Events

• 1034 – Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots dies. Donnchad, the son of his daughter Bethóc and Crínán of Dunkeld, inherits the throne.

• 1120 – The White Ship sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, son of Henry I of England.

• 1177 – Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Chatillon defeat Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard.

• 1343 – A tsunami, caused by the earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastates Naples Italy and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places.

• 1491 – The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins.

• 1542 – Battle of Solway Moss: The English army defeats the Scots.

• 1667 – A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha in the Caucasus, killing 80,000 people.

• 1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reaches its peak intensity which it maintains through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die.

• 1755 – King Ferdinand IV of Spain grants the Beaterio dela Compania de Jesus or now known as the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary(RVM) a royal protection.

• 1758 – French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control. Fort Pitt is built nearby and it grows into modern Pittsburgh.

• 1759 – Disastrous earthquake hits Mediterranean, Beirut and Damascus completely destroyed, 30,000-40,000 dead.

• 1783 – American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

• 1795 – Partitions of Poland: Stanislaus August Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, is forced to abdicate and is exiled to Russia.

• 1826 – The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy.

• 1833 – A massive undersea earthquake, estimated magnitude between 8.7-9.2 rocks Sumatra, producing a massive tsunami all along the Indonesian coasts.

• 1839 – A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (which has never been completely rebuilt). The storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster.

• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Missionary Ridge – At Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg.

• 1864 – American Civil War: A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City.

• 1867 – Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.

• 1874 – The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873.

• 1876 – Indian Wars: In retaliation for the American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River.

• 1905 – The Danish Prins Carl arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway.

• 1913 – Panama becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

• 1918 – Vojvodina, former Austro-Hungarian crown land, proclaims its secession from Austria–Hungary to join the Kingdom of Serbia.

• 1926 – The deadliest November tornado outbreak in U.S. history strikes on Thanksgiving day. 27 twisters of great strength are reported in the Midwest, including the strongest November tornado, an estimated F4, that devastates Heber Springs, Arkansas. There are 51 deaths in Arkansas alone, 76 deaths and over 400 injuries in all.

• 1936 – In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, thus agreeing to consult on measures to take "to safeguard their common interests" in the case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation. The pact is renewed on the same day five years later with additional signatories.

• 1940 – World War II: First flight of the deHavilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder.

• 1943 – World War II: Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina is re-established at the State Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• 1947 – Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios.

• 1947 – New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.

• 1950 – The "Storm of the Century", a violent snowstorm, paralyzes the northeastern United States and the Appalachians, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia, records 57 inches of snow. 323 people die as a result of the storm.

• 1950 – The People's Republic of China joins the Korean War, sending thousands of troops across the Yalu river border to fight United Nations forces.

• 1952 – Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London and eventually becomes the longest continuously-running play in history.

• 1958 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community.

• 1960 – The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated.

• 1963 – President John F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

• 1970 – In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and one compatriot commit ritualistic suicide after an unsuccessful coup attempt.

• 1973 – George Papadopoulos, head of the military Regime of the Colonels in Greece, is ousted in a hardliners' coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis.

• 1975 – Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands.

• 1977 – Former Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. is found "guilty" by the Philippine Military Commission No. 2 and is sentenced to death by firing squad.

• 1982 – The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire destroys an entire city block, including the Northwestern National Bank building and the recently closed Donaldson's Department Store.

• 1984 – 36 top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

• 1986 – Iran Contra Affair: US Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

• 1986 – The King Fahd Causeway is officially opened in the Persian Gulf.

• 1987 – Super Typhoon Nina pummels the Philippines with category 5 winds of 165 mph and a surge that swallows entire villages. At least 1,036 deaths are attributed to the storm.

• 1988 – German politician Rita Süssmuth becomes president of the Bundestag.

• 1992 – The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia from January 1, 1993.

• 1996 – An ice storm strikes the central U.S. killing 26 people. A powerful windstorm affects Florida and winds gust over 90 mph, toppling trees and flipping trailers.

• 2000 – 2000 Baku earthquake.

• 2005 – Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski opens Warsaw Pact archives to historians. Maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe, as well as the possible nuclear annihilation of 43 Polish cities and 2 million of its citizens by Soviet-controlled forces, are released.

• 2007 – The first European Parliament election and a referendum on changing the voting system (called by the President and declared invalid because of insufficient turnout) are held in Romania.

• 2008 – A car bomb in St. Petersburg, Russia, kills three people and injures one.

