Descartes' Dream
1619 René Descartes has the dream that inspires his "Meditations on First Philosophy"
- 1630 Failed palace revolution in France against Cardinal Richelieu
- 1674 Dutch formally cede New Netherlands (New York) to the English
- 1687 Pope Innocent XI publishes decree Coelestis pastor
- 1697 English parliament accept army reduction
- 1766 The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).
- 1775 The Second Continental Congress forms Continental Marines, precursor to the United States Marine Corps
- 1793 'Fête de la Raison' in France: Catholic churches, including the Notre Dame Cathedral, are ceremoniously de-christianized and transformed into Temples of Reason [1]
- 1801 Kentucky outlaws duelling
- 1808 Osage Treaty / Treaty of Fort Clark, Osage Nation cedes territory in Missouri and Arkansas to the US
- 1836 Louis Napoleon banished to America
- 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 the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
First American Chess Congress
1857 First American Chess Congress is won by Paul Morphy; beats Louis Paulson, 6-2 for a tournament record of 14 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss
Stanley Encounters Livingstone
1871 Henry Morton Stanley encounters David Livingstone at Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa, with the immortal words 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'
- 1883 Toronto Argonauts defeat Ottawa FC 9-7, for 1st ORFU Championship
World's First Motorcycle
1885 German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the world's first motorcycle
- 1891 1st Women's Christian Temperance Union meeting held (in Boston)
- 1891 Granville T Woods patents electric railway
- 1892 1st CRU championship game: Osgoode Hall defeats Montreal, 45-5
- 1894 Fred Lugard signs accord with king Lafia "Absalamu" of Nikki
- 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina Coup D'état: White Supremacists violently overthrow local government, killing and threatening Black leaders [1]
- 1905 Sailors join the rebellion at Kronstadt naval base in Russia
- 1908 1st Gideon Bible put in a hotel room
- 1910 The date of Thomas A. Davis' opening of the San Diego Army and Navy Academy, though the official founding date is November 23, 1910.
Carnegie Corporation
1911 Andrew Carnegie forms Carnegie Corporation for scholarly and charitable works
- 1911 Chinese Imperial army recaptures Nanking (blood bath)
- 1917 41 suffragists are arrested in front of White House
- 1917 Faure's 2nd Violo Sonate premieres
German Emperor Flees
1918 German Emperor Wilhelm II flees to Netherlands
- 1918 Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air
- 1919 1st observance of National Book Week
- 1919 American Legion's 1st national convention (Minneapolis)
Heartbreak House
1920 George Bernard Shaw's play "Heartbreak House" premieres in NYC
- 1923 German ex-crown prince flees Netherlands for Germany
- 1924 Dion O'Banion, leader of the North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio's gang, sparking the bloody gang war of the 1920s in Chicago.
- 1926 Guomindang-regring deallocates seat of Kanton to Wuhan (Hankou)
1st Canadian Minister to the US
1926 Vincent Massey becomes 1st Canadian minister to USA
Emperor Hirohito's Regalia
1928 Emperor Hirohito of Japan's possession of the Imperial Regalia is publicly confirmed
4th Academy Awards
1931 4th Academy Awards: "Cimarron", Lionel Barrymore & Marie Dressler win
- 1933 Black Blizzard snowstorm-duststorm rages from SD to Atlantic
First NHL Penalty
1934 First NHL penalty shot is awarded to Montreal Canadiens forward Armand Mondou; stopped by Toronto goaltender George Hainsworth in Maple Leafs' 2-1 win
Estado Novo
1937 Brazilian President Getulio Vargas proclaims "Estado Novo" dictatorship in a radio address to the nation
- 1938 8.3 earthquake shakes East of Shumagin Islands, Alaska
- 1938 Nobel for literature awarded to Pearl Buck (Good Earth)
- 1938 Second day of Kristallnacht: pogrom against the Jews in Germany and Austria after assassination of a German diplomat in Paris
- 1940 Pittsburgh Steelers & Philadelphia Eagles play one of only 4 penalty free games in NFL history; Steelers win 7-3 at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh
Walt Disney FBI Informer
1940 Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives.
- 1942 Philip Barry's play "Without Love" premieres in NYC
- 1942 US troops occupy airport of Port-Lyautey, Morocco
- 1942 US-British troops occupies Oran, Algeria
- 1944 Ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands
- 1944 German riots in Rotterdam/Schiedam 52,000 men sent to Germany
- 1944 US 9th Army takes Margraten cemetery
- 1945 College football's #1 Army beats #2 Notre Dame 48-0
- 1945 Heavy battle in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
- 1946 Communists win many seats at French parliamentary election
- 1950 After 9 years, Cleveland Indians fire manager Lou Boudreau
- 1950 Clifford Odet's "Country Girl" premieres in NYC
President of Guatemala Elected
1950 Jacobo Árbenz elected President of Guatemala
Faulkner Wins Nobel Prize
1950 Nobel Prize for literature awarded to William Faulkner "for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"
- 1951 1st long distance telephone call without operator assistance
Tryve Lie Resigns
1952 Trygve Lie resigns as 1st Secretary General of the United Nations
- 1953 Giants end their tour of Japan (players got $331 of $3,000 promised)
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
1954 "Marine Corps War Memorial" unveiled in Arlington County, Virginia, dedicated to US Marine Corps who died in defense of US since 1775 (inspired by 1945 Iwo Jima photo of servicemen raising US flag)
- 1957 NFL Cleveland Browns' Don Paul sets club record for longest fumble return with a 89-yard run (and TD), beating Pittsburgh Steelers 24-0
- 1957 NFL record crowd (102,368), '49ers vs Rams in LA
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
1958 Bertolt Brecht's play "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" premieres in Stuttgart, West Germany
- 1958 WUFT TV channel 5 in Gainesville, FL (PBS) begins broadcasting
Lady Chatterley's Lover
1960 Uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" finally goes on sale in the UK after a jury finds publisher Penguin Books not guilty in an obscenity trial
New All-time Goal Scorer
1963 Detroit right wing Gordie Howe surpasses Maurice Richard as leading NHL all-time goal scorer with 545th career goal in a 3-0 Red Wings victory over Montreal Canadiens in Detroit
Taoiseach Jack Lynch
1966 Jack Lynch selected new leader of Fianna Fáil and Irish Taoiseach, succeeding Sean Lemass
Mário Soares Released
1968 Portuguese socialist Mário Soares released from banishment in Sao Tomé under new regieme of Marcello Caetano
Sesame Street
1969 "Sesame Street" premieres on PBS TV
- 1970 Luna 17, with unmanned self-propelled Lunokhod 1, is launched
Arafat Addresses UN
1975 PLO leader Yasser Arafat addresses UN in NYC
Royals Release Killebrew
1975 Royals release slugger Harmon Killebrew, ending his 22-year career
- 1975 UN General Assembly approves resolution equating Zionism with racism
- 1976 Utah Supreme Court approves execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore
- 1977 Amsterdam: Red Army Faction terrorists Gert Schneider and Christof Wackernagel arrested
- 1977 Major Indoor Soccer League officially organized (NYC)
- 1978 Israel's top negotiators broke away from Middle East peace talks
Holmes KOs Evangelist
1978 Larry Holmes KOs Alfredo Evangelist in 7 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1978 NY Yankees trade Lyle, Rajsich, McCall, Heath and Ramos to Texas for Righetti, Mirabella, Beniquez, Jemison and Griffin
- 1979 Train detrailment in Mississauga, Ontario; a 106 car train derails causing the evacuation of 200,000 people
Rather's Wild Ride
1980 Anchorman Dan Rather alleges cabbie tried to kidnap him, refuses to pay his fare in dispute with cab driver
Hagler vs. Durán
1983 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler retains world middleweight boxing title with a 15-round unanimous points decision over Roberto Durán at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas; first time Hagler taken the distance as champion
- 1983 US Federal government shut down
- 1984 Australia all out for 76 v West Indies at cricket WACA, Holding 6-21
- 1984 Miami Hurricanes blows 31-0 lead in 3rd quarter lose to Md 42-40
- 1985 NHL Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Pelle Lindbergh smashes his Porsche into a retaining wall in Somerdale, New Jersey after a team party, suffering mortal injuries with two passengers critically hurt; his blood-alcohol level was over twice the legal limit, his family had him removed from life support when they arrived from Sweden
- 1986 Bangladeshi Constitution restored
Springsteen's Live/1975-85
1986 Columbia Records releases Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band "Live/1975-85", a 5 LP box set of concert recordings
Hershiser Wins Cy Young
1988 Orel Hershiser (23-8) is a unanimous choice as NL Cy Young Award
- 1989 Bulgarian Communist party president Todor Zhikov (78) resigns
Fall of the Berlin Wall
1989 Germans begin demolishing the Berlin Wall
- 1989 Word Perfect 5.1 is shipped
- 1990 Chandra Shekhar becomes 8th Prime Minister of India
Home Alone
1990 John Hughes' film "Home Alone" directed by Chris Columbus and starring Macaulay Culkin premieres in Chicago
- 1990 Lebanon releases 2 French hostages (Camille Sontag & Marcel Coudari)
- 1991 Bernie Kosar ends NFL record of 308 passes without an interception
- 1991 Browns set club record for largest lead blown (led 23-0), Philadelphia 32-30
Navratilova Equals Evert's Record
1991 Martina Navratilova ties Chris Evert with 157 pro tennis tournament wins
- 1991 Marty Glickman broadcasts his 1,000th football game
- 1991 South Africa's 1st cricket international since 1970 - one-day v India
- 1993 Slovakian government of Vladimír Mečiar forms
- 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 "Jackie - An American Life" opens at Belasco Theater NYC
Murder of Interest
1997 Nanny Louise Woodward murder conviction downgraded to manslaughter
Star Trek: Insurrection
1998 "Star Trek: Insurrection" film directed by Jonathan Frakes and starring Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes premieres
- 2001 An agreement is reached at talks in Marrakech, Morocco, on rules for implementation of the Kyoto climate change treaty
Clijsters reaches $4 Million
2003 Kim Clijsters of Belgium becomes first female tennis player to earn $US4 million in a season when she overwhelms Amélie Mauresmo 6-2, 6-0 for the WTA Tour Championship at the Staples Center, Los Angeles
- 2006 Sri Lankan Tamil Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj assassinated in Colombo.
¿Por qué no te callas?
2007 ¿Por qué no te callas? ("Why don't you shut up?") incident between Juan Carlos I of Spain and Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez at Ibero-American Summit in Santiago
Disney Composer's Hollywood Star
2010 Alan Menken, famous Disney composer, receives the 2,442nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- 2012 17 people are killed in a helicopter crash as a result of bad weather in Turkey
- 2012 20 Syrian troops are killed by suicide bombings in Daara
- 2012 27 people are killed and dozens injured in a prison conflict in Colombo, Sri Lanka
- 2012 Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum opens at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, designed by Zaha Hadid [1]
- 2012 Israeli counter strike on Palestinian militants in Gaza kills 5 and injure 30
Obama defeats Romney
2012 The final US presidential election results are declared after Barack Obama wins Florida to defeat Mitt Romney 332-206 in Electoral College votes
- 2013 Spaniard Marc Márquez wins the 2013 MotoGP World Championship to become its youngest ever winner at 20
The Hunger Games
2014 "The Hunger Games" Mockingjay - Part 1" directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson premieres in London
Uptown Funk
2014 "Uptown Funk" single released by Bruno Mars (Billboard Song of the Year 2015, Grammy Record Of The Year, Grammy Song of the Year 2016)
- 2014 Ethel Kennedy is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama
- 2015 Fourth Republican presidential candidates debate, sponsored by "The Wall Street Journal", held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- 2015 Portugal's minority government is toppled by left-wing opposition 2 weeks after coming to power
- 2017 BBC removes drama from Christmas line-up after one of its stars, Ed Westwick, accused of rape by two women
- 2017 Louis C.K. admits the stories of sexual misconduct about him are true
Bolivian President Resigns
2019 Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns amid widespread protests after national election considered irregular and manipulated
- 2019 Death toll in demonstrations in Iraq reaches 319, with 15,000 injured since Oct 1 according to Iraqi human rights organization
Iran Finds New Oil Field
2019 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announces the discovery of a new oil field with an estimated 53 million barrels of oil in Khuzestan province
- 2020 Ceasefire announced signed between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia ending military conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh region after over a month of fighting
- 2020 Word of the year is "Lockdown" according to Collins English Dictionary
- 2021 China and the US announce plans to work together on cutting greenhouse gas emissions at the COP26 summit
Peter Jackson Sells Weta Digital
2021 New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson sells Weta Digital's technology division to video games company Unity for US$1.6 billion [1]
Largest Art Auction
2022 Largest art auction in history belonging to late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen achieves sales of $1.5b, to be donated to charity [1]
Invasive Hippos
2023 Columbia begins a campaign to sterilize its invasive hippos, the escaped ex-pets of drug cartel head Pablo Escobar [1]
