Today in History: November

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1	1512 - The public was admitted to view Michelangelo's work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. 1765 - The Stamp Act was started in colonial America. 1993 - The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union.

2	1889 - North Dakota and South Dakota became states.

3	1839 - Start of the First Opium War. 1903 - Panama became independent of Colombia.

4	1842 - Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln were married. 1922 - Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter. 1956 - The Hungarian Revolt was put down by Soviet troops. 1995 - Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.

5	1605 - Failure of the Gunpowder Plot in England. 1968 - Election of Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to serve in the United States Congress.

6	1893 - Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in St. Petersburg, Russia.

7	1917 - Russian Bolsheviks under Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the Russian government of Alexander Kerensky. It is known as the October Revolution because, according to the older calendar used prior to the Communist rise to power, November 7 fell in what was then October.

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1847 - Abraham Stoker, better known as Bram Stoker, was born the third of seven children in Dublin, Ireland. He would become famous as the author of Dracula. 1889 - Montana became a state. 1923 - The Beer Hall Putsch occurred in Germany. This was a major event in the development and growth of Adolf Hitler as Nazi leader.

9	1938 - Kristallnacht took place in Germany. Persecution of Jews throughout Germany would escalate, climaxing in the Holocaust which killed an estimated 6,000,000 Jews and 3,000,000 others throughout Europe.

10	1871 - Journalist Henry Stanley found David Livingstone in Africa, and famously uttered the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Stanley's discovery, along with Livingstone's published accounts, increased European interest in colonizing and imperializing the African continent.

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Veterans Day (U.S.A.) 1620 - Signing of the Mayflower Compact by English emigrants seeking religious freedom and new opportunities in North America. 1831 - Execution of Nat Turner, who had led a slave rebellion in the American South. 1965 - Rhodesia (named after Cecil Rhodes and now known as Zimbabwe) became independent.

12	1927 - The Soviet Communist Party expelled the Old Bolshevik Leon Trotsky. 1954 - Ellis Island, the starting point for millions of American immigrants, was closed. 1990 - Emperor Akihito ascended to the Japanese throne.

13	1942 - The United States draft age was lowered from 21 to 18. 1982 - The Vietnam War Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

14	1851 - Publication of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

15	1777 - The Articles of Confederation were approved by the American Continental Congress.

16	1907 - Oklahoma became a state.

17	1558 - Queen Elizabeth I ascended to the English throne. 1800 - The first meeting of the United States Congress in Washington, D.C., was held. 1869 - Egypt's Suez Canal was opened. 1973 - U.S. President Richard Nixon uttered the famous words, "I am not a crook."

18	1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer reached Antarctica.

19	1794 - The signing of Jay's Treaty. 1990 - Milli Vanilli's Grammy award was rescinded after news reports surfaced that the pop singing duo did not sing their own songs.

20	1945 - Start of the war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany. These post-World War II trials would firmly establish the principle that "I was just following orders" is not a valid defense. 1962 - The end of the Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union.

21	1789 - North Carolina became a state.

22	1497 - Vasco de Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. 1963 - U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.

23	1945 - The end of wartime food rationing in the United States of America.

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1642 - Abel Tasman reached Tasmania (Australia). 1859 - Publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. In this groundbreaking book, Darwin proposed the theory of evolution to explain the variations among species. 1871 - Incorporation of the National Rifle Association (NRA). 1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald, who had assassinated President John F. Kennedy, was himself fatally shot by Jack Ruby.

25	1986 - The Iran-Contra scandal broke in the news. 1999 - Young Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez was dramatically rescued from the waters surrounding Florida.

26	1940 - The Jewish population of Warsaw, Poland, was forced by the Nazis to relocate to an enclosed ghetto.

27	1910 - Pennsylvania Station opened in New York City.

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1520 - Ferdinand Magellan passed through what was later named the Strait of Magellan in his honor. 1942 - The infamous Coconut Grove Nightclub fire occurred in Boston, Massachusetts. 1943 - The Tehran Conference took place between major World War II leaders (the "big three") Winston Churchill (Great Britain), Franklin D. Roosevelt (United States), and Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union).

29	1929 - Commander Richard E. Byrd and his crew flew over the South Pole.

30	1874 - Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. 1940 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married. The couple would go on to star in the hit television series I Love Lucy. 1974 - Donald Johanson discovered the Lucy skeleton in Ethiopia.

November is notable for several important historical events that have significantly impacted the world. On November 11, 1918, World War I ended with the signing of the Armistice, marking a major turning point in global history and leading to Armistice Day, now commemorated as Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in many Commonwealth countries. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, an event that shocked the nation and had profound political implications. Another significant event is the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, symbolizing the end of the Cold War and leading to the reunification of Germany. Additionally, the United States celebrates Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November, a holiday rooted in early colonial history and symbolizing gratitude and community. On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, a defining moment in American history that emphasized national unity and the principles of liberty and equality. These events underscore November as a month of pivotal historical milestones that have shaped the course of history.

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