November 28

November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 33 days remaining.

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 See also

Events

1520 - After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific (the strait was later named the Strait of Magellan).
1660 - At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray meet after a lecture by Wren and decide to found "a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning}" (later known as the Royal Society).
1582 - In Stratford-upon-Avon, 18 year-old William Shakespeare and 26 year-old Anne Hathaway pay a 40-pound bond for their marriage license (Shakespeare would later become one of the greatest playwrights in history).
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Cane Hill - Union troops led by General John Blunt push back Confederate forces commanded by General John Marmaduke into northwestern Arkansas' Boston Mountains.
1905 - Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn F�in in Dublin as a political party whose goal is the independence for all of Ireland.
1907 - In Haverville, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater (in a few years he had the largest theater chain in New England and in 1917 he founded his own production company, which eventually became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).
1912 - Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
1914 - World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.
1919 - American-born Lady Nancy Astor is elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, becoming the first female member of that institution.
1920 - The Mask of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr opens.
1925 - Country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM (it would later become the longest-running live music show).
1942 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.
1943 - World War II: Teheran Conference - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss war strategy.
1958 - Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community.
1960 - Mauritania becomes independent of France.
1964 - Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.
1964 - Vietnam War: National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor agree to recommend that US President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.
1965 - Vietnam War: In response to US President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
1969 - The Newcomers stopped airing on the BBC
1975 - East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.
1979 - In Antarctica, a DC-10 carrying Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.
1982 - Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.
1984 - Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.
1987 - A Boeing 747 carrying South African Airways 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.
1987 - In Wappingers Falls, New York, Tawana Brawley is found wrapped in garbage bags, with feces smeared all over her body and a racial slur on her body (she later told police that she was held against her will for four days and repeatedly raped by a group of white men, one of which had a police badge. Her story did not check out, however).
1989 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution - With other communist regimes falling all around it and with growing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power (elections held in December 1989 brought the first non-communist government to Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years).
1994 - In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death in by a deranged inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium.
1994 - Voters in Norway reject European Union membership.
1995 - US President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.

Births

1628 - John Bunyan, cleric, author (Pilgrim's Progress) (d. 1688)
1632 - Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer (d. 1687)
1700 - Revd Nathaniel Bliss, Astronomer Royal (d. 1764)
1757 - William Blake, poet, painter (d. 1827)
1785 - Achille-Charles, duc de Broglie, Prime Minister of France (d. 1870)
1805 - John Stephens, archeologist (d. 1852)
1810 - William Froude, engineer, naval architect (d. 1879)
1820 - Friedrich Engels, social philosopher (d. 1895)
1821 - Nikolai Nekrasov, poet, journalist (d. 1878)
1829 - Anton Rubinstein, composer, pianist, conductor (d. 1894)
1837 - John Wesley Hyatt, inventor of celluloid, first synthetic plastic (d. 1920)
1853 - Helen Magill White, educator, first American woman to earn a Ph.D (1877) (d. 1944)
1866 - Henry Bacon, architect (Lincoln Memorial) (d. 1924)
1881 - Stefan Zweig, poet, essayist, dramatist (d. 1942)
1887 - Ernst R�hm, Nazi official (d. 1934)
1894 - Brooks Atkinson, drama critic (d. 1984)
1895 - Jos� Iturbi, pianist (d. 1980)
1896 - Lilia Skala, actress (d. 1994)
1902 - Victor Jory, actor (d. 1982)
1904 - Nancy Mitford, essayist, satirist (d. 1973)
1907 - Alberto Moravia, writer (d. 1990)
1908 - Claude Levi-Strauss, social anthropologist
1908 - Erich von Holst, behaviorist (d. 1962)
1916 - Guy Lapebie, cyclist
1916 - Mary Lilian Baels, Princess of Rethy, Belgium (d. 2002)
1920 - Cecilia Colledge, figure skater
1925 - Gloria Grahame, actress (d. 1981)
1925 - Virginia Hewitt, actress (d. 1986)
1929 - Berry Gordy Jr, record company owner (Motown)
1931 - Hope Lange, actress
1931 - Tomi Ungerer, graphic artist, author
1936 - Gary Hart, U.S. politician
1941 - Laura Antonelli, actress
1942 - Paul Warfield, American football player
1943 - Randy Newman, composer, musician
1949 - Alexander Godunov, composer, ballet dancer (d. 1995)
1949 - Paul Shaffer, orchestra leader, musician
1950 - Ed Harris, actor
1957 - David Van Day, musician
1959 - Judd Nelson, actor
1961 - Jane Sibbett, actress
1961 - Alfonso Cuar�n, director
1962 - Jon Stewart, comedian, actor, television host
1964 - Cornelia Guest, debutante
1967 - Anna Nicole Smith, model, television personality

Deaths

741 - St. Gregory III, Pope
1170 - Owain ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd
1262 - Shinran, founder of Japan's True Pure Land Buddhist sect
1815 - Johann Peter Salomon, violinist, impresario and composer
1827 - Dov Baer Schneersohn, Lubavitch leader, author
1859 - Washington Irving, writer
1935 - Erich von Hornbostel, musicologist
1939 - James A Naismith, creator of basketball
1945 - Dwight Davis, donator of the Davis cup
1954 - Enrico Fermi, physicist
1960 - Richard Wright, author
1962 - Queen Mother Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
1963 - Fred Uttal, television host
1963 - Karyn Kupcinet, actress
1964 - Charles Meredith, actor
1971 - Wasfi Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan
1972 - Havergal Brian, composer
1976 - Rosalind Russell, actress
1977 - Trevor Bardette, actor
1983 - Christopher George, actor
1986 - Herb Vigran, actor
1987 - Choh Hao Li, biochemist
1994 - Jerry Rubin, 1960s anti-war activist
1994 - Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer

Holidays and observances

Bahá'í Faith: Holy Day - Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha