November
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1 – 2 November – Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated around the world, but particularly in Mexico, where it is a public holiday. On this day people pray for loved ones who have died. Coincides with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day (originally introduced in 609AD) and All Souls’ Day.
1 November 1952 – The U.S. detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1 November 1993 – The European Union formally established as a result of the Maastricht Treaty, which had been ratified by 12 nations in February 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.
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2 November 1917 – British Foreign Secretary, James Balfour, presents a declaration of intent to establish a national homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people. It became known as the ‘Balfour Declaration’.
2 November – 10 December 1932 – The Great Emu War, when the Australian government takes military action against a large number of emus running amok in the Campion district of Western Australia, causing crop destruction. Soldiers armed with Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, were dispatched to mow down the unarmed and flighless emus. It was also planned that 100 emu skins were to be collected so that their feathers could be used to make hats for the light horsemen. The initial operation killed somewhere between 50 and 200 emus, with no military casualties. Major Meredith, the officer commanding the operation, likened the emus to Zulus, when he said, ‘If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world… They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop‘. After a second operation concluded on 10 December 1932, Meredith claimed that 986 emus were killed from 9860 rounds, at a rate of 10 rounds per bird, with 2,500 emus wounded. The emus continued menacing crops, but rather than taking further military action, the government used a bounty system in which 57,034 bounties were claimed in a six month period in 1934.
2 November 1936 – launch of the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC-TV). World’s first regular television service. Initially broadcasting with a radius of 25 miles. It was taken off-air from 1939 – 1946 because of World War II. Now known as BBC One.
2 November 1942 – Australians recapture Kokoda from the Japanese during the Kokoda Track campaign. The campaign was fought from 21 July 1942 to 16 November 1942, in the Australian territory of Papua New Guinea between Japanese and predominantly Australian forces. The Kokoda Track wound through the Owen Stanley Ranges, which Japanese forces had invaded as they attempted to seize Port Moresby.
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3 November 1913 – The United States introduces income tax.
3 November 1921 – birth of Charles Dennis Buchinsky, otherwise known as Charles Bronson, American actor. Died 30 August 2003.
3 November 1957 – Laika becomes the world’s first space-dog when the Soviet Union launches Sputnik II, sending the first ever living animal into space. Laika is the first animal to orbit the earth. She was a stray-dog which was chosen to undergo training with two other dogs, before being selected for the mission. In 2002 it was revealed that she died within hours of take-off from over-heating when one of the motors failed to separate from the payload.
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4 November 1926 – British archeologist, Howard Carter, discovers steps leading to the tomb of the Pharoah Tutankhamen.
4 November 1979 – Students loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini over-run the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 Americans hostage in protest against the former Shah of Iran being allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment. The hostages were held for 14 months and released after the U.S. government promised $5 billion in foreign aid and unfroze $3 billion of Iranian funds. During the crisis, President Jimmy Carter attempted an unsuccessful rescue mission by helicopter, which ended in the deaths of 8 U.S. marines.
4 November 1995 – assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The assassin was Yigal Amir, an Israeli right-wing Zionist, who opposed the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in which Rabin had negotiated a peace plan with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
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5 November 1605 – Guy Fawkes Day. Celebrates King James I survived an attempt on his life when Guy Fawkes and others from the Gunpowder Plot placed gunpowder around the House of Lords in a failed attempt to blow up parliament.
5 November 1996 – Bill Clinton secures a second term as U.S. President, with a land-slide victory. Clinton is the first Democrat in 50 years to win consecutive terms of government.
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6 November 1985 – Iran-Contra Affair revealed in the media. U.S. President Ronald Reagan exposed as having sold arms to Iran in order to secure the release of Americans being held by an Iranian group and to also help the U.S. to continue illicitly funding the Nicaraguan Contras after Congress had banned further funding arrangements. The Contras were rebels who were committing human rights violations while opposing the ruling Marxist Sandinista regime. Numerous high-ranking members of the Reagan government were indicted, including Casper Weinberger (Secretary of Defence, later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush), William Casey (Head of CIA), Robert McFarlane (National Security Advisor), Oliver North (member of the National Security Council), and John Poindexter (National Security Advisor).
