October 17th
 

1469 ~ Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. This marriage lead to the unification of Aragon and Castile in a single country, Spain.

1888 ~ Thomas Edison filed a patent for the Optical Phonograph.

1915 ~ Birthday of Arthur Miller, Playwright.

1931 ~ Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.

1956 ~ Queen Elizabeth opened the first commercial nuclear power station, at Calder Hall.

1967 ~ The musical Hair opened.

1970 ~ Anwar Sadat became president of Egypt.

1972 ~ Birthday of Eminem, rap music performer.

1980 ~ Queen Elizabeth became the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican.

1989 ~ Loma Prieta earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area.

October 18th
 

1545 ~ Death of John Taverner, Composer.

1851 ~ Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, was first published as The Whale.

1871 ~ Death of Charles Babbage, mathematician and inventor of computing machines.

1908 ~ Death of Charles Gounod, composer.

1919 ~ Birthday of Pierre Trudeau, fifteenth PM of Canada.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Company, Ltd. was incorporated. It was reincorporated as the BBC.

1926 ~ Birthday of Chuck Berry, Musician.

1931 ~ Death of Thomas Edison, inventor.

1939 ~ Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald, Assassin.

1989 ~ [I]Erich Honecker is forced to step down as leader of East Germany./I]

October 19th
 

1216 ~ Death of King John, younger brother of King Richard the Lionheart.

1745 ~ Death of Jonathan Swift, Author.

1781 ~ Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, effectively ending the American War of Independence.

1912 ~ Italy took possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

1931 ~ Birthday of John Le Carré, Novelist.

1933 ~ Germany withdrew from the League of Nations.

1943 ~ Streptomycin was isolated; the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis.

1950 ~ Death of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poet.

2003 ~ Mother Teresa beatified by Pope John Paul II.

2005 ~ Trial of Saddam Hussein began.

October 20th
 

1632 ~ Birthday of Sir Christopher Wren, Architect.

1740 ~ Maria Theresa took the throne of Austria.

1803 ~ The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

1882 ~ Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Actor.

1893 ~ Birthday of Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya.

1931 ~ Birthday of Mickey Mantle, athlete.

1947 ~ The House Un-American Activities Committee began its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood.

1968 ~ Jackie Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

1973 ~ The Sydney Opera House opened.

1984 ~ Death of Paul Dirac, winner Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

October 21st
 

1772 ~ Birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet.

1805 ~ Battle of Trafalgar - British fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and benefactor of the Nobel Prize.

1854 ~ Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.

1912 ~ Birthday of Sir Georg Solti, Conductor.

1917 ~ Birthday of Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Ursula K. Le Guin, Science Fiction Author.

1944 ~ The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg bomb.

1945 ~ Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.

1966 ~ A coal tip fell on the village of Aberfan, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.

October 22nd
 

1797 ~ Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump over Paris.

1811 ~ Birthday of Franz Liszt, Composer.

1836 ~ Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1844 ~ Birthday of Sarah Bernhardt, Actress.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Cezanne, Painter.

1920 ~ Birthday of Timothy Leary, writer, drug guru.

1943 ~ Birthday of Catherine Deneuve, Actress.

1943 ~ The RAF air raid on Kassel, a city of 236,000 people, killed 10,000, and left 150,000 homeless.

1962 ~ Cuban Missile Crisis: US President Kennedy announced that American spy planes had discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

1968 ~ Led Zeppelin released the classic album Led Zeppelin II, featuring the hit single "Whole Lotta Love".

October 23rd
 

4004 BC ~ The start of the universe, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar.

1892 ~ Birthday of Gummo Marx, actor, comedian (Marx Brothers).

1915 ~ Approximately 33,000 women marched up Fifth Avenue in New York City to demand the right to vote.

1935 ~ Birthday of Chi Chi Rodriguez, golf champion.

1940 ~ Birthday of Pelé, soccer player Extraordinaire.

1942 ~ Second Battle of El Alamein started - In Egypt, British forces begin a major offensive against Axis forces.

