1177 – Battle of Montgisard: Baldwin IV of Jerusalem defeats Saladin and a larger Ayyubid force
1783 – Britain evacuates New York city, its last military position in the United States
1839 – Cyclone slams south eastern India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying city of Coringa. Storm waves sweep inland, destroying 20,000 ships and killing an estimated 300,000 people
1905 – Telimco makes the 1st ever advertisement for a radio set, by advertising a $7.50 set in the “Scientific American” which claimed to receive signals for up to one mile
1936 – Germany and Japan formed the Anti-Comintern Pact against the Soviet Union.
1970 – Japanese novelist Mishima Yukio and four members of his Shield Society, a private army formed to preserve Japan’s martial spirit, seized a military headquarters in Tokyo, and he later committed seppuku.
1975 – Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands.
1986 – Iran-Contra affair erupts, President Reagan reveals secret arms deal
2002 – In London the Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap celebrated its 50th anniversary with a royal gala, having opened on November 25, 1952, and this performance being its 20,807th.
2008 – A car bomb in St. Petersburg, Russia, kills three people and injures one
2014 – Protest erupt across US after a decision by Missouri grand jury not to bring charges against a white policeman who shot dead a black teenager
2015 – Pope Francis begins his trip to Africa, visiting Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic
2018 – 6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes Iran’s Kermanshah province injuring at least 700
2019 – Louis Vuitton (LVMH) buys jeweler Tiffany & Co. for over $16 billion
2020 – Dead and buried mink reported rising from the ground due to bloating, after a hurried cull of millions of COVID-19 infected animals in Denmark
2020 – The New York Times names its “25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (so far)”, with Denzel Washington at No. 1
Births & Deaths:
2005 – Cuban political leader Fidel Castro, who transformed his country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere and became a symbol of communist revolution in Latin America, died at age 90.
2016 – Cuban political leader Fidel Castro, who transformed his country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere and became a symbol of communist revolution in Latin America, died at age 90.
Film & TV:
1947 – The 1st systematic Hollywood blacklist is instituted, denying employment to American entertainment professionals due to alleged Communist ties or sympathies
2013 – Disney release “Frozen: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” (Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media 2015, 2014 Billboard Album of the Year)
Sport:
1979 – Pat Summerall and John Madden broadcast a game together for the first time, a pairing that lasts 22 years and becomes one of the most well-known partnerships in TV sportscasting history
Via Britannica / On This Day
