November
21
World
Television Day
The United
Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 November as World Television
Day (through resolution 51/205 of 17 December 1996). This was
done in recognition of the increasing impact television has
on decision-making by alerting world attention to conflicts
and threats to peace and security and its potential role in
sharpening the focus on other major issues, including economic
and social issues.
On 21 and
22 November 1996 the United Nations held the first World Television
Forum, where leading media figures met under the auspices of
the United Nations to discuss the growing significance of television
in today's changing world and to consider how they might enhance
their mutual cooperation. That is why the General Assembly decided
to proclaim 21 November as World Television Day - to commemorate
the date on which the first World Television Forum was held.
The celebration highlights how communications have become one
of today's central international issues, not only for their
relevance to the world economy, but also for their implications
for social and cultural development. The celebration also underlines
the ever-increasing demands faced by the United Nations to address
the major issues facing humankind - and that television - as
one of today's most powerful communications media, could play
a role in presenting these issues to the world.
November
21 : World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
Road traffic
crashes kill nearly 1.3 million people every year and injure
or disable as many as 50 million more. They are the leading
cause of death among young people aged 10–24 years.
In October
2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution
which calls for governments to mark the third Sunday in November
each year as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
The day was created as a means to give recognition to victims
of road traffic crashes and the plight of their relatives who
must cope with the emotional and practical consequences of these
tragic events.
WHO and
the UN Road Safety Collaboration encourage governments and nongovernmental
organizations around the world to commemorate this day as a
means of drawing the public’s attention to road traffic crashes,
their consequences and costs, and the measures which can be
taken to prevent them
Events
164 BC –
Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family,
restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated
each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
235 – Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope.
During the persecutions of emperor Maximinus Thrax he is martyred.
1386 – Timur of Samarkand captures and sacks the Georgian capital
of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive.
1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (November
11, O.S.).
1783 – In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François
Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air
balloon flight.
1789 – North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution
and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
1861 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis
appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war.
1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph,
a machine that can record and play sound.
1894 – Port Arthur, Manchuria falls to the Japanese, a decisive
victory of the First Sino-Japanese War, after which Japanese
troops massacre the remaining inhabitants of the city.
1905 – Albert Einstein's paper, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend
Upon Its Energy Content?, is published in the journal "Annalen
der Physik". This paper reveals the relationship between
energy and mass. This leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula
E = mc².
1910 – Sailors onboard Brazil's most powerful military units,
including the brand-new warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and
Bahia, violently rebel in what is now known as the Revolta da
Chibata (Revolt of the Lash).
1916 – World War I: A mine explodes and sinks HMHS Britannic
in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people.
1918 – Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence
activists, is formally adopted as national flag of the Republic
of Estonia.
1918 – A pogrom takes place in Lwów (now Lviv); over three days,
at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians are killed by
Poles.
1920 – Irish War of Independence: In Dublin, 31 people are killed
in what became known as "Bloody Sunday". This included
fourteen British informants, fourteen Irish civilians and three
Irish Republican Army prisoners.
1922 – Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office,
becoming the first female United States Senator.
1927 – Columbine Mine Massacre: Striking coal miners are allegedly
attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed
in civilian clothes.
1942 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the
Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the highway is not usable
by general vehicles until 1943).
1950 – Two Canadian National Railway trains collide in northeastern
British Columbia in the Canoe River train crash; the death toll
is 21, with 17 of them Canadian troops bound for Korea.
1953 – The British Natural History Museum announces that the
"Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one
of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found,
is a hoax.
1959 – American disc jockey Alan Freed, who had popularized
the term "rock and roll" and music of that style,
is fired from WABC-AM radio for refusing to deny allegations
that he had participated in the payola scandal.
1962 – The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral
cease-fire in the Sino-Indian War.
1964 – The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (at the
time it is the world's longest suspension bridge).
1964 – Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman
Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells
news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in
1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."
1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku
Sato agree in Washington, D.C. on the return of Okinawa to Japanese
control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S.
is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are
to be nuclear-free.
1969 – The first permanent ARPANET link is established between
UCLA and SRI.
1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast – A joint Air Force
and Army team raids the Son Tay prison camp in an attempt to
free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.
1971 – Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali
guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.
1972 – Voters in South Korea overwhelmingly approve a new constitution,
giving legitimacy to Park Chung-hee and the Fourth Republic.
1974 – The Birmingham Pub Bombings kill 21 people. The Birmingham
Six are sentenced to life in prison for the crime but subsequently
acquitted.
1977 – Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announces that
'the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional
anthem "God Save the Queen" and the poem "God
Defend New Zealand", written by Thomas Bracken, as set
to music by John Joseph Woods, both being of equal status as
national anthems appropriate to the occasion.
1979 – The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked
by a mob and set on fire, killing four. (see: Foreign relations
of Pakistan)
1980 – A deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise,
Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). 87 people are killed and more
than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.
1985 – United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard
is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified
information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to
life in prison.
1986 – Iran-Contra Affair: National Security Council member
Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents implicating
them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds
to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1990 – The Charter of Paris for a New Europe refocuses the efforts
of the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europeon
post-Cold War issues.
1995 – The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at the Wright
Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and
a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement
is formally ratified in Paris, on December 14 that same year.
1996 – Humberto Vidal Explosion. 33 people die when a Humberto
Vidal shoe shop explodes.
2002 – NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania,
Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.
2004 – The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election
is held, giving rise to massive protests and controversy over
the election's integrity.
2004 – The island of Dominica is hit by the most destructive
earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island receives
the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. It is also
felt in neighboring Guadeloupe, where one person is killed.
2004 – The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion)
of Iraq's external debt.
2006 – Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel is
assassinated in suburban Beirut.
2009 – A mine explosion in Heilongjiang province, northeastern
China, kills 108.
Holidays
and observances
Armed Forces
Day (Bangladesh)
Armed Forces Day (Greece)
Christian Feast Day:
Pope Gelasius I
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
November 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (Republika Srpska)
National Adoption Day (United States)
World Hello Day (Unofficial)
World Television Day (International)
For details, contact Datacentre
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