UN
Day
World
Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic
Victims (A/RES/60/5)
World
Toilet Day
Events
of the day
461 β Libius Severus
is declared emperor of the Western Roman
Empire. The real power is in the hands
of the magister militum Ricimer.
1095 β The Council of Clermont, called
by Pope Urban II to discuss sending
the First Crusade to the Holy Land,
begins.
1493 β Christopher Columbus goes ashore
on an island he first saw the day before.
He names it San Juan Bautista (later
renamed Puerto Rico).
1794 β The United States and the Kingdom
of Great Britain sign Jay's Treaty,
which attempts to resolve some of the
lingering problems left over from the
American Revolutionary War.
1816 β Warsaw University is established.
1847 β The second Canadian railway line,
the Montreal and Lachine Railway, is
opened.
1863 β American Civil War: U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg
Address at the dedication of the military
cemetery ceremony at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
1881 β A meteorite lands near the village
of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odessa,
Ukraine.
1885 β Serbo-Bulgarian War: Bulgarian
victory in the Battle of Slivnitsa solidifies
the unification between the Kingdom
of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.
1911 β The Doom Bar in Cornwall claimed
two ships, Island Maid and Angele, the
latter killing the entire crew except
the captain.
1912 β First Balkan War: The Serbian
Army captures Bitola, ending the five-century-long
Ottoman rule of Macedonia.
1916 β Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn
establish Goldwyn Pictures.
1941 β World War II: Battle between
HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran. The two
ships sink each other off the coast
of Western Australia, with the loss
of 645 Australians and about 77 German
seamen.
1942 β World War II: Battle of Stalingrad
β Soviet Union forces under General
Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus
counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning
the tide of the battle in the USSR's
favor.
1942 β Mutesa II is crowned the 35th
and last Kabaka (king) of Buganda.
1943 β Holocaust: Nazis liquidate Janowska
concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv),
western Ukraine, murdering at least
6,000 Jews after a failed uprising and
mass escape attempt.
1944 β World War II: U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the
6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling
US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay
for the war effort.
1944 β World War II: Thirty members
of the Luxembourgish resistance defend
the town of Vianden against a larger
Waffen-SS attack in the Battle of Vianden.
1946 β Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden
join the United Nations.
1947 β George VI of the United Kingdom
creates Philip Mountbatten the Duke
of Edinburgh in preparation for his
wedding to George's elder daughter,
Princess Elizabeth, the next day.
1950 β US General Dwight D. Eisenhower
becomes supreme commander of NATO-Europe
1952 β Greek Field Marshal Alexander
Papagos becomes the 152nd Prime Minister
of Greece.
1954 β TΓ©lΓ© Monte Carlo, Europe's oldest
private television channel, is launched
by Prince Rainier III.
1955 β National Review publishes its
first issue.
1959 β The Ford Motor Company announces
the discontinuation of the unpopular
Edsel.
1967 β The establishment of TVB, the
first wireless commercial television
station in Hong Kong.
1969 β Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus
Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms")
and become the third and fourth humans
to walk on the Moon.
1969 β Association football player PelΓ©
scores his 1,000th goal.
1977 β TAP Portugal Flight 425 crashes
in the Madeira Islands, killing 130.
1979 β Iran hostage crisis: Iranian
leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders
the release of 13 female and black American
hostages being held at the US Embassy
in Tehran.
1984 β San Juanico Disaster: A series
of explosions at the PEMEX petroleum
storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec
in Mexico City starts a major fire and
kills about 500 people.
1985 β Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President
Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader
Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first
time.
1985 β Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion
judgment against Texaco, in the largest
civil verdict in the history of the
United States, stemming from Texaco
executing a contract to buy Getty Oil
after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned,
yet still binding, buyout contract with
Getty.
1985 β Police in Baling, Malaysia, lay
siege to houses occupied by an Islamic
sect of about 400 people led by Ibrahim
Mahmud.
1988 β Serbian communist representative
and future Serbian and Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic publicly declares
that Serbia is under attack from Albanian
separatists in Kosovo as well as internal
treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign
conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia.
1990 β Pop group Milli Vanilli are 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.
1994 β In the United Kingdom, the first
National Lottery draw is held. A Β£1
ticket gave a one-in-14-million chance
of correctly guessing the winning six
out of 49 numbers.
1996 β Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril of Canada
arrives in Africa to lead a multi-national
policing force in Zaire.
1998 β Lewinsky scandal: The United
States House of Representatives Judiciary
Committee begins impeachment hearings
against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1998 β Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of
the Artist Without Beard sells at auction
for US$71.5 million.
1999 β Shenzhou 1: The People's Republic
of China launches its first Shenzhou
spacecraft.
2002 β The Greek oil tanker Prestige
splits in half and sinks off the coast
of Galicia, releasing over 20 million
US gallons (76,000 mΒ³) of oil in the
largest environmental disaster in Spanish
and Portuguese history.
2010 β The first of four explosions
takes place at the Pike River Mine in
New Zealand; 29 people are killed in
the nation's worst mining disaster since
1914.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Obadiah (Eastern Catholic Church)
Raphael Kalinowski
Severinus, Exuperius, and Felician
November 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Missile Forces and Artillery
(Russia, Belorussia)
Discovery of Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico)
Flag Day (Brazil)
International Men's Day (Australia,
Canada, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland,
Jamaica, Malta, Singapore, South Africa,
Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom,
United States)
Liberation Day (Mali)
International Journalist's remembrance
Day
International gun owner day (19/11)
For details, contact Datacentre