Births

• 1454 – Catherine Cornaro, queen of Cyprus (d. 1510)

• 1501 – Yi Hwang, Confucian scholar (d. 1570)

• 1562 – Félix Lope de Vega, Spanish playwright (d. 1635)

• 1577 – Piet Hein, Dutch naval commander and folk hero (d. 1629)

• 1609 – Henrietta Maria, French-born, Queen Consort of England (d. 1669)

• 1638 – Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II of England (d. 1705)

• 1703 – Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist (d. 1784)

• 1712 – Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist and developer of 'Signed French' (d. 1789)

• 1714 – Yoriyuki Arima, Japanese mathematician (d. 1783)

• 1778 – Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (d. 1856)

• 1814 – Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (d. 1878)

• 1817 – John Bigelow, American statesman and author (d. 1911)

• 1835 – Andrew Carnegie, British-born industrialist and philanthropist (d. 1919)

• 1841 – Ernst Schröder, German mathematician (d. 1902)

• 1843 – Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist, philanthropist and the father of T. S. Eliot (d. 1919)

• 1844 – Karl Benz, German engineer and inventor (d. 1929)

• 1845 – José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, Portuguese novelist (d. 1900)

• 1846 – Carrie Nation, American temperance advocate (d. 1911)

• 1858 – Alfred Capus, French author (d. 1922)

• 1862 – Ethelbert Nevin, American pianist and composer (d. 1901)

• 1868 – Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (d. 1937)

• 1869 – Ben Lindsey, American judge and social reformer (d. 1934)

• 1870 – Winthrop Ames, American theatrical director (d. 1937)

• 1874 – Joe Gans, American boxer (d. 1910)

• 1876 – Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Grand Duchess of Hesse (d. 1936)

• 1880 – John Flynn (minister), Founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (d. 1951)

• 1880 – Elsie J. Oxenham, British children's author (d. 1960)

• 1881 – Pope John XXIII (d. 1963)

• 1883 – Harvey Spencer Lewis, American mystic (d. 1939)

• 1883 – Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher and aviation promoter (d. 1968)

• 1883 – Percy Marmont, British actor (d.1977)

• 1887 – Nikolai Vavilov, Russian geneticist (d. 1943)

• 1890 – Isaac Rosenberg, English war poet and artist (d. 1918)

• 1895 – Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (d. 1991)

• 1895 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (d. 1986)

• 1895 – Ludvík Svoboda, President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1979)

• 1896 – Virgil Thomson, American composer and music critic (d. 1989)

• 1900 – Rudolf Höß, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp (d. 1947)

• 1901 – Arthur Liebehenschel, Commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp (d. 1948)

• 1902 – Eddie Shore, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1985)

• 1904 – Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)

• 1904 – Ba Jin, Chinese novelist (d. 2005)

• 1904 – Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and alpinist (d. 2000)

• 1907 – John Stuart Hindmarsh, British racing driver and aviator (d. 1938)

• 1909 – P.D. Eastman, American children's author and screenwriter (d. 1986)

• 1911 – Roelof Frankot, Dutch painter (d. 1984)

• 1913 – Lewis Thomas, American physician and essayist (d. 1993)

• 1914 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 1999)

• 1914 – Léon Zitrone, Russian-born French journalist and television host (d. 1995)

• 1915 – Augusto Pinochet, Chilean Dictator (d. 2006)

• 1917 – Luigi Cardinal Poggi, Archivist Emeritus of the Holy Roman Church

• 1920 – Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, King of Malaysia (d. 2000)

• 1920 – Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican actor (d. 2009)

• 1920 – Noel Neill, American actress

• 1922 – Gloria Lasso, French-Spanish singer (d. 2005)

• 1922 – Shelagh Fraser, British actress (d. 2000)

• 1923 – Mauno Koivisto, former president of Finland

• 1924 – Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, critic, and philosopher.

• 1926 – Poul Anderson, American writer (d. 2001)

• 1926 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor (d. 1969)

• 1933 – Kathryn Grant, American actress

• 1936 – Trisha Brown, American choreographer and dancer

• 1938 – Rosanna Schiaffino, Italian actress

• 1939 – Martin Feldstein, American economist

• 1940 – Reinhard Furrer, American physicist and astronaut (d. 1995)

• 1940 – Joe Gibbs, American football coach

• 1940 – Karl Offmann, Mauritian politician

• 1941 – Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi, Pakistan Muslim Sufi, author, spiritual leader (d. 2001)

• 1941 – Percy Sledge, American musician

• 1942 – Bob Lind, American folk singer and songwriter

• 1944 – Ben Stein, American actor

• 1945 – Gail Collins, American journalist

• 1945 – Patrick Nagel, American artist (d. 1984)

