November 15

Events
Up to 1900
655 - Oswiu of Northumbria defeats Penda of Mercia in the Battle of the Winwaed.
1315 - Battle of Morgarten: The Swiss "Eidgenossen" defeat the Habsburgs.
1532 - Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors led by Hernando de Soto meet Inca Emperor Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging a meeting in the city plaza the following day.
1533 - Francisco Pizarro arrived in Cuzco, capital of the Inca Empire, before plundering the city and setting it on fire.
1688 - William III lands at Brixham, starting the Glorious Revolution.
1777 - After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation.
1806 - Pike expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike saw a distant peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is later named Pikes Peak.
1825 - King John V of Portugal recognised the independence of Brazil.
1859 - The first modern revival of the Olympics took place in Athens, Greece.
1864 - Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Sherman's March to the Sea.
1889 - Brazil is declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II is removed from power in a military coup. The pattern of stars on the night of this date is now included on the Flag of Brazil.
1901 2000
1908 - Colonialism: King Leopold II of Belgium sells the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Belgian state.
1920 - First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva.
1922 - Over 1,000 people are massacred during a General Strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
1926 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations.
1928 - The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsized in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew.
1935 - Manuel L. Quezon became President of the Philippines.
1935 - Canada and the United States sign a trade agreement in Washington.
1939 - In Washington, D.C., US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
1940 - A wall is built around the Warsaw Ghetto.
1941 - Holocaust: SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the arrest and deportation to concentration camps of all homosexuals in Germany, with the exception of certain top Nazi officials.
1942 - World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a Allied victory.
1943 - Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps".
1945 - Venezuela joins the UN.
1948 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent succeeds William Lyon Mackenzie King as Prime Minister of Canada.
1949 - Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
1953 - The sugar spreader is patented in West Germany.
1955 - The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is founded. It ends up governing Japan continuously until 1993.
1960 - Basketball: An NBA record is set when Elgin Baylor of the New York Knicks scored 71 points in a single game.
1960 - A train crash in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia (now-Czech Republic) kills 110 people.
1966 - The Gemini 12 space probe splashed into the Atlantic Ocean, at the end of the Gemini program.
1966 - A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashed near Berlin, killing all the 3 people on board.
1969 - Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war.
1971 - Intel released the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
1976 - Rene Levesque became Premier of Quebec.
1978 - A chartered Douglas DC-8 airplane crashed near Colombo, Sri Lanka.
1983 - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is founded.
1985 - The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
1987 - Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a Douglas-9-14 jetliner, crashed in a snowstorm at Stapleton International Airport, Denver, Colorado, killing 28 people, with 54 surviving.
1987 - In Brasov, Romania, workers rebel against the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.
1988 - An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.
1988 - The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.
1990 - A new republican form of government is created in Bulgaria.
1990 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launched with Flight STS-38.
1990 - Producers admit that Milli Vanilli, who won the 1990 "Best New Artist" Grammy Award, did not sing on their album.
2000 - A chartered Antonov An-24 crashed after take-off from Luanda, Angola, killing over 40 people.
2000 - In India, the new state of Jharkhand is created, out of the southern part of the state of Bihar.
From 2001
2002 - Hu Jintao became general secretary of the Communist Party of China.
2003 - In Istanbul, two synagogues are bombed, killing 25 people.
2005 - Boeing officially launched the stretched Boeing 747-8.
2006 - Al Jazeera English news channel launched worldwide.
2007 - Tropical Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing around 5000 people. It also caused a large amount of destruction to the Sundarbans mangrove forest.
2012 - Xi Jinping is announced as the next general secretary of the Communist Party of China, expected to lead China until 2022.
2017 - The military took over in Zimbabwe as President Robert Mugabe is placed under house arrest.
2017 - It is announced that a postal survey in Australia resulted in 61.6% of participating voters supporting same-sex marriage.
2017 - The Scottish Government is allowed to introduce a minimum price for alcohol after a ruling following a long-running court case. This would make Scotland the first country in the world to introduce this policy.
2017 - Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Salvator Mundi" sells for 450 million United States dollars at auction in New York City, smashing the previous record for a work of art in such a sale.
2017 - Argentine submarine "ARA San Juan" was lost off the coast of southern Argentina, with 44 people on board.
2018 - In the United Kingdom, several government ministers resign over Prime Minister Theresa May's proposed Brexit deal, including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.
Births
Up to 1900
457 - B'utz Aj Sak Chiik, Mayan king (d. 501)
968 - Romanos III Argyros, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1034)
1316 - King John I of France (d. November 20, 1316)
1397 - Pope Nicholas V (d. 1455)
1498 - Eleanor of Austria (d. 1558)
1511 - Johannes Secundus, Dutch poet (d. 1536)
1559 - Archduke Albert of Austria (d. 1621)
1607 - Madeleine de Scudery, French author (d. 1701)
1661 - Christoph von Graffenried, Swiss settler in the Americas (d. 1743)
1688 - Louis Bertrand Castel, French mathematician (d. 1757)
1708 - William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1778)
1738 - William Herschel, German-born astronomer (d. 1822)
1741 - Johann Kaspar Lavater, German philosopher (d. 1801)
1746 - Joseph Quesnel, French-Canadian composer and playwright (d. 1809)
1778 - Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Italian adventurer, engineer, weightlifter and acrobat (d. 1823)
1784 - Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia (d. 1860)
1804 - Eugenio Aguilar, Supreme Director of El Salvador (d. 1879)
1852 - Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (d. 1892)
1859 - Christopher Hornsrud, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1960)
1862 - Gerhart Hauptmann, German dramatist (d. 1946)
1867 - Emil Krebs, German polyglot (someone who speaks many languages) and sinologist (d. 1930)
1868 - Emil Racovita, Romanian biologist, zoologist and explorer of Antarctica (d. 1947)
1873 - Sara Josephine Baker, American physician and academic (d. 1945)
1874 - August Krogh, Danish zoologist, won the 1920 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1949)
1874 - Dimitrios Golemis, Greek runner (d. 1941)
1879 - Lewis Stone, American actor (d. 1953)
1881 - Franklin Pierce Adams, American newspaper columnist (d. 1960)
1882 - Felix Frankfurter, American jurist (d. 1965)
1886 - Rene Guenon, French philosopher and author (d. 1951)
1887 - Hitoshi Ashida, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1959)
1887 - Marianne Moore, American poet and writer (d. 1972)
1887 - Georgia O'Keeffe, American painter (d. 1986)
1888 - Harald Sverdrup, Norwegian oceanographer (d. 1957)
1889 - Manuel II, last King of Portugal (d. 1932)
1891 - W. Averell Harriman, 48th Governor of New York (d. 1986)
1891 - Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (d. 1944)
1892 - Naomi Childers, American actress (d. 1964)
1893 - Carlo Emilio Gadda, Italian writer (d. 1973)
1895 - Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
1895 - Antoni Slominski, Polish journalist, poet and playwright (d. 1976)
1897 - Aneurin Bevan, British politician (d. 1960)
1899 - Avdy Andresson, Estonian statesman (d. 1990)
1901 1950
1905 - Mantovani, Italian-born composer (d. 1980)
1906 - Curtis LeMay, US Air Force General (d. 1990)
1907 - Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German army officer during World War II (d. 1944)
1910 - Hugh Greene, British journalist (d. 1987)
1912 - Yi Wu, Korean prince (d. 1945)
1912 - Albert Baez, American physicist (d. 2007)
1912 - Fosco Maraini, Italian photographer, anthropologist, ethnologist, writer, mountaineer and academic (d. 2004)
