21st NOVEMBER
Voltaire (b. 1694)
Sir Samuel Cunard (b. 1787)
Victoria, Princess Royal (b. 1840)
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (b. 1863)
René Magritte (b. 1898)
Coleman Hawkins (b. 1904)
Eleanor Powell (b. 1912)
Roy Boulting (b. 1913)
John Boulting (b. 1913)
Vivian Blaine (b. 1923)
Georgius Agricola (d. 1555)
Sir Thomas Gresham (d. 1579)
Henry Purcell (d. 1695)
James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd (d. 1835)
Prince Keiki Tokugawa (d. 1913)
Robert Benchley (d. 1945)
Robert Stroud (d. 1963)
Sir Chandrasekhara Raman (d. 1970)
Peter Grant (d. 1995)
Robert Moog (d. 2005)
Bull of Honorius III affirms independence of Church of Scotland, 1218
Montgolfier brothers make 1st free-flight balloon ascent, 1783
North Carolina, the Tar Heel State, becomes 12th state of the Union, 1789
Vulcanised rubber patented by Thomas Hancock, UK, 1843
1st human cannonball fired, Paris, 1875
Suffragette riots take place, London, 1911
Women 1st eligible to become MPs, UK, 1918
Germans surrender High Seas Fleet to Allies, Scapa Flow, 1918
Rebecca L Felton of Georgia sworn in as 1st woman to serve in Senate, US, 1922
Cole Porter's Anything Goes opened, US, 1934
BBC televises In Your Garden, 1st gardening programme, UK, 1936
Piltdown Man skull found to be hoax, 1953
Dido nuclear reactor switched on, Harwell, 1956
Construction of Forth Road Bridge begins, 1958
Jack Benny and Richard Nixon play duet, 1959
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened to traffic, New York, 1964
134,000 animals slaughtered to limit foot-and-mouth, UK, 1967
20 die & 200 injured in IRA pub bombings, Birmingham, 1974
Proceedings in Parliament 1st televised, UK, 1989
Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall marry, Bali, 1990
Dow Jones industrial average closes above 5,000 mark for 1st time, US, 1995
22nd NOVEMBER
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (b. 1428)
Mary of Guise, Queen of James V (b. 1515)
Robert Cavalier La Salle (b. 1643)
Wilhelm Bach (b. 1710)
Dorothea Jordan (b. 1761)
Thomas Cook (b. 1808)
George Eliot (b. 1819)
Cecil Sharp (b. 1859)
André Gide (b. 1869)
Charles de Gaulle (b. 1890)
Edward Bernays (b. 1891)
Hoagy Carmichael (b. 1899)
Joaquín Rodrigo (b. 1902)
Lord (Benjamin) Britten (b. 1913)
Peter Townsend (b. 1914)
Geraldine Page (b. 1924)
Pat Smythe (b. 1928)
Sir Martin Frobisher (d. 1594)
Blackbeard (d. 1718)
Lord (Robert) Clive (d. 1774)
John Hanson (d. 1783)
Sir Arthur Sullivan (d. 1900)
Asaph Hall (d. 1907)
Jack London (d. 1916)
Marjory Fraser (d. 1930)
Lorenz Hart (d. 1943)
CS Lewis (d. 1963)
Aldous Huxley (d. 1963)
John F Kennedy (d. 1963)
Mae West (d. 1980)
Anthony Burgess (d. 1993)
Terence Donovan (d. 1996)
Michael Hutchence (d. 1997)
Vasco da Gama is 1st to round Cape of Good Hope, 1497
Astor Place, 1st opera house in New York, opened, 1847
Mauretania completes her maiden voyage, New York, 1907
Battle of Ctesiphon, 1915
Ravel's Bolero makes debut, Paris, 1928
4,800 die in series of earthquakes devastating southern Italy, 1928
Manchester November Handicap, 1st Irish sweepstake, held, 1930
Lebanon becomes independent, 1943
1st Biro ball-point pens go on sale, 1946
Bob Dylan and Sara Lowndes marry, Nassau County NY, 1965
Cassius Clay defeats Floyd Patterson to retain heavyweight title, Las Vegas NE,
1965
Monarchy restored when Juan Carlos accedes to throne, Spain, 1975
Mike Tyson defeats Trevor Berbick to become youngest heavyweight champion, 1986
Stone Roses TV debut ends in power failure after 45 seconds, BBC2, 1989