6 November 1999 – Australians vote to keep the Queen as head of state instead of establishing a republic.
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7 November 1879 – birth of Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronshtein). Russian Marxist revolutionary, Soviet politician, founder and first leader of the Red Army. Major figure in the Bolshevik victory during the Russian Civil War. After the Russian Revolution Trotsky became the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He was opposed to Joseph Stalin. He was expelled from the Communist Party in November 1927 and deported from the Soviet Union in 1929. Trotsky relocated to Mexico where he continued his opposition to Stalin. Trotsky was assassinated by ice-pick wielding Rámon Mercader in Mexico on the orders of Stalin. Trotskyism is a form of Marxism which is based on Trotsky’s ideas and opposed to Stalinism. Died 21 August 1940.
7 – 8 November 1917 – October Revolution. Part of the Russian Revolution which commenced with the February Revolution (8-12 March 1917) and which overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and replaced it with the Soviet government. (This date is from the New Style Gregorian calendar and corresponds with 25 October 1917 under the Old Style Julian calendar).
7 November 1956 – Suez Canal Crisis. Egyptian President Nasser announces that he will nationalise the Suez Canal Company and in the interim, freezes their assets. In response, France, Britain and Israel attack Egypt, including the bombing Cairo. They had attacked in order to gain control of the Suez Canal and to remove Nasser from power. The United Nations issued a resolution requiring France, Britain and Israel to withdraw. The United States and the Soviet Union backed the U.N. resolution and the three antagonists were forced to withdraw.
7 November 2000 – George W. Bush wins the most controversial U.S. presidential election in history. Because of the closeness of the election results in Florida, a number of actions were taken in the U.S. Supreme Court. Before recounting could close, the Supreme Court declared George W. Bush the victor, with a majority of between 500 and 2,000 votes, even though it was revealed that George W. Bush’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush removed 58,000 names from the electoral role (based on ethnicity and who were likely to vote Democrat).
7 November 2016 – death of Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter, whose biggest hit was his 1984 song ‘Hallelujah‘, which has since been covered by dozens of other singers. In 2004, Cohen discovered his manager had misappropriated around $5 million from him. Although Cohen sued her and was awarded $9 million, she refused to pay up. Cohen was forced to return to work and embarked on a number of worldwide tours as well as released a book of poetry and a number of albums, including ‘Old Ideas‘, ‘Popular Problems‘ and his 13th and last album, ‘You Want It Darker‘, which was released three weeks before his death. Born 21 September 1934.
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8 November 1836 – birth of Milton Bradley, U.S. board-game maker, credited with launching the board-game industry. Died 30 May 1911.
8 November 1847 – birth of Bram Stoker, Irish novellist, author of ‘Dracula’. Died 20 April 1912.
8 November 1960 – 43 year old, John F. Kennedy wins the presidential election and becomes the youngest President of the United States of America.
8 November 1973 – In Brisbane, Australia, a home-made bomb is placed on a teacher’s desk. It detonates, killing one student, injuring 8 others, while the teacher loses both hands.
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9-10 November 1938 – Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) – Nazi paramilitary forces (the Brownshirts) and non-Jewish German citizens attack Jews, smash windows of synagogues, shops and houses. At least 91 Jews were killed in the attack and more than 30,000 incarcerated in concentration camps. Over 1,000 synagogues and 7,000 businesses were destroyed or damaged. The Nazis undertook the attack following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst Vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan in Paris, a German-born Polish Jew. However, it is likely that the attack would have happened anyway, as Kristallnacht is seen as the beginning of Hitler’s Final Solution which was to eliminate Jews from Europe. The Final Solution culminated in the Holocaust, in which more than 6 million Jews were executed, along with many other ‘undesirables’, such as Gypsys, homosexuals and dissidents. At its height, the Nazis had over 40,000 concentration camps in which millions of Jews and others were executed, sometimes by firing squad, but often by gas chamber. The Nazis also conducted medical experiments on the prisoners, in an effort to build a genetically modified ‘master race’. The subjects who survived the experiments were usually executed and dissected.
