Events Pre-1600 474 – Emperor Leo II dies after a reign of ten months. He is succeeded by his father Zeno, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. 937 – Ten Kingdoms: Li Bian usurps the throne and deposes Emperor Yang Pu. The Wu State is replaced by Li (now called "Xu Zhigao"), who becomes the first ruler of Southern Tang. 1202 – Fourth Crusade: Despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding it and threatening excommunication, Catholic crusaders begin a siege of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia). 1293 – Raden Wijaya is crowned as the first monarch of Majapahit kingdom of Java, taking the throne name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana. 1444 – Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Władysław III of Poland (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Władysław III of Varna) are defeated by the Turks under Sultan Murad II and Władysław is killed. 1599 – Åbo Bloodbath: Fourteen noblemen who opposed Duke Charles are decapitated in the Old Great Square of Turku () for their involvement in the War against Sigismund.
1601–1900 1659 – Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Maratha King kills Afzal Khan, Adilshahi in the battle popularly known as Battle of Pratapgarh. 1674 – Third Anglo-Dutch War: As provided in the Treaty of Westminster, Netherlands cedes New Netherland to England. 1702 – English colonists under the command of James Moore besiege Spanish St. Augustine during Queen Anne's War. 1766 – The last colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University). 1775 – The United States Marine Corps is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas. 1793 – A Goddess of Reason is proclaimed by the French Convention at the suggestion of Pierre Gaspard Chaumette. 1821 – Cry of Independence by Rufina Alfaro at La Villa de Los Santos, Panama setting into motion a revolt which led to Panama's independence from Spain and to it immediately becoming part of Colombia. 1847 – The passenger ship Stephen Whitney is wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board. The disaster results in the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse. 1865 – Major Henry Wirz, the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, is hanged, becoming one of only three American Civil War soldiers executed for war crimes. 1871 – Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" 1898 – White supremacists seized power and massacred black Americans during the Wilmington massacre, the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in United States history.
1901–present 1910 – The date of Thomas A. Davis' opening of the San Diego Army and Navy Academy, although the official founding date is November 23, 1910. 1918 – The Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa and Washington, D.C.) that said on November 11, 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air. 1939 – Finnish author F. E. Sillanpää is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature."The Nobel Prize in Literature 1939". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 16 Jun 2017. 1940 – The 1940 Vrancea earthquake strikes Romania killing an estimated 1,000 and injuring approximately 4,000 more. 1942 – World War II: Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa. 1944 – The ammunition ship explodes at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371. 1945 – Heavy fighting in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, today celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan). 1946 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Peruvian Andes mountains kills at least 1,400 people. 1951 – With the rollout of the North American Numbering Plan, direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States. 1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington Ridge Park in Arlington County, Virginia. 1958 – The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston. 1967 – The Nauru Independence Act 1967 passed the Parliament of Australia, giving independence to the UN Trust Territory of Nauru with effect from 31 January 1968. 1969 – National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts Sesame Street. 1970 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization: For the first time in five years, an entire week ends with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia. 1970 – Luna 17: uncrewed space mission launched by the Soviet Union. 1971 – In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the city of Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine aircraft. 1971 – A Merpati Nusantara Airlines Vickers Viscount crashes into the Indian Ocean near Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, killing all 69 people on board. 1972 – Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers are jailed by Fidel Castro. 1975 – The 729-foot-long freighter sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board. 1975 – Treaty of Osimo between Yugoslavia and Italy 1975 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 3379, determining that Zionism is a form of racism. 1979 – A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario. 1983 – Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0. 1985 – A Dassault Falcon 50 and a Piper PA-28 Cherokee collide in mid-air over Fairview, New Jersey, killing six people and injuring eight. 1989 – Longtime Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov is removed from office and replaced by Petar Mladenov. 1989 – Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall. 1995 – In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), are hanged by government forces. 1997 – WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a $37 billion merger (the largest merger in US history at the time). 1999 – World Anti-Doping Agency is formed in Lausanne. 2002 – Veteran's Day Weekend Tornado Outbreak: A tornado outbreak stretching from Northern Ohio to the Gulf Coast, one of the largest outbreaks recorded in November. 2006 – Sri Lankan Tamil politician Nadarajah Raviraj is assassinated in Colombo. 2006 – The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia is opened and dedicated by U.S. President George W. Bush, who announces that Marine Corporal Jason Dunham will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor. 2008 – Over five months after landing on Mars, NASA declares the Phoenix mission concluded after communications with the lander were lost. 2009 – Ships of the South and North Korean navies skirmish off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea. 2019 – President of Bolivia Evo Morales and several of his government resign after 19 days of civil protests and a recommendation from the military. 2020 – Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a ceasefire agreement, ending the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and prompting protests in Armenia.
