| November 19, 1863 | November 19, 1919 |
| • At the dedication of a military cemetary in Pennsylvania during the civil war, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history, the 272 word Gettysburg Address. | • The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55-39, short of the two-thirds majoriy needed for ratification. |
| November 20, 1620 | November 20, 1820 |
| • Peregrine White is born aboard the Mayflower in Cape Code Bay. He is the first child born of English parents in New England. White eventually became a captain of militia and lived to the ripe old age of 83. | • The American whaler Essex is attacked by an 80 ton sperm whale 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America. Herman Melville's classic novel "Moby-Dick" (1851) was inspired in part by the story of the Essex. |
| November 21, 1877 | November 21, 1980 |
| • Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound. The machine was a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, which played back a short song he had recorded, "Mary Had a Little Lamb". | • 350 million people around the world tune in to television's popular primetime drama "Dallas" to find out who shot J.R. Ewing. The new episode solved the mystery, identifying Kristen Shepard, J.R.'s sister in-law and his former mistress, as the culprit. |
| November 22, 1955 | November 22, 1963 |
| • Record company RCA announces that it has purchased the recording contract for Elvis Presley from Sun Records. RCA paid $35,000 for the contract, a record sum at the time. Presley also received a $5,000 advance, which he used to buy a pink Cadillac for his mother. | • President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Three bullets allegedly were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald, fatally wounding Kennedy and injuring Texas Gov. John Connally. Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. He was 46. |
| November 23, 1936 | November 23, 1980 |
| • The first issue of the pictorial magazine Life is published. Publisher Henry Luce meant for the magazine to provide a way for the American people "to see life; to see the world; to witness great events". | • About 4,800 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy. |
| November 24, 1859 | November 24, 1963 |
| • British naturalist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he explained his theory of evolution through the process of natural selection. | • In a scene captured on live network television, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy. |
| November 25, 1941 | November 25, 1947 |
| • Admiral Harold R. Stark, U.S. chief of naval operations, tells admiral Husband E. Kimmel, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, that President Roosevelt thinks a Japanese suprise attack is a distinct possibility. But no one expected the target would be Hawaii, which was attacked 12 days later. | • Film industry executives announce that 10 directors, producers, and actors who have refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and name others who allegedly belonged to the Communist Party, will be fired or suspended. The "Hollywood Ten" were also jailed and fined for contempt of Congress. |
| November 26, 1922 | November 26, 1950 |
| • In Egypt's Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists become the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen's tomb in more than 3,000 years. Tutankhamen's sealed burial chamber held a gold coffin containing the mummy of the teenage king. | • China entered the Korean conflict, launching a counter offensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the United States and South Korea. |
| November 27, 1924 | November 27, 1942 |
| • New York City's Macy's department store holds its first Thanksgiving Day parade down a 2-mile stretch of Broadway. The parade featured large performing platforms that, because they were attached to specially outfitted automobiles concealed beneath them, seemed to "float" down the street. | • During World War II, the French Navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Nazis. |
| November 28, 1520 | November 28, 1943 |
| • Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name. | • President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II. |
| November 29, 1947 | November 29, 1964 |
| • The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews. | • The U.S. Roman Catholic Church instituted sweeping changes in the litergy, including the use of English instead of Latin. |
| November 30, 1782 | November 30, 1987 |
| • The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War. | • In an interview broadcast by NBC, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that his country was engaged in "Star Wars" related research, but said there were no plans to build a space based system against nuclear attack. |
| December 1, 1959 | December 1, 1980 |
| • Representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity. | • The island of Britain is connected with the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age when tunnel workers from England and France meet 40 meters beneath the English channel seabed. The "Chunnel" was officially opened in May 1994. |
| December 2, 1954 | December 2, 1985 |
| • The U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a Senator. The condemnation related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. Government, military, and civilian society. | • Organized crime bosses Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are gunned down, making John Gotti the head of the Gambino crime family, the most powerful Mafia operation in New York City. Gotti's success at escaping conviction earned him the nickname "Teflon Don". |
| December 3, 1979 | December 3, 1984 |
| • Eleven people, ranging in age from 15 to 22, were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, where the Britsh rock group The Who was performing. | • One of the worst industrial disasters in history begins when a pesticide plant located in the densely populated region of Bhopal in central India leaks a highly toxic cloud into the air. At least 2,000 people were killed imediately, 600,000 were injured and more than 6,000 have died since. |
| December 4, 1839 | December 4, 1943 |
| • The Whig Party opened a national convention in Harrisburg, Pa., during which delegates nominated William Henry Harrison of North Bend Oh. for President. | • President Franklin Roosevelt closes the books on the Depression era Works Projects Administration. The WPA gave more than 8 million Americans work on an array of projects, including the construction of 650,000 miles of road and 125,000 public buildings. |
| December 5, 1933 | December 5, 1945 |
| • The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. | • Five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo bombers take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three hour training mission and never return. The bombers flew over the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. |
| December 6, 1907 | December 6, 1923 |
| • In West Virginia's Marion County, an explosion in a network of mines kills 361 coal miners, the worst mining disaster in American history. Nationwide, a total of 3,242 miners were killed in mine accidents in 1907. | • A presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress. |
| December 7, 1941 | December 7, 1988 |
| • Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, an act that resulted in America's entry into World War II. | • A Major earthquake in the Soviet Union devasted northern Armenia; an estimated 25,000 people died. |
| December 8, 1854 | December 8, 1949 |
| • Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate conception, which holds that Mary, mother of Jesus, was free of Original Sin from the moment she was conceived. | • The Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa, now called Taiwan, as the Communists pressed their attacks. |
| December 9, 1907 | December 9, 1926 |
| • Christmas seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wimington, Del., post office. The proceeds went to fight tuberculosis. | • Young clarinetist Benny Goodman, working hard to raise his family out of poverty in chicago, records his first solo. Sadly, Goodman's father was hit by a car and killed on the same day. |