November 22nd in History

Michael Dobson | November 22

The motorcade in Dallas just before the assassination of JFK.

On This Day in History

  • Pope Clement V issues an order to have all Templars arrested and their assets seized (1307)
  • Pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Teach is killed in battle off the North Carolina coast (1718)
  • Ravel’s Boléro premiers (1928)
  • Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is published (1859)
  • The first Pan American China Clipper, a Martin 130 flying boat, goes into service (1935)
  • JFK is assassinated (1963)
  • British Airways begins Concorde service from London to NYC (1977)
  • Mike Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history (1986)
  • The first feature-length computer-generated imagery (CGI) film, Toy Story, is released (1995)
  • The Помаранчева революція (Orange Revolution) begins in Ukraine (2004)
  • Angela Merkel becomes the first female chancellor of Germany (2005)

Births

  • Abigail Adams, US first lady (1744)
  • Thomas Cook, travel agent (1808)
  • George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), author (1819)
  • John Nance (“Cactus Jack”) Gardner, US Speaker of the House and Vice President (1868)
  • André Gide, author (1869)
  • Charles de Gaulle, French president (1890)
  • Wiley Post, pilot (1898)
  • Hoagy Carmichael, composer (1899)
  • Михаил Миль (Mikhail Mil), helicopter designer (1909)
  • Benjamin Britten, composer (1913)
  • Rodney Dangerfield, comedian (1921)
  • Eugene Stoner, weapons designer, creator of the AR-15/M16 rifle (1922)
  • Arthur Hiller, director (1923)
  • Geraldine Page, actress (1924)
  • Jerrie Mock, pilot, first female to solo around the world (1925)
  • Robert Vaughn, actor (1932)
  • Terry Gilliam, Monty Python member, animator, director (1940)
  • Roy Thomas, comic book author (1940)
  • Tom Conti, actor (1941)
  • Jesse Colin Young, singer-songwriter (1941)
  • Billie Jean King, tennis player (1943)
  • Steven Van Zandt, singer-songwriter (1950)
  • Tina Weymouth, singer-songwriter (1950)
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, actress (1958)
  • Mariel Hemingway, actress (1961)
  • Boris Becker, tennis player (1967)
  • Mark Ruffalo, actor (1967)
  • Scarlett Johansson, actress (1984)
  • Oscar Pistorius, sprinter and accused murderer (1986)

Deaths

  • Robert Clive, baron and general, British East India Company leader (1725)
  • Walter Reed, physician and hospital namesake (1902)
  • Jack London, author (1916)
  • Werner Mörders, first fighter pilot to claim 100 aerial victories (1941)
  • Lorenz Hart, songwriter (1943)
  • Shemp Howard, alternate Stooge (1955)
  • Aldous Huxley, author (1963)
  • C. S. Lewis, author (1963)
  • J. D. Tippit, police officer (1963)
  • Mae West, actress (1980)
  • Scatman Crothers, actor (1986)
  • William Bradford Huie, author (1986)
  • C. C. Beck, comic book artist known for Fawcett Comics’s Captain Marvel (1989)
  • Sterling Holloway, actor (1992)
  • Anthony Burgess, author (1993)
  • Mark Lenard, actor, played Spock’s father (1996)
  • Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics (2001)
  • Pat Dobson, baseball player (2006 — No relation to me or my brother Pat Dobson)

Holidays

  • Dita e Alfabetit (Alphabet Day), Albania and ethnic Albanians
  • Feast of Saint Cecelia, Roman Catholics
  • Go For a Ride Day, US, unofficial
  • Independence Day, Lebanon
  • Saint George’s Day, Eastern Orthodox Christians, a public holiday in Georgia
  • Start Your Own Country Day, international

November 22 is the 326th day of the year (327th in leap years), with 39 days remaining until year’s end.