15 November

Events

• 1777 - American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation in the temporary American capital at York, Pennsylvania.
• 1806 - Pike expedition: During his second exploratory expedition, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains (it was later named Pikes Peak in his honor).
• 1864 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea begins - Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts to move south, destroying everything in his path in order to punish the Confederates for starting the war.
• 1889 - Brazil is declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup (he was the second and last emperor of Brazil; see Empire of Brazil).
• 1920 - In Geneva, the first assembly of the League of Nations is held.
• 1926 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations.
• 1939 - In Washington, DC, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal ends - Although the United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of Guadalcanal.
• 1943 - Porajmos: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
• 1948 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent succeeds William Lyon Mackenzie King as Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1956 - The film Love Me Tender staring Elvis Presley (his first film) opens.
• 1960 - The Polaris missile is test launched.
• 1966 - Gemini program: Gemini 12 carrying astronauts James A. Lovell and Buzz Aldrin splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean 600 km to the east of the Bahamas.
• 1969 - Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war.
• 1971 - Intel releases world's first microprocessor, the 4004.
• 1978 - A chartered DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka killing 183
• 1988 - In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran is launched by an Energia rocket on her maiden orbital spaceflight (this was the first and last space flight for the shuttle).
• 1988 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253 to 46.
• 1990 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.
• 2000 - A chartered Antonov AN-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola killing more than 40 people
• 2001 - , a now legendary Microsoft XBox video game, is released in North America.
• 2002 - Hu Jintao becomes general secretary of the Communist Party of China.

Births

• 1708 - William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, English politician (d. 1778)
• 1738 - William Herschel, astronomer (d. 1822)
• 1741 - Johann Kaspar Lavater, philosopher (d. 1801)
• 1784 - Jerome Bonaparte, French King of Westphalia (d. 1860)
• 1859 - Christopher Hornsrud, Norweigen Prime Minister (d.1960)
• 1862 - Gerhart Hauptmann, narrator and dramaticst; recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize in literature (d. 1946)
• 1879 - Lewis Stone, actor (d. 1953)
• 1882 - Felix Frankfurter, United States Supreme Court justice (1939-1962) (d. 1965)
• 1887 - Georgia O'Keeffe, painter (d. 1986)
• 1887 - Marianne Moore, poet (d. 1972)
• 1889 - King Manuel II of Portugal (d. 1932)
• 1890 - Richal Crompton, author
• 1891 - Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (d. 1944)
• 1891 - Averell Harriman, American businessman and politician (d. 1986)
• 1899 - Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan (d. 1969)
• 1905 - Mantovani, composer, musician, music arranger (d. 1980)
• 1906 - Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force general, candidate for Vice President of the United States (d. 1990)
• 1925 - Heinz Piontek, writer
• 1925 - Howard Baker, former Senator from Tennessee, former White House Chief of Staff
• 1929 - Ed Asner, actor
• 1930 - J. G. Ballard, science fiction author
• 1931 - Pascal Lissouba, Republic of the Congo politician
• 1932 - Petula Clark, singer
• 1933 - Clyde McPhatter, singer (d. 1972)
• 1936 - Wolf Biermann, writer
• 1937 - Yaphet Kotto, actor
• 1940 - Sam Waterston, actor
• 1942 - Daniel Barenboim, pianist, conductor
• 1947 - Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico
• 1954 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland
• 1954 - Beverly D'Angelo, actress
• 1956 - Michael Hampton, guitarist (P Funk)
• 1988 - Zena Grey, actress

Deaths

• 1630 - Johannes Kepler, astrologer, astronomer and mathematician
• 1787 - Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer
• 1954 - Lionel Barrymore, actor
• 1958 - Tyrone Power, actor
• 1965 - Allen Du Mont, television pioneer
• 1969 - Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan
• 1978 - Margaret Mead, anthropologist, writer, lecturer
• 1996 - Alger Hiss, United States State Department official, spy
• 1998 - Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), U.S. civil rights activist
• 2002 - Myra Hindley, Moors murderer

Holidays and Observances

• Roman Empire - Festival in honor of Feronia
• Eastern Orthodoxy - Feast of Saint Philip the Apostle and the beginning of Winter Lent

See Also

November 14 - November 16 - October 15 - December 15 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By