November 15th in History
The Jefferson Memorial at dusk (Photo: Joe Ravi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
On This Day in History
- Francisco Pizarro arrives in the Incan capital city of Cuzco (1533)
- Glorious Revolution: William of Orange lands at Brixham (1688)
- American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation after 16 months of debate (1777)
- Explorer Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak, which will be named for him (1806)
- The first modern Olympic Games begin in Athens, Greece (1859)
- Brazilian emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup and Brazil is declared a republic (1889)
- The NBC radio network begins with 24 stations (1926)
- FDR lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial (1939)
- The Battle of Guadalcanal ends with US victory (1942)
- The Clutter family are murdered, inspiring Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1959)
- Gemini 12 splashes down in the Atlantic (1966)
- Dave Thomas opens the first Wendy’s restaurant (1969)
- Unabomber: A package from Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a passenger flight, forcing an emergency landing (1979) and a research assistant at the University of Michigan is injured when another package from Kaczynski explodes (1985)
- Al Jazeera English launches worldwide (2006)
Births
- William Pitt, UK prime minister (1708)
- William Herschel, astronomer (1738)
- Felix Frankfurter, US Supreme Court justice (1882)
- Georgia O’Keeffe, painter (1887)
- Averell Harriman, politician (1891)
- Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (1891)
- Mantovani, composer (1905)
- Curtis LeMay, USAF general (1906)
- Claus von Stauffenberg, bomb plotter (1907)
- Joseph Wapner, TV judge (1919)
- Howard Baker, politician (1925)
- Ed Asner, actor (1929)
- J. G. Ballard, author (1930)
- Petula Clark, singer (1932)
- Yaphet Kotto, actor (1937)
- Sam Waterston, actor (1940)
- Daniel Pinkwater, author (1941)
- Beverly D’Angelo, actress (1951)
- Randy “Macho Man” Savage, wrestler (1952)
- Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Russell Jones), Wu-Tang Clan rapper (1968)
Deaths
- Martin Frobisher, explorer (1594)
- Johannes Kepler, astronomer (1630)
- Lionel Barrymore, actor (1954)
- Tyrone Power, actor (1958)
- Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1978)
- Alger Hiss, US government official and accused Soviet spy (1996)
- Stokely Carmichael, activist (1998)
Holidays
- America Recycles Day (US)
- Day of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (German-speaking community of Belgium)
- Dynasty Day (Belgium)
- George Spelvin Day (named for the fictitious birthday of an imaginary actor who appears in program credits when an actor is playing more than one role in a play and the audience isn’t supposed to know that up front)
- Independence Day (Palestine Authority)
- King’s Feast (Belgium)
- National Day of Play (Playmobil Toys)
- National Spicy Hermit Cookie Day (US food holidays)
- Republic Proclamation Day (Brazil)
- 七五三 (Shichi-Go-San, or Seven-Five-Three) (Japan)
November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years), with 46 days remaining until year’s end.