Party founded, UK, 1867
Edinburgh University 1st in UK to admit women to study medicine, 1869
1000s of fireballs from Leonid shower seen over East Coast, US, 1883
Caruso records 1st million seller, On With The Motley, 1902
Scott & 2 explorers found dead in their tent, Antarctica, 1912
Republic of Austria declared, ending Hapsburg dynasty, 1918
Ross and Keith Smith set out on 1st flight to Australia, Hounslow, 1919
Stalin becomes ruler of Communist Party with expulsion of Trotsky, 1927
1st automated telephone system inaugurated, London, 1927
1st veteran car London-Brighton rally takes place, 1927
New Oxford Theatre, 1st UK cinema equipped with sound, opened, Manchester, 1928
Abbey Rd recording studio opened by Sir Edward Elgar, London, 1931
Loch Ness Monster 1st filmed, by Malcolm Irvine, Urquhart Bay, 1933
1st Nazi elections take place, Germany, 1933
Allies recapture Tobruk, 1942
Polyurethane patented by Bayer, 1943
Tirpitz sunk by RAF Lancaster bombers, Tromso Fjord, 1944
1st drive-in "autobank" launched, Chicago IL, 1946
Ellis Island closed as Immigration Depot, Upper New York Bay, 1954
1st salmon caught on Thames for over 30 years, 1974
Columbia space shuttle 1st spacecraft to be launched twice, Cape Canaveral FL, 1982
Bill published to abolish GLC & Metropolitan Councils, 1984
Van Gogh's Irises sold for record £27m at auction, Sotheby's, 1987
Emperor Akkihito formally assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne, Japan, 1990
834+ die in earthquake, western Turkey, 1999
269 die in air bus crash, Rockaway NY, 2001

13th NOVEMBER
St Augustine of Hippo (b. 354)
Edward III, King of England (b. 1312)
William Shenstone (b. 1714)
Thomas Chippendale (b. 1717)
Edwin Booth (b. 1833)
Robert Louis Stevenson (b. 1850)
Hermione Baddeley (b. 1909)
Gunnar Björnstrand (b. 1909)
Eugène Ionesco (b. 1909)
Oskar Werner (b. 1922)
Michel Gauquelin (b. 1928)
Jean Rook (b. 1931)
Jean Seberg (b. 1938)
Malcolm III, King of the Scots (d. 1093)
Prince Henry the Navigator (d. 1460)
Ludovico Carracci (d. 1619)
Nell Gwynn (d. 1687)
John Peel (d. 1854)
Gioacchino Rossini (d. 1868)
Camille Pissarro (d. 1903)
Nikolai Medtner (d. 1951)
Lucie Mabel Attwell (d. 1964)
Elsa Schiaparelli (d. 1973)
Vittorio de Sica (d. 1974)
Karen Silkwood (d. 1974)
Chesney Allen (d. 1982)
Antal Doråti (d. 1988)
Sir Robert Stephens (d. 1995)
Valerie Hobson (d. 1998)
Edwige Feuillère (d. 1998)
Peggy Mount (d. 2001)
Ol' Dirty Bastard (d. 2004)
Ethelred launches massacre of Danish settlers, UK, 1002
Scots defeated by English, Battle of Alnwick, 1093
Henry VIII announces intention to join Holy League, 1511
Jacobites defeated, Battle of Sheriffmuir and Preston, 1715
Rails for 1st horse-drawn railway laid, Shropshire, 1767
Texas declares independence from Mexico, 1835
London-Paris telegraph service opened, 1851
Bloody Sunday, Trafalgar Square, 1887
Paul Cornu makes 1st take-off in a manned helicopter, 1907
Brassiere patented by Mary Phelps Jacob, US, 1914
3rd phase of Battle of the Somme ends, 1916
Inner coffin of tomb of Tutenkhamun opened, Luxor, 1925
Holland Tunnel opened to the public beneath Hudson River, New York-New Jersey, 1927
Edward VIII announces intention to marry Mrs Simpson, 1936
1st bombs of Second World War fall on Shetland Islands, 1939
