November 15Birthdays & History

On this day: November 15 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 655Battle of the Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.Europe
2. 1315Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy: The Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I in the Battle of Morgarten.EuropeNorth America
3. 1532Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Incan Emperor Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging for a meeting in the city plaza the following day.EuropeLatin America
4. 1533Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.Latin America
5. 1705Rákóczi's War of Independence: The Habsburg Empire and Denmark win a military victory over the Kurucs from Hungary in the Battle of Zsibó.Europe
6. 1760The secondly-built Castellania in Valletta is officially inaugurated with the blessing of the interior Chapel of Sorrows.Europe
7. 1777American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.North America
8. 1806Pike Expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spots a mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is later named Pikes Peak in his honor.North America
9. 1842A slave revolt in the Cherokee Nation commences.North America
10. 1849Boilers of the steamboat Louisiana explode as she pulls back from the dock in New Orleans, killing more than 150 people.North America
11. 1864American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his March to the Sea through Georgia towards the city of Savannah.North America
12. 1884The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 met on 15 November 1884, and after an adjournment concluded on 26 February 1885, with the signature of a General Act, regulating the European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period.EuropeAfrica
13. 1889Brazil is declared a republic by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup.Latin America
14. 1899Second Boer War: Battle of Chieveley, a British armored train is ambushed and partially derailed. British lose the battle, with 80 soldiers captured, along with war correspondent Winston Churchill.AfricaEurope
15. 1917Eduskunta declares itself the supreme state power of Finland, prompting its declaration of independence and secession from Russia.Europe
16. 1920The Free City of Danzig is established.Europe
17. 1920The first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland.Europe
18. 1922At least 300 are massacred during a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador.Latin America
19. 1928The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsizes in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew.Europe
20. 1933Thailand holds its first election.Asia
21. 1938Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht.Europe
22. 1942World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.Oceania
23. 1943The Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps".Europe
24. 1951Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 comrades, is sentenced to death for attempting to reestablish the Communist Party of Greece.Europe
25. 1955The first part of the Saint Petersburg Metro is opened.Europe
26. 1957Short Solent 3 crashes near Chessell.Europe
27. 1959Four members of the Clutter family are murdered near Holcomb, Kansas, by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, a crime later detailed by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.North America
28. 1965Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) in his car, the Spirit of America, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.North America
29. 1966Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.World
30. 1967The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.North America
31. 1968The Cleveland Transit System becomes the first transit system in the western hemisphere to provide direct rapid transit service from a city's downtown to its major airport.North America
32. 1969Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".AsiaNorth America
33. 1969Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.EuropeNorth America
34. 1971Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.North America
35. 1976René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favor of independence.North America
36. 1978A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.Asia
37. 1979A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.North America
38. 1983Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declares independence; it is only recognized by Turkey.Middle East
39. 1985The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.Europe
40. 1985A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.North America
41. 1987Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashes during takeoff from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, killing 25.North America
42. 1987In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.Europe
43. 1988Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.Middle East
44. 1988In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.Europe
45. 1988The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.Europe
46. 1990The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted.Europe
47. 1990Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-38, a classified mission for the Department of Defense.World
48. 1994A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to 8.5 m (28 ft) high.Asia
49. 2000A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people.Africa
50. 2000Jharkhand officially becomes the 28th state of India, formed from eighteen districts of southern Bihar.Asia
51. 2001Microsoft launches the Xbox game console in North America.North America
52. 2002Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.Asia
53. 2003The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, kill 25 people and wound 300 more.Middle East
54. 2006Al Jazeera English launches worldwide.Europe
55. 2007Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.Asia
56. 2010A fire in a high-rise apartment building in Shanghai, China kills 58 people.Asia
57. 2012Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.Asia
58. 2016Hong Kong's High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament.Asia
59. 2017A flood a few miles outside of Athens results in the death of 25 people.Europe
60. 2020Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix and secures his seventh drivers' title, equalling the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.Middle East
61. 2022The world population reached eight billion.World

Source: Wikipedia "November 15" / CC BY-SA 4.0