Christopher Columbus arrives at the island of Puerto Rico during his second voyage to the Americas.
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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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Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York (one of the "Princes in the Tower"), is hanged for his role in conspiracies against King Henry VII.
The Treaty of Blois is signed, solidifying the alliance between France and Spain against the Republic of Venice.
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, painted by Michelangelo, is unveiled for the first time to the public. More
Hernán Cortés and his Spanish conquistadors arrive at the coast of Mexico, beginning their conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Stockholm Bloodbath: Danish forces under King Christian II execute a large number of Swedish nobles in Stockholm. The executions were carried out on November 8 and 9, 1520, after King Christian II coronation.
He had a list of around 82 Swedish nobles, clergy, and townspeople, many of whom were opponents of the Kalmar Union. The bloodbath did not secure Christian's control over Sweden; instead, it led to outrage and fueled the Swedish War of Liberation. This war was led by Gustav Vasa, who ultimately drove out the Danes and was elected king in 1523, ending the Kalmar Union.
Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator sponsored by Spain becomes the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic by sailing through the dangerous straits which separate the South American mainland from the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
The strait connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is named the Strait of Magellan. From there Magellan headed toward what is now the Philippines where he was killed before completing the trip. The first European to complete the circumnavigation was Magellan's second-in-command, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, who took over after his death. More
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's powerful Lord Chancellor, was arrested for high treason on November 4, 1530, by the Earl of Northumberland, but died of dysentery at Leicester Abbey on November 29 while being transported to the Tower of London to face trial for his perceived failures, particularly his inability to secure the King's annulment from Catherine of Aragon.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro and his men reach the Inca Empire in Peru and establish their first settlement in what is now San Miguel de Piura in Northern Peru. Invited by an envoy of Inca Atahualpa to join him at his camp, Pizarro proceeded to Cajamarca arriving there on November 15, 1532.
Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadors captured the Inca Atahualpa in Cajamarca, Peru. Pizarro had set a trap for Atahualpa inviting him to a feast in the emperor’s honor and then had his men open fire on the unarmed Incas.
Atahualpa agreed to pay a large ransom of tons of gold and silver for his release. Although Atahualpa produced the ransom, the Spanish executed him anyway on July 26, 1533. More
The Spanish sealed the conquest of Peru by entering Cuzco on 15 November 15, 1533. They established a provisional capital in the town of Jauja, in the Mantaro river Valley, in April 1534. The capital but it was too distant from the sea to serve as the capital. Pizarro later founded the city of Lima on Peru's central coast on January 18, 1535.
The English Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, formally making Henry VIII the head of the Church of England, severing ecclesiastical links with Rome leading to fundamental changes in the religious and political landscape of England, including the dissolution of monasteries.
The Act was followed by the Treason Act of 1534, which made it a capital offense to deny the King's supremacy over the Church.
Queen Elizabeth I ascends to the English throne, marking the beginning of the Elizabethan era, a period, when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts. Her coronation took place in January 15 1559.
She instituted The the Elizabethan religious Settlement (effected with the Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity).During her reign, the kingdom was also threatened by grave internal divisions and the emergence of poverty and cost inflation on a new major scale, made worse by harvest failures. The years of 1594 to 1577 were particularly difficult and remarkable by the misery they engendered. More
William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
The English defeat the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines, marking a turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War.
The Rosicrucian manifesto, "Fama Fraternitatis," is published in Kassel, Germany, promoting the Rosicrucian mystical movement.
The Battle of Sekigahara in Japan marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate and the end of the Sengoku period.
The Dutch East India Company is founded, becoming one of the world's first multinational corporations.
The Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England and blow up the House of Lords during the Opening of Parliament is discovered. The plan was organized by Robert Catesby, a devout English Catholic who hoped to kill the Protestant King James and establish Catholic rule in England. More
William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" is performed for the first time at at the Banqueting House in Whitehall Palace in London, before King James I and his court. Shakespeare's company, The King's Men, staged the play for the court in honor of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth.