On this day

November 15th

1868: USA: A Unit from the Seventh Cavalry attacked a band of Indians, some 140 miles from Fort Harker, Kansas. The Cavalry pursued the Indians for more than 10 miles before disengaging.

1900 - France: A Madrid to Paris express train derails, killing 17 people including Peru's ambassador.

1904 - London: The Board of Trade Inquiry opens into the Dogger Bank clash between British trawlers and Russian Ships.

1906 - Japan: Japan launches the worlds biggest battleship the "Satsuma."

1911 - Detroit: The Chevrolet Motor Company is incorporated.

1913 - Mexico: General Francisco "Pancho" Villa and his band of rebels continue to capture most of Northern Mexico, as they take Ciudad Juarez.

1914 - Eastern Front: Russian Troops begin advancing on Konigsberg, in East Prussia.

1921 - India: 16 Gurkha troops are killed by anti-British rebels.

1922 - USA: Dr Alexis Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute announces his discovery of "Leukocytes" or white corpuscles, the agents in the blood that prevent the spread of infection.

1928 - London: The Director General of Roads, states that Hyde Park Corner is the world's busiest traffic junction.

1934 - London: Britain proposes a new naval treaty with equality for the Japanese Navy.

1938 - Washington: President Roosevelt condemns Nazi anti-Semitism.

1939 - Prague: The Gestapo arrests and summarily executes nationalist protestors at the funeral of Jan Opletal, a student leader wounded in protests on 28 October.

1940 - Warsaw: The Jewish Ghetto with around 400,000 inhabitants, is sealed off from the rest of the city.

1941 - USSR: Mechanical failures due to extreme cold, together with the collapse of logistical support, leaves only 150 of the 2nd Panzer Army's 1,150 tanks operational.

1942 - Algeria: The British First Army crosses Tunisia and captures Tabarka.

1943 - Berlin: Heinrich Himmler orders all gypsies to be sent to concentration camps.

1944 - Hungary: The Red Army enters Jasbereny, 30 miles east of Budapest.

1951 - Malaya: Terrorist threats halt work at 16 rubber plantations.

1954 - Scandinavia: SAS begin the first scheduled flights to the western US over the North Pole, saving 500 miles.

1961 - USA: A record art price of $2,300,000 is paid by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art for "Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer.

1966 - USA: Astronauts James Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin splashdown after five days orbiting in Gemini 12, the last Gemini mission.

1972 - London: A Kidney Donor Card Scheme is announced by the government.

1974 - Coventry: IRA terrorist James McDade is killed by his own bomb.

1976 - New York: The US vetoes Vietnam's application to join the UN.

1978 - London: Margaret Thatcher brings Norman St. John Stevas and John Biffen into the shadow cabinet.

1985 - London: Treasury secretary Ian Gow resigns in protest at the Anglo-Irish agreement.

1987 - USA: A Continental Airlines jet crashes while taking off in a snowstorm at Denver's Stapleton Airport, flipping over and breaking into three pieces. Of the 81 passengers on board, 28 were killed and more than 50 were injured.

1994 - Jakarta: The 18 member nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum, agree to create the world's largest free trade zone by the year 2020.

1995 - Jerusalem: Shimon Peres is officially appointed Prime Minister of Israel, following the death of Yitzhak Rabin.

1997 - Iraq: The Middle East plunges dangerously close to war after Saddam Hussein expels six American weapons inspectors sent to Iraq by the UN.

2000 - UK: Michael Abram, the Liverpool man who stabbed George Harrison after breaking into his home, is awarded a not guilty verdict at Oxford's Crown Court. The verdict was returned in respect of Abram's mental history.

2005 - Iraq: 173 starved, beaten and tortured prisoners are discovered in an Iraqi government bunker in Baghdad.

2009 - UK: Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologises over the role of the UK in sending thousands of children to former colonies in the 20th century.

