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1960–Bop monologist, Lord Buckley, dies of a stroke at age 54. Although beloved of "hipsters, flipsters, and finger-poppin' daddies," the tongue-twisting comedian became stressed after his cabaret performance license was stripped from him. Lenny Bruce considered him a hero.


1028–Future Byzantine Empress Zoe takes the throne as empress consort to Romanos III Argyros.

1094–Duncan II of Scotland dies.

1330–In the Battle of Posada, Wallachian Voievode Basarab I defeats the Hungarian army by ambush.

1439–Plymouth, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

1440–Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

1555–The Second Statute of Repeal re-establishes Roman Catholicism in England under Queen Mary I.

1793–Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, France, is guillotined.

1866–Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, is born. He was the first President of the Republic of China.

1892–William Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1893–The treaty of the Durand Line, delineating the border between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan, is signed by Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat in British India, and the Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan. The Durand Line has gained recognition as an international border between the two nations.

1903–Actor-singer, Jack Oakie, is born Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, Missouri.

1905–Norway holds a referendum resulting in popular approval of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly-independent country.

1912–King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki, after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.

1912–The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

1917–Singer, Jo (Elizabeth) Stafford, is born in Coalinga, California. She was a pop music singer whose career spanned five decades, from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Her hits include Long Ago (and Far Away), It Could Happen to You, Candy, On the Sunny Side of the Street, The Things We Did Last Summer, The Best Things in Life Are Free, Better Luck Next Time, and In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening.

1918–Austria becomes a republic.

1920–Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo.

1922–Actress, Kim Hunter, Kim Hunter, is born Janet Cole in Detroit, Michigan. She appeared in the films A Streetcar Named Desire, The Yoing Stranger, Lilith, Planet of the Apes, The Swimmer, Jennifer on My Mind, Bad Ronald, Born Innocent, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and A Price Above Rubies.

1927–Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

1928–The SS Vestris sinks approximately 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.

1929–Actress, Grace (Patricia) Kelly, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She appeared in the films Fourteen Hours, High Noon, Mogambo, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Country Girl, To Catch a Thief, The Swan, and High Society. Kelly retired from acting at age 26, to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco. They had three children: Caroline, Albert, and Stéphanie. She retained her American roots, maintaining dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship.

1933--The first known photo of the “Loch Ness Monster” is taken by Hugh Gray.

1936–The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic in California.

1936–American playwright, Eugene O’Neill, is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1940–During World War II, the Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.

1940–Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrives in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.

1941–Temperatures around Moscow drop below zero as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.

1941–In World War II, the Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.

1942–The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days and ends with an American victory.

1944–The Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers, which sink the German battleship Tirpitz, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs off Tromso, Norway.

1944–Keyboardist, Booker T. Jones, is born in Memphis, Tennessee. His band Booker T. & the M.G.'s would play on many of the most memorable recordings on the Stax label. His biggest hit was Green Onions.

1945–Singer-songwriter, Neil (Percival) Young, born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a guitarist and vocalist for Buffalo Springfield, and later became a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As a solo artist his hits include Down by the River, Cinnamon Girl, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Heart of Gold, Old Man, The Needle and the Damage Done, and Long May You Run.

1948–In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.

1956–Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia join the United Nations.

1956–In the midst of the Suez Crisis, Palestinian refugees are shot dead in Rafah by Israeli soldiers following the invasion of the Gaza Strip.

1958–A team of rock climbers, led by Warren Harding, completes the first ascent of “The Nose” on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

1958–Actress and singer, Megan Mullally, is born in Los Angeles, California. She made her debut on Broadway in 1994, as Marty in the revival of Grease. She also appeared in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Mulally is best known for the role of Karen Walker on the TV series Will & Grace. She has also been seen on American Playhouse, China Beach, Seinfeld, Mad About You, Boston Legal, and 30 Rock.

1960–Bop monologist, Lord Buckley, dies of a stroke at age 54. Although beloved of "hipsters, flipsters, and finger-poppin' daddies," the tongue-twisting comedian became stressed after his cabaret performance license was stripped from him. Lenny Bruce considered him a hero.

1969–During the Vietnam War, independent investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre. The U.S. Army announces that it is investigating Lieutenant William Calley for the alleged massacre of civilians at the Vietnamese village of My Lai in March 1968.

1969–Jim Morrison and his friend, Tom Baker, appear in court to plead not guilty to the charge of “drunk and disorderly conduct.” Rather than being released, they are immediately surrendered to a U.S. Marshall. A hastily assembled Grand Jury indicts them on the felony count of “assault, intimidation, and threatening a flight attendant on an interstate flight.” Bail is set at $2,500 each and an arraignment is scheduled for November 24th.

1969–Author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, is expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union for anti-social behavior.

1970–The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.

1970–The Bhola cyclone makes landfall on the coast of East Pakistan, becoming the deadliest tropical cyclone in history.

1970–The Doors make their last appearance with Jim Morrison in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1971–As part of Vietnamization, President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972, as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.

1971–John Lennon records demo versions of Luck of the Irish.

1975–The Comoros joins the United Nations.

1979–In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.

1980–The NASA space probe, Voyager I, makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of the planet’s rings.

1981–Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a manned spacecraft is launched into space twice.

1981–Rashid bin Mohammed Al Maktoum is born in Dubai, UAE. He was the eldest son of UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

1981–Actor, William Holden, dies from massive blood loss due to an accidental fall at his home in Santa Monica, California, at age 63. He appeared in the films Golden Boy, Our Town, The Man from Colorado, Rachel and the Stranger, Apartment for Peggy, Sunset Boulevard, Born Yesterday, Stalag 17, The Moon is Blue, Executive Suite, Sabrina, The Country Girl, Picnic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch, Wild Rovers, Breezy, The Towering Inferno, and Network.

1982–In the USSR, Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.

1982–Actress and singer, Anne (Jacqueline) Hathaway, is born in Brooklyn, New York. She has appeared in the films The Princess Diaries, Nicholas Nickleby, Ella Enchanted, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, Becoming Jane, Rachel Getting Married, Bride Wars, Love & Other Drugs, and Les Misérables. People magazine named her one of the world's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2006.

1990–Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

1990–Actress, Eve Arden, dies of colorectal cancer and heart disease in Los Angeles, California, at age 82. She is best known for her starring role in the TV series Our Miss Brooks. She appeared in the films Stage Door, At the Circus, She Couldn’t Say No, Ziegfeld Girl, Mildred Pierce, The Kid from Brooklyn, Tea for Two, We’re Not Married!, Anatomy of a Murder, and Grease.

1990–Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.

1991–Indonesian forces open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.

1993–The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event, UFC 1, is held in Denver, Colorado.

1995–The Erdut Agreement ia reached, regarding the peaceful resolution to the Croatian War of Independence.

1996–A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, India, killing 349 people.

1997–Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

1999–A 7.2 earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey, killing at least 845 people and injuring almost 5,000 others.

2001–American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

2003–In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.

2003–Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record of 311 mph for commercial railway systems, which remains the fastest for unmodified commercial rail vehicles.

2003–Actor, Jonathan Brandis, dies from suicide by handing in Los Angeles, California, at age 27. He made his acting debut in 1982, with a guest role on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. In 1990, at the age of 14, he became widely known for his leading role on the Stephen King's supernatural horror miniseries IT. He appeared in the films Fatal Attraction, Stepfather II, Ghost Dad, Ladybugs, and Sidekicks.

2003–Actress, Penny Singleton, dies of respiratory failure in Sherman Oaks, California, at age 95. During her 60-year career, she appeared as the comic strip heroine, Blondie Bumstead, in a series of 28 films from 1938 until 1950, and the popular Blondie radio program from 1939 until 1950. Singleton also provided the voice of Jane Jetson on the animated series The Jetsons. She appeared in the films Good News, The Mad Miss Manton, and It’s a Great Life.

2007–Novelist and playwright, Ira Levin, dies of a heart attack in New York, New York, at age 78. His most noted works include the novels A Kiss Before Dying, Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, and The Boys from Brazil, and the plays No Time for Sergeants, Critic’s Choice, and Deathtrap.

2008–Mitch Mitchell, drummer for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, dies in his sleep of natural causes in Portland, Oregon, at age 61. Mitchell had been in ill health for many years due to alcohol-related problems. He was the last surviving member of the original Experience.

2011–Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16th, due in large part to the European sovereign debt crisis.

2014–The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

2015–Two suicide bombers detonat explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others.

2016–As many as 1,000,000 people march on the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, calling for the resignation of President Park Geun-hye, amid an ongoing corruption scandal.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Jean Sylvain Bailly; Jack Oakie; Grace Kelly; Neil Young; Lord Buckley; Jim Morrison; William Holden; Ramzi Yousef; and Mitch Mitchell.
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