Tag: November

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in November 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).

1 Nov 1924 – 100 years ago
The Boston Bruins ice hockey team was founded. It was the first NHL team in the USA.

2 Nov 1924 – 100 years ago
The first crossword puzzle to appear in a British newspaper was published in the Sunday Express.
(The world’s first modern crossword puzzle was published in the New York World in the USA in December 1913.)

3 Nov 1949 – 75 years ago
Death of Solomon R. Guggenheim, American businessman, art collector and philanthropist who established the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

4 Nov 1899 – 125 years ago
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud’s book The Interpretation of Dreams was published.

5 Nov 1824 – 200 years ago
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was founded in Troy, New York, USA.
It is the oldest technological university in the USA. It opened on 3^rd January 1825.

6 Nov 1944 – 80 years ago
The B Reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington, USA began producing plutonium. It was the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. Plutonium from the reactor was used in the USA’s first nuclear bomb (the Trinity test), and in the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. (The bomb that destroyed Hiroshima used highly enriched uranium.)

7 Nov 1944 – 80 years ago
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for a fourth term. No other U.S. President has been elected for more than two terms.

8 Nov 1974 – 50 years ago
British aristocrat Lord Lucan disappeared from his home in London after his children’s nanny was bludgeoned to death and his wife was attacked. There were hundreds of claims of sightings around the world in the following years, but none were substantiated. He was never found and is presumed dead.

9 Nov 2004 – 20 years ago
The Firefox web browser was officially released (version 1.0).

10 Nov 1974 – 50 years ago
The discovery of the charm quark, a type of subatomic particle, was announced by two teams of American scientists at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Brookhaven National Laboratory. The leaders of the two teams were awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics.

11 Nov 1999 – 25 years ago
The House of Lords Act was passed in Britain. It removed the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House. Most members are now life peers.

12 Nov 1974 – 50 years ago
The United Nations General Assembly suspended South Africa because of its apartheid policies. The suspension was lifted in 1993.

13 Nov 1974 – 50 years ago
Death of Karen Silkwood, American chemical technician and union activist. Killed in a car crash in uncertain circumstances after raising concerns about health and safety practices at a nuclear facility. Her story is told in the film Silkwood.

14 Nov 1994 – 30 years ago
The first fare-paying passengers travelled through the Channel Tunnel linking England and France.

15 Nov 1899 – 125 years ago
Second Boer War: future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was captured by the Boers while working as a journalist for the Morning Post newspaper. His train was derailed by Boer shelling, and he was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp. He escaped in December and rejoined the army, helping to relieve the siege of Ladysmith.

16 Nov 1824 – 200 years ago
Australia’s longest river, the Murray River, was discovered by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell during their great expedition to explore eastern Australia. The expedition was commissioned by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane.

17 Nov 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: the USA launched the first large-scale bombing raids on the Japanese capital, Tokyo. The raids continued until the end of the war.

18 Nov 1874 – 150 years ago
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

19 Nov 1874 – 150 years ago
Former New York senator William M. Tweed (‘Boss’ Tweed) was sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption. He had defrauded New York City taxpayers of as much as $200 million. His sentence was later reduced to one year. He escaped, but was recaptured, and died in prison in 1878.

20 Nov 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Benoît Mandelbrot, Polish-born French-American mathematician. The father of fractals. (Died 2010.)

21 Nov 1974 – 50 years ago
Birmingham Pub Bombings, UK. 21 people were killed and 182 injured when bombs exploded in two pubs. The IRA was thought to be responsible, but denied it. The ‘Birmingham Six’ were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but were later acquitted.

22 Nov 1774 – 250 years ago
Death of Robert Clive, 1^st Baron Clive, (Clive of India), British general who helped found the British Empire in India.

23 Nov 1899 – 125 years ago
The world’s first jukebox was installed at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco, California, USA. It was built by the Pacific Phonograph Company and used an Edison electric phonograph. Up to four people could listen at a time, via coin-operated stethoscope-like tubes.

24 Nov 1874 – 150 years ago
American farmer and inventor Joseph Glidden was granted a U.S. patent for barbed wire. (U.S. Patent 157,124.)

25 Nov 1984 – 40 years ago
36 musicians gathered in London to record the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

26 Nov 1949 – 75 years ago
India became a republic within the British Commonwealth.

27 Nov 1924 – 100 years ago
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held, in New York City, USA. (It was called the Macy’s Christmas Parade.)

28 Nov 1964 – 60 years ago
NASA launched Mariner 4 – the first successful mission to Mars. It reached Mars in July 1965 and returned the first close-up images of another planet.

29 Nov 1924 – 100 years ago
The first photo was sent across the Atlantic using a wireless facsimile system invented by Richard H. Ranger of RCA. The photo was sent from New York City, USA to London, England and was of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. Operators in the UK then sent back several photos taken in London, which were published in the New York Herald Tribune newspaper the following day, 30th November.

30 Nov 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (1940–45, 1951–55). Winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2029 edition will also be published in the next few weeks – we’re working on it right now. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

So, how do you turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, and how can you make a great living from it? Simply download our free guide Ditch Your Day Job, which tells you everything you need to know!

Share this:

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in November 2023 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Nov 1848 – 175 years ago
The first railway bookstall was opened by W. H. Smith at Euston Station, London, UK.

2 Nov 1948 – 75 years ago
Harry S. Truman was re-elected as U.S. President for a second term, in the greatest election upset in U.S. history. Every prediction had indicated that Thomas E. Dewey would win. The Chicago Daily Tribune famously (and erroneously) announced Dewey’s ‘victory’ on the front page of its 3^rd November issue.

3 Nov 1983 – 40 years ago
In a referendum, the white citizens of South Africa voted to approve the Tricameral Parliament. Indian and coloured South Africans would be represented by new, separate parliamentary chambers, while blacks would continue to be excluded. The new parliament was established in September 1984 and remained in effect until 1994.

4 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Alfred (‘Freddy’) Heineken, Dutch brewery executive. He turned Heineken into a worldwide brand using innovative marketing methods. (Died 2002.)

5 Nov 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Vatican City was bombed – the only time this happened during the war. The perpetrators remained a mystery for decades, but it is now known that Italian Fascists dropped five bombs from an unmarked plane in an attempt to knock out the radio station, which they believed was broadcasting military messages to the enemy. Four of the bombs exploded, causing some damage, but no deaths were reported.

6 Nov 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Soviet Red Army recaptured Kiev (now in Ukraine) from the Germans. The Germans had destroyed numerous historic buildings.

7 Nov 1973 – 50 years ago
The War Powers Resolution came into effect in the USA. It limits the President’s power to commit the country to an armed conflict without congressional approval.

8 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer. Joint winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for co-inventing the integrated circuit. He also designed the first pocket calculator. (Died 2005.)

9 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Alice Coachman, American athlete. The first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal (1948, high jump).

10 Nov 1983 – 40 years ago
American computer student Fred Cohen demonstrated the first computer virus at a computer security seminar. He had created the virus with computer scientist Len Adleman on 3^rd November.

11 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
The eternal flame at the tomb of the unknown solder under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France was lit. It was the first modern-day eternal flame in Europe.

12 Nov 1933 – 90 years ago
The first known photographs of the Loch Ness Monster were taken by Hugh Gray, a local man, during one of his regular Sunday walks. (1 photo was later confirmed to be a hoax, and 4 of the others were blank.)

13 Nov 1973 – 50 years ago
Britain declared a state of emergency as a strike by coal miners caused supplies to dwindle. A 3-Day Week was introduced to conserve supplies.

14 Nov 1948 – 75 years ago
Birth of King Charles III of the United Kingdom.

15 Nov 1963 – 60 years ago
The island of Surtsey, off the coast of Iceland, was ‘born’ when an under-water volcano erupted and rose above the surface of the sea.

16 Nov 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of W. C. Handy, (‘the Father of the Blues’), American blues/jazz composer and trumpet player who introduced Delta blues to a national audience.

17 Nov 1873 – 150 years ago
Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, was formed when the cities of Buda, Pest and Óbuda merged.

18 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Alan B. Shepard, American astronaut. The first American in space. (Died 1998).

19 Nov 1523 – 500 years ago
Pope Clemens VII was elected.

20 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
American inventor Garrett Morgan was granted a U.S. patent for the three-position traffic light. (U.S. Patent No. 1,475,024.)

21 Nov 1953 – 70 years ago
British scientists revealed that the fossilised skull of ‘Piltdown Man’, discovered in England in 1912 and thought to be from one of the earliest humans, was a hoax constructed from the skulls of 3 different species.

22 Nov 1963 – 60 years ago
U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas by suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President.

23 Nov 1963 – 60 years ago
The first episode of the science fiction television series Doctor Who was broadcast in the UK. It is the longest-running and most successful science fiction TV series in the world.

24 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Radio Belgium began broadcasting.

25 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
The first two-way transatlantic radio broadcast. Amateur radio enthusiast Leon Deloy from Nice, France conversed with two other amateur radio operators, Fred Schnell and with John Reinartz, in the USA. They sent Morse code messages using shortwave radios.

26 Nov 1948 – 75 years ago
The first Polaroid instant cameras (the model 95 Land Camera) went on sale, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

27 Nov 1998 – 25 years ago
The Sega Dreamcast video games console was released in Japan. It was Sega’s last games console. (North America: 9^th September 1999, Europe: 14^th October 1999.)

28 Nov 1958 – 65 years ago
The USA carried out its first successful full-range flight of an Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).
The Soviet Union had already fully tested its first ICBM (the R-7) in August 1957.