2010 - Prague: Scientists exhume the remains of 16th century astronomer "Tycho Brahe" to try and solve the mystery of his sudden death.

November 16th

1776 - USA: Fort Washington on Manhattan Island, falls to the British, who capture around 2,000 prisoners.

1833 - New York: The newly constructed Italian Opera House opens at Leonard and Church streets in New York City. It was partially sponsored by various leaders of society, who subscribed to season boxes at prices up to $6,000.

1904 - Brazil: Martial law is declared in Rio de Janeiro following violent riots.

1914 - Western Front: The Prince of Wales becomes aide-de-camp to Sir John French.

1917 - Russia: Bolshevik troops take over Moscow.

1922 - Rome: Benito Mussolini orders the Italian Chamber of Deputies to obey him or be dissolved.

1928 - New York: A record 6.6 million shares are bought and sold in hectic trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

1931 - London: The Government introduces the Abnormal Importations Bill, designed to put a 100% duty on all imports.

1932 - Belfast: The Prince of Wales, opens Stormont, Northern Ireland's new parliament building.

1936 - France: 40 people are killed in a blast at a gunpowder factoty near Marseilles.

1940 - Atlantic: The British submarine Swordfish is sunk off off Ushant, off the Brittany coast.

1942 - Tunisia: Allied forces capture Souk el Arba.

1944 - Germany: Allied aircraft raid enemy posts near Aachen

1945 - Paris: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is founded.

1948 - USA: President Harry S. Truman refuses four-power talks on Berlin until the USSR lits its blockade.

1953 - New York: The US joins Britain and France in a UN resolution condemning Israel's raid on Jordan.

1960 - London: Broadcasting personality Gilbert Harding, drops dead outside Broadcasting House.

1964 - Southern Rhodesia: Joshua Nkomo and 16 of his followers are freed from jail.

1966 - USA: President Lyndon Johnson has surgery to remove a throat polyp and repair a snall hernia.

1974 - UK: David Essex is No.1 on the UK Singles Chart with "Gonna Make You A Star.

1976 - UK: Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys gives his first formal interview for 8 years on the BBC 2 show the Old Grey Whistle Test.

1978 - Sri Lanka: 202 people are killed after a Icelandic Airways Dc-8 crashes.

1980 - Iran: Around 500 Iranians are reported to have died in an Iraqi attack on the town of Susangerd.

1983 - UK: Frankie Goes To Hollywood begin a seven date UK tour at Eves in Wolverhampton.

1985 - UK: Sade scores her first UK No.1 album with "Promise."

1988 - USA: Former Beach Boys manager Stephen Love is sentenced to five years probation for embezzling almost $1 million from the groups accounts.

1991 - UK: Irish singer Enya scores her first UK No.1 album with "Shepherd Moons."

1994 - Kiev: The Ukrainian parliament ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

1996 - UK: The Beatles "Anthology 3" goes to No.1 on the UK Albums Chart.

2002 - USA: Multi-Billionaire Texan David Bonderman hires the Rolling Stones to play at his 60th birthday party at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. The Bands fee was $7.5 million.

2005 - USA: The X-Box 360 is first sold in the US.

2009 - Italy: The UN "Hunger Summit" opens in Rome.

2010 - USA: The Beatles back catalogue is released on I-tunes.

November 17th

1774 - USA: The Philadelphia Troop of Light Horse, one of the earliest revolutionary military groups established in the colonies, is founded by 26 patriots of Philadelphia after the meeting of the First General Continental Congress. The troop later became The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry.

1868 - USA: A band of Indians attack a wagon train, seven miles from Fort Harker in central Kansas, making off with around 150 mules.

1911 - London: Lord Plymouth saves the Crystal Palace at Sydenham by buying it for the nation.

1913 - Panama: The steamship "Louise" is the first vessel to go through the Panama Canal.

1918 - USA: A report states that deaths from influenza exceeds the US war dead of 53,000.

