05 November History
- 1219 - The port of Damietta falls to the Crusaders after a siege.
- 1556 - The Emperor Akbar defeats the Hindus at Panipat and secures control of the Mogul Empire.
- 1605 - Guy Fawkes is betrayed and arrested in an attempt to blow up the British Parliament in the "Gunpowder Plot." Ever since, England has celebrated Guy Fawkes Day.
- 1653 - The Iroquois League signs a peace treaty with the French, vowing not to wage war with other tribes under French protection.
- 1757 - Frederick II of Prussia defeats the French at Rosbach in the Seven Years War.
- 1768 - William Johnson, the northern Indian Commissioner, signs a treaty with the Iroquois Indians to acquire much of the land between the Tennessee and Ohio rivers for future settlement.
- 1814 - Having decided to abandon the Niagara frontier, the American army blows up Fort Erie.
- 1840 - Afghanistan surrenders to the British army.
- 1854 - British and French defeat the Russians at Inkerman, Crimea.
- 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln relieves General George McClellan of command of the Union armies and names Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside commander of the Army of the Potomac.
- 1872 - Susan B. Anthony is arrested for trying to vote.
- 1911 - Calbraith P. Rodgers ends first transcontinental flight–49 days from New York to Pasadena, Calif.
- 1912 - Woodrow Wilson is elected 28th president of the United States.
- 1914 - France and Great Britain declare war on Turkey.
- 1917 - General John Pershing leads U.S. troops into the first American action against German forces.
- 1930 - Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American to win a Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Babbit.
- 1935 - Parker Brothers company launches "Monopoly," a game of real estate and capitalism.
- 1940 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt is re-elected for third term.
- 1968 - Richard Nixon is elected 37th president of the United States.
- 1968 - Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn, New York, becomes the first elected African American woman to serve in the House of Representatives.
05 November Birthdays
- 1855 - Eugene V. Debs, American Socialist leader and first president of the American Railway Union.
- 1885 - Will Durant, historian and author.
- 1913 - Vivien Leigh, British actress famous for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.
- 1918 - George Sheehan, cardiologist well known for his book Running and Being.
- 1942 - Art Garfunkel, American singer, one half of "Simon and Garfunkel."
- 1943 - Sam Shepard, American playwright and actor.