9 November 1967 – First edition of Rolling Stone magazine is published, and features John Lennon.
9 November 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall.Construction of the wall commenced in 1961 and was completed in 1962, to separate the Communist controlled East Berlin from the capitalist West Berlin. The Communist government claimed that it was to protect East Germany from Fascist forces in West Germany, although it was mainly to prevent the mass defections from the Eastern bloc. Between the end of World War II and the construction of the Wall, more than 3.5 million people defected to the West. The Wall was more than 140km long, with numerous guard towers and check-points. It symbolised the ‘Iron Curtain’, which was used to describe the attempts of Europe’s Eastern bloc, including the Soviet Union, to severely restrict contact with the West.
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10 November 1919 – birth of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet Union hero, inventor of the world’s most popular assault weapon, the AK-47, or ‘Kalashnikov’. The AK-47 stood for Kalashnikov Assault, 1947, the year it was designed. He was awarded the ‘Hero of Russia’ medal as well as Lenin and Stalin prizes. Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 to protect the national borders of the Soviet Union. The AK-47 has a simple design, which makes it very reliable and easy to replicate. Kalashnikov hadn’t patented the design internationally. As a result, of the estimated 100 million AK-47s in the world today, it is believed that at least half are copies. Although his weapon has been favoured by armies and guerillas across the globe, Kalashnikov claimed he never lost sleep over the numbers of people killed by it. He always maintained that he invented it to protect the ‘Fatherland’s borders’. He did however, rue the use of it by child soldiers. Kalashnikov was a World War II veteran who was wounded in 1941. While recovering in hospital he conceived the design. Died 23 December 2013.
10 November 1969 – Sesame Street debuts on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), featuring muppets by Jim Henson. It is one of the longest running tv shows in history and has been highly successful at increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of children.
10 November 1982 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet President, dies in office from a heart attack.
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11 November 1880 – execution by hanging, of Ned Kelly, Australian bush-ranger.
11 November 1918 – End of World War I. Commemorated as ‘Remembrance Day’ in British Commonwealth countries and ‘Armistice Day’ in other nations, recognising the armistice signed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In 1954, the United States, changed Armistice Day to ‘Veterans Day’ and made it a public holiday to recognise those who have served in the armed forces, not just those who served in World War I.
11 November 1954 – Pensioners’ Revolt, United Kingdom. Thousands of pensioners march in a rally in London calling for an increase of their pensions by 17s 6d, which would take a single person’s pension to £2 10s per week.
11 November 1975 – Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (Labor Party) sacked by the Governor-General and replaced by Malcolm Fraser (Liberal Party).
11 November 2004 – death of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader in Paris after falling into a coma. The cause of his death is disputed, with some believing he was poisoned by Israel, others believing it was from cirrhosis. Born 4 August 1929.
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12 November 1927 – Josef Stalin takes full control of the Soviet Union after Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party a few weeks earlier.
12 November 1944 – sinking of the German battleship, Tirpitz. The Allies had tried for two years to sink the ship. Finally, 32 British Lancaster bombers attack and sink the ship.
12 November 1990 – Swiss computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, publishes a formal proposal for hyper-text transfer, this followed his proposal for Information Management, published in March 1989. On 25 December 1990, he makes the world’s first successful communication between a hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) client and a server; and the world wide web is born. He is director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which oversees the ongoing development of the world-wide web.
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13 November 1940 – the prototype of the Jeep was submitted to U.S. Army for approval by car-maker Willys-Overland. Following the U.S. declaration of war 12 months later, production of the Jeep began. By the end of the war in 1945, there had been 600,000 produced.
13 November 1940 – Walt Disney releases his animated movie, Fantasia, which eventually became a cult-classic. At time of release though, the movie was not a commercial success.