1956 ~ Hungarians took to the streets in to demand an end to Soviet rule. Thousands died.

1958 ~ Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of comic strip characters The Smurfs.

1983 ~ A suicide truck-bombing in Lebanon killed 241 U.S. soldiers.

1998 ~ Death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, physician.

October 24th
 

1632 ~ Birthday of Anton van Leeuwenhoek, microbiologist.

1799 ~ Death of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1929 ~ "Black Thursday" crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1945 ~ Founding of the United Nations.

1947 ~ The expression Cold War was first used by Bernard Baruch to the U.S. Senate War Investigation Committee.

1948 ~ Death of Franz Lehár, Composer.

1980 ~ The government of Poland legalized Solidarity trade union.

1991 ~ Death of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series.

1992 ~ In the first real "World" Series, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-US team to win the World Series.

2003 ~ The Concorde completed its last commercial flight, bringing the first era of civil supersonic transport to a close.

October 25th
 

1400 ~ Death of Geoffrey Chaucer, Poet.

1825 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss II, Composer.

1838 ~ Birthday of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1854 ~ Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade). You can listen and follow along to Lord Tennyson as he reads his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.

1881 ~ Birthday of Pablo Picasso, Painter & Sculptor.

1924 ~ First appearance of "Little Orphan Annie”.

1936 ~ Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini created the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1971 ~ The UN seated the People's Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China.

1993 ~ Jean Chrétien became prime minister of Canada.

1993 ~ Death of Vincent Price, Actor.

October 26th
 

1685 ~ Birthday of Domenico Scarlatti, Composer.

1881 ~ The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1905 ~ Norway became independent from Sweden.

1918 ~ Erich von Ludendorff is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1947 ~ The Maharaja of Kashmir agreed to allow his kingdom to join India.

1965 ~ The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).

1972 ~ Death of Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer.

1994 ~ Announcement of Andrew Wiles’ correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

1999 ~ Britain's House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

2001 ~ The USA Patriot Act passed into law.

October 27th
 

1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher.

1662 ~ Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV.

1728 ~ Birthday of James Cook, British Captain and explorer.

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer. If you’ve never heard Richard Burton read Under Milk Wood, or “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, you have a treat in store for you!

1959 ~ The Mouse That Roared premiered.

1971 ~ The Congo changed its name to Zaire.

1990 ~ Death of Xavier Cugat, Musician.

1991 ~ Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2002 ~ Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected as President of Brazil.

October 28th
 

1485 ~ Le Morte D'Arthur published.

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba.

1726 ~ Gulliver's Travels published

1886 ~ The Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1918 ~ Czechoslovakia gained its independence from Austria-Hungary.

1940 ~ World War II: Italy invaded Greece.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft.

1965 ~ The 630-foot-tall steel Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was completed.

October 29th
 

1675 ~ Leibniz made the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral.

1785 ~ Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance in Prague.

1863 ~ Formation of the International Red Cross.

1879 ~ Birthday of Leon Trotsky - Russian revolutionary.

1897 ~ Birthday of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda.

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher and journalist.

1923 ~ The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1957 ~ Death of Louis B. Mayer, film producer. The second “M” in “MGM”.

1964 ~ Tanganyika and Zanzibar became Tanzania.

1969 ~ The first computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET.

October 30th
 

1831 ~ Nat Turner was arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history.

1839 ~ Birthday of Alfred Sisley, one of the creators of French Impressionism.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1918 ~ World War I: The Ottoman Empire signed an armistice with the Allies, ending the war in the Middle East.

1938 ~ Orson Welles’ broadcast of The War of the Worlds caused a panic.

1939 ~ Birthday of Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane.

1961 ~ The Soviet Union detonated the 58 megaton hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba.

1968 ~ The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, released.

1974 ~ Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.

1995 ~ Quebec separatists lost a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote was 50.6% to 49.4%).

October 31st
 

1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For a unique insight to this happening, click here.

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats, Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

1926 ~ Death of Harry Houdini, Magician.

1940 ~ World War II: Battle of Britain ended.

