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.