13 November 1956 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that laws which segregated buses were illegal.
13 November 1970 – the worst natural disaster of the 20th century occurs when a devastating cyclone strikes Bangladesh, killing over 500,000 people. The cyclone with 160km/h winds, caused tidal waves and storm surges which swept over the densely-populated, low-lying regions of the Ganges Delta and nearby islands.
13 November 1971 – Space voyager Mariner 9, reaches Mars and becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.
13 November 2009 – NASA announces that a significant resource of water has been located on the moon by the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter.
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14 November 1868 – birth of Steele Rudd, Australian author, (pen-name for Arthur Hoey Davis). Wrote ‘On Our Selection‘, which introduced Australia to ‘Dad and Dave’. Died 11 October 1935.
14 November 1942 – birth of Robert G. Barrett, Australian author of books such as ‘Davo’s Little Something’ and the Les Norton series which included, ‘High Noon in Nimbin’, ‘The Tesla Legacy’, ‘Crime Scene Cessnock’, ‘Rosa-Marie’s Baby’, ‘Guns n Rosé’. Barrett sold over 1,000,000 books in Australia. Died 20 September 2012.
14 November 2012 – Total solar eclipse visible from Cairns, North Queensland, Australia. Other areas saw a partial eclipse. The last total eclipse for Cairns was in 710AD, with the next one not expected for another 225 years.
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15 November 1943 – Nazi SS leader, Heinrich Himmler issues an order stating that Gypsies were to be treated the same as Jews and sent to concentration camps.
15 November 1988 – Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinian National Conference, declares the independence of Palestine.
15 November 2007 – Cyclone Sidr, with 160km/h winds, strikes Bangladesh. Over 2 million people are evacuated from coastal areas. Around 5,000 people were killed.
15 November 2008 – death of Ivan Southall AM, DFC, Australian writer of young-adult fiction and non-fiction. Books include ‘Ash Road’, ‘Let the Balloon Go’, ‘Hill’s End’, ‘Fly West’ and ‘Josh. Born 8 June 1921.
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16 November – International day for tolerance. ‘On this International Day of Tolerance, I call on all people and governments to actively combat fear, hatred and extremism with dialogue, understanding and mutual respect. Let us advance against the forces of division and unite for our shared future‘, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
16 November 1793 – During the French Revolution, 90 Catholic priests who were opposed to the Republic, are executed by drowning at Nantes.
16 November 1938 – Swiss scientist, Dr Albert Hofmann, creates the synthetic drug, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.
16 November 1945 – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is founded in order ‘to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to further universal respect for justice and the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion’.
16 November 1988 – 35 year old, Benazir Bhutto elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. She was a member of the democratic-socialist Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
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17 November 1950 – 15 year-old, Tenzin Gyatso becomes the 14th Dalai Lama in Tibet, a position he holds to this day.
17 November 1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon televises a speech in which he states, ‘I am not a crook’. This was in relation to allegations of his involvement in the Watergate Scandal, in which documents were stolen from the offices of the Democratic National Convention at the Watergate Hotel in Washington on 17 June 1972. Nixon was implicated in the break-in when recordings of conversations held in the Oval Office showed his involvement. Impeachment proceedings were commenced, however, Nixon resigned on 8 August 1974 and avoided being impeached, although he faced possible criminal proceedings. Vice-President Gerald Ford became President immediately following Nixon’s resignations, and on 8 September 1974, Ford pardoned Nixon of any wrong-doing.
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18 November 1922 – Benito Mussolini becomes the leader of Italy. Mussolini, was head of the National Fascist Party and one of the founders of fascism. As dictator he named himself ‘Il Duce’ (The Leader). Initially a socialist, Mussolini felt that socialism had failed and he opposed egalitarianism. He was an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler. Mussolini was forced to stand down in 1943 by his opponents. He went into hiding and in 1945 was captured and executed.