Walt Disney's Fantasia premiered, New York NY, 1940
Aircraft carrier Ark Royal sunk by Italian U-boat, Gibraltar, 1941
Vincent Schaefer 1st creates snow by scattering ice pellets into stratus cloud, 1946
Alabama's segregation bus laws declared invalid, Washington DC, 1956
Laika, 1st dog in space, dies when oxygen expires, Sputnik II, 1957
Kenneth Tynan 1st to speak F-word on TV, BBC-3, UK, 1965
Emma Peel 1st appears in The Avengers, UK, 1965
Quintuplets born to Mrs Irene Hanson, Rayleigh, UK, 1969
500,000 die in cyclone & tidal waves, East Pakistan, 1970
Iceland agrees plan to end Cod War with UK, 1973
State of Emergency follows electricity & coal workers overtime ban, UK, 1973
Final episode of Dad's Army 1st shown on TV, BBC, 1977
Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner appears in newspapers for last time, 1977
Military rule imposed in Poland, 1981
Andropov becomes Soviet leader, 1982
20,000 die in volcanic eruption, Nevado Del Ruiz, Colombia, 1985
1st criminal conviction based on genetic fingerprinting made, 1987
Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech triggers leadership contest, UK, 1990
Taliban militia forces repelled by Northern Alliance, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2001
Desert Orchid dies, 2006

14th NOVEMBER
Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland (b. OS 1489)
Lucas von Hildebrandt (b. 1668)
Leopold Mozart (b. 1719)
Claude Monet (b. 1840)
Leo Baekeland (b. 1863)
Jawaharlal (Pandit) Nehru (b. 1889)
Aaron Copland (b. 1900)
Lord (Michael) Ramsey of Canterbury (b. 1904)
Dick Powell (b. 1904)
Louise Brooks (b. 1906)
Joseph McCarthy (b. 1908)
Veronica Lake (b. 1919)
Margaret Courtenay (b. 1923)
Quentin Crewe (b. 1926)
Dame Elizabeth Frink (b. 1930)
Big Daddy (b. 1933)
King Hussein of Jordan (b. 1935)
Justinian I (d. 565)
Thomas (Old) Parr (d. 1635)
Gottfried Liebniz (d. 1716)
Louise de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (d. 1734)
Georg Hegel (d. 1831)
Booker T Washington (d. 1915)
Hector Munro (Saki) (d. 1916)
Manuel de Falla (d. 1946)
Keith Hudson (d. 1984)
Tony Richarson (d. 1991)
Quentin Crewe (d. 1998)
Charlotte Coleman (d. 2001)
Earthquake occurs, England, 1318
James Bruce discovers source of Blue Nile, Lake Tana, 1770
John Mason, 1st street car, goes into service, New York NY, 1832
Melville's Moby Dick 1st published, US, 1851
Nelly Bly begins round-world trip of record 73 days, 1889
1st London-Brighton motor vehicle run held, 1896
Cars no longer required to have men walking in front of them, UK, 1896
Lt Ely becomes 1st aircraft pilot to take off from deck of ship, 1910
1st daily radio broadcast service begins from 2LO, BBC, London, 1922
Book tokens 1st go on sale, 1932
National Government elected, UK, 1935
554 die and cathedral destroyed in Luftwaffe bombing, Coventry, 1940
UK charts for single records 1st published, by New Musical Express, 1952
Dounreay fast reactor goes into operation, 1959
Underwater volcanic eruption creates island of Surtsey, off Iceland, 1963
500,000 in anti-Vietnam protest marches, San Francisco and Washington, 1969
Apollo 12 launched, Cape Kennedy FL, 1969
Colour TV begins in UK, BBC1 & ITV, 1969
Princess Anne marries Capt Mark Phillips, Westminster Abbey, 1973
1st Cruise missiles arrive, Greenham Common, 1983
Picasso's Maternité sold for record £13_7m, 1988
National Lottery inaugurated, UK, 1994
1st inter-capital Eurostar Channel Tunnel train service begins, London-Paris, 1994
Michael Jackson marries Debbie Rowe, his nurse, Sydney, 1996

15th NOVEMBER
Madeleine de Scudéry (b. 1607)
William Pitt the Elder (b. 1708)
William Cowper (b. 1731)
Sir William Herschel (b. 1738)
Gerhart Hauptmann (b. 1862)
Charlotte Mew (b. 1869)
Marianne Moore (b. 1887)
Georgia O'Keeffe (b. 1887)
Richmal Crompton (b. 1890)
Erwin Rommel (b. 1891)
Aneurin Bevan (b. 1897)
Sir Sacheverell Sitwell (b. 1898)
Hamish Hamilton (b. 1900)
Mantovani (b. 1905)
Count Claus von Stauffenberg (b. 1907)
Sir Hugh Greene (b. 1910)
André Deutsch (b. 1917)
Mike Raven (b. 1924)
Paul Raymond (b. 1925)
Clyde McPhatter (b. 1932)
Little Willie John (b. 1937)
Ol' Dirty Bastard (b. 1968)
Penda, King of Mercia (d. 654)
Johannes Kepler (d. 1630)
Aelbert Cuyp (d. 1691)
Christoph Glück (d. 1787)
George Romney (d. 1802)
T'zu Hsi (d. 1908)
Alice Liddell (d. 1934)
Lionel Barrymore (d. 1954)
Tyrone Power (d. 1958)
Jean Gabin (d. 1976)
Margaret Mead (d. 1978)
John Le Mesurier (d. 1983)
Mona Washbourne (d. 1988)
Stokely Carmichael (d. 1998)
Myra Hindley (d. 2002)
Oswy, brother of Oswald, wins Battle of Winwaed, Leeds, 654
1st recorded reference to tobacco made, by Columbus, US, 1492
Pitman's stenographic phonograph shorthand system 1st published, London, 1837
London flooded as Thames rises by over 28 ft, 1875
Dom Pedro dethroned and Brazil proclaimed a republic, 1889
Electrical hearing aid patented by Miller Reese of New York, 1901
Pu Yi (2¾ yrs) becomes last Chinese Emperor, 1908
1st League of Nations assembly takes place, 1920
Danzig declared a Free City, 1920
1st BBC news broadcast made, London, 1922
National Broadcasting Co debuts with radio network of 24 stations, US, 1926
Commonwealth of Philippines inaugurated, 1935
Marx Bros' A Night At The Opera 1st shown, New York NY, 1935
Love Me Tender premiered, New York NY, 1956
Norman Breed Love achieves record 61_4 mph in jet car, Bonneville Salt Flats UT, 1965
Queen Elizabeth liner completes final voyage, 1968
1st UK colour TV commercial shown by ATV, for Bird's Eye, 1969
Dr Coggan becomes 101st Archbishop of Canterbury, 1974
Northern Cyprus under Turkish occupation unilaterally declares independence, 1983
Anglo-Irish agreement signed, Belfast, 1985
Palestinian Statehood declared by Arafat, Algiers, 1988
Digital One radio network launched, UK, 1999
Hu Jintao replaces Jiang Zemin as Communist Party leader, China, 2002

16th NOVEMBER
Tiberius (b. BC 42)
Francis Danby (b. 1793)
WC Handy (b. 1873)
Alexander Blok (b. OS 1880)
Thomas H Ince (b. 1882)
George S Kaufman (b. 1889)
Paul Hindemith (b. 1895)
Sir Oswald Mosley (b. 1896)
St Margaret, Queen of Scotland (d. 1093)
St Edmund of Abington (d. 1240)
Henry III, King of England (d. 1272)
Perkin Warbeck (d. OS 1499)
Jack Sheppard (d. 1724)
Lucas von Hildebrandt (d. 1745)
James Ferguson (d. 1776)
Clark Gable (d. 1960)
Gilbert Harding (d. 1960)
William Cosgrave (d. 1965)
Edie Sedgwick (d. 1971)
Arthur Askey (d. 1982)
Lady (Jennie) Lee of Asheridge (d. 1988)
Lucia Popp (d. 1993)
Doris Speed (d. 1994)
Russ Conway (d. 2000)
Vernon Scannell (d. 2007)
