Events
of the day
1429
β Joan of Arc liberates Saint-Pierre-le-MoΓ»tier.
1501 β Catherine of Aragon (later Henry
VIII's first wife) meets Arthur Tudor, Henry
VIII's older brother β they would later
marry.
1576 β Eighty Years' War: In Flanders, Spain
captures Antwerp (after three days the city
is nearly destroyed).
1677 β The future Mary II of England marries
William, Prince of Orange. They would later
jointly reign as William and Mary.
1737 β The Teatro di San Carlo is inaugurated.
1783 β W.A. Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is
performed for the first time in Linz, Austria.
1791 β The Western Confederacy of American
Indians wins a major victory over the United
States in the Battle of the Wabash.
1839 β The Newport Rising: the last large-scale
armed rebellion against authority in mainland
Britain.
1847 β Sir James Young Simpson, a British
physician, discovers the anaesthetic properties
of chloroform.
1852 β Count Camillo Benso di Cavour becomes
the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia,
which soon expands to become Italy.
1861 β The University of Washington opens
in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial
University.
1864 β American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville
β Confederate troops bombard a Union supply
base and destroy millions of dollars in
material.
1890 β City & South London Railway:
London's first deep-level tube railway opens
between King William Street and Stockwell.
1918 β World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders
to Italy.
1921 β The Sturmabteilung or SA, whose members
were known as "brownshirts", physically
assault Adolf Hitler's opposition after
his speech in Munich.
1921 β Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi
is assassinated in Tokyo.
1921 β The Italian unknown soldier is buried
in the Altare della Patria (Fatherland Altar)
in Rome.
1922 β In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard
Carter and his men find the entrance to
Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley
of the Kings.
1924 β Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is
elected the first female governor in the
United States.
1939 β World War II: U.S. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs
Service to implement the Neutrality Act
of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases
of weapons by belligerents.
1942 β World War II: Second Battle of El
Alamein β Disobeying a direct order by Adolf
Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
leads his forces on a five-month retreat.
1944 β World War II: Bitola Liberation Day
1952 β The United States government establishes
the National Security Agency.
1955 β After being destroyed in World War
II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens
with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio.
1956 β Soviet troops enter Hungary to end
the Hungarian revolution against the Soviet
Union, that started on October 23. Thousands
are killed, more are wounded, and nearly
a quarter million leave the country.
1960 β At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community
in Tanzania, Dr. Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees
creating tools, the first-ever observation
in non-human animals.
1962 β In a test of the Nike-Hercules air
defense missile, Shot Dominic-Tightrope
is successfully detonated 69,000 feet above
Johnston Island. It would also be the last
atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the
United States.
1966 β The Arno River flooded Florence,
Italy, to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft),
leaving thousands homeless and destroying
millions of masterpieces of art and rare
books.
1970 β Vietnam War: Vietnamization β The
United States turns control of the Binh
Thuy Air Base in the Mekong Delta over to
South Vietnam.
1970 β Genie, a 13-year-old feral child
is found in Los Angeles, California having
been locked in her bedroom for most of her
life.
1973 β The Netherlands experiences the first
Car Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis.
Highways are deserted and are used only
by cyclists and roller skaters.
1979 β Iran hostage crisis begins: a group
of Iranians, mostly students, invades the
US embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages
(53 of whom are American).
1993 β A China Airlines Boeing 747 overruns
Runway 13 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International
Airport while landing during a typhoon,
injuring 22 people.
1994 β San Francisco: First conference that
focuses exclusively on the subject of the
commercial potential of the World Wide Web.
1995 β Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
is assassinated by an extremist Orthodox
Israeli.
2002 β Chinese authorities arrest cyber-dissident
He Depu for signing a pro-democracy letter
to the 16th Communist Party Congress.
2008 β Barack Obama becomes the first African-American
to be elected President of the United States.
2008 β Proposition 8 passes in California,
revoking state recognition of LGBT marriages.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Charles Borromeo (Roman Catholic Church)
Emeric of Hungary
Vitalis and Agricola (Roman Catholic Church)
Our Lady of Kazan (Russian Orthodox Church)
November 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Love (1970s Egypt)
Earliest day on which Return Day can fall,
while November 10 is the latest; celebrated
on Thursday following the first Monday of
November of every even numbered year. (Georgetown,
Delaware)
Feast of Qudrat (Power), first day of the
month of Qudrat of the BahΓ‘'Γ calendar (BahΓ‘'Γ
Faith)
Flag Day (Panama)
National Unity and Armed Forces Day or Giorno
dell'UnitΓ Nazionale e Festa delle Forze
Armate (Italy)
The first day of the Ludi Plebeii, celebrated
until November 17 (Roman Empire)
Unity Day (Russia)
Yitzhak Rabin Memorial (unofficial, but
widely commemorated)
For details, contact Datacentre