18 November 1928 – Mickey Mouse makes his screen debut, in ‘Steamboat Willy’.
18 November 1978 – Jim Jones, leader of the cult ‘People’s Temple’ located in Jonestown, Guyana, instructs followers to drink a deadly brew of Kool-Aid, cyanide and sedatives. 914 people died in the mass suicide, including Jones. 303 children were among the victims. It is likely that some of the deaths were murder as a result of some people being forced to drink the concoction. Jones claimed that the cult was under surveillance of intelligence organisations who were preparing to raid Jonestown and either kill or capture the members. He claimed that survivors would be forced to convert to fascism.
18 November 2002 – death of James Coburn, actor (‘The Great Escape‘, ‘The Magnificent Seven‘). Born 31 August 1928.
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19 November 1863 – President Lincoln delivers the ‘Gettysburg Address’ during the American Civil War, while dedicating the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The speech commenced with the now-famous words, ‘Four score and seven years ago …’, which was referring to the Declaration of Independence in 1777. The speech addressed equality, freedom and democracy being representative of all people.
19 November 2007 – share markets across the globe crashed, as the world entered the Global Financial Crisis.
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20 November 1900 – birth of Chester Gould, American creator of the cartoon strip, ‘Dick Tracy’. He drew the comic strip from 1931 to 1977. Died 11 May 1985.
20 November 1910 – death of Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer, (‘Anna Karenina‘, ‘War and Peace‘). Born 9 September 1828.
20 November 1947 – Princess Elizabeth, who is crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, marries Phillip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey.
20 November 1985 – Microsoft launches Windows 1.01, a graphical user interface for personal computers. The program required MS-DOS to operate.
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21 November 164BC – Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
21 November 1694 – birth of François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. French enlightment writer, historian and philosopher. A man of wit who advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression and separation of church and state. Voltaire wrote more than 20,000 letters, 2,000 books and pamphlets. He criticised intolerance, religious dogma and social institutions. Died 30 May 1778.
21 November 1936 – birth of Victor Chang, a Chinese-Australian cardiac surgeon who pioneered heart transplants. Chang was shot dead on 4 July 1991, in a failed extortion attempt.
21 November 1965 – birth of Bjork (Björk Guðmundsdóttir), Icelandic singer-songwriter, producer and actress.
21 November 1986 – Oliver North, National Security Council staffer, begins shredding documents associated with the Iran-Contra debacle that could have implicated themselves and others within the Reagan administration in the illegal sale of arms to Iran in order to fund the rebel Nicaraguan Contras.
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22 November 1819 – birth of Mary Ann Evans. One of England’s greatest novelists, she published under the name ‘George Eliot’ in order to be taken seriously. Some of her novels include ‘Adam Bede’, ‘Mill on the Floss’, ‘Silas Marner’, and ‘Daniel Deronda’. Her novel, ‘Middlemarch’, was described as the greatest novel in the English language. Died 22 December 1880.
22 November 1906 – the use of the morse code signal ‘SOS’ is implemented as a global distress call. The SOS signal is three dots, three dashes and three dots
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22 November 1963 – assassination of John F. Kennedy. 35th president of the United States. Born 29 May 1917.
22 November 1963 – death of Aldous Huxley, English writer. Most famous for his vision of the future, ‘Brave New World’, as well as his work ‘The Doors of Perception’, based on his use of psychedelic drugs. Jim Morrison named his 60’s psychedelic rock band, ‘The Doors’ after Huxley’s book. Born 26 July 1894.
22 November 1963 – death of Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis, Irish novelist, author of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ and ‘The Screwtape Letters’. Born 29 November 1898.
22 November 1990 – UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher forced to resign by her own Cabinet who refused to endorse her as leader. She had come to power in 1979 and had become known as the ‘Iron Lady’. She is the longest-serving UK Prime Minister and the only female to hold the post. She fought numerous battles with unions over her economic and deregulation reforms. She introduced a ‘Community Charge’ or ‘Poll Tax’, which replaced rates with a flat-tax rate on every adult. It was extremely unpopular even within her own Cabinet and was a crucial catalyst for her disendorsement and subsequent resignation.