• 1945 – George Webster, American football player (d. 2007)

• 1947 – Jonathan Kaplan, American filmmaker

• 1947 – John Larroquette, American actor

• 1947 – Tracey Walter, American actor

• 1948 – Jacques P. Dupuis, French Canadian politician

• 1950 – Alexis Wright, Australian author

• 1951 – Bucky Dent, American baseball player

• 1951 – Bill Morrissey, American musician

• 1951 – Arturo Pérez Reverte, Spanish novelist and war reporter

• 1952 – Imran Khan, Pakistani test cricketer

• 1952 – John Lynch, American politician current governor of New Hampshire

• 1953 – Graham Eadie, Australian rugby league player

• 1953 – Jeffrey Skilling, American former CEO of Enron

• 1955 – Bruno Tonioli, Italian born British dancer

• 1956 – Hélène Goudin, Swedish politician

• 1957 – Bob Ehrlich, Jr., former Maryland governor

• 1959 – Charles Kennedy, British politician

• 1959 – Steve Rothery, British guitarist (Marillion)

• 1960 – Amy Grant, American singer

• 1960 – John F. Kennedy, Jr., American publisher (d. 1999)

• 1960 – Kasey Smith, American keyboardist

• 1962 – Gilbert Delorme, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1962 – Hironobu Sakaguchi, Japanese game designer, game director and game producer

• 1963 – Kevin Chamberlin, American actor

• 1963 – Holly Cole, Canadian jazz singer

• 1963 – Bernie Kosar, American football player

• 1964 – Mark Lanegan, American musician (Screaming Trees)

• 1965 – Cris Carter, American football player

• 1965 – Dougray Scott, Scottish television and film actor

• 1966 – Tim Armstrong, American musician (Rancid and The Transplants)

• 1966 – Billy Burke, American actor

• 1967 – Kazuya Nakai, Japanese voice actor

• 1967 – Rodney Sheppard, American musician (Sugar Ray)

• 1967 – Gregg Turkington, American comedian (as Neil Hamburger) and musician

• 1968 – Jacqueline Hennessy, Canadian actress and talk show host

• 1968 – Jill Hennessy, Canadian actress

• 1968 – Galin Nikov, Bulgarian pole vaulter

• 1968 – Erick Sermon, American rap music artist

• 1969 – Anthony Peeler, American basketball player

• 1971 – Christina Applegate, American actress

• 1971 – Magnus Arvedson, Swedish ice hockey player

• 1973 – Erick Strickland, American basketball player

• 1974 – Kenneth Mitchell,Canadian Actor

• 1976 – Donovan McNabb, American football player

• 1976 – Clint Mathis, American soccer player

• 1977 – Guillermo Cañas, Argentine tennis player

• 1977 – Marcus Marshall, Australian racing driver

• 1978 – Ringo Shiina, Japanese musician

• 1979 – Thea Gilmore, British songwriter

• 1979 – Michael Lehan, American National Football League player

• 1980 – John-Michael Liles, American hockey player

• 1980 – Josh Mathews, American professional wrestling personality

• 1980 – Aaron Mokoena, South African footballer

• 1981 – Xabi Alonso, Spanish footballer

• 1981 – Barbara Bush, daughter of George W. Bush and Laura Bush

• 1981 – Jenna Bush, daughter of George W. Bush and Laura Bush

• 1981 – Jared Jeffries, American basketball player

• 1981 – Mauricio Rua, Brazilian mixed martial artist

• 1983 – Joey Chestnut, American competitive eater

• 1983 – Kirsty Crawford, Scottish singer/songwriter

• 1984 – Gaspard Ulliel, French actor

• 1984 – Peter Siddle, Australian cricketer

• 1986 – Katie Cassidy, American singer and actress

• 1986 – Craig Gardner, English footballer

• 1986 – Amber Hagerman, American kidnapping and murder victim, inspired the AMBER Alert system (d. 1996)

• 1987 – Dolla, American rapper (d. 2009)

• 1988 – Jay Spearing, English footballer

• 1992 – Martin del Rosario, Filipino actor

• 1992 – Ana Bogdan, Romanian Tennis Player

Deaths

• 311 – Peter of Alexandria, Christian martyr (b. 300)

• 1034 – King Malcolm II of Scotland (b. 980)

• 1120 – William Adelin, son of Henry I of England (b. 1104)

• 1185 – Pope Lucius III (b. 1097)

• 1326 – Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun (b. 1264)