Margaret Thatcher announces resignation as party leader, UK, 1990
20 die when tornadoes tear through Deep South, US, 1992
Rosemary West sentenced to life as most prolific UK serial killer, Winchester,
1995
Kate Winslet and Jim Threapleton marry, Reading, 1998
23rd NOVEMBER
Otto the Great (b. 912)
Franklin Pierce (b. 1804)
Billy The Kid (b. 1859)
Valdemar Poulsen (b. 1869)
Manuel de Falla (b. 1876)
Boris Karloff (b. 1887)
Harpo Marx (b. 1888)
Erté (b. 1892)
Nirad C Chaudhuri (b. 1897)
Gwen Berryman (b. 1906)
RL Burnside (b. 1926)
Lew Hoad (b. 1934)
Betty Everett (b. 1939)
Il Bronzino (d. 1572)
Thomas Tallis (d. 1585)
Richard Hakluyt (d. 1616)
Claude Lorrain (d. 1682)
Sophia Dorothea, Electress of Hanover (d. 1726)
Johann Bode (d. 1826)
Friedrich Struve (d. 1864)
Hawley Crippen (d. 1910)
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (d. 1934)
Spade Cooley (d. 1969)
Constance Talmadge (d. 1973)
André Malraux (d. 1976)
Merle Oberon (d. 1979)
Judee Sill (d. 1979)
Leslie Mitchell (d. 1985)
Roald Dahl (d. 1990)
Klaus Kinski (d. 1991)
Roy Acuff (d. 1992)
Junior Walker (d. 1995)
Mary Whitehouse (d. 2001)
Philippe Noirot (d. 2006)
Betty Comden (d. 2006)
River Thames freezes over, London, 1434
1st pillar-boxes erected, St Helier, 1852
Colour photography patented, 1863
Evaporated milk patented by John Mayenberg of St Louis MO, 1884
1st jukebox installed, Palais Royal Saloon, San Francisco CA, 1889
Luxembourg separated from the Netherlands, 1890
1st Battle of Ypres ends, 1914
Royal Navy bombards Zeebrugge, 1914
Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag published, 1915
St Martin's Theatre opened, London, 1916
Life 1st published, 1936
Zoom lens patented by FG Black, 1948
Elvis Presley signed to RCA, US, 1955
1st Dr Who episode, An Unearthly Child, broadcast, BBC, 1963
Manx, 1st UK commercial radio station opened, Isle of Man, 1964
2 Soviet cosmonauts return after record 5 months in space, 1983
Factory Records goes into receivership, Manchester, 1992
Rebecca Stephens 1st woman to climb highest mountain of each continent, 1994
24th NOVEMBER
Baruch Spinoza (b. 1632)
Laurence Sterne (b. 1713)
John Bacon (b. 1740)
Zachary Taylor (b. 1784)
Grace Darling (b. 1815)
Lilli Lehmann (b. 1848)
Frances Hodgson Burnett (b. 1849)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (b. 1864)
Scott Joplin (b. 1868)
Lucky Luciano (b. 1897)
John Silverlight (b. 1919)
David Kossoff (b. 1919)
Alun Owen (b. 1925)
William F Buckley (b. 1925)
Michael Holliday (b. 1928)
Jonathan Routh (b. 1928)
John Knox (d. 1572)
William Lamb, Lord Melbourne (d. 1848)
Georges Clemenceau (d. 1929)
Nellie Wallace (d. 1948)
Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1963)
Big Joe Turner (d. 1985)
Freddie Mercury (d. 1991)
Lord (Antony) Moynihan (d. 1991)
Albert Collins (d. 1993)
Louis Malle (d. 1995)
Stuart Henry (d. 1995)
Parliament 1st allows clergy to marry, 1548
Transit of Venus 1st observed, by Jeremiah Horrocks, 1639
Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania), 1642
Frost fair held on frozen River Thames, 1715
Chain Pier, 1st pleasure pier, opened, Brighton, 1823
Darwin's The Origin Of Species published, 1859
Smithfield meat market opened, London, 1868
Stockport Railway Viaduct opened, 1889
National Rifle Association was incorporated, US, 1928
Iron and steel industries nationalised, UK, 1949
Sir Vivian Fuchs' Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition begins, 1957
70 mph speed limit 1st introduced on motorways, UK, 1965
Bach allegedly channels Prelude in E flat major to psychic Rosemary Brown,
