Iranian students seized the American embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the Chargé d’Affaires to the most junior members of the staff, as hostages. The Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days. 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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The British newspaper The Times, resumes publishing on November 13, 1979, after suspending publication almost a year before on December 1, 1978. The shutdown was due to a dispute between management and printing unions over new technology, automation, and union demands regarding manpower levels. The closure led to a significant loss of revenue also affecting the Times sister papers; The Sunday Times and the Times Literary Supplement.
New Zealand's flight TE901 crashes on Antarctica's Mt Erebus volcano during a sightseeing trip. All 257 people on board were killed. More
Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
The U.S. space probe Voyager 1 reaches the planet Saturn. More
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated. The most prominent feature of the memorial is a massive wall that lists the names of the more than 58,000 servicemen and women who lost their lives during the Vietnam War.
About 2.7 Million U.S. Service members served in Vietnam. including 265,000 women. It's the most-visited memorial on the National Mall in Washington, attracting more than 5 million people each year. More
The volcano Nevado del Ruiz, located about 130 kilometers from Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá, erupts spewing a violent mix of hot ash and lava into the atmosphere and causing nearly 30 meters high mudflows through the countryside where more than 23,000 people were killed most of them in the town of Armero. More
The Geneva Summit, the first meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev begins. The two leaders met for two days to discuss the Cold War-era arms race, primarily the possibility of reducing the number of nuclear weapons. Hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting was the first American-Soviet summit in more than six years. More
US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested by the FBI for spying and passing classified information to Israel after he and his wife, Anne, sought to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy. He avoided a trial by pleading guilty in return for a promise of leniency for him and his wife. He received a life sentence on Nov. 1, 1987. He was paroled in 2015 after 30 years in prison and is now living in Israel. More
EgyptAir Flight 648, a Boeing 737-266 in route to Cairo from Athens on November 23, 1985, was hijacked by the Abu Nidal Organization and forced to land in Malta.
After negotiations failed, Egyptian commandos stormed the aircraft. The hijackers fought back with grenades, and the resulting raid killed 56 of the 86 people on board, and two of the three hijackers,
The Iran-Contra scandal unravels - On a televised press conference, President Reagan assures viewers that he was “not fully informed on the nature of the activities undertaken in connection with this initiative” and announces that he was relieving the officials involved of their duties.
Prior to this, on October 5, a US aircraft loaded with materials for the Contras was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinista government. On November 3, the Lebanese weekly Al-Shiraa unveiled the whole affair which consisted of secretly selling weapons to Iran, and using the profits to fund the Contras. In 1985 the US made two shipments of arms to Iran via Israel. The following year, it handled the shipments itself. One was delivered to Tehran at the end of May 1986 by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a member of the NSC. North also delivered a bible signed by President Reagan. More
Benazir Bhutto is elected prime minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman in modern history to lead a Muslim country. She went on to serve as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. Bhutto was murdered on 27 December 2007 by a 15-year-old suicide bomber. More
The first B-2 is displayed to the public as it was rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California. Its first flight was July 17, 1989. More
The Berlin Wall, which had divided East and West Berlin for nearly 30 years, is opened, leading to the eventual reunification of Germany. More
Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web, laying the foundation for the internet as we know it. More
Seattle's 50-year old, Lacey V. Murrow Bridge breaks apart and plunges into the mud beneath Lake Washington after a week of high winds and rain. The bridge was undergoing a $35.6 million renovation. It was later discovered later, that hatchways into the concrete pontoon air pockets were left open, allowing water to enter. A new Lacey V. Murrow Bridge opened the following year. More
The UN Security Council passes Resolution 678 by a vote of 12 to 2, on November 29, 1990, authorizing member states to use "all necessary means" to compel Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991, or face military action.
Only Cuba and Yemen voted against the resolution, with China abstaining. The last time a UN authorization of the use of force had occurred was in 1950, when the Security Council approved military action against North Korea after its unprovoked attack on South Korea. Iraq did not comply, leading to the Iraq war (Code name Operation Desert Storm) which started on January 17, 1991.
The European Union (EC), is officially created as the Maastricht Treaty, signed on February 7, 1992, becomes effective; establishing the beginning of a single market with free movement for people, goods, services and money.
The initial 12 EU member states were those that had ratified the Maastricht Treaty. These 12 nations were: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. (The UK formally left the EU effective on January 31, 2020) .
Note - The six countries who were the initial signatories of the Treaty of Paris (1951) and the Treaty of Rome (1957), which laid the groundwork for the EU's predecessors and the sharing of sovereignty among member states were: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. These countries are referred to as EU “Founding Members” and also the "Inner Six".
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Yitzhak Rabin, the fifth prime minister of Israel, is assassinated. The assassin, an Israeli ultra nationalist named Yigal Amir, radically opposed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords. More
The first module of the International Space Station, named Zarya, is launched into orbit.