October 23rd
 

4004 BC ~ The start of the universe, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar.

1892 ~ Birthday of Gummo Marx, actor, comedian (Marx Brothers).

1940 ~ Birthday of Pelé, soccer player Extraordinaire.

1942 ~ In Egypt, British forces begin a major offensive against Axis forces by initiating the Second Battle of El Alamein.

1956 ~ Hungarians took to the streets in to demand an end to Soviet rule. Thousands died.

1974 ~ Birthday of Jasmin St. Claire, Porn Actress.

1983 ~ U.S. & French barracks in Beirut hit by truck bombs, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French.

1998 ~ Death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, physician.

2001 ~ Apple introduced the iPod.

2002 ~ Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.

October 24th
 

1632 ~ Birthday of Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the “Father of Microbiology".

1799 ~ Death of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1929 ~ Death of George Cadbury, Chocolate Manufacturer & Philanthropist.

1929 ~ "Black Thursday" crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1945 ~ Founding of the United Nations Organisation.

1947 ~ The expression “Cold War” was first used by Bernard Baruch to the U.S. Senate War Investigation Committee.

1992 ~ In the first real "World" Series, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-US team to win the World Series.

2003 ~ The Concorde completed its last commercial flight.

2006 ~ Death of William Watt, Islamic studies scholar & historian.

2008 ~ "Bloody Friday" stock market crash on the world's stock exchanges.

1992 ~ In the first real "World" Series, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-US team to win the World Series.

**snicker**

October 25th
 

1415 ~ England defeated France at the Battle of Agincourt.

1825 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss II, Composer.

1838 ~ Birthday of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1854 ~ Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. You can listen and follow along to Lord Tennyson as he reads his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.

1924 ~ First appearance of "Little Orphan Annie”.

1943 ~ Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, and the last battleship to battleship firefight.

1971 ~ The UN General Assembly seated the People's Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China.

1983 ~ Birthday of Taylor Vixen, Porn Actress.

1983 ~ U.S. troops invade Grenada.

1993 ~ Death of Vincent Price, Actor.

October 26th
 

899 ~ Death of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex.

1685 ~ Birthday of Domenico Scarlatti, Composer.

1881 ~ The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1918 ~ Erich von Ludendorff was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1947 ~ The Maharaja of Kashmir agreed to allow his kingdom to join India.

1947 ~ Birthday of Hillary Rodham Clinton, 67th United States Secretary of State.

1972 ~ Death of Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer.

1994 ~ Announcement of Andrew Wiles’ correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

1994 ~ Israel and Jordan made peace.

2001 ~ The USA Patriot Act passed into law.

Alfred the Great, renowned Middle Ages king and oatcake burner.

October 27th
 

1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher.

1728 ~ Birthday of James Cook, British Captain and explorer.

1787 ~ The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published.

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.

1904 ~ New York’s first rapid transit subway opened.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer.

1968 ~ Death of Lise Meitner, German physicist.

1968 ~ Major anti-war riot in London.

1991 ~ Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2005 ~ Riots begin in Paris after the deaths of two Muslim teenagers.

October 28th
 

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba.

1886 ~ The Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft.

1962 ~ Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1971 ~ The UK launched its first and only satellite, Prospero, atop a Black Arrow rocket.

1980 ~ Death of Marshall McLuhan, Canadian educator, philosopher, & scholar.

1980 ~ Ronald Reagan asked voters during a debate with Jimmy Carter in Cleveland ''are you better off than you were four years ago?''.

1980 ~ Birthday of Kanzi, most literate non-human Earthling.

October 29th
 

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher and journalist.

1923 ~ The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1929 ~ New York Stock Exchange stock prices collapsed amid panic selling.

1947 ~ Birthday of Richard Dreyfuss, American actor.

1948 ~ Birthday of Kate Jackson, American actress.

1957 ~ Death of Louis B. Mayer, film producer. The second “M” in “MGM”.

1966 ~ The National Organization For Women was founded.

1969 ~ The first computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET.

1975 ~ General Franco’s dictatorship of Spain came to an end.

2004 ~ In a videotaped statement, Osama bin Laden directly admitted for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11 attacks.

October 30th
 

1831 ~ Nat Turner was arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history.

1839 ~ Birthday of Alfred Sisley, one of the creators of French Impressionism.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1961 ~ The Soviet Union detonated the 58 megaton hydrogen bomb "Tsar Bomba". Interestingly, the last B53 bomb, an American thermonuclear weapon of that era, was dismantled just this week.

1945 ~ Jackie Robinson signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.

1974 ~ Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Comparative Mythologist.

2003 ~ Wicked opened on Broadway.

