November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 47 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
Children’s Day, celebrated on the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru. (India)
Christian Feast Day:
- Barlaam of Kiev
- Philip the Apostle (Eastern Orthodox Church)
- Serapion of Algiers
- November 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the Colombian Woman (Colombia)
Equorum Probatio, the official cavalry parade of the equites, is held. (Roman Empire)
World Diabetes Day (International)
History
In 1533, Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca, Inca Empire.
In 1687, Nell Gwyn, English mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1650) died from apoplexy “almost certainly due to the acquired variety of syphilis” on 14 November 1687, at ten in the evening, less than three years after the King’s death. She was 37 years old. Although she left considerable debts, she left a legacy to the Newgate prisoners in London. She was a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England and Scotland. Called “pretty, witty Nell” by Samuel Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of Cinderella. She was the most famous Restoration actress and possessed a prodigious comic talent. Gwyn had two sons by King Charles: Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726); and James Beauclerk (1671–1680). The surname of her sons is pronounced ‘Bo-Clare’. Charles was created Earl of Burford and later Duke of St. Albans.
In 1716, Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (b. 1646) dies. He was a German polymath and philosopher, and to this day he occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy. Most scholars believe Leibniz developed calculus independently of Isaac Newton, and Leibniz’s notation has been widely used ever since it was published. It was only in the 20th century that his Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law of Homogeneity found mathematical implementation (by means of non-standard analysis). He became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators. While working on adding automatic multiplication and division to Pascal’s calculator, he was the first to describe a pinwheel calculator in 1685 and invented the Leibniz wheel, used in the arithmometer, the first mass-produced mechanical calculator. He also refined the binary number system, which is the foundation of virtually all digital computers.
In philosophy, Leibniz is most noted for his optimism, i.e., his conclusion that our Universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one that God could have created, an idea that was often lampooned by others such as Voltaire. Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, was one of the three great 17th-century advocates of rationalism. The work of Leibniz anticipated modern logic and analytic philosophy, but his philosophy also looks back to the scholastic tradition, in which conclusions are produced by applying reason of first principles or prior definitions rather than to empirical evidence.
Leibniz made major contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated notions that surfaced much later in philosophy, probability theory, biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics, and computer science. He wrote works on philosophy, politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology. Leibniz’s contributions to this vast array of subjects were scattered in various learned journals, in tens of thousands of letters, and in unpublished manuscripts. He wrote in several languages, but primarily in Latin, French, and German.[9] There is no complete gathering of the writings of Leibniz
In 1770, James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.
In 1812, Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Smoliani, French Marshals Victor & Oudinot defeated by Wittgenstein.
In 1832, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, American farmer and politician (b. 1737) dies. He known as Charles Carroll of Carrollton or Charles Carroll III to distinguish him from his similarly named relatives, was a wealthy Maryland planter and an early advocate of independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and Confederation Congress and later as first United States Senator for Maryland. He was the only Catholic and the longest-lived (and last surviving) signatory of the Declaration of Independence, dying 56 years after the document was first signed.
Carroll was not initially interested in politics and in any event Catholics had been barred from holding office in Maryland since the 1704 Act seeking “to prevent the growth of Popery in this Province”. But, as the dispute between Great Britain and her colonies intensified in the early 1770’s, Carroll became a powerful voice for independence. In 1772 he engaged in a debate conducted through anonymous newspaper letters, maintaining the right of the colonies to control their own taxation. Writing in the Maryland Gazette under the pseudonym “First Citizen,” he became a prominent spokesman against the governor’s proclamation increasing legal fees to state officers and Protestant clergy. Opposing Carroll in these written debates and writing as “Antillon” was Daniel Dulany the Younger, a noted lawyer and loyalist politician. In these debates, Carroll argued that the government of Maryland had long been the monopoly of four families, the Ogles, the Taskers, the Bladens and the Dulanys, with Dulany taking the contrary view. Eventually word spread of the true identity of the two combatants, and Carroll’s fame and notoriety began to grow. Dulany soon resorted to highly personal ad hominem attacks on “First Citizen”, and Carroll responded, in statesmanlike fashion, with considerable restraint, arguing that when Antillon engaged in “virulent invective and illiberal abuse, we may fairly presume, that arguments are either wanting, or that ignorance or incapacity know not how to apply them”.
In 1851, Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.
In 1862, American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside‘s plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.
In 1886, Friedrich Soennecken first developed the hole puncher, a type of office tool capable of punching small holes in paper.
In 1889, Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in seventy-two days.
In 1910, Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.
