November 25

Events1034 - Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots dies. Donnchad, the son of his second daughter Bethóc and Crínán of Dunkeld, inherits the throne.1120 - The White Ship sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, son of Henry I of England.1177 - Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Chatillon defeat Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard.1491 - The siege of Granada, last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins. 1542 - Battle of Solway Moss. The English army defeats the Scottish.1667 - A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha, Caucasia, killing 80,000 people. 1703 - The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the British Isles, reaches its peak intensity and maintains it through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people perish in the mighty gale.1758 - French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control.1758 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is founded. 1783 - American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris. 1795 - Partitions of Poland: Stanislaus August Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, is forced to abdicate and exiled to Russia.1809 - Benjamin Bathurst, a British diplomat, mysteriously disappeared (or more likely murdered) in Perleberg.1826 - The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy. 1839 - Cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (never to be entirely rebuilt again). The storm wave sweeps inland , taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster.1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Missionary Ridge - At Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg.1864 - American Civil War: A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City. 1867 - Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.1874 - The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873. 1876 - Indian Wars: In retaliation for the American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn,  United States Army troops sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River.1885 - Death of Mother Mary of the Immaculate Conception, CIC, first of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (Louisiana), the second indigenous congregation of women in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.1905 - The Danish Prins Carl arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway1913 - Panama becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.1918 - Vojvodina, former Austro-Hungarian crownland, proclaims its secession from this state to join the Kingdom of Serbia1926 - The worst, deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. November history strikes on Thanksgiving day. 27 twisters of great strength reported in the midwest, including the strongest November tornado, an estimated F4, that devastates Heber Springs, Arkansas. 51 deaths in Arkansas alone, 76 deaths and over 400 injuries in all.1936 - In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, thus agreeing to consult on what measures to take "to safeguard their common interests" in case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation. 1940 - First flight of the deHavilland mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder.1941 - Finland joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.1943 - Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina was re-established at the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia.1944 - World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, UK, killing 160 shoppers. 1944 - World War II: Battle of Peleliu - At Peleliu, Palau, the American forces led by the general officer William H. Rupertus defeat the Japanese army led by Colonel Kunio Nakagawa.1947 - Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios. 1947 - New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.1950 - The "Storm of the Century", a violent snowstorm, paralyzes the northeastern United States and the Appalachians, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia records 57 inches of snow. 323 people die due to the storm.1950 - The People's Republic of China joins the Korean War, sending thousands of troops across the Yalu river border to fight United Nations forces.1952 - Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London and eventually becomes the longest continuously-running play in history.1958 - French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community. 1960 - The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated .1963 - President John F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 1970 - In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and two compatriots commit ritualistic suicide after an unsuccessful coup attempt. 1973 - Greek President George Papadopoulos is ousted in a military coup led by Lieutenant General Phaidon Gizikis. 1975 - Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands.1980 - No Más Fight: Sugar Ray Leonard regains the WBC world welterweight boxing title in a bout against Roberto Duran. 1984 - 36 top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. 1984 - A KCR train derails between Sheung Shui and Fanling, Hong Kong.1986 - Iran Contra Affair: US Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua.1986 - The King Fahd Causeway was officially opened in the Persian Gulf.1987 - Supertyphoon Nina pummels the Philippines with category 5 winds of 165 mph and a surge that swallows entire villages. at least 1,036 deaths attributed to the storm.1988 - German politician Rita Süssmuth becomes president of the Bundestag.1992 - The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia from January 1, *1993. 1994 - Sony founder Akio Morita announces he will be stepping down as CEO of the company. 1996 - An Ice storm strikes the central U.S. killing 26 people. Powerful windstorm affects Florida, winds gust over 90 mph, toppling trees and flipping trailers.2000 - 2000 Baku earthquake took place.2002 - Reported assassination attempt on Turkmen president Saparmurat Niyazov.2003 - The U.S. Court of Appeals (7thCir) issued its opinion in Assessment Technologies v. Wiredata, a copyright infringement case.2005 - Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski opens Warsaw Pact archives to historians. Maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe, as well as the possible nuclear annihilation of 43 Polish cities and 2 million of its citizens by Soviet-controlled forces, are released.
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