2005 ~ The reconsecration of the Dresden Frauenkirche, which was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II.

2007 ~ Death of Washoe, chimpanzee trained in American Sign Language.

October 31st
 

1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For a unique insight to this happening, click here.

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats, Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".

1930 ~ Birthday of Michael Collins, the 3rd astronaut of Apollo 11.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis: The UK and France began bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1973 ~ Birthday of Beverly Lynne, Porn Actress

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1988 ~ Death of John Houseman, Romanian-born actor and director.

1993 ~ Death of Federico Fellini, Italian director.

November 1st
 

1512 ~ The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1604 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon, Portugal was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gary Player, South African golfer.

1952 ~ The U.S. successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed Mike, at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1993 ~ The Maastricht Treaty took effect, formally establishing the European Union.

1999 ~ Death of Theodore Alvin Hall, Soviet Spy.

2007 ~ Death of Paul Tibbets, US Air Force, ret.

November 2nd
 

1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 ~ The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw, Playwright.

1976 ~ Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford.

1964 ~ In a family coup, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1981 ~ Birthday of Avy Scott, Porn Star.

1983 ~ President Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

1988 ~ The Morris worm was launched from MIT.

November 3rd
 

1801 ~ Birthday of Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer.

1838 ~ The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.

1903 ~ Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia.

1936 ~ Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. ''Alf'' Landon.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse, French artist.

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika.

1964 ~ Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson defeated challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

1978 ~ Birthday of Julia Taylor, European Porn Actress.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair : The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992 ~ U.S. presidential election: Challenger Bill Clinton defeated incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush & independent candidate Ross Perot.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor.

November 4th
 

1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn, German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature was published.

1922 ~ British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

1948 ~ T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1979 ~ Students storm the US embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages.

1979 ~ Birthday of Audrey Hollander, Porn Actress

1995 ~ The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

2008 ~ Death of Michael Crichton, Author.

November 5th
 

1605 ~ A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament was foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

1872 ~ Suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time. She was fined $100 for the privilege.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. B. S. Haldane, Geneticist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Roy Rogers, American actor.

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1942 ~ The Second Battle of El Alamein was won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.

1977 ~ Birthday of Brittney Skye, Porn actress.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".

1989 ~ Death of Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist.

1999 ~ Federal Judge Thomas Jackson declared Microsoft Corp. a monopoly, saying the software giant's aggressive actions were ''stifling innovation'' and hurting consumers.

1605 ~ A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament was foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

Remember, remember the 5th of November.

November 6th
 

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever

1861 ~ Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1869 ~ Rutgers University defeats Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies[/URL] and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1975 ~ Birthday of Anastasia Blue, former Porn Actress.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British queen as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.

November 7th
 

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch, chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

1917 ~ Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm.

1980 ~ Death of Steve McQueen, Actor.

1981 ~ Birthday of Lily Thai, Porn Actress.

1989 ~ Protests force the resignation of East Germany’s Communist government.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at Baltimore, Maryland.

One of my "Top 10". I never get tired of hearing this.

November 8th
 

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker, Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.

1942 ~ World War II: Operation Torch – U.S. and UK forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 ~ The first dog fight between jet aircraft.

1957 ~ The UK conducted its first successful hydrogen bomb test.

1959 ~ Birthday of Chi Chi LaRue, Porn Producer.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician.

1987 ~ An IRA bomb killed 11 people during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". (requires Adobe Acrobat)

November 9th
 

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper killed Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

1921 ~ Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan, American Astronomer & Writer.

1936 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Tal, World Chess Champion.

1938 ~ Nazi Germany's first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, Kristallnacht, began.

1953 ~ Death of Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet.

1965 ~ Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by blackouts.

1970 ~ Death of Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician.

1989 ~ Fall of the Berlin Wall. East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany.

2006 ~ Death of Markus Wolf, East German (Stasi) intelligence director.

November 10th
 

1775 ~ The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines, later renamed the United States Marine Corps.

1871 ~ Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1919 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton, Actor.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the tragedy.

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. opened to public.

1983 ~ Birthday of Sammie Rhodes, Porn Actress.

1995 ~ Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer and human rights activist.

2007 ~ Death of Norman Mailer, American author.

November 11th
 

1880 ~ Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly was hung in Melbourne.

1918 ~ Death of Henry Gunther, the last American to die in World War I.

1918 ~ The end of World War I: Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1922 ~ Birthday of Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist.

1938 ~ Death of Mary Mallon, aka "Typhoid Mary", carrier of the typhoid disease.

1965 ~ Rhodesia proclaimed its independence from Britain.

1976 ~ Death of Alexander Calder, Artist.

1992 ~ The Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.

