On November 22nd...

links will open in a new window
*external link

1643 René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, French explorer of the Mississippi River, was born.

1718 Notorious pirate Blackbeard was killed in a battle with a British officer sent to capture him.

1783 American politician John Hanson died.

1809 Peregrine Williamson patented a steel pen.

1819 Novelist George Eliot was born.

1868 American politician John Nance Garner was born.

1881 Enver Pasha, leader of the Young Turks, was born.

1890 French President Charles De Gaulle was born.

1896 Engineer/inventor George Ferris died.

1898 Aviator Wiley Post was born.

1899 Songwriter Hoagy Carmichael was born.

1902 Walter Reed, physician/scientist who proved that yellow fever is carried by mosquitos, died.

1906 "SOS" was officially recognized as the universal telegraph signal for distress.

1910 Arthur Knight patented steel shaft golf clubs.

1913 Composer Benjamin Britten was born.

1916 Novelist Jack London died.

1921 Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was born.

1924 Actress Geraldine Page was born.

1927 Carl Eliason was granted a patent for his snowmobile.

1928 "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was performed in public for the first time, in Paris.

1930 Elijah Muhammad formed the Nation of Islam.
1930 Astronaut Owen K. Garriott was born.

1932 Actor Robert Vaughn was born.

1934 "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" was first heard, on Eddie Cantor's radio program.

1935 The first transpacific air-mail flight began.

1940 Film director Terry Gilliam was born.
1940 Fusajiro Yamauchi, founder of Nintendo, was born.

1943 Lebanon became independent of a League of Nations mandate.
1943 Tennis player Billie Jean King was born.

1954 The Humane Society was established.

1955 Actor Shemp Howard died.

1958 Actress Jamie Lee Curtis was born.

1961 Frank Robinson became the first baseball player to win Most Valuable Player in both major leagues.
1961 Actress Mariel Hemingway was born.

1963 U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
1963 Novelist-essayist Aldous Huxley died.
1963 Author C.S. Lewis died.

1967 Tennis player Boris Becker was born.

1968 "Star Trek" became the first television series to show an interracial kiss (it was not the first interracial kiss on television, however).*

1975 Juan Carlos was crowned King of Spain.

1976 The comic strip "Cathy" debuted.

1977 The first three nodes of the ARPAnet* were connected.

1980 Actress Mae West died.

1983 Actor Michael Conrad died.

1986 Jazz musician Scatman Crothers died.

1988 Anthropologist Raymond Dart died.

1995 Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.

2001 Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, died.

2005 Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany.

Questions or comments about this page?

This page was last updated on November 21, 2017.