1926 - USSR: The government announces that married couples are to receive stamped identity cards.

1921 - India: Vast crowds in the streets of Bombay give the Prince of Wales a rapturous welcome as he drives to Government House.

1925 - Lebanon: Druze rebels begin threatening and terrorising Beirut.

1931 - India: Mahatma Gandhi demands total control for India over her own foreign and military affairs.

1933 - USA: Claude Rains makes his Screen Debut in "The Invisible Man"

1939 - Paris: The ex-president of Czechoslovakia, Eduard Benes, sets up the "Czech National Committee."

1940 - Somaliland: British Naval forces bombard Mogadishu.

1941 - Germany: After a series of arguments with Luftwaffe Field Marshal Erhard Milch, and disgraced by air failures in the east, the former air ace Ernst Udet commits suicide.

1942 - New Guinea: A thousand Japanese reinforcements land at Gona, Buna, and Sanananda.

1943 - Atlantic: Grand Admiral Donitz takes personal charge of a U-boat assault on convoy SL-139/MKS-30 comprising of 66 allied merchant ships.

1944 - Albania: German resistance crumbles in the capital Tirana.

1945 - Germany: Josef Kramer the "Butcher of Belsen" is sentenced to death.

1946 - Bangkok: To secure membership to the UN, Thailand returns areas of Cambodia and Laos annexed in 1941.

1950 - New York: The UN grants independence to Libya.

1953 - London: Sir Arthur Bliss becomes Master of the Queen's Musick, in succession to the late Sir Arnold Bax.

1959 - UK: Five police chiefs state the M1's design and operation is unsatisfactory.

1964 - London: The government imposes an arms embargo on South Africa.

1966 - UK: The Beach Boys are No.1 on the UK singles chart with "Good Vibrations."

1971 - London: Roy Jenkins beats Michael Foot to remain as Labour deputy leader after defying Labour's EEC policy.

1972 - London: The High Court bans the Sunday Times from printing articles on thalidomide.

1974 - USA: John Lennon scores his second US No.1 album with "Walls and Bridges."

1984 - USA: Wham begin a three week run at No.1 on the US singles charts with "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go."

1986 - London: Share prices tumble after New York financier Ivan Boesky confesses to insider dealing.

1987 - London: Michael Grade is named as successor to Jeremy Isaacs as head of Channel 4.

1992 - USA: The end of a long royalties battle sees ex- Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers members Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago receive an estimated $4 million in back payments from the song "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?"

1996 - Kazakhstan: Russia's Mars 96 probe fails to break out of Earth orbit after one of its booster rockets malfunctions, it later crashes into the Pacific Ocean.

1999 - Italy: Mariah Carey is forced to abandon a performance on Rome's historic Spanish Steps after being swamped by crowds of tourists. She took shelter in a local shop, before being given a police escort to safety.

2003 - USA: 21 year-old Brittany Spears becomes the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The only other to receive a star at her age was Melissa Gilbert, star of Little House on the Prairie.

2005 - Austria: English writer David Irving is arrested in Vienna on charges of denying the Holocaust, a criminal offence in Austria.

2006 - USA: Sony releases its new games console the Playstation 3 with 14 titles in North America.

2011 - Thailand: Insurgents detonate a motorcycle bomb in the Mueang Yala district of Southern Thailand, killing one person and wounding twenty others.

November 18th

1903 - Washington: The US and Panama sign a treaty to build the Panama Canal.

1905 - Norway: Prince Karl of Denmark accepts the Norwegian Throne, taking the name of Haakon VII.

1909 - USA: Two US warships are ordered to Nicaragua after reports that 500 revolutionists, with two Americans among them, had been executed by the Nicaraguan dictator Jose Santos Zelaya.

1910 - London: 119 people are arrested after a suffragette attack on the House of Commons.

1915 - London: New restrictions are imposed on the opening hours of London's Clubs.

1917 - USA: In order to save fuel, the federal fuel administrator orders the shut off on Sundays and Thursdays of Electric Advertising Signs.

1927 - France: Jules Rimet, head of the International Football Association (FiFA) announces the creation of a "World Cup."

1929 - Japan: Japan begins its invasion of Manchuria.

1933 - New York: Roberta with music by Jerome Kern, opens at the New Amsterdam theatre. It included the songs "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and "The Touch Of Your Hand."

1936 - Spain: Hitler and Mussolini recognise Franco's provisional government in Burgos.

1939 - Czechoslovakia: Martial law is declared in Prague.

1940 - East Africa: The cruiser HMSDorsetshire bombards Zante in Italian Somaliland.

1941 - Libya: The US M3 Stuart light tank has its first trials in action with the British Eighth Army, at the start of "Operation Crusader", a major offensive against Rommel.

1944 - Paris: Charles De Gaulle sets up a high court of five magistrates and 24 jurors to try Vichy leaders and collaborators.

1949 - USA: Five people are killed when a B-29 crashes off Florida.

1956 - USA: Fats Domino performs "Blueberry Hill" on the Ed Sullivan Show.

1959 - USA: An amended constitution and bylaws are submitted for ratification by the members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. The election was held on April 12 1960.

1960 - UK: Michael Foot wins Nye Bevan's seat of Ebbw Vale in the by-election caused by his death.

1963 - Iraq: A military coup overthrows the Ba'athist government.

1964 - Rome: Egyptian diplomats are caught trying to smuggle a South Vietnamese attaché out of the country in a crate.

1965 - London: Provisional timetables for Concorde flights are issued: London to New York in 3 hours, and Tokyo in 13 hours.

1970 - USA: Linus Pauling, the Nobel Prize winning scientist, reports that high doses of Vitamin C could ward off the common cold and flu. Other scientists held that such doses given over a long period of time could be harmful.

1975 - USA: Eldridge Cleaver, a former leader of the Black Panther Party, returns to the US after seven years of exile to face criminal charges stemming from a shoot-out with Oakland, California police.

1977 - Jerusalem: Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to visit Israel.

1978 - Guyana: A grizzly mass suicide is performed, by the murder of Leo J. Ryan of California and four others visiting the People's Temple on a fact finding mission to the country. When Jim Jones, leader of the religious sect, learned of the event he led the group in a mass suicide by poison. The final count was 911 dead, including more than 200 children. Most of Jones's followers, like Jones himself, were American citizens.

1981 - USA: A four-point arms control proposal is presented by President Ronald Reagan in a televised address that was broadcast live in Europe. He stated that the US would cancel its plans for deployment of new medium-range Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in Europe if the USSR would dismantle comparable missiles it had already deployed against other European Nations.

1983 - London: A report commissioned by the Metroplolitan Police states that some officers are "racists and bullies."

1991 - Beirut: British and Scottish Born American Hostages Terry Waite and Tom Sutherland are released after five years in captivity.

1993 - USA: Nirvana record their MTV Unplugged Special at the Sony Studios in New York.

2006 - Chad: Chad imposes a 12 day curfew in its capital to counter increasing tension between Arab tribes and local inhabitants.

2009 - Africa: The population of Africa reaches one billion.

2011 - USA: The Los Angeles county sheriff's office re-opens its investigation into the death of film actress Natalie Wood, after receiving fresh information. She drowned off the coast off California in 1981.

November 19th

1831 - USA: James A. Garfield the 20th president of the US is born in Orange Township, near Cleveland, Ohio.

1901 - London: Liberal MP Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman condemns the extension of martial law to Cape Town and other main ports of South Africa.

1905 - France: 128 people are killed when the British Steamer "Hilda" is wrecked off St.Malo.

1910 - London: Winston Churchill orders charges against 100 suffragettes to be dropped.

1914 - Isle of Man: Austrian and German civilian internees riot at a detention camp.

1917 - Petrograd: A Revolutionary Diplomatic Committee is created, headed by the foreign minister Leon Trotsky.

1919 - USA: The Treaty of Versailles fails to achieve ratification in the Senate by a vote of 55-39.

1920 - Constantinople: The city is swamped by the arrival of around 100,000 White Russian refugees from the Crimea.

1924 - Cairo: Sir Lee Stack, Governor-General of the Sudan is assassinated.

1927 - Paris: MGM's "Ben-Hur", directed by Fred Niblo, moves into a 32nd week of an exclusive run at the Madeleine Opera. Ticket sales exceed 4 million francs.

1928 - Berlin: Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann announces Germany will not barter the Rhineland for lower reparations.

1931 - Belfast: The luxury liner "Bermuda" is gutted by fire while in dock.

1937 - USA: George Eyston breaks his own one month-old land speed record on the Great Salt Lake achieving 311.42mph.

1939 - Warsaw: The first barriers are erected around the Jewish ghetto.

1940 - Atlantic: A Sunderland flying boat uses air-to-surface vessel (ASV) radio-location gear for the first time to detect a U-boat nearing a convoy.

1942 - Norway: Operation Freshman, a British-Norwegian assault on the heavy water plant at Vermonk, fails after the sabotage team's glider crashes.

1944 - Germany: Allied troops enter the Rhineland, and US tanks reach the Saar River.

1949 - Monaco: Rainier III is sworn in as the 30th ruling Prince of Monaco.

1951 - Hollywood: Charlie Chaplin commences shooting his new film Limelight

1952 - Vietnam: French forces face an all-out offensive from the Viet Minh.

1957 - Prague: Antonin Novotny becomes Czech President following the death of Antonin Zapotocky.

1959 - USA: Preliminary talks on US-Soviet Co-operation in Space by scientists from the US and USSR are revealed by the White House.

1963 - Haiti: 500 people are feared dead after floods and landslides.

1964 - UK: The Supremes become the first all girl group to achieve a UK No.1 single with "Baby Love."

1965 - London: The Kinks, The Who, Georgie Fame & the Blame Flames, The Hollies, Wilson Pickett, and The Golden Apples of the Sun appear live at the Glad Rag Ball, Empire Pool. Tickets cost 30 shillings.

1969 - London: MP's approve a bill to set up a new "Ulster Defence Regiment" to replace the "B Specials."

1972 - West Germany: Wily Brandt's SPD government is re-elected to power with an increased majority.

1976 - UK: The music weekly "Sounds" makes the Sex Pistols debut 45 "Anarchy in the UK" its single of the week.

1980 - UK: Student Jacqueline Hill is confirmed as the 13th victim of the "Yorkshire Ripper."

1982 - London: Only 30% of shares are sold in the Britoil privatisation.

1985 - Geneva: Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan open private talks on nuclear arms cutbacks.

1988 - UK: Canadian singer and one hit wonder Robin Beck reaches No.1 on the UK Singles charts with "First Time." an advertisement for Coca-Cola.

1989 - USA: American astronomers announce they have detected a source of light coming from the edge of the universe, and the beginning of time.

1990 - Paris: NATO and Warsaw Pact countries agree to slash their conventional weapons armouries.

1994 - USA: Nirvana hit No.1 on the US Album Chart with MTV Unplugged In New York.

2002 - Berlin: Michael Jackson is condemned by safety experts after dangling his baby from a third floor hotel balcony.

2007 - Papua New Guinea: Around 70 people are killed and 50 are missing after flooding caused by Cyclone Guba in the Oro Province.

2008 - Spain: The first successful trachea transplant using a tissue engineered organ is performed in Spain.

2011 - USA: The US successfully tests a new hypersonic weapon system, capable of striking targets 3,700 kilometres away in under 30 minutes.

On the afternoon of Thursday, 19 November 1863, the famous "Gettysburg Address" speech was given by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, during the American Civil War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address

November 20th

1866 - USA: The first national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, comprising Union veterans of the Civil War is held in Indianapolis.