Births Pre-1600 745 – Musa al-Kadhim the seventh Shia Imam (died 799) 1278 – Philip I, Prince of Taranto (died 1332) 1341 – Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English politician (died 1408) 1433 – Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (died 1477) 1480 – Bridget of York, English nun (died 1517) 1483 – Martin Luther, German monk and priest, leader of the Protestant Reformation (died 1546) 1489 – Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Wolfenbüttel (died 1568) 1490 – John III, Duke of Cleves (died 1539) 1520 – Dorothea of Denmark, Electress Palatine, Princess of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (died 1580) 1547 – Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, Archbishop of Cologne (died 1601) 1565 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1601) 1565 – Laurentius Paulinus Gothus, Swedish astronomer and theologian (died 1646) 1577 – Jacob Cats, Dutch poet, jurist, and politician (died 1660) 1584 – Catherine of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg (died 1638)
1601–1900 1620 – Ninon de l'Enclos, French courtier and author (died 1705) 1668 – François Couperin, French organist and composer (died 1733) 1668 – Louis, Prince of Condé (died 1710) 1695 – John Bevis, English physician and astronomer (died 1771) 1697 – William Hogarth, English painter, illustrator, and critic (died 1764) 1710 – Adam Gottlob Moltke, Danish courtier, politician, and diplomat (died 1792) 1728 – Oliver Goldsmith, Irish-English author, poet, and playwright (died 1774) 1735 – Granville Sharp, English activist and scholar, co-founded the Sierra Leone Company (died 1813) 1755 – Franz Anton Ries, German violinist and educator (died 1846) 1759 – Friedrich Schiller, German poet and playwright (died 1805) 1764 – Andrés Manuel del Rio, Spanish-Mexican scientist and discoverer of vanadium (died 1849) 1779 – Anne-Marie Javouhey, French nun, founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny (died 1851) 1801 – Vladimir Dal, Russian lexicographer and author (died 1872) 1801 – Samuel Gridley Howe, American physician and activist (died 1876) 1810 – George Jennings, English plumber and engineer, invented the flush toilet (died 1882) 1826 – Jacob Hamburger, German rabbi and author (died 1911) 1834 – José Hernández, Argentinian journalist, poet, and politician (died 1886) 1836 – Andrés Avelino Cáceres, Peruvian general, President of Peru (died 1923) 1844 – Henry Eyster Jacobs, American educator and theologian (died 1932) 1845 – John Sparrow David Thompson, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Canada (died 1894) 1848 – Surendranath Banerjee, Indian academic and politician (died 1925) 1851 – Richard Armstedt, German philologist, historian, and educator (died 1931) 1858 – Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line (died 1928) 1861 – Amy Levy (died 1889) First Jewish student at Cambridge University 1868 – Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese martial artist and educator, founded Shotokan (died 1957) 1871 – Winston Churchill, American author and painter (died 1947) 1873 – Henri Rabaud, French conductor and composer (died 1949) 1874 – Idabelle Smith Firestone, American composer and songwriter (died 1954) 1878 – Cy Morgan, American baseball player (died 1962) 1879 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet and educator (died 1931) 1879 – Patrick Pearse, Irish lawyer, poet, teacher, and insurrectionist; executed for his role in the Easter Rising (died 1916) 1880 – Jacob Epstein, American-English sculptor (died 1959) 1884 – Zofia Nałkowska, Polish author and playwright (died 1954) 1886 – Edward Joseph Collins, American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1951) 1887 – Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu, Romanian engineer and academic (died 1973) 1887 – Arnold Zweig, German author and activist (died 1968) 1888 – Andrei Tupolev, Russian engineer and designer, founded the Tupolev Design Bureau (died 1972) 1889 – Claude Rains, English-American actor (died 1967) 1890 – Carl Borgward, German engineer, founder of Borgward Group 1891 – Carl Stalling, American pianist and composer (died 1972) 1893 – John P. Marquand, American author (died 1960) 1894 – Boris Furlan, Slovenian lawyer, jurist, and politician (died 1957) 1895 – József Mátyás Baló, Hungarian physician and academic (died 1979) 1895 – Jack Northrop, American businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (died 1981) 1896 – Jimmy Dykes, American baseball player and manager (died 1976)