2000 ~ A cable car full of skiers and snowboarders, many of them children, caught fire in Austria, killing 155 people.

2004 ~ Death of Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority.

November 12th
 

1833 ~ Birthday of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Auguste Rodin, French sculptor.

1942 ~ The Battle of Guadalcanal began.

1944 ~ The German battleship Tirpitz was sunk off the coast of Norway.

1954 ~ Ellis Island closed.

1970 ~ The famous exploding whale incident.

1982 ~ Birthday of Anne Hathaway, Actress.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

2001 ~ Taliban forces abandoned Kabul ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.

2011 ~ jseal, your intrepid blogger, posted today's "Strange Days" from deep in the wilds of Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation! Ah, the wonders of modern technology! This is what I used to have to prepare ahead of time and email to dicksbro (I have the scurvy knaves outside building a tripod). :)

It sounds like you're having fun anyway, jseal.

November 13th
 

1850 ~ Birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson, Novelist.

1868 ~ Death of Gioacchino Rossini, Composer.

1940 ~ The animated film Fantasia was released.

1955 ~ Birthday of Whoopi Goldberg, American actress.

1956 ~ U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal.

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated.

1985 ~ A mudslide triggered by the Nevado del Ruiz volcano buried the city of Armero, Colombia, killing some 23,000 people.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first known World Wide Web page.

1998 ~ President Bill Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000, ending the four-year legal battle over her sexual harassment lawsuit that spurred impeachment proceedings against him. Clinton did not admit guilt or apologize.

2002 ~ Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq.

November 14th
 

1719 ~ Birthday of Leopold Mozart, Austrian musician, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

1832 ~ Death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence signer.

1851 ~ Herman Melville's novel “Moby-Dick” was first published in the U.S.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began radio service in the UK.

1948 ~ Birthday of Charles, Prince of Wales.

1954 ~ Birthday of Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State.

1968 ~ Birthday of Janine Lindemulder, Porn Actress.

1972 ~ The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1,000 mark yesterday for the first time.

1991 ~ Indictments handed down against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.

2001 ~ Northern Alliance fighters entered Kabul.

One of the opportunities Scouting provides the boys is to reconnect with Nature. Ours is an inner city Troop, and they seem to enjoy the forest colors of autumn. Two commented how quite the forest can be, another how loud the Canadian Geese were at dusk. We took an afternoon hike down to Lake Strauss to watch them take off and land.

Then, on Saturday evening, we celebrated the Solemn Rite Of The Campfire, replete with roasting marshmallows on sticks. We were fortunate this time that there was no wind.

November 15th
 

1887 ~ Birthday of Georgia O'Keeffe, Painter.

1920 ~ First assembly of the League of Nations was held in Geneva.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe destroyed most of the English city of Coventry during World War II.

1960 ~ The Polaris missile became operational on the USS George Washington (SSBN-598).

1963 ~ Death of Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor.

1969 ~ The Soviet submarine K-19 collided with the American submarine USS Gato.

1971 ~ Intel released the first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

1978 ~ Death of Margaret Mead, American anthropologist.

1996 ~ Death of Alger Hiss, American government official & convicted spy.

1998 ~ Death of Stokely Carmichael, American Black Power activist.

November 16th
 

1885 ~ Louis Riel, Canadian rebel leader and "Father of Manitoba", executed for high treason.

1895 ~ Birthday of Paul Hindemith, Composer.

1920 ~ Qantas was registered under the name of “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited”.

1922 ~ Birthday of Gene Amdahl, computer scientist.

1933 ~ The U.S. and the USSR established diplomatic relations.

1945 ~ Operation Paperclip: The U.S. Army secretly admited 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.

1959 ~ The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" opened on Broadway.

1960 ~ Death of Clark Gable, Actor.

1979 ~ Sir Anthony Blunt, a former security service officer, identified as the fourth man in the "Philby affair".

2006 ~ Death of Milton Friedman, American economist.

November 17th
 

1871 ~ The National Rifle Association was granted a charter by the state of New York.

1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician.

1960 ~ Birthday of RuPaul, American drag entertainer.

1968 ~ Birthday of Amber Michaels, German Porn Actress.

1970 ~ In one of the greatest successes of the Soviet lunar exploration program, The USSR landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1.

1970 ~ Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the first computer mouse.

1979 ~ Death of John Glascock, British bassist (Jethro Tull).

1997 ~ An Islamic extremist group killed 60 tourists at Luxor, Egypt.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California.

November 18th
 

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert, Dramatist.

1916 ~ World War I: First Battle of the Somme, which started on July 1, ended in stalemate – Approx. 1,120,000 casualties, 310,000 killed or missing.

1926 ~ George Bernard Shaw refused to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."