1950 ~ Birthday of John Candy, Comedian & Actor.

1954 ~ Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front began a revolt against French rule.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis: The U.K. and France began bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Author and expert on mythology.

November 1st
 

1512 ~ The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1604 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1892 ~ Birthday of Alexander Alekhine, World Chess Champion.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gary Player, South African golfer.

1952 ~ The U.S. successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed Mike, at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1972 ~ Death of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1993 ~ The Maastricht Treaty took effect, formally establishing the European Union.

November 2nd
 

1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1755 ~ Birthday of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 ~ The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw, Playwright.

1960 ~ Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

1964 ~ In a family coup, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1983 ~ Martin Luther King Day established in the U.S.

1988 ~ The Morris worm, the first internet distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

November 3rd
 

1801 ~ Birthday of Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer.

1838 ~ The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.

1903 ~ Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia.

1918 ~ Poland declared its independence from Russia.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse, French artist.

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika.

1964 ~ U.S. presidential election: Incumbent US President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992 ~ U.S. presidential election: Challenger Bill Clinton defeats incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor.

November 4th
 

1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn, German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature was published.

1900 ~ Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was published.

1922 ~ British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

1946 ~ Birthday of Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States.

1948 ~ T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1993 ~ Jean Chrétien took office as PM of Canada.

1995 ~ The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

November 5th
 

1605 ~ Gunpowder Plot: A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

1872 ~ Suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time. She was fined $100 for the privilege.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. B. S. Haldane, Geneticist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Roy Rogers, American actor.

1913 ~ Birthday of Vivien Leigh, American actress.

1914 ~ The UK annexed Cyprus.

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1977 ~ Death of Guy Lombardo, Conductor.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".

1989 ~ Death of Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist.

November 6th
 

1528 ~ Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to see Texas.

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever

1861 ~ Birthday of James Naismith, inventor of basketball.

1869 ~ Rutgers University defeats Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game. Rumor is that Princeton is set to have a similar season this year.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British Queen as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.

November 7th
 

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, recipient, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch, chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, recipient The Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

1922 ~ Birthday of Al Hirt, Musician.

1926 ~ Birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera singer.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm.

1980 ~ Death of Steve McQueen, Actor.

1996 ~ NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor.

November 8th
 

1519 ~ Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlán as a returning god.

1674 ~ Death of John Milton, English poet.

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker, Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.

1942 ~ World War II: Operation Torch – U.S. and UK forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 ~ Korean War: The first dog fight between jet aircraft.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician.

1994 ~ The U.S. Republican Party took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

2002 ~ [I] Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". (requires Adobe Acrobat)

November 9th
 

1731 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Banneker, American scientist.

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper killed Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

1918 ~ As a result of the German Revolution, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated and went into exile in the Netherlands.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan, American Astronomer & Writer.

1936 ~ Mikhail Tal, Latvian chess player.

1938 ~ The Nazis' first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, Kristallnacht, began.

1953 ~ Death of Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet.

1965 ~ Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by blackouts.

1970 ~ Death of Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician.

1989 ~ East Germany allowed its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time since 1961.

November 10th
 

1483 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther, a leader of the Protestant Reformation.

1668 ~ Birthday of François Couperin, French composer.

1775 ~ The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines, later renamed the United States Marine Corps.

1871 ~ Henry Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1919 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton, Actor.

1938 ~ Death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the tragedy.

2084 ~ A transit of Earth from Mars will be visible to hypothetical future Mars colonists.

November 11th
 

1821 ~ Birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist.

1855 ~ Death of Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher.

1880 ~ Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly was hung in Melbourne.

1885 ~ Birthday of George Patton, American general.

1895 ~ Birthday of Lucky Luciano, American gangster.

1904 ~ Birthday of Alger Hiss, American spy.

1918 ~ World War I ends: Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1922 ~ Birthday of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Novelist.

1992 ~ The Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.

2004 ~ Death of Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority.

November 12th
 

1035 ~ Death of King Canute.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Auguste Rodin, French sculptor.

1944 ~ World War II: The German battleship Tirpitz sunk off the coast of Norway.

1954 ~ Ellis Island closes.

1955 ~ Hovercraft design patented by British engineer Christopher Cockerell.

1970 ~ The famous exploding whale incident.

1982 ~ Yuri Andropov became the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

2001 ~ Taliban forces abandoned Kabul ahead of advancing Northern Alliance troops.

November 13th
 

354 ~ Birthday of Saint Augustine of Hippo, Theologian.

1460 ~ Death of Henry the Navigator, Patron of African exploration.

1850 ~ Birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson, Novelist.

1868 ~ Death of Gioacchino Rossini, Composer.

1940 ~ The animated film Fantasia was released.

1955 ~ Birthday of Whoopi Goldberg, Entertainer.

1956 ~ U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal.

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. was dedicated.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first known World Wide Web page.

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agreed to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441

November 14th
 

1716 ~ Death of Gottfried Leibniz, Philosopher & Mathematician.

1719 ~ Birthday of Leopold Mozart, Austrian musician, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

1832 ~ Death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence signer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Claude Monet, French impressionist painter.

1851 ~ Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick was first published in the U.S.

1900 ~ Birthday of Aaron Copland, Composer.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began radio service in the United Kingdom.

1991 ~ Indictments handed down against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.

1993 ~ Michael Jackson entered a drug rehabilitation program to treat an addiction to painkillers.

2001 ~ Northern Alliance fighters entered Kabul.

November 15th
 

1630 ~ Death of Johannes Kepler, astrologer, astronomer and mathematician.

1787 ~ Death of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Georgia O'Keeffe, Painter.

1891 ~ Birthday of Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal.

1920 ~ First assembly of the League of Nations was held in Geneva.

1942 ~ Birthday of Daniel Barenboim, Pianist & Conductor.

1960 ~ The Polaris missile became operational on the USS George Washington (SSBN-598).

1969 ~ The Soviet submarine K-19 collided with the American submarine USS Gato.

1971 ~ Intel released the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

2001 ~ The Xbox video game console launched in North America.

November 16th
 

1532 ~ Francisco Pizarro and his men captured Incan Emperor Atahualpa.

1849 ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death; his execution was canceled at the last minute.

1885 ~ Louis Riel, Canadian rebel leader and Father of Manitoba, executed for high treason.

1895 ~ Birthday of Paul Hindemith, Composer.

1922 ~ Birthday of Gene Amdahl, computer scientist.

1945 ~ Cold War: The U.S. imported 88 German scientists to help in the development of rocket technology.

1960 ~ Death of Clark Gable, Actor.

1965 ~ The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.

1979 ~ Sir Anthony Blunt, a former security service officer, identified as the "fourth man" in the Philby affair.

2004 ~ Vivendi Universal and Valve Software released Half-Life 2, the sequel to the groundbreaking hit PC game Half-Life.

November 17th
 

1777 ~ Articles of Confederation submitted to the states for ratification.

1790 ~ Birthday of August Ferdinand Möbius, Mathematician.

1869 ~ The Suez Canal was opened.

1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1917 ~ Death of Auguste Rodin, Sculptor.

1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician.

1959 ~ Death of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian Composer.

1970 ~ Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the first computer mouse.

1997 ~ Egyptian militants killed 60 tourists at Luxor.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was inaugurated Governor of California.

November 18th
 

1421 ~ A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike broke, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.

1626 ~ St. Peter's Basilica was consecrated.

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert, Dramatist.

1883 ~ American and Canadian railroads instituted four standard continental time zones.

1916 ~ World War I: First Battle of the Somme, which started on July 1, ended in stalemate – Approx. 1,120,000 casualties, 310,000 killed or missing.

1928 ~ Release of Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, featuring the Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

1978 ~ Jonestown, Guyana mass suicide: 914 die, including 276 children.

1991 ~ Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.

2002 ~ UN weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

November 19th
 

1493 ~ Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on what would become Puerto Rico.

1805 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand de Lesseps, Suez Canal engineer.

