28 November History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1520    -    Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan, having discovered a strait at the tip of South America, enters the Pacific.
  • 1729    -    Natchez Indians massacre most of the 300 French settlers and soldiers at Fort Rosalie, Louisiana.
  • 1861    -    The Confederate Congress admits Missouri to the Confederacy, although Missouri has not yet seceded from the Union.
  • 1868    -    Mt. Etna in Sicily violently erupts.
  • 1872    -    The Modoc War of 1872-73 begins in northern California when fighting breaks out between Modoc Chief Captain Jack and a cavalry detail led by Captain James Jackson.
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  • 1899    -    The British are victorious over the Boers at Modder River.
  • 1919    -    Lady Astor is elected the first woman in Parliament.
  • 1925    -    The forerunner of the Grand Ole Opry, called the WSM Barn Dance, opens in Nashville, Tennessee.
  • 1935    -    The German Reich declares all men ages 18 to 45 as army reservists.
  • 1937    -    Spanish leader Francisco Franco blockades the Spanish coast.
  • 1939    -    The Soviet Union scraps its nonaggression pact with Finland.
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  • 1941    -    The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise departs from Pearl Harbor to deliver F4F Wildcat fighters to Wake Island. This mission saves the carrier from destruction when the Japanese attack.
  • 1943    -    Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet at Tehran, Iran, to hammer out war aims.
  • 1944    -    The first shipment of supplies reach Antwerp by convoy, a new route for the Allies.
  • 1948    -    Dr. Edwin Land's first Polaroid cameras go on sale in Boston.
  • 1950    -    In Korea, 200,000 Communist troops launch attack on UN forces.
  • 1961    -    Ernie Davis becomes the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.
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  • 1963    -    Cape Canaveral is renamed Cape Kennedy.
  • 1971    -    The Anglican Church ordains the first two women as priests.
  • 1984    -    Republican Robert Dole is elected Senate majority leader.

  • 28 November Birthdays

  • 1628    -    John Bunyan, English preacher and writer who wrote Pilgrim's Progress.
  • 1757    -    William Blake, English poet.
  • 1907    -    Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (The Conformist, Conjugal Love).
  • 1908    -    Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist.
  • 1916    -    Vyes Theriault, French-Canadian author.
  • 1929    -    Berry Gordy, Jr., recording executive.
  • 1944    -    Rita Mae Brown, novelist.