London, 1966
John Lennon returns MBE in protest at UK involvement in Biafra, 1969
Habitat and BHS announce merger, 1985
Politburo resign as Dubcek returns to power, Prague, 1989
Bobby Thompson & Jon Venables (11) convicted of murder of James Bulger, UK,
1993
Canova's 3 Graces bought by National Galleries of Scotland & V&A for
£7,600,000, 1994
British Library's Humanities Reading Room opened, St Pancras, 1997
David McCrae dies of bat bite, 1st UK rabies infection in 100 years, Aberdeen,
2002
25th NOVEMBER
Lope de Vega (b. 1562)
Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles I (b. 1609)
Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II (b. NS 1638)
Charles Kemble (b. 1775)
Andrew Carnegie (b. 1835)
Carl Benz (b. 1844)
Harley Granville Barker (b. 1877)
Leonard Woolf (b. 1880)
Wilhelm Kempff (b. 1895)
Virgil Thomson (b. 1896)
Helene Chadwick (b. 1897)
Richard Seifert (b. 1910)
Francis Durbridge (b. 1912)
Joe Di Maggio (b. 1914)
Eddie Boyd (b. 1914)
Augusto Pinochet (b. 1915)
Sir John Drummond (b. 1934)
John F Kennedy Jr (b. 1960)
Herod the Great (d. BC 4)
Malcolm I, 1st King of Scotland (d. 1034)
Prince William (d. 1120)
Sir Edward Alleyn (d. 1626)
Isaac Watts (d. 1748)
Sir Augustus Callcott (d. 1844)
Heinrich Barth (d. 1865)
Dame Lilian Baylis (d. 1937)
Diego Rivera (d. 1957)
Dame Myra Hess (d. 1965)
Upton Sinclair (d. 1968)
Albert Ayler (d. 1970)
Yukio Mishima (d. 1970)
Laurence Harvey (d. 1973)
U Thant (d. 1974)
George Raft (d. 1980)
Sir Anton Dolin (d. 1983)
Geoffrey Grigson (d. 1985)
Elsa Morante (d. 1985)
Jon Silkin (d. 1997)
Hastings Banda (d. 1997)
Karel Reisz (d. 2002)
Arthur Hailey (d. 2004)
George Best (d. 2005)
The Flood (Genesis 6.9) begins (traditional date), BC 2348
300 die when White Ship wrecked while bound Normandy-England, off Barfleur, 1120
Magellan leads 1st 3 European vessels into the Pacific, 1520
Lord Dacre defeats Scots, Battle of Solway Moss, 1542
UK troops evacuated, New York NY, 1783
Chain Pier opened, Brighton, 1823
1st parking summons issued, UK, 1896
Bob Fitzsimmons becomes only boxer to win 3 heaviest titles, 1903
HMS Bulwark destroyed, off Sheerness, 1914
French troops enter Strasbourg, 1918
1st transatlantic radio broadcast made, UK to US, 1923
The Mousetrap opened, London, 1952
Jimi Hendrix Experience makes UK live debut, Bag O'Nails, London, 1966
12 new local radio stations authorised by government, UK, 1969
Surinam (formerly Dutch Guiana) becomes independent, 1975
The Band's farewell concert takes place, 1976
Do They Know It's Christmas? charity single recorded, 1984
The Times 1st uses Times Millenium typeface, 1991
Prince and Princess of Wales agree to separate, Kensington Palace, 1992
27th NOVEMBER
Anders Celsius (b. 1701)
Perdita Robinson (b. 1758)
Fanny Kemble (b. 1809)
Liz Stride (b. 1843)
Konosuke Matsushita (b. 1894)
Mona Washbourne (b. 1903)
James Agee (b. 1910)
Tiny Rowland (b. 1917)
Alexander Dubcek (b. 1921)
Ernie Wise (b. 1925)
Benigno Aquino (b. 1932)
Al Jackson (b. 1935)
Bruce Lee (b. 1940)
Jimi Hendrix (b. 1942)
Horace (d. BC 8)
Jacopo Sansovino (d. 1570)
Alexandre Dumas the Younger (d. 1895)
Clement Studebaker (d. 1901)
Alice Meynell (d. 1922)
Edward Bach (d. 1936)
Eugene O'Neill (d. 1953)
Arthur Hönegger (d. 1955)
Ross McWhirter (d. 1975)
Rachel Roberts (d. 1980)
John Carradine (d. 1988)
Sir Sidney Nolan (d. 1992)
I-Roy (d. 1999)
Sir Malcolm Bradbury (d. 2000)
Damilola Taylor (d. 2000)
Alan Freeman (d. 2006)
Rabbinical Bible completed, by Daniel Bomberg, 1518