1913 - Guy Green, British movie director (d. 2005)
1914 - Giuseppe Caprio, Italian cardinal (d. 2005)
1914 - V. R. Krishna Iyer, Indian judge (d. 2014)
1915 - David Stirling, British founder of the SAS (d. 1990)
1916 - Nita Barrow, 7th Governor-General of Barbados (d. 1995)
1916 - Bill Melendez, Mexican-American animator (d. 2008)
1919 - Joseph Wapner, American television personality (d. 2017)
1922 - David Sidney Feingold, American biochemist
1922 - Francesco Rosi, Italian movie director (d. 2015)
1925 - Howard Baker, American politician (d. 2014)
1927 - Bill Rowling, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1995)
1927 - Gregor Mackenzie, British politician (d. 1992)
1929 - Ed Asner, American actor (d. 2021)
1930 - J. G. Ballard, English writer (d. 2009)
1930 - Aureliano Bolognesi, Italian boxer (d. 2018)
1930 - Olene S. Walker, former Governor of Utah (d. 2015)
1931 - Mwai Kibaki, former President of Kenya (d. 2022)
1931 - Pascal Lissouba, Congolese politician
1931 - John Kerr, American actor and lawyer (d. 2013)
1932 - Petula Clark, English singer
1932 - Alvin Plantinga, American philosopher
1933 - Jack Burns, American comedian
1933 - Francoise Heritier, French anthropologist and feminist (d. 2017)
1934 - Joanna Barnes, American actress
1935 - Nera White, American basketball player (d. 2016)
1936 - Wolf Biermann, German writer
1937 - Little Willie John, American singer (d. 1968)
1939 - W. C. Clark, American blues musician
1939 - Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde, Finnish physician (d. 2015)
1940 - Roberto Cavalli, Italian fashion designer
1940 - Hank Wangford, English singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
1940 - Sam Waterston, American actor
1942 - Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born conductor
1945 - Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Norwegian-born Swedish singer (ABBA)
1945 - Bob Gunton, American actor
1945 - Roger Donaldson, Australian-New Zealand director, producer and screenwriter
1946 - Vasilis Goumas, Greek basketball player
1947 - Bill Richardson, American politician and former Governor of New Mexico
1947 - Malcolm Ranjith, Sri Lankan cardinal
1948 - David Caygill, New Zealand politician
1950 - Graham Parker, English singer-songwriter
1950 - Egon Vaupel, German politician, 16th Mayor of Marburg
1951 1975
1951 - Beverly D'Angelo, American actress
1951 - Billy McColl, Scottish actor (d. 2014)
1952 - Randy Savage, American professional wrestler (d. 2011)
1953 - Alexander O'Neal, American singer
1953 - Toshio Takabayashi, Japanese footballer
1954 - Emma Dent Coad, English politician
1954 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, former President of Poland
1954 - Uli Stielike, German footballer
1956 - Michael Hampton, American guitarist (Funkadelic)
1957 - Kevin Eubanks, American jazz guitarist
1957 - Harold Marcuse, American historian and educator
1958 - Gu Kailai, Chinese lawyer and businesswoman
1958 - Lesley Laird, Scottish politician
1960 - Susanne Lothar, German actress (d. 2012)
1963 - Andrew Castle, English television presenter and former tennis player
1963 - Toru Sano, Japanese footballer
1965 - Nigel Bond, English snooker player
1967 - Dom Joly, English comedian and journalist
1967 - Gustavo Poyet, Uruguayan footballer
1967 - Francois Ozon, French director and screenwriter
1967 - Pandeli Majko, former Prime Minister of Albania
1968 - Ol' Dirty Bastard, American rapper (d. 2004)
1968 - Jennifer Charles, American singer-songwriter
1968 - Fausto Brizzi, Italian director and screenwriter
1968 - Uwe Rosler, German footballer and manager
1970 - Pedro Caixinha, Portuguese footballer and manager
1970 - Patrick M'Boma, Cameroonian footballer
1972 - Jessica Hynes, English actress
1972 - Jonny Lee Miller, English actor
1973 - Albert Portas, Spanish tennis player
1974 - Chad Kroeger, Canadian singer (Nickelback)
1975 - Yannick Tremblay, Canadian ice hockey player
From 1976
1976 - Brandon DiCamillo, American comedian, actor and stuntman
1976 - Virginie Ledoyen, French actress
1977 - Peter Phillips, first grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II
1977 - Sean Murray, American actor
1979 - Josemi, Spanish footballer
1979 - Brett Lancaster, Australian cyclist
1979 - Robert Kendrick, American tennis player
1979 - Albert Rivera, Spanish politician
1981 - Jordan Buckley, American guitarist
1981 - Lorena Ochoa, Mexican golfer
1982 - Kalu Uche, Nigerian footballer
1983 - John Heitinga, Dutch footballer
1983 - Veli-Matti Lindstrom, Finnish ski jumper
1983 - Laura Smet, French actress
1983 - Fernando Verdasco, Spanish tennis player
1984 - Gemma Atkinson, English actress
1985 - Lily Aldridge, American fashion model
1985 - Jeffree Star, American performer
1986 - Sania Mirza, Indian tennis player
1988 - Zena Grey, American actress
1988 - B.o.B, American rapper and producer
1988 - Morgan Parra, French rugby player
1988 - Billy Twelvetrees, English rugby player
1991 - Shailene Woodley, American actress
1992 - Kevin Wimmer, Austrian footballer
1992 - Minami Minegishi, Japanese singer and actress (AKB48)
1993 - Saaya Irie, Japanese actress and singer
1993 - Paulo Dybala, Argentine footballer
1994 - Saffron Coomber, English actress
1995 - Karl-Anthony Towns, Dominican-American basketball player
1998 - Benedict Mateo, Filipino artist
2005 - Tsehay Hawkins, Australian musician (The Wiggles)
Deaths
Up to 1900
655 - Penda, King of Mercia
1028 - Constantine VIII, Byzantine Emperor (b. 960)
1136 - Leopold III, Margrave of Austria (b. 1073)
1210 - Ly Cap Tong, King of the Ly Dynasty of Vietnam (b. 1173)
1280 - Albertus Magnus, German theologian, bishop and philosopher
1544 - King Jungjong of Joseon of Korea (b. 1506)
1594 - Martin Frobisher, English explorer (b. 1539)
1630 - Johannes Kepler, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1571)
1670 - John Amos Comenius, Czech writer (b. 1592)
1706 - Tsangyang Gyatso, 6th Dalai Lama (b. 1683)
1712 - James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish general and politician (b. 1658)
1712 - Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, English politician (b. 1675)
1787 - Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (b. 1714)
1794 - John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1723)
1819 - Daniel Rutherford, Scottish chemist and physician (b. 1749)
1832 - Jean-Baptiste Say, French economist (b. 1767)
1839 - William Murdoch, Scottish engineer and inventor (b. 1754)
1853 - Maria II of Portugal (b. 1819)
1901 2000
1908 - Empress Dowager Cixi of China (b. 1835)
1910 - Wilhelm Raabe, German writer (b. 1831)
1914 - Harry Turner, American baseball player
1916 - Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish writer (b. 1846)
1917 - Emile Durkheim, French sociologist (b. 1858)
1919 - Alfred Werner, German chemist (b. 1866)
1919 - Mohammad Farid, Egyptian politician (b. 1868)
1922 - Dimitrios Gounaris, Greek politician (b. 1866)
1922 - Georgios Hatzianestis, Greek general (b. 1863)
1922 - Petros Protopapadakis, Greek politician (b. 1854)
1922 - Nikolaos Stratos, Greek politician (b. 1872)
1949 - Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte, conspirators against Mahatma Gandhi
1954 - Lionel Barrymore, American actor (b. 1879)
1958 - Tyrone Power, American actor (b. 1914)
1959 - Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist (b. 1869)
1961 - Elsie Ferguson, American actress (b. 1883)
1963 - Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (b. 1888)
1967 - Michael J. Adams, American test pilot (b. 1930)
1976 - Jean Gabin, French actor (b. 1904)
1978 - Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (b. 1901)
1980 - Emilio Pujol, Catalan guitarist and composer (b. 1886)
1982 - Vinoba Bhave, Indian Human rights advocate (b. 1895)
1983 - John Le Mesurier, English actor (b. 1912)
1988 - Archbishop Ieronymos I of Athens, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Athens (b. 1905)
1996 - Alger Hiss, American government official and spy (b. 1904)
1998 - Stokely Carmichael, American Civil rights activist (b. 1941)
2000 - Piero Pasinati, Italian footballer (b. 1910)
From 2001
2002 - Myra Hindley, English murderer (b. 1942)
2003 - Dorothy Loudon, American actress (b. 1933)
2003 - Speedy West, American musician (b. 1924)
2004 - Elmer L. Anderson, American politician (b. 1909)
2006 - Ana Carolina Reston, Brazilian fashion model (b. 1985)
2007 - Joe Nuxhall, American baseball player (b. 1928)
2009 - Pavle, Serbian Patriarch (b. 1914)
2009 - Pierre Harmel, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1911)
2010 - Larry Evans, American chess player (b. 1932)
2011 - Oba Chandler, American murderer (b. 1946)
2011 - Dulcie Gray, British actress (b. 1915)
2013 - Glafcos Clerides, 4th President of Cyprus (b. 1919)
2013 - Raimondo D'Inzeo, Italian equestrian show jumper (b. 1925)
2014 - Lucien Clergue, French photographer (b. 1934)
2014 - Reg Withers, Australian politician (b. 1924)
2014 - Valery Mezague, Cameroonian footballer (b. 1983)
2015 - Moira Orfei, Italian actress (b. 1931)
2015 - Vincent Margera, American television personality (b. 1956)
2015 - Saeed Jaffrey, Indian actor (b. 1929)
2015 - Herbert Scarf, American mathematician (b. 1930)
2015 - Dora Doll, French actress (b. 1922)
2015 - Nicoletta Machiavelli, Italian actress (b. 1944)
2016 - Mose Allison, American jazz musician (b. 1927)
2016 - Sixto Duran Ballen, 37th President of Ecuador (b. 1921)
2017 - Luis Bacalov, Argentine-Italian film score composer (b. 1933)
2017 - Keith Barron, English actor (b. 1934)
2017 - Francoise Heritier, French anthropologist and feminist (b. 1933)
2017 - Frans Krajcberg, Polish-Brazilian artist (b. 1921)
2017 - Lil Peep, American singer and rapper (b. 1996)
2018 - John Bluthal, Polish-born British-Australian actor (b. 1929)
2018 - Roy Clark, American country music singer and television host (b. 1933)
2018 - Adolf Grunbaum, German-American science professor (b. 1923)
2018 - Zhores Medvedev, Russian agronomist, biologist and dissident (b. 1925)
2018 - Mike Noble, British comic artist and cartoonist (b. 1930)
2018 - Luigi Rossi di Montelera, Italian businessman and politician (b. 1946)
2018 - Aldyr Schlee, Brazilian writer, journalist, translator, illustrator and professor (b. 1934)
2018 - Sigmund Steinnes, Norwegian politician (b. 1959)
2019 - Mark Cady, American judge (b. 1953)
2019 - Jim Coates, American baseball player (b. 1932)
2019 - Harrison Dillard, American athlete (b. 1923)
2019 - Vladimir Hotineanu, Moldovan politician (b. 1950)
2019 - Irv Noren, American baseball player (b. 1924)
2019 - Juliusz Paetz, Polish archbishop (b. 1935)
Holidays and observances
Brazil - Republic Proclamation Day (1889)
Palestine - Independence Day (declared 1988)
Japan - Shichi-Go-San - traditional rite of passage and festival day for three and seven-year-old girls and three and five-year-old boys
Belgium
Day of the German-speaking Community
King's Feast
Eastern Orthodox Christianity - beginning of Winter Lent
Days of the year