1831 - USA: Looking for rumoured "lost silver mines" in Texas near the San Saba Mission, Jim Bowie and ten companions encounter almost 150 Caddo and Waco Indians. A fight ensued, which became legendary in Texas history. After frontal attacks proved ineffective, the Indians set fire to the brush and trees surrounding the Americans. This ploy also failed. After losing fifty warriors to Bowie's one, the Indians fled the field.

1903 - New Zealand: The New Zealand parliament approves a Preferential Trade Agreement with the UK.

1909 - London: Herbert Gladstone agrees to become the first Governor-General of the Union of South Africa.

1919 - USA: The first municipal airport in the US, in Tucson Arizona is inaugurated.

1920 - USA : The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to President Woodrow Wilson in recognition of his efforts to promote world peace through the League of Nations.

1922 - Switzerland: A conference opens in Lausanne to try to settle the dispute between Turkey and Greece and the Allies.

1936 - Spain: Rebel leader Antonio Primo de Rivera is executed by Republicans at Alicante.

1939 - UK: Luftwaffe planes begin parachuting mines into the Thames Estuary.

1940 - Birmingham: Luftwaffe raiders bombard the city in a nine-hour raid.

1941 - Leningrad: Personal food items in the besieged city are cut for the fifth time in two months.

1942 - USSR: Russian Generals Vatutin, Rokossovsky, and Eremenko set out to trap 22 German divisions (270,000 men) between the Volga and Don Rivers.

1943 - Tarawa: Hundreds of US Marines are mown down by machine gun fire as they try and wade ashore during a near-catastrophic amphibious assault on Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands.

1944 - London: Five years of darkness ends as street lights are switched back on in Piccadilly, the Strand, and Fleet Street.

1947 - Paris: Veteran Statesmen Leon Blum takes over as Premier from Paul Ramadier.

1952 - Washington: President Dwight D. Eisenhower chooses John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State.

1955 - UK: Ten people are killed and 99 are injured in a train crash near Didcot in Oxfordshire.

1959 - New York: The UN bans France's Saharan nuclear tests.

1962 - USA: A lifting of the naval blockade of Cuba is announced by President John F. Kennedy, following assurances by Premier Nikita Khrushchev that all Soviet Jet Bombers in Cuba will be moved within 30 days.

1964 - Rome: The Catholic Church agrees to exonerate Jews for their guilt in the crucifixion of Jesus.

1965 - Vietnam: US casualties in Vietnam after a week-long battle in the Iadrang Valley were placed at 240 dead, 470 wounded, and 6 missing, exceeding the Korean War weekly average of 209 killed.

1968 - USA: The Monkees Film "Head" opens across six US cities.

1969 - USA: President Richard Nixon announces the US will not engage in biological warfare, nor make first use of lethal or incapacitating chemicals. Tear gas and defoliants were not included in the ban.

1975 - USA: Ex-Governor of California Ronald Reagan announces he will run for President.

1978 - UK: Committal proceedings begin against Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe for allegedly plotting to murder former male model Norman Scott.

1981 - Italy: Anatoly Karpov wins the World Chess Championship.

1983 - USA: The Day After, a television drama depicting the effects of a nuclear attack on the US, is seen by some 100,000,000 viewers, making it the second largest TV audience to date.

1984 - UK: The floatation of 51% of the shares of British Telecom is launched.

1986 - UK: Police search Saddleworth Moor, for two missing children, feared killed after Myra Hindley breaks her silence.

1989 - Brussels: The European Commission modifies plans for a Social Charter for worker's rights.

1991 - USA: Randy Jackson of The Jacksons is given a 30 day jail sentence by a Los Angeles court for violating a probation order.

1995 - USA: Whitney Houston has the US no.1 single with "Exhale, Shoop Shoop.