Marriage licence issued for Shakespeare & Anne Hathaway, Worcester, 1582
George Custer kills Chief Black Kettle of the Cheyenne, 1868
1st votes cast by women in any national election, New Zealand, 1893
1st 2 UK policewomen go on duty, Grantham, 1914
Massive meteor lands, Lake Michigan, 1919
French fleet sabotaged and scuttled, Toulon, 1942
Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin meet, Teheran Conference, 1943
70 die when 4,000 tons of high explosives blows up, RAF Fauld, Hanbury, 1944
de Gaulle turns down UK application to join Common Market, France, 1967
Attempt made on life of Pope Paul VI, Manila, 1970
Mars II, Soviet spacecraft, goes into orbit around Mars, 1971
Michael Parkinson attacked by Rod Hull's Emu on his chat show, BBC, 1976
Outbreak of e-coli food poisoning, Scotland, 1996
Cassini's module Huygens lands on Saturn's moon Titan, 2004
28th NOVEMBER
Jean-Baptiste Lully (b. 1632)
William Blake (b. 1757)
Friedrich Engels (b. 1820)
Anton Rubinstein (b. 1829)
John Wesley Hyatt (b. 1837)
Nancy Mitford (b. 1904)
Alberto Moravia (b. 1907)
Gloria Grahame (b. 1923)
Alexander Godunov (b. 1949)
Prince Ludwig Rudolph of Hanover (b. 1955)
Anna Nicole Smith (b. 1967)
Eleanor of Castile, Queen of Edward I (d. 1290)
Edward Plantaganet, Earl of Warwick (d. 1499)
Gian Bernini (d. 1680)
Matsuo Basho (d. 1694)
Washington Irving (d. 1859)
Enrico Fermi (d. 1954)
Enid Blyton (d. 1968)
Havergal Brian (d. 1972)
Rosalind Russell (d. 1976)
Lotte Lenye (d. 1981)
Kenneth Connor (d. 1993)
Jerry Rubin (d. 1994)
Jeffrey Dahmer (d. 1994)
Tony Meehan (d. 2005)
Magellan reaches Pacific, 1520
Royal Society formally founded, 1660
Covenanters defeated by Sir Thomas Dalyell, Rullion Green, 1666
Times is 1st paper to be printed on power press, UK, 1814
London University granted charter, 1836
Grieg withdraws his only symphony, 1867
Globe Th, Newcastle Street, Strand, opened, 1868
1st automobile race takes place, Chicago-Waukegan IL, 1895
Sinn Féin founded by Arthur Griffith, Dublin, 1905
Albania becomes independent, 1912
Serbia conquered by Austria and Bulgaria, 1915
1st air raid on London occurs, 1916
Kaiser formally abdicates crown of Prussia and Germany, 1918
Lady (Nancy) Astor is 1st UK woman MP, Plymouth, 1919
Latvia declares war on Germany, 1919
Grand Ole Opry makes radio debut, on WSM, Nashville TN, 1925
1st Polaroid cameras go on sale, Boston MA, 1948
Hong Kong dockyard closed, 1959
Mauritania becomes independent, 1960
Mariner 4 Mars probe launched, Cape Canaveral FL, 1964
Transglobe Airways ceases operations, UK, 1968
Battle of Britain Museum opens, Hendon, 1978
Sir Robert Armstrong says he has been "economical with the truth",
1988
Kohl proposes plan for confederation of East & West Germany, 1989
John Major becomes prime minister, UK, 1990
Let Music Live debuted by Simon Rattle with 2,845-piece orchestra, Birmingham,
1996
Hsing-Hsing, giant panda kept as a symbol of US-China detente, euthanized, US,
1999
Enron Corp collapses when Dynegy backs out of $8.4 billion take over, US, 2001
Ellen MacArthur begins solo circumnavigation of world, 0810:44 GMT, Ushant, 2004
29th NOVEMBER
Lionel of Antwerp (b. 1338)
Gaetano Donizetti (b. 1797)
Christian Doppler (b. 1803)
Louisa May Alcott (b. 1832)
T'zu-hsi (b. 1835)
Gertrude Jekyll (b. 1843)
Busby Berkeley (b. 1895)
CS Lewis (b. 1898)
Carlo Levi (b. 1902)
Merle Travis (b. 1917)
Denny Doherty (b. 1941)
Petra Kelly (b. 1947)
Christine Pascal (b. 1953)
Roger of Mortimer (d. 1330)
Giovanni Bellini (d. 1516)
Thomas Wolsey (d. 1530)
Hans Holbein the Younger (d. 1543)
Claudio Monteverdi (d. 1643)
Giambattista Bodoni (d. 1813)
Ada, Countess of Loveless (d. 1852)
Giacomo Puccini (d. 1924)
Sir George Robey (d. 1954)
Graham Hill (d. 1975)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (d. 1977)
Natalie Wood (d. 1981)
Irene Handl (d. 1987)
Prince Ludwig Rudolph of Hanover (d. 1988)
Ralph Bellamy (d. 1991)
Paul Ryan (d. 1992)
Buster Edwards (d. 1994)
Giant Haystacks (d. 1998)
George Harrison (d. 2001)
Cheyenne & Arapahoe Indians massacred by US troops, Sand Creek CO, 1864
US receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Oahu HI, 1887
Battle of Modder River, 1899
Florence Nightingale awarded Order of Merit by Edward VII, 1907
Republic of Lithuania proclaimed, 1918
Admiral Richard Byrd and Bernt Balcham make 1st flight over South Pole, 1929
Duke of Kent & Princess Marina marry, 1st broadcast Royal wedding,
Westminster, 1934
999 telephone number introduced, 1937
Yugoslavia proclaimed Federal People's Republic, 1945
UN General Assembly allows for a Jewish state in Palestine, 1947
1st underground atomic explosion takes place, Frenchman Flat NV, 1951
Enos the chimp launched to orbit Earth, Mercury-Atlas 5, Cape Canaveral FL, 1961
Franco-British agreement reached to develop Concord airliner, 1962
Mary Whitehouse inaugurates National Viewers & Listeners Association, 1965
IRA becomes illegal organisation, 1974
Crown Princess Victoria admits to be suffering from an eating disorder, Sweden,
1997
Northern Ireland forms 1st devolved government in over 25 years, 2000
30th NOVEMBER
St Gregory of Tours (b. 539)
Andrea Palladio (b. 1508)
Sir Philip Sidney (b. 1554)
John Bunyan (bapt. 1628)
Jonathan Swift (b. 1667)
Ernst Chladni (b. 1756)
Oliver Fisher Winchester (b. 1810)
Mark Twain (b. 1835)
Angela Brazil (b. 1868)
Sir Winston Churchill (b. 1874)
Geoffrey Household (b. 1900)
Robert Nighthawk (b. 1909)
Charles Hawtrey (b. 1915)
Brownie McGhee (b. 1915)
Virginia Mayo (b. 1920)
Allen Sherman (b. 1924)
Abbie Hoffman (b. 1936)
Edmund Ironside, King of the English (d. 1016)
Oscar Wilde (d. 1900)
Helénè Boucher (d. 1934)
Ernst Lubitsch (d. 1947)
Wilhelm Furtwängler (d. 1954)
Patrick Kavanagh (d. 1967)
Sir Compton Mackenzie (d. 1972)
Sir Terence Rattigan (d. 1977)
Joyce Grenfell (d. 1979)
Zeppo Marx (d. 1979)
Eric Thompson (d. 1982)
Cary Grant (d. 1986)
James Baldwin (d. 1987)
Sunnie Mann (d. 1992)
Guy Debord (d. 1994)
Connie Kay (d. 1994)
Tiny Tim (d. 1996)
Dan Flavin (d. 1996)
Evel Knievel (d. 2007)
Foundation stone of Theatre Royal laid, Bristol, 1764
United States and UK sign preliminary peace articles, ending war, Paris, 1782
England and Scotland draw 0-0 in 1st international football match, 1872
Chaplin makes screen debut, in Make A Living, US, 1913
Radio photograph 1st transmitted, UK-US, 1924
HMV and Columbia merge to form EMI, UK, 1931
Crystal Palace destroyed by fire, Sydenham, 1936
USSR invades Finland, 1939
HMS Vanguard, largest and last battleship, launched, Clydebank, 1944
1st floodlit football match takes place, Wembley, 1955
Floyd Patterson is youngest boxer to win heavyweight title, Chicago IL, 1956
Ion rockets 1st used in flight, by Zond II, USSR, 1964
Barbados becomes independent, 1966
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen becomes independent, 1967
Trades Description Act comes into force, 1968
Zond II Mars probe launched, USSR, 1969
Led Zeppelin begin UK tour, Newcastle, 1972
The Times ceases publication for nearly 1 year, 1978
2 die when Achille Lauro catches fire and sinks off Somalia, 1994
Last updated: July 20, 2009