The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed between Germany and Japan, laying the groundwork for the Axis Powers during World War II. More
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What Happened in November?
Wars, expanding empires, and critical deaths. Explore significant events and milestones from November that have helped shape the world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, a massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout Greater Germany takes place. The German authorities looked on without intervening as Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked and buildings were demolished. The name Kristallnacht (literally 'Crystal Night') comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the attack. More
The Soviet Union invades Finland starting what is sometimes call the "Winter War". Though small and under-resourced, the Finnish Army was resilient, well-led and was able to use knowledge of the terrain to good effect.
Despite the overwhelming odds, Finland resisted for three months with little outside assistance. However, it was only a matter of time before the balance of power tipped in the Soviet Union’s favor. Finland was forced to sign the Treaty of Moscow on 12 March 1940, which ceded 11 per cent of its territory to the Soviet Union. More
Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected as President of the United States for an unprecedented third term. More
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapses on November 7, 1940. The bridge had been opened to traffic only four months earlier on July 1, 1940. The bridge's main span collapsed in 40-mile-per-hour winds as the deck oscillated in an alternating twisting motion that gradually increased in amplitude until the deck tore apart. More
Efforts to replace the bridge were delayed by US involvement in World War II, as well as engineering and finance issues, but in 1950, a new Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened in the same location.
Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa during World War II, begins.
Operation Uranus: Soviet Marshal Georgi Zhukov’s trap for the German Army at Stalingrad is ready and a devastating attack is unleashed. More
The Tehran Conference, a four day meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begins in Tehran, Iran. The three leaders coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number of important decisions concerning the post World War II era. More
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term by defeating Thomas Dewey by more than three and a half million votes and a 333 Electoral College vote margin. FDR would die on April 12, 1945, at the age of 63 from complications of high blood pressure. More
The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals begin in Germany. More
UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is officially established on November 4, 1946, when its Constitution came into force after being ratified by 20 countries.
The organization was founded on November 16, 1945, in London with the purpose to build peace and security through international collaboration in education, science, and culture.
The Haiphong Incident occurred on November 23, 1946, when The French Cruiser, Suffren and several smaller ships bombard the Vietnamese coastal city of Haiphong, killing between 2,000 and 6,000 Vietnamese people.
The incident, also known as the Haiphong Massacre is thought of as the first armed clash in a series of events that would lead to the Battle of Hanoi on December 19, 1946, and the official outbreak of the First Indochina War. More
Howard Hughes flies the H-4 Hercules nicknamed the Spruce Goose. It was the largest, heaviest and most expensive plane ever built. Yet aside from a one-mile test flight at 70ft (20m), it never flew again.
The plane was designed under an Air Force contract to carry 750 troops or one Sherman tank up to 5,000 miles and at a cruising speed above 250 mph at up to 21,000ft (6,400m) across the Atlantic, thus avoiding Nazi U-boats.. Shortages of materials and in-fighting with business partner Henry Kaiser meant that the only prototype ever built was not completed until 1947, two years after the war ended. More
On Nov. 24, 1947, Congress votes to hold the “Hollywood 10” in contempt. The following day the Motion Picture Association of America announced that the “Hollywood 10” directors, producers, and writers who had refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) would be fired or suspended.
The ten men refused to state whether they were or had ever been members of the Communist Party, arguing that the questions violated their First Amendment rights. They were convicted in federal court in 1948 and received sentences of six months to one year in prison.
The United Nations General Assembly adopts Resolution 181 calling for the partition of Palestine into two separate states—an Arab and a Jewish one (Map) that would retain an economic union with an internationalized Jerusalem. In the 1910s, both groups, the Zionist Jews, recent emigrants from Russia and Europe who came to the ancient homeland of the Jews to establish a Jewish national state. and the native Palestinians had claimed the British-controlled territory. More
The trial of 11 U.S. Communist Party leaders begins in New York City on November 1, 1948 for initial appearances, with the substantive proceedings beginning in 1949. It was a highly publicized event during the anti-communist fervor.
They were charged under the Smith Act for conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government, leading to their convictions in October 1949 and marking a significant moment in American anti-communist prosecutions.
The Polaroid Land Camera Model 95 was introduced on November 26, 1948. Invented by Edwin H. Land, it was the first to offer a one-step process that produced a finished photograph in about a minute, and it sold out almost immediately. It was sold to the public at a Boston department store, costing $89.75, becoming available for purchase the day after Thanksgiving, 1948
. It was a revolutionary instant camera producing a sepia-toned print in about a minute after the photo was taken. The initial demand was so high that the first 60 units were sold out on the first day, leading to immediate rationing.
Two Puerto Rican nationalists fail in an attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman who was staying at the Blair House in Washington D.C. while the White House was being renovated. by force their way into Blair House in Washington, D.C. One of the attackers was killed, along with a White House police officer. More
“The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950,” system blanketed areas from western Pennsylvania southward deep into West Virginia with over 30 inches of snow for several days. Some locations received more than 50 inches of snow, and Coburn Creek, West Virginia, reported a staggering 62 inches of snow fall. More
President Truman refuses to rule out the use of atomic weapons in support of the United Nations troops, including U.S. soldiers, who were trying to prevent communist expansion into South Korea. Truman's announcement came at a time when communist China had joined North Korean forces in their attacks on South Korea.