2000 - UK: Mel C announces she is quitting The Spice Girls during an interview on The Frank Skinner Show.

2005 - USA: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, makes $101.4 million in its first 3 days of release across North America, making it the 4th largest film opening ever.

2007 - UK: HM Revenue & Customs admits it has lost two computer discs containing data on bank details and National Insurance numbers about every family with a child under 16 in the country.

2008 - Outer Space: NASA's Mars reconnaissance Orbiter discovers evidence of huge underground deposits of water ice on Mars, with one deposit under "Hellas Planitia" estimated to be the size of Los Angeles.

2010 - USA: Russia agrees to help NATO build a US manned Missile Shield in Europe.

(20-11-2013 14:05 )4evadionne Wrote:  November 20th
{SNIP}
1981 - Italy: Anatoly Karpov wins the World Chess Championship.
{SNIP}

The Massacre in Merano
see http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=55014 for details

November 21st

1620 - USA: The Mayflower Compact, the first social contract for a New England colony, was drafted and signed by 41 males in Provincetown Harbour, Massachusetts. The Pilgrims did not settle there, but went on after a time to Plymouth.

1789 - USA: North Carolina ratifies the Constitution and becomes the 12th state of the Union.

1904 - East Indies: 30,000 people are reported to be destitute after a typhoon near the Philippine island of Mindaneo.

1921 - Belfast: Troops are sent in to restore order as rioting breaks out in East Belfast.

1929 - Detroit: Henry Ford announces a wage rise for all his workers.

1932 - Berlin: Adolf Hitler states he will refuse to take up the Chancellorship if it means combining with other parties.

1934 - New York: The Musical Comedy "Anything Goes" opens at the Alvin Theatre, featuring music by Cole Porter.

1939 - UK: German mines damage the cruiser HMS Befast and sink the Japanese liner Terukuni Maru.

1940 - North Africa: RAF raiders attack Italian bases at Benghazi, Benina and Berka.

1941 - Ethiopia: Italian forces surrender at Kulkaber.

1944 - Taiwan: The US submarine Sealion sinks the Japanese battleship Kongo off Formosa.

1946 - UK: Widespread flooding occurs after the eighth successive day of rain.

1948 - UK: 34 out of 40 people are killed after a KLM airliner crashes in Ayrshire.

1953 - UK: Experiments on the skull of the "Piltdown Man" reveal it is a 40-year-old hoax.

1955 - USA: RCA records purchase Elvis Presley's recording contract from Sam Philips at Sun Records for $35,000.

1956 - UK: Britain's first heavy water nuclear reactor opens at Harwell in Berkshire.

1964 - New York: The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn, and Staten Island was formally opened. At 6,690ft, it was the world's largest suspension bridge.

1969 - UK: T-Rex appear live at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

1970 - USA: US forces raid Sontay, North Vietnam, in an attempt to free US POW's. The prison camp was found to be empty.

1973 - USA: An 18-minute gap in a key Watergate tape is revealed by the White House. The Tapes requested were turned over to Judge John J. Sirica.

1974 - USA: The Freedom of Information Act, providing expanded public access to government files, was passed by Congress over President Gerald Ford's veto.

1979 - Tehran: The Iranians warn that if the US attacks Iran all of the embassy hostages will die "on the spot."

1980 - USA: A hotel fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, kills 84 people. It was the second worst hotel fire in US history.

1983 - Los Angeles: Michael Jackson's 14 minute video for "Thriller" has its premiere.

1989 - UK: Proceedings in the House of Commons are televised for the first time.

1991 - USA: Aerosmith make a guest appearance in The Simpsons.

1994 - UK: Three times Grand National Winner Red Rum is retired from public life at the age of 29.

2003 - London: An acoustic guitar on which the late George Harrison learned to play fetches £276,000 at a London Auction. The Egmond guitar was originally bought for him by his father for £3.50.

2006 - Australia: Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, winner of 5 Olympic, 11 World Championship, and 10 Commonwealth Gold medals announces his retirement at the age of 24.