22 November 1993 – death of Anthony Burgess, English writer. Most famous for his dystopian novel, ‘The Clockwork Orange’, which Stanley Kubrick made into a controversial movie. Born 25 February 1917.
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23 November 534BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage. The word ‘thespian’ is derived from Thespis.
23 November 1859 – birth of William H. Bonney aka Billy ‘The Kid’. American outlaw. Legend has it that he killed 21 men, although historians believe it may have been between 4 and 9 men. He was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett around 14 July 1881. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Bonney did not get shot that day, but that Garrett staged the shooting so that Billy ‘The Kid’ could escape.
23 November 1889 – the first jukebox commences operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
23 November 1963 – Dr Who premiers on BBC TV, starring William Hartnell. It has become the longest running science fiction series in the world.
23 November 1981 – US President Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Directive 17 (NSDD-17), authorising the Central Intelligence Agency to recruit, train and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua, in order to wage guerilla warfare against the ruling leftist Sandanista regime. In 1982, the Boland Amendment was passed by Congress which banned US support of the Contras. The Reagan administration illegally continued funding the rebels. Part of the funding was obtained by illegally selling arms to Iran, which was the subject of an international arms boycott. The Reagan administration sold the arms in an effort to free seven US hostages being held by a group linked with Iran. The scandal became known as the Iran-Contra affair and was the subject of a Presidential Commission (the Tower Commission) as well as investigations by a number of Congressional Committees. As a result, a number of high ranking members of Reagan’s administration were indicted, including Caspar Weinberger (Secretary of Defence) – later pardoned by President H.W. Bush in 1991 before standing trial, William Casey (Head of the CIA), Robert C. MacFarlane (Assistant Secretary of State), Oliver North (National Security Council), Admiral John Poindexter, and numerous others. While Reagan knew of the operations, it was not definitively shown that he issued the orders.
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24 November 1806 – birth of William Webb Ellis, Anglican clergyman who is credited for creating Rugby Union after allegedly picking up the ball during a soccer match and running with it, while a student at Rugby School. Died 24 February 1872.
24 November 1859 – Charles Darwin publishes his iconic work, The Origin of Species, which has become the foundation of evolutionary biology.
24 November 1991 – death of Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara). British musician and vocalist. Lead singer of rock group, Queen. Born 5 September 1946.
24 November 1991 – death of Eric Carr (Paul Charles Caravello), drummer with Kiss. Born 12 July 1950.
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25 November 1947 – The ‘Hollywood Ten’ are blacklisted for their allegiance with, or sympathy for the American Communist Party. They were cited for Contempt of Congress when they refused to testify to the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. The Hollywood Ten were unable to work in the movie industry again. The ten were Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo.
25 November 1963 – funeral of assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Washington DC. Over 800,000 people lined the streets. He was interred at Arlington Cemetery.
25 November 2016 – death of Fidel Castro, former Cuban President. Born 13 August 1926.
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26 November 1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnavon enter the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen which Carter had discovered a few days earlier. Legend held that the tomb was protected by the ‘Mummy’s Curse’. Within 7 months of entering the tomb, both Carter and Carnavon were dead.
26 November 1942 – world premiere of iconic film ‘Casablanca’, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The movie was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 of them.
26 November 1992 – The Queen begins paying income tax and the number of royals receiving tax-payers funds is reduced to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen Mother.
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27 November 1940 – birth of Bruce Lee. (born as Lee Jun-fan), martial artist and actor. Died 20 July 1973.
27 November 1942 – birthday of Jimi Hendrix. American guitarist and singer-songwriter. Died 18 September 1970.
27 November 1975 – Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of World Records, is shot dead outside his house in North London. Police suspect the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of the murder, as McWhirter had posted a £50,000 reward for information that lead to the arrest of IRA bombers.
27 November 1999 – Helen Clark is elected as New Zealand’s first female Prime Minister. She represented the centre-left of the Labour Party.
