UN
Day
World
Television Day Events
of the day
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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