2009 - UK: Prime Minister Gordon Brown travels to Cumbria to meet the victims of floods which have badly affected the area.

2011 - USA: The US, the UK, and Canada impose further sanctions against Iran's nuclear program.

November 22nd

1847 - USA: A ship fire aboard the Phoenix on Lake Michigan kills 200 Dutch immigrants.

1901 - Dresden: Richard Strauss's opera "Feuersnot" has its first performance.

1905 - Liverpool: The World's largest turbine liner, Cunard's "Carmania" leaves on its maiden voyage to New York.

1921 - Belfast: Ten People are killed in widespread shootings across the city.

1928 - UK: The first pound and ten-shilling notes come into circulation.

1934 - Geneva: Yugoslavia sends the League of Nations a note accusing Hungary of being behind the death of King Alexander.

1939 - UK: A national savings scheme is launched under the slogan "Lend to Defend the Right to be Free".

1940 - Greece: Italian Planes bomb Cephalonia, Corfu, and Samos.

1941 - Breslau, Germany: The Luftwaffe air ace Werner Molders, on his way to his compatriot Ernst Uder's funeral, is himself killed when his plane crashes into a factory chimney.

1942 - Tunisia: British Troops launch an offensive to capture Longstop Hill, north of Medjez el Bab.

1943 - Italy: The Eighth Army establish a bridgehead of five battalions on the north bank of the Sangro River.

1946 - Oxford: Anthony Wedgwood Benn is elected treasurer of the Oxford Union Society.

1950 - New York: 75 people are killed after two trains collide on Long Island.

1955 - Cyprus: Police use tear gas and baton charges to quell riots in Nicosia and Larnaca.

1956 - Melbourne: The Duke of Edinburgh opens the 16th Olympic Games.

1961 - New York: "A Man For All Seasons" by Robert Bolt, a drama about the life and death of Sir Thomas Moore starring Paul Schofield and Leo McKern, opens at the ANTA Theatre.

1962 - UK: Labour win the South Dorset by-election, overturning a Tory majority of 8,000.

1967 - Vietnam: Hill 875 near Dak To, about 40 miles north of Kontum in west central South Vietnam, is taken by US Army forces after a 19-day battle, which was one of the bloodiest of the Vietnam War.

1969 - USA: The Isolation of a single gene, the basic unit of heredity, is announced by scientists at Harvard University. Their feat promised to facilitate study of the mechanism of gene control.

1972 - Vietnam: The first US B-52 bomber is shot down.

1977 - California: What was said to be a record price for Sculpture - between $3,500,000 and $5,000,000 is reported to have been paid by the John Paul Getty Museum for a fourth-century B.C bronze.

1982 - USA: Construction of the "MX Missile" is proposed by President Ronald Reagan, who called for the deployment of 100 of the multiple-warhead missiles in "dense pack mode", a relatively small area thought to be easier to defend against an enemies first strike. The cost of the proposal was put at $26,000,000,000.

1988 - USA: The B-2 stealth bomber is shown publicly for the first time to members of Congress and media representatives. Designed to evade radar on long-range bombing missions, it had not yet been flown. The Air Force hoped to acquire 132 of the craft at an estimated cost of $500,000,000 per plane.

1990 - Saudi Arabia: President George Bush spends Thanksgiving Day with US Troops in the desert.

1996 - Australia: 29 year-old gunman Martin Bryant is sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in April 1996.

2005 - USA: The X-Box 360 is released across North America with 18 launch titles.

2006 - Somalia: 1.8 million people are affected by severe floods, with 73 people losing their lives.

2009 - Ireland: Three RNLI members are found and described "In good condition" after their boat capsizes off County Wexford.

2011 - Papua New Guinea: Scientists discover Bulbophyllum Nocturnum, the first type of orchid that flowers at night in New Britain, off the coast of Papua New Guinea.