History Events on November 21

Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast: A joint United States Air Force and Army team raids the S?n Tây prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.

#Operation_Ivory_Coast

Two Canadian National Railway trains collide in northeastern British Columbia in the Canoe River train crash; the death toll is 21, with 17 of them Canadian troops bound for Korea.

#Canadian_National_Railway

A mine explosion in Heilongjiang, China kills 108.

#2009_Heilongjiang_mine_explosion

United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

#Jonathan_Pollard

Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.

#Rebecca_Latimer_Felton

Irish War of Independence: In Dublin, 31 people are killed in what became known as "Bloody Sunday".

#Irish_War_of_Independence

The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.

#People's_Liberation_Army

Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.

#Mukti_Bahini

Voters in South Korea overwhelmingly approve a new constitution, giving legitimacy to Park Chung-hee and the Fourth Republic.

#Park_Chung-hee

American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin Secretary of War.

#American_Civil_War

Anti-Syrian Lebanese politician and government minister Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in suburban Beirut.

#Pierre_Amine_Gemayel

A deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). Eighty-seven people are killed and more than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.

#MGM_Grand_fire

American disc jockey Alan Freed, who had popularized the term "rock and roll" and music of that style, is fired from WABC-AM radio over allegations he had participated in the payola scandal.

#Alan_Freed

National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents allegedly implicating them in the Iran-Contra affair.

#Oliver_North

North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.

#North_Carolina

A pogrom takes place in Lwów (now Lviv); over three days, at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians are killed by Poles.

#Lwów_pogrom_(1918)

Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (November 11, O.S.)

#Plymouth_Colony

The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.

#ARPANET

Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announces that the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional anthem "God Save the Queen" and "God Defend New Zealand".

#Minister_of_Internal_Affairs_(New_Zealand)

Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island sustains the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. In neighboring Guadeloupe, one person is killed.

#Dominica

In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight.

#Jean-François_Pilâtre_de_Rozier

The Dayton Agreement is initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

#Dayton_Agreement

NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.

#NATO

Massive protests start in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended signing the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement.

#Euromaidan

The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt.

#Paris_Club

The Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as the national flag of the Republic of Estonia.

#Flag_of_Estonia

World War II: American submarine USS Sealion sinks the Japanese battleship Kong? and Japanese destroyer Urakaze in the Formosa Strait.

#World_War_II

Robert Mugabe formally resigns as President of Zimbabwe, after thirty-seven years in office.

#Robert_Mugabe

Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

#Judas_Maccabeus

The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 is passed, allowing women to stand for Parliament in the UK.

#Parliament_(Qualification_of_Women)_Act_1918

The Natural History Museum, London announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.

#Natural_History_Museum,_London

U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sat? agree on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. The U.S. retains rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.

#Richard_Nixon

The Danish astronomer Ole Rømer presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.

#Astronomer

Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."

#Vietnam_War

The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four.

#Islamabad

Timur of Samarkand captures and sacks the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive.

#Timur

A major tornado strikes the Houston, Texas area during the afternoon. Over the next two days the largest tornado outbreak ever to occur in the US during November spawns over 100 tornadoes.

#Tornado

The "La Ronde" opens in Honolulu, first revolving restaurant in the United States.

#La_Ronde_(restaurant)

Sailors on board Brazil's warships including the Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and Bahia, violently rebel in what is now known as the Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash).

#Brazilian_battleship_Minas_Geraes

Wabash College is founded in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

#Wabash_College

At least 28 are wounded after a bomb is thrown onto a bus in Tel Aviv.

#2012_Tel_Aviv_bus_bombing

Fifty-four people are killed when the roof of a shopping center collapses in Riga, Latvia.

#Zolit?de_shopping_centre_roof_collapse

Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.

#Second_Vatican_Council

The government of Belgium imposed a security lockdown on Brussels, including the closure of shops, schools, public transportation, due to potential terrorist attacks.

#Federal_Government_of_Belgium

The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election is held, giving rise to massive protests and controversy over the election's integrity.

#2004_Ukrainian_presidential_election

Albert Einstein's paper that leads to the mass-energy equivalence formula, E = mc², is published in the journal Annalen der Physik.

#Albert_Einstein

Humberto Vidal explosion: Thirty-three people die when a Humberto Vidal shoe shop explodes.

#Humberto_Vidal_explosion

Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.

#Thomas_Edison

A stampede in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe caused by the police firing tear gas kills at least eleven people and injures 40 others.

The Birmingham pub bombings kill 21 people. The Birmingham Six are sentenced to life in prison for the crime but subsequently acquitted.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opens to traffic. At the time it is the world's longest bridge span.

The United Auto Workers strike 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30-percent raise.

The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the highway is not usable by standard road vehicles until 1943).

Columbine Mine massacre: Striking coal miners are allegedly attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed in civilian clothes.

Mines from SM U-73 sink the HMHS Britannic, the largest ship lost in the First World War.

The Philadelphia Football Athletics defeated the Kanaweola Athletic Club of Elmira, New York, 39-0, in the first ever professional American football night game.

Port Arthur, China falls to the Japanese, a decisive victory of the First Sino-Japanese War; Japanese troops are accused of massacring the remaining inhabitants.

Lý Công U?n is enthroned as emperor of ??i C? Vi?t, founding the Lý dynasty.

Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope. During the persecutions of emperor Maximinus Thrax he is martyred.