1928 ~ The animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, was released.

1968 ~ Death of Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, awarded the The Nobel Prize in Physics 1922.

1976 ~ Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after the dictatorship of General Franco.

1978 ~ Jonestown, Guyana mass suicide: 914 die, including 276 children.

2003 ~ The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.

2004 ~ Fox hunting outlawed in England and Wales.

November 19th
 

1805 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand de Lesseps, Suez Canal engineer.

1828 ~ Death of Franz Schubert, Austrian Composer.

1863 ~ U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

1884 ~ Birthday of José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban Chess Grand Master.

1917 ~ Birthday of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India.

1941 ~ World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sank each other off the coast of Western Australia.

1969 ~ The second Apollo mission, Apollo 12, landed on the Moon – in “the Ocean of Storms”.

1977 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.

1990 ~ Pop group Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy Award because they did not sing at all on the "Girl You Know It’s True" album.

1998 ~ Lewinsky scandal: The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against President Clinton.

November 20th
 

1889 ~ Birthday of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer.

1924 ~ Birthday of Benoît Mandelbrot, Mathematician.

1945 ~ Nuremberg Trials began: Trials of 20 German Nazi leaders charged with war crimes during World War II started at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

1947 ~ The Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.

1975 ~ Death of Francisco Franco, Spanish Head of State (1936-1975).

1976 ~ Death of Trofim Lysenko, Russian biologist.

1995 ~ Diana, Princess of Wales, admitted to adultery during a television interview.

1998 ~ The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, was launched.

1998 ~ A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declared accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

2007 ~ Death of Ian Smith, Rhodesian politician.

November 21st
 

1898 ~ Birthday of René Magritte, Belgian painter.

1953 ~ Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the "Piltdown Man" was a hoax.

1964 ~ Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened.

1969 ~ The first ARPANET link was established.

1976 ~ Birthday of Dasha, Czech Porn actress.

1979 ~ The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan was attacked by a mob and razed.

1980 ~ Lake Peigneur drained into an underlying salt deposit.

1985 ~ U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested for giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison.

1995 ~ Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created using only computer-generated imagery.

1996 ~ Death of Abdus Salam, awarded one third of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1979.

November 22nd
 

1718 ~ English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was killed in battle off the coast of Virginia.

1890 ~ Birthday of Charles de Gaulle, General, President of France.

1963 ~ Death of C. S. Lewis, Author.

1963 ~ Death of Aldous Huxley, Author. (Brave New World)

1963 ~ President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1968 ~ The Beatles released The White Album.

1977 ~ British Airways began London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.

1981 ~ Death of Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, awarded one half The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953.

1990 ~ UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned.

2005 ~ Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany.

November 23rd
 

1860 ~ Birthday of Billy the Kid, Outlaw.

1869 ~ The "Cutty Sark" was launched. It is the last example of a Clipper ship.

1887 ~ Birthday of Boris Karloff, Actor.

1888 ~ Birthday of Harpo Marx, Comedian.

1943 ~ U.S. Marines seized control of the Tarawa and Makin atolls from the Japanese.

1955 ~ Death of Shemp Howard, actor, comedian (The Three Stooges)

1963 ~ The first episode of the science fiction TV series "Doctor Who" aired on the BBC.

1993 ~ Rachel Whiteread won both the Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.

2001 ~ Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.

2002 ~ Sectarian violence force the Miss World contest to move to London from Nigeria.

November 24th
 

1642 ~ Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the island of Tasmania.

1853 ~ Birthday of Bat Masterson, Gunslinger, Policeman, Sports Reporter.

1859 ~ British naturalist Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species", a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection.

1868 ~ Birthday of Scott Joplin, Musician.

1941 ~ Birthday of Pete Best, original drummer of The Beatles.

1947 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10 after they refused to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1963 ~ Death of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassination suspect.

1989 ~ The Velvet Revolution: The leadership of Communist Party in Czechoslovakia resigned.

1991 ~ Death of Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen).

1998 ~ America Online announced it would acquire Netscape Communications.

November 25th
 

1844 ~ Birthday of Karl Benz, Engineer.

1867 ~ Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.

1913 ~ Birthday of Lewis Thomas, Physician & Essayist.

1940 ~ Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the film "Knock Knock"

1952 ~ Birthday of Imran Khan, Pakistani test cricketer.

1968 ~ Death of Upton Sinclair, Journalist, Politician, Writer.

1974 ~ Death of U Thant, Burmese UN Secretary-General.

1986 ~ The Iran-Contra affair became public knowledge.

1998 ~ The Turkish government led by PM Mesut Yilmaz collapsed after losing a no-confidence motion over corruption allegations.

1999 ~ Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida.