Events

• 474 – Emperor Leo II dies after a reign of ten months. He is succeeded by his father Zeno, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
• 937 – Ten Kingdoms: Li Bian usurps the throne and deposes Emperor Yang Pu.
  • The Wu State is replaced by Li (now called “Xu Zhigao”), who becomes the first ruler of Southern Tang.
• 1202 – Fourth Crusade: Despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding it and threatening excommunication, Catholic crusaders begin a siege of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia).
• 1293 – Raden Wijaya is crowned as the first monarch of Majapahit kingdom of Java, taking the throne name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana.
• 1444 – Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Władysław III of Poland (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Władysław III of Varna) are defeated by the Turks under Sultan Murad II and Władysław is killed.
• 1580 – After a three-day siege (Siege of Smerwick), the English Army beheads over 600 people, including papal soldiers and civilians, at Dún an Óir, Ireland.
• 1659 – Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Maratha King kills Afzal Khan, Adilshahi in the battle popularly known as Battle of Pratapgarh.
• 1674 – Third Anglo-Dutch War: As provided in the Treaty of Westminster, Netherlands cedes New Netherland to England.
• 1702 – English colonists under the command of James Moore besiege Spanish St. Augustine during Queen Anne’s War.
• 1775 – The United States Marine Corps is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas.
• 1821 – Cry of Independence by Rufina Alfaro at La Villa de Los Santos, Panama setting into motion a revolt which led to Panama’s independence from Spain and to it immediately becoming part of Colombia.
• 1865 – Major Henry Wirz, the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, is hanged, becoming one of only three American Civil War soldiers executed for war crimes.
• 1898 – Beginning of the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in United States history.
• 1910 – The date of Thomas A. Davis’ opening of the San Diego Army and Navy Academy, although the official founding date is 23 November 1910.
• 1918 – The Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa and Washington, D.C.) that said on 11 November 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.
• 1942 – World War II: Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan’s agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
• 1944 – The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood explodes at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371.
• 1945 – Heavy fighting in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, today celebrated as Heroes’ Day (Hari Pahlawan).
• 1954 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington Ridge Park in Arlington County, Virginia.
• 1970 – Vietnam War: Vietnamisation: For the first time in five years, an entire week ends with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia.
• 1971 – In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the city of Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine aircraft.
• 1975 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 3379, determining that Zionism is a form of racism.
• 1979 – A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history.
• 1989 – Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall.
• 1995 – In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), are hanged by government forces.
• 2002 – Veteran’s Day Weekend Tornado Outbreak: A tornado outbreak stretching from Northern Ohio to the Gulf Coast, one of the largest outbreaks recorded in November.
  • The strongest tornado, an F4, hits Van Wert, Ohio, during the early to mid afternoon and destroys a movie theatre, which had been evacuated.
• 2006 – The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia is opened and dedicated by US President George W. Bush, who announces that Marine Corporal Jason Dunham will posthumously receive the Medal of Honour.
• 2009 – Ships of the South and North Korean navies skirmish off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea.
• Cry of Independence Day (Panama).
• Day of Remembrance of Atatürk (Turkey).
• Day of Russian Militsiya (Russia).
• Heroes Day (Indonesia) or Hari Pahlawan.
• United States Marine Corps birthday (United States).

People (Births)

• 1565 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1601).
• 1735 – Granville Sharp, English activist and scholar, co-founded the Sierra Leone Company (d. 1813).
• 1810 – George Jennings, English plumber and engineer, invented the flush toilet (d. 1882).
• 1868 – Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese martial artist and educator, founded Shotokan (d. 1957).
• 1879 – Patrick Pearse, Irish lawyer, poet, teacher, and insurrectionist; executed for his role in the Easter Rising (d. 1916).
• 1888 – Andrei Tupolev, Russian engineer and designer, founded the Tupolev Company (d. 1972).
• 1895 – Jack Northrop, American businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (d. 1981).
• 1906 – Josef Kramer, German SS officer (d. 1945).
• 1908 – Charles Merritt, Canadian colonel and politician, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 2000).
• 1909 – Paweł Jasienica, Russian-Polish soldier, journalist, and historian (d. 1970).
• 1919 – Michael Strank, American sergeant and flag raiser at the Battle of Iwo Jima (d. 1945).
• 1919 – Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and engineer, designed the AK-47 (d. 2013).
• 1919 – Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and engineer, designed the AK-47 (d. 2013).
• 1927 – Sohei Miyashita, Japanese politician, Japanese Minister of Defence (d. 2013).
• 1929 – W. E. B. Griffin, American soldier and author (d. 2019).
• 1933 – Ronald Evans, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1990).
• 1941 – John Geoghegan, American lieutenant (d. 1965).
• 1944 – Silvestre Reyes, American sergeant and politician.
• 1947 – Bachir Gemayel, Lebanese commander and politician (d. 1982).
• 1967 – Jackie Fairweather, Australian runner and coach (d. 2014).
• 1981 – Jason Dunham, American soldier, Medal of Honour recipient (d. 2004).
• 1986 – Samuel Wanjiru, Kenyan runner (d. 2011).

People (Deaths)

• 948 – Zhao Yanshou, Chinese general and governor.
• 1617 – Barnabe Rich, English soldier and author (b. 1540).
• 1659 – Afzal Khan, Indian commander.
• 1727 – Alphonse de Tonty, French-American sailor and explorer (b. 1659).
• 1728 – Fyodor Apraksin, Russian admiral (b. 1661).
• 1808 – Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, Irish-born English general and politician, 21st Governor General of Canada (b. 1724).
• 1865 – Henry Wirz, Swiss-American captain in Confederate army, commandant of Andersonville Prison (b. 1823).
• 1869 – John E. Wool, American general (b. 1784).
• 1936 – Louis Gustave Binger, French general and explorer (b. 1856).
• 1938 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkish field marshal and statesman, 1st President of Turkey (b. 1881).
• 1946 – Louis Zutter, Swiss gymnast (b. 1856).
• 1962 – Julius Lenhart, Austrian gymnast and engineer (b. 1875).
• 1975 – Ernest M. McSorley, Canadian-American captain (b. 1912).
• 1982 – Leonid Brezhnev, Ukrainian-Russian general and politician, 4th Head of State of the Soviet Union (b. 1906).
• 2000 – Jacques Chaban-Delmas, French general and politician, 153rd Prime Minister of France (b. 1915).
• 2011 – Peter J. Biondi, American soldier and politician (b. 1942).
• 2014 – Josip Boljkovac, Croatian soldier and politician, 1st Croatia Minister of the Interior (b. 1920).
• 2015 – Helmut Schmidt, German soldier, economist, and politician, 5th Chancellor of Germany (b. 1918).