November 15

Day of the Imprisoned Writer
The Day of the Imprisoned Writer is an annual, international day intended to recognize and support writers who resist repression of the basic human right to freedom of expression and who stand up to attacks made against their right to impart information. This day is observed each year on November 15. It was started in 1981 by PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee.

Events November 15
655 – Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.
1315 – Battle of Morgarten: the Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I.
1532 – Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Inca leader Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging a meeting on the city plaza the following day
1533 – Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.
1791 – The first U.S Catholic college, Georgetown University, opens its doors.
1806 – Pike expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains (it is later named Pikes Peak).
1859 – The first modern revival of the Olympic Games takes place in Athens, Greece.
1864 – American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Sherman's March to the Sea.

Pedro II is deposed and Brazil becomes a republic.
1889 – Brazil is declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup.
1920 – First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva.
1923 – The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter Inflation in the Weimar Republic.
1926 – The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations.
1928 – The RNLI Lifeboat Mary Stanford capsized in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17 man crew.
1935 – Manuel L. Quezon is inaugurated as the second president of the Philippines.
1939 – In Washington, D.C., US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
1942 – World War II: First flight of the Heinkel He 219.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.
1943 – Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps". (see Porajmos)
1945 – Venezuela joins the United Nations.
1949 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
1951 – Greek resistance leader Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 resistance members, is sentenced to death by the court-martial.
1959 – Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas.
1966 – Gemini program: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
1966 – A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
1967 – The only fatality of the X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.
1969 – Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.
1969 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
1969 – In Columbus, Ohio, Dave Thomas opens the first Wendy's restaurant.
1971 – Intel releases world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
1976 – René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favour of independence.
1978 – A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.
1979 – A package from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
1983 – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is founded. Recognised only by Turkey.
1985 – A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.
1985 – The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a Douglas DC-9-14 jetliner, crashes in a snowstorm at Denver, Colorado Stapleton International Airport, killing 28 occupants, while 54 survive the crash.
1987 – In Braşov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
1988 – In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.
1988 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.
1988 – The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.
1990 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.
1990 – The People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted.
2000 – A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola killing more than 40 people.
2000 – Jharkhand state comes into existence in India.
2003 – The first day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, killing 25 people and wounding about 300. Additional bombings follow on November 20.
2005 – Boeing formally launches the stretched Boeing 747-8 variant with orders from Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
2007 – Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5000 people and destroyed the world's largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans.

Holidays and observances

America Recycles Day (United States)
Christian Feast Day:
Abibus of Edessa
Albert the Great
Blessed Hugh Faringdon
Didier of Cahors
Leopold III, a public holiday in Lower Austria and Vienna.
Malo
Mechell
November 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (German-speaking Community of Belgium)
Independence Day, unilaterally declared in 1988. (Palestine)
King's Feast (Belgium)
Republic Proclamation Day (Brazil)
Shichi-Go-San (Japan)
The beginning of Winter Lent (Eastern Orthodox)

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