29 Nov 1898 – 125 years ago
Birth of C. S. Lewis, Irish-born British novelist, theologian and broadcaster. Best known for The Chronicles of Narnia.

30 Nov 1993 – 30 years ago
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (commonly known as the Brady Bill) was signed into law in the USA by U.S. President Bill Clinton. It required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, and background checks of prospective buyers.
(Effective from 28^th February 1994.)

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

Share this:

Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, editors and producers love them, they’re easy to research, and you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, films, TV/radio/theatre shows, and more.

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries coming up in November 2022 (so you have time to write about them!)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2022. You’ll find hundreds more in the book. The 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 editions are also available if you work further ahead, and the 2027 edition will be available from August 2022.

1 Nov 1952 – 70 years ago
The USA carried out the first successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb, in a test on the Pacific island of Elugelab, Marshall Islands. The island was completely destroyed and no longer exists.

2 Nov 1772 – 250 years ago
The Morning Post newspaper was first published in the UK. It ran until 1937 when it merged with The Daily Telegraph.

3 Nov 1957 – 65 years ago
The Soviet Union launched its Sputnik 2 spacecraft. It was the second spacecraft launched into orbit, and the first to carry a living animal – a dog named Laika, who died from overheating after a few hours. The spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burnt up in April 1958.

4 Nov 1922 – 100 years ago
British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen. On 26^th November he reached a second sealed doorway and discovered the famous treasures.

5 Nov 1872 – 150 years ago
Women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony voted in the U.S. presidential election (in which the incumbent Ulysses S. Grant was re-elected). She was arrested (on 18^th November) and fined $100, generating national controversy. This was a key moment in the women’s suffrage movement.

6 Nov 1947 – 75 years ago
The first episode of the news/current affairs television show Meet the Press was broadcast on NBC in the USA. It is still running and is the world’s longest-running TV programme.

7 Nov 1932 – 90 years ago
The first episode of the science fiction series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was broadcast on CBS radio in the USA.

8 Nov 1622 – 400 years ago
Birth of Charles X Gustav, King of Sweden (1654–60).

9 Nov 1872 – 150 years ago
The Great Boston Fire, Massachusetts, USA. Most of the downtown and financial districts were destroyed and 13 people were killed. It caused $1.4 billion worth of damage (in today’s money).

10 Nov 1982 – 40 years ago
Death of Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union (1964–82). Succeeded by Yuri Andropov.

11 Nov 1922 – 100 years ago
Birth of Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist, playwright and short story writer. (Died 2007.)

12 Nov 1992 – 30 years ago
The first episode of the TV comedy series Absolutely Fabulous was broadcast in the UK.

13 Nov 1982 – 40 years ago
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., USA was dedicated.

14 Nov 1922 – 100 years ago
The BBC launched its daily radio service on the radio station 2LO.

15 Nov 2002 – 20 years ago
Death of Myra Hindley, British serial killer. One of the notorious ‘Moors Murderers’, along with Ian Brady.

16 Nov 1272 – 750 years ago
Death of Henry III, King of England (1216–72). Succeeded by his son Edward I.

17 Nov 1962 – 60 years ago
Washington Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., USA was dedicated.

18 Nov 1922 – 100 years ago
Death of Marcel Proust, French novelist. Best known for his 7-volume novel In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance of Things Past).

19 Nov 2007 – 15 years ago
Amazon released its first Kindle e-book reader.

20 Nov 1947 – 75 years ago
The marriage of Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.

21 Nov 1897 – 125 years ago
Birth of Vito Genovese, Italian-born American mobster. He played a leading role in the rise of the Mafia and organised crime in the USA, and was a Mafia enforcer.

22 Nov 1997 – 25 years ago
Death of Michael Hutchence, Australian rock singer and songwriter (INXS). (Found hanged, aged 37.)

23 Nov 1942 – 80 years ago
World War II: the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARS) was established.

24 Nov 1947 – 75 years ago
The ‘Hollywood Ten’ were blacklisted by film studios for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. A wider ‘Hollywood Blacklist’ came into effect on 25^th November.

25 Nov 1947 – 75 years ago
New Zealand became a fully independent sovereign state when the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act received Royal Assent.

26 Nov 1922 – 100 years ago
Birth of Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist. Creator of the Peanuts comic strip, which ran for almost 50 years. (Died 2000.)

27 Nov 1942 – 80 years ago
Birth of Jimi Hendrix, American rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. (Died 1970.)

28 Nov 1942 – 80 years ago
Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The nightclub was destroyed and 492 people were killed.

29 Nov 1972 – 50 years ago
Pong, the first commercially successful video game, was released by Atari as a coin-operated arcade game. The first machine was installed without any fanfare in a bar in Sunnyvale, California, USA.

30 Nov 1982 – 40 years ago
Michael Jackson’s album Thriller was released.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2022. The 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 editions are also available if you work further ahead, and the 2027 edition will be available from August 2022.
Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

Share this: