November 21
is the 325th day of the year (326th in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 40 days remaining.
*
164 BC -
Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the
Hasmonean family, restores the
Temple in Jerusalem. Events commemorated each year by the festival of
Hanukkah.
*
235 -
Anterus is elected
Pope.
*
1272 - Following
Henry III of England's death on
November 16, his son
Prince Edward becomes
King of England.
*
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.
*
1791 - Colonel
Napoléon Bonaparte is promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the
French Republic.
*
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 sound.
*
1916 - The
HMHS Britannic sinks in the
Aegean Sea after an explosion from an unknown object, killing 30 people.
*
1920 -
Bloody Sunday during the
Anglo-Irish War*
1922 -
Rebecca Latimer Felton of
Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first woman
United States Senator.
*
1927 -
Columbine Mine Massacre:
Striking coal miners were allegedly attacked with
machine guns by a detachment of state
police dressed in
civilian clothes.
*
1934 -
Cricket: The
MCC alters the
lbw rule so a batsman can be lbw to a ball pitching outside off stump. The change is later blamed for many problems developing during the 1950s - primarily negative bowling outside leg stump to a field of short-leg fieldsmen.
*1934 -
Ella Fitzgerald makes her singing debut at age 16 at the
Apollo Theater in
Harlem,
New York.
*
1941 - The
radio program
King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time (it would later become the longest running daily radio broadcast in history and the most famous live
blues radio program).
*
1942 - The completion of the
Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the
highway was not usable by general vehicles until
1943, however).
*
1953 - Authorities at the
British Natural History Museum announce that the "
Piltdown Man"
skull, held to be one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax.
*
1962 - The
Chinese People's Liberation Army declared a unilateral
cease-fire in the
Sino-Indian War.
*
1964 - The
Verrazano Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (at the time it was 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 - The first
ARPANET link is established.
* 1969 - US President
Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier
Eisaku Sato agree in
Washington, DC on the return of
Okinawa to
Japanese control in
1972. Under terms of the agreement, the US is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
*
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
POWs thought to be held there (there were zero Americans killed, but the prisoners had already moved to another camp; All US POWs were moved to a handful of central prison complexes as a result of this raid).
*
1971 -
Indian troops partly aided by
Mukti Bahini (
Bengali
guerrillas) defeated the
Pakistan army in the
Battle of Garibpur.
*
1974 - The
Birmingham Pub Bombings by the
IRA killed 21 people. The
Birmingham Six were sentenced to life in prison for this and subsequently acquitted.
* 1974 -
George W. Bush is honourably discharged from the US Air Force Reserve.
*
1977 -
Minister of Internal Affairs Hon
Allan Highet announced 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 alight, killing four. (see:
Foreign relations of Pakistan)
*
1980 - A deadly fire breaks out at the
MGM Grand Hotel in
Las Vegas, Nevada (now
Bally's Las Vegas). 87 people are killed and more than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.
* 1980 -
Lake Peigneur drained into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe drilled into the Diamond crystal salt mine; water flowing down into the mine eroded the edges of the hole. The whirlpool created sucked the drilling platform, several barges, houses and trees thousands of feet, to the bottom of the dissolving salt deposit.
* 1980 - Who Shot JR? - The
Dallas Episode "Who Done It?" aired on US television. It was one of the highest-rated episodes of a TV show ever aired.
*
1985 -
United States Navy intelligence analyst
Jonathan Jay Pollard is arrested for
spying (he was caught giving
Israel classified information on
Arab nations and was eventually 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 -
Charter of Paris for a New Europe refocusses the efforts of the
Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europeon post-
Cold War issues. The successor to the ; the
Super Famicom was released in Japan.
*
1991 - "The Apple of God's Eye", an undercover investigative journalism piece exposing the fundraising practices of American
televangelist Robert Tilton, airs on
ABC's
Primetime Live newsmagazine show for the first time.
*
1995 - The
Dayton Peace Agreement was initialled in the
Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near
Dayton,
Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement was formally ratified in
Paris, on
December 14 that same year.
* 1995 -
Toy Story is released as the first feature-length film created completely using
computer-generated imagery.
* 1995 - The
Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 5,000 (5,023.55) for the first time.
* 1999 -
Saundra Santiago of Miami Vice fame marries Roger Squintero
*
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, unleashing massive protests and controversy with regards to the election's integrity.
* 2004 - The island of
Dominica is hit by its most destructive
earthquake in history; the northern half of the island receives the most damage, especially in the town of
Portsmouth. It is also felt in neighbouring
Guadeloupe, where one person is killed as a result.
* 2004 - The
Paris Club agreed to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of
Iraq's external debt.[
1]
* 2004 - The
Nintendo DS was released in
United States and
Canada*
1495 -
John Bale, English churchman (d.
1563)
*
1567 -
Anne de Xainctonge, French saint (d.
1621)
*
1692 -
Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (d.
1768)
*
1694 -
Voltaire, French philosopher (d.
1778)
*
1761 -
Dorothy Jordan, British actress (d.
1816)
*
1768 -
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, German theologian (d.
1834)
*
1787 -
Samuel Cunard, Canadian-born shipping magnate (d.
1865)
*
1835 -
Hetty Green, American businesswoman (d.
1916)
*
1854 -
Pope Benedict XV (d.
1922)
*
1860 -
Tom Horn, American hitman (d.
1903)
*
1870 -
Sigfrid Edström, Swedish sports official (d.
1964)
*
1878 -
Gustav Radbruch, German law professor (d.
1949)
*
1886 -
Harold Nicolson, British diplomat (d.
1968)
*
1898 -
René Magritte, Belgian painter (d.
1967)
*
1902 -
Foster Hewitt, Canadian radio pioneer (d.
1985)
*
1904 -
Coleman Hawkins, American musician (d.
1969)
*
1908 -
Elizabeth George Speare, American author (d. 1994)
*
1912 -
Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (d.
1983)
*
1913 -
Roy Boulting, British film director (d.
2001)
*
1916 -
Sid Luckman, American football player (d.
1998)
*
1920 -
Stan Musial, baseball player
*
1921 -
Joonas Kokkonen, Finnish composer (d.
1996)
*
1922 -
Abe Lemons, American basketball coach
*
1931 -
Revaz Dogonadze, Georgian scientist (d.
1985)
*1931 -
Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d.
2003)
*
1933 -
Joseph Campanella, American actor
*
1935 -
Fairuz, Lebanese diva
*
1936 -
Victor Chang, Australian physician
*
1937 -
Marlo Thomas, American actress
*
1939 -
Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian politician
*
1940 -
Dr. John, American musician
*1940 -
Richard Marcinko, American author
*
1941 -
İdil Biret, Turkish pianist
*1941 -
Juliet Mills, British actress
*
1943 -
Viktor Sidjak, Russian fencer
*
1943 -
Larry Mahan, American rodeo cowboy
*
1944 -
Dick Durbin, American politician
* 1944 -
Earl Monroe, American basketball player
* 1944 -
Harold Ramis, American actor
*
1945 -
Goldie Hawn, American actress
*
1950 -
Alberto Juantorena, Cuban athlete
*
1956 -
Ed Kaz, American journalist
*
1962 -
Steven Curtis Chapman, American musician
*
1963 -
Nicollette Sheridan, British actress
*
1964 -
Shane Douglas, American professional wrestler
*
1965 -
Björk, Icelandic singer
* 1965 -
Alexander Siddig, British actor
*
1966 -
Troy Aikman, American football star
*
1967 -
Tripp Cromer, baseball player
*
1969 -
Ken Griffey, Jr., baseball player
*
1971 -
Michael Strahan, American football player
*
1972 -
David Tua, Samoan boxer
*
1973 -
Brooke Kerr, American actress
* 1973 -
Ines Sastre, Spanish model and actress
*
1976 -
Dasha, Czech porn star
*
1977 -
Jonas Jennings, American football player
*
1979 -
Alex Tanguay, Canadian ice hockey player
*
1980 -
Hank Blalock, baseball player
*1980 -
Leonardo González, Costa Rican footballer
*
1981 -
Piet Rinke, Zimbabwean cricketer
*
1982 -
Ryan Starr, American singer
*
1984 -
Jena Malone, American actress
*
496 -
Pope Gelasius I*
1361 -
Philip I, Duke of Burgundy (plague) (b.
1346)
*
1555 -
Georg Agricola, German scientist (b.
1490)
*
1566 -
Annibale Caro, Italian poet (b.
1507*
1579 -
Thomas Gresham, English merchant and financier
*
1652 -
Jan Brożek, Polish mathematician, physician, and astronomer (b.
1585)
*
1695 -
Henry Purcell, English composer
*
1775 -
John Hill, British writer
*
1811 -
Heinrich von Kleist, German writer (b.
1777)
*
1844 -
Ivan Krylov, Russian fabulist (b.
1769)
*
1881 -
Ami Boué, Austrian geologist (b.
1794)
*
1899 -
Garret Hobart,
Vice President of the United States (b.
1844)
*
1916 - Emperor
Franz Josef I of Austria (b.
1830)
*
1941 -
Henrietta Vinton Davis American elocutionist, dramatist, impersonator, public speaker (b.
1860).
*
1942 -
Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (b.
1863)
*
1945 -
Robert Benchley, American writer and actor (b.
1889)
*
1953 -
Larry Shields, American jazz clarinetist (b.
1893)
*
1957 -
Francis Burton Harrison, American political figure (b.
1873)
*
1958 -
Mel Ott, baseball player (b.
1909)
*
1959 -
Max Baer, American boxer (b.
1909)
*
1969 -
Mutesa II of Buganda, President of Uganda (
1924)
*
1970 -
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, Indian physicist and
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1888)
*
1974 -
John B. Gambling, American radio talk show host (b.
1897)
* 1974 -
Frank Martin, Swiss composer (b.
1890)
*
1988 -
Carl Hubbell, baseball player (b.
1903)
*
1990 -
Dean Hart, wrestler (b.
1954)
*
1991 -
Sonny Werblin, former owner of the
New York Jets (b.
1907)
*
1993 -
Bill Bixby, American actor and director (b.
1934)
*
1995 -
Peter Grant, British rock manager, actor (
Led Zeppelin,
Bad Company) (b.
1935)
* 1995 -
Noel Jones, British diplomat (b.
1940)
*
1996 -
Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist and
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1926)
*
1999 -
Quentin Crisp, British writer, raconteur and actor. (b.
1908)
*
2000 -
Emil Zátopek, Czech athlete (b.
1922)
*
2001 -
Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, King of Malaysia (b.
1926)
*
2002 -
Hadda Brooks, American jazz singer, pianist, and composer (b.
1916)
*
2005 -
Alfred Anderson, last British World War I veteran (b.
1896)
*
R.C. Saints -
Presentation of Mary* Also see
November 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)*
Bangladesh -
Armed Forces Day in Bangladesh*
World Television Day*
World Hello Day*
No Music Day*
BBC: On This DayNovember 20 -
November 22 -
October 21 -
December 21 --
listing of all days