• 1374 – Philip II of Taranto, Titular emperor of Constantinople (b. 1329)

• 1456 – Jacques Cœur, French merchant

• 1560 – Andrea Doria, Italian naval leader (b. 1466)

• 1626 – Edward Alleyn, English actor (b. 1566)

• 1686 – Nicolas Steno, Danish geologist (b. 1638)

• 1694 – Ismael Bullialdus, French astronomer (b. 1605)

• 1700 – Stephanus Van Cortlandt, American politician (b. 1643)

• 1748 – Isaac Watts, British hymnwriter (b. 1674)

• 1755 – Johann Georg Pisendel, German musician (b. 1687)

• 1785 – Richard Glover, British poet (b. 1712)

• 1865 – Heinrich Barth, German explorer (b. 1821)

• 1881 – Theobald Boehm, German inventor of the modern flute (b. 1794)

• 1884 – Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (b. 1818)

• 1885 – King Alfonso XII of Spain (b. 1857)

• 1885 – Thomas Hendricks, Vice President of the United States (b. 1819)

• 1909 – Edward P. Allen, United States congressman from Michigan (b. 1839)

• 1920 – Gaston Chevrolet, French-born American race car driver and automobile pioneer (b. 1892)

• 1944 – Kenesaw Mountain Landis, American baseball commissioner (b. 1866)

• 1947 – Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet (b. 1876)

• 1948 – Kanbun Uechi, karate master (b. 1877)

• 1949 – Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, African American entertainer (b. 1878)

• 1950 – Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1873)

• 1950 – Gustaf John Ramstedt, Finland-Swedish linguist and diplomat (b. 1873)

• 1955 – Louis Lachenal, French climber, one of the first two mountaineers to climb a summit of more than 8,000 meters. On 3 June 1950, along with Maurice Herzog, he reached the summit of Annapurna I in Nepal at a height of 8,091 m. (b. 1921)

• 1959 – Gérard Philipe, French actor (b. 1922)

• 1961 – Hubert Van Innis, Belgian archer (b. 1866)

• 1963 – Alexander Marinesko,captain of the S-13 submarine, which sank the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff, when 10,000 died while the ship sank.

• 1965 – Dame Myra Hess, British pianist (b. 1890)

• 1968 – Upton Sinclair, American journalist, politician, and writer (b. 1878)

• 1968 – Paul Siple, American explorer of the Antarctic. (b. 1908)

• 1970 – Yukio Mishima, Japanese writer (b. 1925)

• 1972 – Henri Coandă, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (b. 1886)

• 1973 – Laurence Harvey, Lithuanian-born actor (b. 1928)

• 1974 – Nick Drake, British singer and songwriter (b. 1948)

• 1974 – U Thant, Burmese UN Secretary-General (b. 1909)

• 1978 – Elaine Esposito, American woman who holds the record for longest coma (b. 1934)

• 1981 – Jack Albertson, American actor (b. 1907)

• 1985 – Ray Jablonski, American baseball player (b. 1926)

• 1985 – Franz Hildebrandt, German Theologian(b. 1909)

• 1987 – Harold Washington, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1922)

• 1989 – Alva R. Fitch, American World War II and Korean soldier (b. 1907)

• 1995 – Léon Zitrone, French journalist and television host (b. 1914)

• 1995 – Alan Nicholls, English footballer (b. 1973)

• 1997 – Kamuzu Banda, President of Malawi (b. c. 1898)

• 1998 – Nelson Goodman, American philosopher (b. 1906)

• 1998 – Flip Wilson, American actor and comedian (b. 1933)

• 2000 – Hugh Alexander, American baseball player (b. 1917)

• 2001 – Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi, Muslim Sufi, author, spiritual leader (b. 1941)

• 2002 – Karel Reisz, Czech theater director (b. 1926)

• 2005 – George Best, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1946)

• 2005 – Richard Burns, English WRC champion (b. 1971)

• 2006 – Sean Bell, American shooting victim (b. 1983)

• 2006 – Luciano Bottaro, Italian comic book artist (b. 1931)

• 2006 – Leo Chiosso, Italian lyricist (b. 1920)

• 2006 – Valentin Elizalde, Mexican singer (b. 1979)

• 2006 – Kenneth M. Taylor, American pilot (b. 1919)

• 2006 – Phyllis Fraser, American actress and children's book publisher (b. 1916)

Holidays and observances

• R.C. Saints – Saint Catherine of Alexandria; Elizabeth of Reute

• Bosnia and Herzegovina: National Day (1943)

• Suriname – Independence Day (from the Netherlands, 1975)

• International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women