EVENTS
- 1497 – Portuguese navigator Vasco Da Gama, leading a fleet of four ships, became the first to sail round the Cape of Good Hope, while searching for a sea route to India.
- 1718 – Blackbeard the pirate (Edward Teach) was killed off the coast of North Carolina after a long and prosperous career. Lt. Govenor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia had sent two sloops to put an end to him. The sailors encountered Blackbeard and Lt. Robert Maynard killed him in the fight that followed.
- 1922 – Howard Carter finds the Egyptian tomb of Tutankhamun.
- 1935 – Trans-Pacific airmail service began as the China Clipper, a Pan American flying boat, took off from San Francisco, reaching the Philippines 59 hours later. The following year, commercial passenger service began.
- 1943 – The Cairo Conference occurred as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, met to discuss the war in the Pacific against Japan.
- 1943 – Lebanon gains independence from France.
- 1963 – In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated
- 1963 – Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.
- 1975 – Juan Carlos was sworn in as King of Spain, following the death of General Franscisco Franco who had ruled as dictator since 1939.
- 1986 – Mike Tyson wins fight against Trevor Berbick. The victory won Tyson the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship and made him world’s youngest heavyweight champion at the age of 20 years.
- 1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced she would resign after 11 years in office, the longest term of any British Prime Minister in the 20th century.
- 1995 – The movie ‘Toy Story’ is released by Pixar studios.
- 1999 – Wayne Gretzky is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. His number 99 permanently retired by the NHL.
- 2004 – Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine. The revolution began after an election that was marred by widespread rumors of corruption and fraud. The protests resulted in electoral reforms in the country and November 22 was declared a Day of Freedom in 2005. The holiday was then moved to January 22 in 2011.
- 2005 – Angela Merkel takes office as German Chancellor. The physical chemist from former East Germany became the first female chancellor of the country.
- 2005 – The Xbox 360 is released in North America.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1744 – Abigail Adams (First Lady of the US)
- 1819 – George Eliot (English author)
- 1890 – Charles de Gaulle (French leader)
- 1898 – arnstorming aviator Wiley Post (1898-1935) was born in Grand Plain, Texas. He was a self-taught pilot who became an international celebrity in the 1930s and co-authored ‘Around the World in Eight Days’. In 1935, Post and his friend Will Rogers began a flight to the Orient, however, the plane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska, killing both of them.
- 1913 – British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England (Best known for his operas including Peter Grimes and his choral works A Ceremony of Carols and War Requiem.
- 1943 – Billie Jean King (Tennis Player)
- 1958 – Jamie Lee Curtis (Actress)
- 1967 – Boris Becker (Tennis Player)
- 1984 – Scarlett Johansson (Actress)
- 1986 – Oscar Pistorius (South African sprinter)
DEATHS
- 1718 – Blackbeard (English pirate)
- 1900 – Arthur Sullivan (English composer)
- 1963 – C.S. Lewis (Irish author, poet)
- 1963 – John F. Kennedy (American lieutenant, politician, 35th President of the United States)
- 1963 – Aldous Huxley (English author)