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28 November 1968 – death of Enid Blyton, British author of numerous series of children’s stories, including ‘Noddy‘, ‘Famous Five‘, and ‘Secret Seven‘. Born 11 August 1897.
28 November 1990 – UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher formally tenders her resignation following disendorsement by her Cabinet on 22 November 1990.
28 November 1992 – death of Sidney Nolan, one of Australia’s leading artists, best known for his series of Ned Kelly paintings. During the 2000 Olympics, performers wore costumes based on Nolan’s depiction of Ned Kelly. Nolan painted a number of Australian legends and historical events, including the Eureka Stockade, and explorers Burke and Wills. Nolan was influenced by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Born 22 April 1917.
28 November 1994 – U.S. serial killer and cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, bashed to death while cleaning a prison toilet. Dahmer was serving 15 life sentences for the murder of 15 men and boys. He had initially faced 17 murder charges, but this had been reduced.
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29 November – International Day of Solidarity with Palestine.
29 November 1898 – birth of Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis, Irish novellist, author of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ and ‘The Screwtape Letters’. Died 22 November 1963.
29 November 1922 – Federal authorities are engaged to assist in the enforcement of prohibition laws in the United States.
29 November 1947 – the United Nations votes in favour of Resolution 181 for the partitioning of the land of Palestine in order to create both a Jewish state, named Israel, and an Arab state named Palestine. Arab nations refused to accept the resolution and the state of Palestine was not created, while the state of Israel was.
29 November 1948 – the first Holden car is manufactured in Australia by General Motors Holden Automotive (GMH). The first model is a Holden FX.
29 November 1963 – The Warren Commission is established to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. After 10 months, the Chief Justice Earl Warren hands down his findings that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in the assassination.
29 November 1986 – death of Cary Grant, born Archibald Alexander Leach, actor (‘North by Northwest‘, ‘To Catch a Thief‘, ‘An Affair to Remember‘, ‘Gunga Din‘). Born 18 January 1904.
29 November 2012 – The United Nations votes to recognise Palestine as a ‘non-member state’, implicitly acknowledging Palestinian statehood.
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30 November 1835 – birth of Mark Twain, U.S. novellist, author of ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. Died 21 April 1910.
30 November 1874 – birth of U.K. Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. Died 24 January 1965.
30 November 1900 – death of Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet. Wilde wrote a number of plays, poems and epigrams. His only novel was ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. His plays included ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’, and ‘Salome’. In addition to English, he was fluent in German and French. In 1895, Wilde was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ which related to some of his homosexual relationships. He received the maximum sentence of two years hard labour. On his release from prison in 1897, Wilde moved to Paris, living in exile and poverty. He died on 30 November 1900 from cerebral meningitis. He was buried at Cimetière de Bagneux, but in 1909 his remains were transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. He was born on 16 October 1854.
30 November 1936 – Crystal Palace in Britain is destroyed by fire. The Crystal Palace had been constructed for the Great Exhibition in 1851 and featured the first public toilets in England. During the Exhibition, visitors were able to pay 1 penny to use the conveniences. It was from this that the term ‘spend a penny’ came into use as a euphemism for visiting the loo.
30 November 1950 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman announces that he is willing to use atomic bombs to bring peace to Korea.
30 November 1979 – Pink Floyd releases their cult album ‘The Wall’, which was later made into a movie and one of the greatest stage-shows of all time. The songs were written by Rogers Waters and Dave Gilmour. Roger Waters performed ‘The Wall’ stage-show with other celebrities on 21 July 1990 in Berlin, to celebrate the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.
30 November 2007 – death of U.S. daredevil, Evel Knievel from breathing difficulties. Knievel was best known for his failed attempt to jump over the Grand Canyon on a rocket-propelled motor-bike. He also successfully, and often unsuccessfully, attempted long distance motor-bike jumps, such as jumping 14 buses. Through his career, Knievel broke 35 bones. Born on 17 October 1938 as Robert Craig Knievel.