1828 ~ Death of Franz Schubert, Austrian Composer.

1863 ~ U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

1884 ~ Birthday of José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban Chess Grand Master.

1917 ~ Birthday of Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India.

1941 ~ World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sank each other off the coast of Western Australia.

1977 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.

1990 ~ Milli Vanilli was stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals.

1998 ~ Lewinsky scandal: The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.

November 20th
 

1820 ~ An 80-ton sperm whale attacked a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America. Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story.

1889 ~ Birthday of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer.

1908 ~ Birthday of Alistair Cooke, Journalist.

1910 ~ Death of Leo Tolstoy, Novelist.

1924 ~ Birthday of Benoît Mandelbrot, Mathematician.

1945 ~ Nuremberg Trials began: Trials of 20 German Nazi leaders charged with war crimes during World War II started at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

1947 ~ The Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.

1998 ~ The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, was launched.

1998 ~ A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declared accused terrorist Osama bin Laden a man without a sin in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

2003 ~ Michael Jackson was arrested charges of child molestation.

November 21st

1695 ~ Death of Henry Purcell, Composer.

1783 ~ In Paris, Jean Rozier and François Laurent made the first untethered hot air balloon flight (flight time: 25 minutes, Maximum height: 100m, distance: 9 km).

1787 ~ Birthday of Samuel Cunard, Shipping Magnate.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound.

1898 ~ Birthday of René Magritte, Belgian painter.

1953 ~ Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the Piltdown Man was a hoax.

1969 ~ The first ARPANET link was established.

1980 ~ Lake Peigneur drained into an underlying salt deposit.

1985 ~ U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested for giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison.

1995 ~ Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.

November 22nd
 

1718 ~ English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard was killed in battle off the coast of Virginia.

1890 ~ Birthday of Charles de Gaulle, General, President of France.

1900 ~ Death of Arthur S. Sullivan, Composer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Britten, Composer.

1963 ~ Death of C. S. Lewis, Author.

1963 ~ Death of Aldous Huxley, Author.(Brave New World)

1963 ~ U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1968 ~ The Beatles released The White Album.

1977 ~ British Airways began regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.

1990 ~ UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned.

November 23rd
 

1860 ~ Birthday of Billy the Kid, Bandit.

1869 ~ The clipper ship Cutty Sark was launched. It is the only surviving example.

1867 ~ Birthday of Manuel de Falla, Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Boris Karloff, Actor.

1888 ~ Birthday of Harpo Marx, Comedian.

1902 ~ Death of Walter Reed, Bacteriologist.

1936 ~ The first edition of Life was published.

1955 ~ Death of Shemp Howard, actor, comedian (The Three Stooges)

1963 ~ The first episode of the sci-fi TV series "Doctor Who" aired on the BBC.

1971 ~ The People's Republic of China was given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council.

November 24th
 

1642 ~ Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the island of Tasmania.

I wonder how Grumble is doing these days?

1853 ~ Birthday of Bat Masterson, Gunslinger, Policeman, Sports Reporter.

1859 ~ British naturalist Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection.

1868 ~ Birthday of Scott Joplin, Musician.

1941 ~ Birthday of Pete Best, original drummer of The Beatles.

1947 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10 after they refused to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1963 ~ Death of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassination suspect.

1991 ~ Death of Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen).

1993 ~ In the UK, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger.

1998 ~ America Online announced it would acquire Netscape Communications.

November 26th
 

1778 ~ Captain James Cook discovered Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands.

1862 ~ Lewis Carroll sent the handwritten manuscript of “Alice's Adventures Underground” to 10-year-old Alice Liddell.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norbert Wiener, mathematician, founder of cybernetics.

1922 ~ Birthday of Charles M. Schulz, Cartoonist.

1922 ~ Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon viewed the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun.

1942 ~ The film Casablanca premiered in New York City.

1956 ~ Death of Tommy Dorsey, Big Band leader.

1968 ~ Cream played their farewell concert.

1976 ~ The Band played their farewell concert.

2003 ~ Last ever flight by Concorde.