Tecumseh's War culminates in the Battle of Tippecanoe, where U.S. forces led by William Henry Harrison defeat Native American forces.
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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 Times of London makes newspapers available to a mass audience by using automatic, steam powered presses built by German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer. More
The American whaling ship Essex, under the command of Captain George Pollard Jr. is rammed by a sperm whale and later sank. Although all 20 crewmen initially survived, only 8 were rescued following an arduous journey that devolved into cannibalism. The sinking inspired in part the climactic scene in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851). More
The presidential election in the United States is decided by the House of Representatives, with John Quincy Adams becoming president.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob while defending the site of his anti-slavery newspaper the St. Louis Observer. His death both deeply affected many individuals who opposed slavery and greatly strengthened the cause of abolition. More
The University of Notre Dame is founded on November 26, 1842 in the State of Indiana, U.S
Democratic candidate James K. Polk defeated Whig Party candidate Henry Clay to become the eleventh president of the United States. More
The Sonderbund War, a civil war in Switzerland, begins over religious and political disputes.
Charles Darwin’s book, "On the origin of species by means of natural selection" was published in London. The book was very popular and the first edition sold out on the first day.
It is considered to be one of the most important books on biology ever printed. The book was translated into 11 languages during Darwin's life time. More
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Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President of the United States, replacing James Buchanan. Before Lincoln’s election was certified on February 15, 1861, seven southern states had left the Union and the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as its President had been established.
From 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the Union through the American Civil War and succeeded in defeating the insurgent Confederacy, abolishing slavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy. More
President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address during the ceremony to consecrate the grounds of what eventually became the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Four months earlier it had been the site the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
More than 10,000 soldiers were killed or mortally wounded, 30,000 injured, and 10,000 captured or went missing at the battle which proved to be the turning point of the war; Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat marked the last Confederate invasion of northern territory. It also marked the beginning of the southern Army’s decline. President Lincoln's 271 words, two minute speech, become one of the most memorable speeches in American history as it served as a reminder to a war-weary public as to why the Union had to fight and win the Civil War.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, gives Alice the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, dedicating it as "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer's Day" and with illustrations by Carroll.
The published version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is about twice the length of Alice's Adventures Under Ground and includes episodes, such as the Mad Tea-Party, that did not appear in the manuscript and all 42 wood-engraved illustrations are by John Tenniel. The only known manuscript copy of Under Ground is held in the British Library. Macmillan published a facsimile of the manuscript in 1886.
Colonel John M. Chivington leads a surprise attack, on a camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho people in southeastern Colorado Territory. Known as the Sand Creek Massacre, the U.S troops murdered more than 230 Native people, who were at the site under a white flag of truce. The group was composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly who had been directed by the American Military to camp there.
The massacre had its roots earlier on June 27 1864, when Colorado Territory Governor, John Evans issued ia proclamation commanding all “Friendly” Native Americans of the Cheyenne and Arapaho to go to Fort Lyon to receive supplies and to find safety. Unfortunately, this was in direct conflict with the standing order at all Forts within the Territory of Colorado that all members of the Military should shoot and kill any Native American that approached a Fort. Frustrated with a lack of compliance, Evans issued a second proclamation in August 1864 that authorized all citizens to "kill and destroy, as enemies of the country" any "hostile Indians". More
The first telegraphic ticker tape, goes live in New York city. It was the creation of Edward Calahan, who was an employee of the American Telegraph Company. Four years later, Thomas Edison improved upon Calahan's invention and patented it launching a revolution in the financial markets.
The model 32A ticker was Edison's very first invention. The weakness of mechanical stock tickers showed itself during the Crash of 29, when prices were changing so quickly, that the tickers couldn't keep up. As technology evolved, that dissemination became faster and almost real-time, as we can see today. More
The Suez Canal opens after 10 years of construction. The Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It is a key trade route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal went through a major one year expansion in 2014 and reopened in 2015. More
Henry Morton Stanley meets Dr. David Livingstone after nearly eight months of search, in Ujiji, a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in present day Tanzania. Dr. Livingstone had been traveling in Central Africa without contact with the Western world for 7 years. The first words from Stanley were the now famous "Dr. Livingston I presume? More
Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage activists are arrested for voting in the U.S. presidential election. After casting her ballot in her hometown of Rochester, New York, she was arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted for voting illegally. She later described her trial as “the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded. More
The National Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded in the United States on November 18, 1874. More
Rutherford B. Hayes is elected President of the United States in one of the most disputed elections in U.S. history.
New York City politician William Magear "Boss" Tweed, is handed over to N.Y. City authorities, after being captured in Spain where he had escaped to after being unable to make bail.
Tweed had been the leader of a corrupt political organization which had systematically plundered New York City of sums estimated at between $30 million and $200 million (equivalent to $5 billion in 2023). Tweed dominated the Democratic Party in both the city and the state and had his candidates elected mayor of New York City, governor, and speaker of the state assembly. After his recapture he was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail in 1878. More