November 21

is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 40 days remaining.

Events

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 Family Computer; 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.^*
2004 - The Nintendo DS was released in United States and Canada

Births

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 and royal mistress (d. 1816)
1768 - Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher (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
1878 - Gustav Radbruch, German law professor (d. 1949)
1886 - Harold Nicolson, British diplomat, author and politician (d. 1968)
1898 - René Magritte, Belgian painter (d. 1967)
1902 - Foster Hewitt, Canadian radio pioneer (d. 1985)
1904 - Coleman Hawkins, American saxophonist (d. 1969)
1908 - Elizabeth George Speare, American children's author (d. 1994)
1912 - Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (d. 1983)
1913 - Roy Boulting, British film director and producer (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, U.S. Navy SEAL team member and author
1941 - Juliet Mills, British actress
1941 - İdil Biret, Turkish pianist
1944 - Dick Durbin, American politician
1944 - Earl Monroe, American basketball player
1944 - Harold Ramis, American actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, and producer
1945 - Goldie Hawn, American actress
1950 - Alberto Juantorena, Cuban athlete
1956 - Ed Kaz, American journalist
1962 - Steven Curtis Chapman, Contemporary Christian musician
1963 - Nicollette Sheridan, British actress
1964 - Shane Douglas, American professional wrestler
1965 - Björk, Icelandic singer, songwriter, and actress
1965 - Alexander Siddig, British actor
1966 - Troy Aikman, American football star
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

Deaths

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)
1959 - Max Baer, American boxer (b. 1909)
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)
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)

Holidays and observances

External links

BBC: On This Day

November 20 - November 22 - October 21 - December 21 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: November 21

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links