1533 – Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarroarrived in Cajamarca, Inca empire.
1770 – James Bruce discovered what he believed to be the source of the Nile.
1805 Fanny Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist, was born (d. 1847).
1840 Claude Monet, French painter, was born (d. 1926).
1845 – Governor George Grey arrived in New Zealand.
1878 – Julie Manet, French painter, was born (d. 1966).
1889 – Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) began a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days.
1896 – Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States was born, (d. 1979)
1908 Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, was born (d. 1957).
1910 – Aviator Eugene Ely performed the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia when he took off from a makeshift deck on theUSS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.
1918 – Czechoslovakia became a republic.
1919 Veronica Lake, American actress, was born (d. 1973).
1921 – The Communist Party of Spain was founded.
1921 – Brian Keith, American actor, was born. (d. 1997).
1922 – The BBC began radio service.
1922 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian UN Secretary-General, was born
1923 – Kentaro Suzuki completed his ascent of Mount Iizuna.
1935 King Hussein of Jordan was born (d. 1999).
1940 – Coventry was heavily bombed by Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral was almost completely destroyed.
1941 – World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sank after torpedo damage from U-81 sustained on November 13.
1947 P. J. O’Rourke, American writer, was born.
1948 Prince Charles was born.
1952 – The first regular UK singles chart published by the New Musical Express.
1954 – Lieutenant General Sir Jerry Mateparae, Governor General of New Zealand, was born.
1954 – Condoleezza Rice, former United States Secretary of State, was born.
1957 – The Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton, New York was raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures were arrested.
1959 Paul McGann, British actor, was born
1965 – Vietnam War: The Battle of the Ia Drang began – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.
1967 – The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declared this day as “Day of the Colombian Woman”.
1969 – NASA launched Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.
1970 – Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organisation.
1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.
1971 Adam Gilchrist, Australian cricketer, was born.
1971 – Enthronment of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of Alexandria.
1973 – The passage of the Social Security Amendment Act introduced theDomestic Purposes Benefit to New Zealand’s social welfare system.
1973 – Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.
1975 – Spain abandoned Western Sahara.
1982 – Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, was released after 11 months of internment.
1984 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, was assassinated in his home city.
1990 – After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder-Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.
1991 – Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh after 13 years of exile.
1991 – In Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee went on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide.
1995 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forced the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.
2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters took over Kabul.
2002 – Argentina defaulted on an $805 million World Bank payment.
2003 – Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discovered 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object.
2008 – – The first G-20 economic summit opened in Washington, D.C.
2007 – The last direct-current electrical distribution system in the United States was shut down in New York City by Con Edison.
2010 –Germany’s Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing won Formula One’s Drivers Championship to become the sport’s youngest champion.
2012 – Israel launched a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalated.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia
Homepaddock 