1st English newspaper, Oxford Gazette (later London Gazette) 1st published, 1665
Westminster Bridge formally opened, 1750
British capture Fort Washington, 1776
Game of craps introduced as "official sampling pursuit", New Orleans LA, 1813
Pierre Joubert dies at greatest authenticated age of 115 yr 124 days, Quebec, 1814
Hamilton Hume discovers Murray River, Australia, 1824
Austria annexes Krakow, 1846
Chopin makes last public appearance, Guildhall, London, 1848
Weston's Music Hall (later Holborn Empire) opened, London, 1857
Seige of Lucknow ends, Indian Mutiny, 1857
Suez Canal formally opened, Port Said, 1869
Wyndham's Theatre opened, London, 1899
Oklahoma, the Sooner State, becomes 46th state of the Union, 1907
Hungary proclaimed an independent republic, 1918
Bolsheviks defeat White Russians, ending Civil War, Crimea, 1920
New currency system introduced, Germany, 1923
6.5 Special broadcast from the Two I's coffee bar, Soho, 1957
The Sound of Music 1st performed, on Broadway, 1959
Venus III, 1st spacecraft to reach another planet, launched, USSR, 1965
2,000 meteors per minute pass over Pacific ocean, 1966
Jeremy Sandford's Cathy Come Home 1st broadcast, BBC, 1966
1st commercial vessels use Suez Canal since 1967 closure, 1974
Physicists announce discovery of J/psi, a subatomic particle, US, 1974
Echo and the Bunnymen make their live debut, Eric's, Liverpool, 1978
Cambridge MA is 1st US town to legally recognise homosexual couples, 1992
Coalition government collapses, Eire, 1994
Martina Navratilova retires from professional tennis, 1994

17th NOVEMBER
Il Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo) (b. 1503)
Louis XVIII, King of France (b. 1755)
August Möbius (b. 1790)
Lord (Bernard) Montgomery of El Alamein (b. 1887)
Lee Strasberg (b. 1901)
Rock Hudson (b. 1925)
Marion Montgomery (b. 1934)
John Wells (b. 1936)
Peter Cook (b. 1937)
Auberon Waugh (b. 1939)
Gene Clark (b. 1944)
Jeff Buckley (b. 1966)
Mary I, Queen of England (d. 1558)
Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany (d. 1789)
Charlotte, Queen Consort of George III (d. 1818)
Auguste Rodin (d. 1917)
Eric Gill (d. 1940)
James P Johnson (d. 1955)
Mervyn Peake (d. 1968)
Dame Gladys Cooper (d. 1971)
Immanuel Velikovsky (d. 1979)
Eileen Agar (d. 1991)
Alan Hull (d. 1995)
Michael Karoli (d. 2001)
Arthur Conley (d. 2003)
Don Gibson (d. 2003)
Errol Thompson (d. 2004)
Ruth Brown (d. 2006)
John Balliol accedes to throne of Scotland, 1292
Elizabeth I accedes to throne, UK, 1558
Sir Walter Raleigh tried for treason, 1603
1st meeting of Congress of United States in Capitol building, Washington DC, 1800
1st procession of ships pass through Suez Canal, Egypt, 1869
James Moore wins 1st cycle road race, Paris-Rouen, 1869
1st BA degrees conferred on women, London University, 1880
Astronomer Royal sees UFO, Greenwich Royal Obervatory, 1882
Steamboat Louise 1st ship to pass through Panama Canal, 1913
Battle of the Somme ends, 1916
Polish constitution established, 1921
Siberia votes for union with USSR, 1922
Lyndon Johnson marries Claudia (Lady Bird) Taylor, US, 1934
Anglesey is 1st in UK to introduce fluoride to its water, 1955
Kashmir elects to become part of India, 1956
Findhorn Foundation founded, 1962
Luna 17 touches down on Moon and releases 1st Moonwalker vehicle, 1970
1st Page Three girl, Stephanie Rahn, appears in The Sun, UK, 1970
1st Democratic constitution, giving blacks the vote, ratified, S Africa, 1993
Albert Reynolds resigns as prime minister, Eire, 1994
Today published for last time, UK, 1995
62 die when militants open fire, Temple of Hatshepsut, Luxor, 1997

18th NOVEMBER
Vespasian (b. 9)
Sir David Wilkie (b. 1785)
Carl von Weber (b. 1786)
Louis Daguerre (b. 1789)
Sir William Gilbert (b. 1836)
Ignacz Paderewski (b. 1860)
Percy Wyndham Lewis (b. 1882)
Eugene Ormandy (b. 1889)
George Gallup (b. 1901)
Sir Alec Issigonis (b. 1906)
Johnny Mercer (b. 1909)
Alan Shepard (b. 1923)
Yvonne Bryceland (b. 1924)
Hank Ballard (b. 1927)
Don Cherry (b. 1936)
David Hemmings (b. 1941)
Narcisse Diaz (d. 1876)
Chester Arthur (d. 1886)
Marcel Proust (d. 1922)
Paul Eluard (d. 1952)
Niels Bohr (d. 1962)
Clifford Bax (d. 1962)
Jean Peugeot (d. 1966)
Ted Heath (d. 1969)
Joseph Kennedy (d. 1969)
Little Jr Parker (d. 1971)
Danny Whitten (d. 1972)
Man Ray (d. 1976)
Giorgio de Chirico (d. 1978)
Tom Evans (d. 1983)
Cab Calloway (d. 1994)
Horst P Horst (d. 1999)
Doug Sahm (d. 1999)
Paul Bowles (d. 1999)
James Coburn (d. 2002)
Caxton publishes 1st dated printed book, 1477
St Peter's Church consecrated, Rome, 1626
Capt Nathaniel B Palmer discovers Antarctica, 1820
Great Fire of Edinburgh begins, Old Assembly Cross, 1824
Funeral of Duke of Wellington, St Paul's Cathedral, 1852
Big Ben strikes for 1st time, Westminster, 1858
Pigeon Post established between London & Paris, 1870
Standard time introduced, US, 1883
100 arrested when suffragettes storm House of Commons, 1910
Latvia proclaimed an independent republic, 1918
George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept Nobel prize money of £7000, 1926
1st Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie, shown, Colony Th, New York NY, 1928
Germany and Italy recognize the Spanish government of Francisco Franco, 1936
RAF begins night raids on Berlin, 1943
Dartford-Purfleet tunnel opened, 1963
Push-button telephone introduced by Bell Telephones, US, 1963
Grace Jones punches Russell Harty live on his TV show, UK, 1980
Sextuplets born to Janet Walton, Liverpool, 1983
Microsoft Windows 1st available, 1985
Topper Headon of the Clash jailed for heroin dealing, 1987
31 die in Kings Cross underground station fire, 1987
Hostages Terry Waite and Tom Sutherland released, Bierut, 1991
UK abandons Nuclear Euro-Project, 1992
12 pupils & teacher from Hagley High School killed in M40 collision, Warwick, 1993
Channel Tunnel extensively damaged by fire from freight wagon, 1996
Tom Cruise marries Katie Holmes, near Rome, 2006

19th NOVEMBER
Charles I, King of England & Scotland (b. 1600)
James Garfield (b. 1831)
José Raoul Capablanca (b. 1888)
Anton Walbrook (b. 1900)
Tommy Dorsey (b. 1905)
Indira Gandhi (b. 1917)
Pete McCarthy (b. 1952)
Ofra Haza (b. 1957)
Nicolas Poussin (d. 1665)
Thomas Shadwell (d. 1692)
The Man With The Iron Mask (d. 1703)
Wolfe Tone (d. 1798)
Franz Schubert (d. 1828)
Joe Hill (d. 1915)
Thomas H Ince (d. 1924)
James Ensor (d. 1949)
Elizabeth Taylor (d. 1975)
Sir Basil Spence (d. 1976)
Rev Jim Jones (d. 1978)
Stepin Fetchit (d. 1985)
Christina Onassis (d. 1988)
Michael Somes (d. 1994)
Julian Symons (d. 1994)
Alan J Pakula (d. 1998)
Terry Melcher (d. 2004)
John Timpson (d. 2005)
Columbus discovers Puerto Rico on his 2nd voyage, 1493
Blackfriars Bridge opened for carriages, London, 1769
Tennyson appointed Poet Laureate, 1850
Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address, 1863
1st colour supplement published by New York World, 1893
Pencil invented, 1895
LPO/Beecham play 1st concert recorded on magnetic tape, Ludwigshafen, 1936
German army surrounds Stalingrad, 1942
1st general conference of Unesco held, Paris, 1946
Prince Rainier III sworn in as 30th ruling Prince of Monaco, 1949
1st atomic central-heating plant begins operating, Oxford, 1951
1st VTOL flight takes place, 1960
Amstrad incorporated, UK, 1968
Pelé scores his 1000th goal, 1969
Lunar module from Apollo 12 touches down on Moon, 1969
Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the UK released, 1976
Rev Jim Jones' 911 People's Temple members commit suicide, Guyana, 1978
500 die and 10,000 homes destroyed in chemicals factory explosion, Mexico City, 1984
Reagan and Gorbachev meet for 1st time, at summit talks, Geneva, 1985
NATO and Warsaw Pact members end Cold War with Weapons Treaty, Paris, 1990
Milli Vanilli stripped of Grammy Award as neither sang on their records, 1990
1st National Lottery draw takes place, UK, 1994
Gary Linecker retires from professional football, 1994
Bobbi McCaughey has septuplets, only 2nd set known born alive, Des Moines IO, 1997
Tanker Prestige sinks with cargo of 70,000 tonnes of oil, off Galicia, Spain, 2002

20th NOVEMBER
St Edmund of Abington (b. 1175)
Thomas Chatterton (b. 1752)
Edwin Hubble (b. 1889)
Alexandra Danilova (b. 1904)
Henri-Georges Clouzot (b. 1907)
Alistair Cooke (b. 1908)
Harry Worth (b. 1918)
Gene Tierney (b. 1920)
Jim Garrison (b. 1921)
Salvator Giuliano (b. 1922)
June Christy (b. 1925)
Robert Kennedy (b. 1925)
Duane Allman (b. 1946)
Edmund, King of East Anglia (d. 870)
Caroline of Ansbach, Queen Consort of George II (d. 1737)
Anton Rubinstein (d. 1894)
Alexandra, Queen Consort of Edward VII (d. 1925)
Clyde Cessna (d. 1954)
Allan Sherman (d. 1973)
Francisco Franco (d. 1975)
Roland Alphonso (d. 1998)
Quentin Crisp (d. 1999)
Robert Altman (d. 2006)
Ian Smith (d. 2007)
Peregrine White is 1st US child born of English parents, on board Mayflower, OS 1620
Battle of Quiberon Bay, Seven Years War, 1759
UK declares war on Netherlands, 1780
Simón Bolivar declares Venezuela independence from Spain, 1818
1st timecard clock invented by William Bundy, 1888
Mahler's 1st Symphony premiered, 1889
Rolls Royce founded, 1906
Francisco I Madero leads revolution, Mexico, 1910
Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal begins, 1945
Princess Elizabeth marries Duke of Edinburgh, Westminster Abbey, 1947
Snowdonia declared a national park, 1957
Bank of England 10/- note goes out of circulation, 1970
Solar Challenger, solar-powered aircraft, makes maiden flight, 1980
BT shares 1st go on sale, UK, 1984
News On Sunday ceases publication, 1987
Sunday collections resumed at selected postal sorting offices, UK, 1989
Windsor Castle devastated by fire, 1992
National Trust buys former home of Paul McCartney at 20 Forthlin Rd, Liverpool, 1995


Last updated: July 20, 2009