Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in November 2025 (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 selected an anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2025, which lists more than 3,600 anniversaries. The Date-A-Base Book 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 are also available.
Each edition is available in British and U.S. versions. Both have the same content, but with different date formats and spellings. If you click on the links above, you should be directed to the correct version, based on your location. We’ve taken the anniversaries below from the British version.
1 Nov 1985 – 40 years ago
Quantum Link (also known as Q-Link), an online service for Commodore personal computers, began operating. In 1989, the service was renamed America Online (AOL) and was made available to users of other computers, including the IBM PC.
2 Nov 1950 – 75 years ago
Death of George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and literary critic. Best known for Pygmalion. Winner of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature. Co-founder of the London School of Economics. The only person to win both an Academy Award and the Nobel Prize in Literature.
3 to 9 Nov 1900 – 125 years ago
The first major automobile show in the USA was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
4 Nov 1825 – 200 years ago
The Wedding of the Waters. Following the opening of the Erie Canal on 26th October 1825, the Governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, made the ten-day journey to New York Harbor. When his boat anchored off Sandy Hook, he poured a barrel of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean to celebrate the Wedding of the Waters.
5 Nov 1935 – 90 years ago
The board game Monopoly was launched by Parker Brothers. Its inventor, Charles Darrow, was awarded a U.S. Patent for it design on 31st December. (U.S. Patent 2,026,082.) He assigned it to Parker Brothers.
6 Nov 1975 – 50 years ago
British punk rock group the Sex Pistols gave their first public performance, at St Martin’s College of Art in London. The performance was cut short after ten minutes and a fight broke out.
7 Nov 1775 – 250 years ago
American Revolutionary War: Dunmore’s Proclamation. John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore (also known as Lord Dunmore), Governor of the Province of Virginia, issued a proclamation declaring martial law and offering freedom to any male slaves who left their provincial masters and joined the British Army. Between 800 and 2,000 slaves are reported to have taken up his offer.
8 Nov 1950? – 75 years ago
Korean War: the first all-jet aerial dogfight in history took place, with U.S. jets taking on North Korea’s Chinese-supplied MiG-15s. (Some sources report that the first all-jet dogfight took place a week earlier on 1st November.)
9 Nov 1965 – 60 years ago
The death penalty was abolished in the United Kingdom.
10 Nov 1925 – 100 years ago
Birth of Richard Burton, Welsh stage and film actor (Cleopatra, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Taming of the Shrew, and many more). Fifth and sixth husband of the actress Elizabeth Taylor. (Died 1984.)
11 Nov 1965 – 60 years ago
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain. The move was widely condemned, and the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on 20th November.
12 Nov 1995 – 30 years ago
The Croatian War of Independence ended with the signing of the Erdut Agreement.
13 Nov 1925 – 100 years ago
The world’s first exhibition of Surrealist art opened at Galerie Pierre in Paris, France. It included works by Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray.
14 Nov 1935 – 90 years ago
Holocaust: the Nazis began implementing the Nuremburg Laws, stripping German Jews of their German citizenship. The laws were extended to cover gypsies and negroes on 26th November.
15 Nov 1985 – 40 years ago
The Anglo–Irish Agreement was signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish President Garret Fitzerald. It gave the Irish government a consultative role in the affairs of Northern Ireland.
16 Nov 1945 – 80 years ago
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, was founded.
17 Nov 1925 – 100 years ago
Birth of Rock Hudson, American film and television actor. One of the most popular film stars of his era. The first major celebrity to die from AIDS. (Died 1985.)
18 Nov 1985 – 40 years ago
The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson was first published. (It ended in December 1995.)
19 Nov 1995 – 30 years ago
The U.S. première of the film Toy Story. It was the first feature-length computer-generated film, and the first full-length film made by Pixar. (Released USA: 22nd November. UK: 22nd March 1996.)
20 Nov 1985 – 40 years ago
Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released.
21 Nov 1975 – 50 years ago
American mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. was convicted of the Amityville murders in Long Island, New York in November 1974. He shot and killed his mother, father, two brothers and two sisters. The case inspired the novel and film The Amityville Horror. He received six sentences of 25 years to life in prison. He died in 2021.
22 Nov 1925 – 100 years ago
Birth of Jerrie Mock, American aviator. The first woman to fly solo around the world (1964). (Died 2014.)
23 Nov 1945 to 1 Oct 1946 – 80 years ago
The first Nuremberg trial was held in Germany.
23 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich were tried for war crimes. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death, and ten were executed on 16th October 1946. (The other two were already dead.)
24 Nov 1950 – 75 years ago
The Great Appalachian Storm (also known as The Great Thanksgiving Storm or the Storm of the Century) hit eastern USA and Canada. More than 300 people were killed.
25 Nov 1975 – 50 years ago
American radiologist Robert Ledley was granted a U.S. patent for his invention of the whole-body CT scanner. (U.S. Patent 3,922,552.)
26 Nov 1965 – 60 years ago
France became the world’s third space power when it successfully launched its first satellite Astérix into orbit from Algeria.
27 Nov 1945 – 80 years ago
Care International was founded (as CARE – the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, later renamed the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere). It was originally intended to be a temporary organisation to send food packages to Europe following the end of WWII.
28 Nov 1925 – 100 years ago
The first Grand Ole Opry country music concert was held in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, and also broadcast on the radio.
29 Nov 1945 – 80 years ago
Yugoslavia abolished its monarchy and became the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia.
30 Nov 1900 – 125 years ago
Death of Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, short story writer and poet. Known for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his play The Importance of Being Earnest, and his poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He was convicted of gross indecency (homosexual acts) and served two years in prison. (Meningitis, aged 46.)
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2025.
The 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 editions are also available if you work further ahead.
Each edition is available as a PDF ebook (with a free Excel spreadsheet) or as a printed paperback book, in British or U.S. versions.
“A brilliant resource as usual”
“This book continues to astound me with its meticulous attention to detail and painstaking research. I use it all the time to generate ideas for documentaries and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone else who works in the media.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
— Chris
“A deeply researched goldmine of ideas”
“For journalists looking to plan ahead, the Date-a-base books offer a goldmine of ideas that are unavailable on the free internet. I’ve already recommended it to fellow colleagues at the BBC.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
— Richard
“Great reference”
“This is a fantastic and extremely useful book – very well compiled, detailed and organised.
Highly recommended for research or if you’re just curious about ‘on this day’ type history.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
— Mark
How to use the anniversaries:
How can you turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines, newspapers and websites? How do you get paid for writing them, and how can you make a great living from it?
Download our free guide Ditch Your Day Job. It tells you everything you need to know!