In 1915, Booker T. Washington, died this day at the age of 59 of was believed at the time to have been a result of congestive heart failure, aggravated by overwork. He was an American educator, author, and activist (b. 1856). Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. Washington was a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League. His base was the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Alabama. As lynchings in the South reached a peak in 1895, Washington gave a speech, known as the “Atlanta compromise“, which brought him national fame. He called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. Washington mobilized a nationwide coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians, with a long-term goal of building the community’s economic strength and pride by a focus on self-help and schooling. Booker T. Washington mastered the nuances of the political arena in the late 19th century, which enabled him to manipulate the media, raise money, develop strategy, network, push, reward friends, and distribute funds, while punishing those who opposed his plans for uplifting blacks. His long-term goal was to end the disenfranchisement of the vast majority of African Americans, who then still lived in the South.
In 1916, World War I: The Battle of the Somme ends.
In 1918, Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
In 1921, The Communist Party of Spain is founded.
In 1922, The BBC begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
In 1932, Al Shorta SC, one of Iraq‘s biggest football clubs, are founded as Montakhab Al Shorta.
In 1938, The Lions Gate Bridge, connecting Vancouver to the North Shore region, opens to traffic.
In 1940, World War II: In England, Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
In 1941, World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from the German submarine U-81 sustained on November 13.
In 1941, World War II: In Slonim, German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murdered 9000 Jews in a single day.
In 1952, The first regular UK Singles Chart published by the New Musical Express.
In 1957, The Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested.
In 1960, Ruby Bridges became the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana as part of the New Orleans school desegregation crisis. Ruby’s father was initially reluctant, but her mother felt strongly that the move was needed not only to give her own daughter a better education, but to “take this step forward … for all African-American children.” Her mother finally convinced her father to let her go to the school.
In 1965, Vietnam War: The Battle of Ia Drang begins – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.
In 1967, The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declares this day as “Day of the Colombian Woman”.
In 1967, American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world’s first laser.
In 1969, Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.
In 1970, Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization.
In 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.
In 1971, enthronement of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of Alexandria.
In 1971, Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.
In 1973, In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.
In 1974, Johnny Mack Brown, American football player, actor, and singer (b. 1904) dies in Woodland Hills, California of heart failure at the age of 70. He was an American college football player and film actor originally billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career. Born and raised in Dothan, Alabama, Brown was a star of the high school football team, earning a football scholarship to the University of Alabama. His little brother Tolbert “Red” Brown played with “Mack” in 1925. While at the University of Alabama, Brown became an initiated member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Brown helped his team to become the 1925 NCAA Division I-A national football champions. In that year’s Rose Bowl Game, he earned Most Valuable Player honors after scoring two of his team’s three touchdowns in an upset win over the heavily favored Washington Huskies. The 1926 Crimson Tide was thus the first southern team to ever win a Rose Bowl. The game is commonly referred to as “the game that changed the south.” Brown was selected All-Southern.
His good looks and powerful physique saw him portrayed on Wheaties cereal boxes and in 1927, brought an offer for motion picture screen tests that resulted in a long and successful career in Hollywood. He played silent film star Mary Pickford‘s love interest in her first talkie, Coquette (1929), for which Pickford won an Oscar.
Brown appeared in more than 160 movies between 1927 and 1966, as well as a smattering of television shows, in a career spanning almost 40 years.
Brown was married to Cornelia “Connie” Foster from 1926 to his death in 1974, and they had four children.
In 1975, Spain abandons Western Sahara.
In 1979, Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.
In 1982, Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland‘s outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
In 1984, Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
In 1990, After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.
In 1991, American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.
In 1991, Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile.
In 1991, In Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide.
In 1995, A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.
In 2001, War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul.
In 2003, Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object.
In 2008, The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C.
In 2010, Germany’s Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing wins Formula One‘s Drivers Championship to become the sport’s youngest champion.
In 2012, Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalate.
In 2014, President Obama urged Americans to sign up for ObamaCare on Saturday – the first day of open enrollment since last year. “If you missed your chance to get covered last year, here’s the good news. Starting November 15th, today, you can go online or call 1-800-318-2596 and get covered for 2015,” the president said in his weekly radio address. Last year’s inaugural enrollment was overrun with website failures that resulted in much confusion and frustration with the Affordable Care Act. Obama emphasized that “we’ve spent the last year improving and upgrading HealthCare.gov, to make it faster and easier to use.” He encouraged individuals to sign up early in the three months open enrollment period or, for those who “already buy insurance through the online marketplace,” to shop around for less expensive alternatives.
In 2016, A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Kaikoura, New Zealand, at a depth of 15 km (9 miles), resulting in the deaths of two people.
In 2017, A gunman kills four people and injures twelve others during a shooting spree across Rancho Tehama Reserve, California. He had earlier murdered his wife in their home.
