Route 66 ( 1926 ) : U.S. Route 66 running for 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles is established

Pensioners Revolt
11th November ( 1954 ) : Thousands of Pensioners take part in a rally in London calling for an increase in their pensions of 17s 6d ( 87p ) [ $1.70 ]taking a single persons pension to £2 10s [ $4.20 ] per week .

Cable Car Fire
11th November ( 2000 ) : A cable car taking skiers up to a glacier in Austria catches fire as it passes through a mountain tunnel and 156 people die. The fire was caused by an illegal space heater in the cable car.

Dust Storms
11th November ( 1933 ) : Strong winds strip the topsoil from the drought affected farms of South Dakota and within two days, dust from the storm had reached all the way to Albany, New York. This was just one of a number of winds that took topsoil from farmland due to the soil turning into dust through severe drought ( Known as the Dust Bowl Years ) Many changes in farming practices were learnt from these periods of time including introduction of hedges and other soil conservation techniques . The number and severity of dust storms increased over the next two years as the severe drought continued turning 100,000,000 acres of previously fertile farming land into dust bowls forcing farmers and their families to leave their land. The worst effected states were Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, South Dakota and Kansas.


Featured Video
Dust Bowl Years

Iwo Jima Statue ( 1954 ) : The Iwo Jima statue is unveiled at the USMC War Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. The cast bronze memorial is based on the iconic photo of the raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal and President Dwight D. Eisenhower performs the dedication ceremony .

Ken Saro-Wiwa
10th November ( 1995 ) : The writer and human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was executed in Nigeria today despite worldwide pleas for clemency. Nigeria's military rulers ordered the execution of Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight other dissidents after being found guilty of involvement in four murders. Mr Saro-Wiwa and the others have insisted they were framed because of their opposition to the oil industry in the Niger-Delta region of southern Nigeria.

Direct Dial
10th November ( 1951 ) : Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone services begin as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, called his counterpart in Alameda, California

God Bless America
10th November ( 1938 ) : Kate Smith sings a rendition of Irvin Berlin's 'God Bless America' during a special Armistice Day broadcast which turned the song into an instant hit. What many do not realise is Irvin Berlin gave the royalties of the song to the God Bless America Fund for redistribution to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of the USA.


Featured Video
God Bless America

Rolling Stone Magazine ( 1967 ) : First issue of Rolling Stone Magazine founded by Jann Wenner about music, popular culture and politics is published

Hungarian Revolution
9th November ( 1956 ) : Street fighting broke out in the streets of Budapest. The Russian-Supported Hungarian government took action to stop this fighting, which was started by “doggedly resisting rebels”. Steps taken by Soviet troops and local police did very little, however, to stop this outbreak of violence. It was suspected that this area’s failing economy-and the fear that it ignited-were what lead to the chaos in this city. Budapest was suffering from a severe food, electricity, and coal shortage at this time. Moreover, a general strike was underway, and Hungary’s rail system was not in operation.

Berlin Wall
9th November ( 1989 ) : East Germany opened its borders today, allowing its citizens to freely cross into the West for the first time since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. Some Germans used hammers to chip away at the Berlin Wall for keepsakes or in their own small way try to destroy the infamous symbol of East-West division.

Power Blackout
9th November ( 1965 ) : A blackout affecting 30 million people in northeastern states including New York of the United States and Ontario, Canada lasting for up to 13 hours. The blackout was blamed on a sophisticated power system that was ironically built to ensure electricity would be available in an emergency. The blackout affected Ontario, Canada and Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, and New Jersey.


Featured Video
Power Blackout

Hitler Assassination Attempt ( 1939 ) : Johann Georg Elser plants a bomb at the Burgerbrau Beer Cellar in Munich where Hitler is due to give a speech, Hitler gives his speech and leaves 8 minutes before the bomb detonates killing eight people and injuring dozens more.

Ted Bundy
8th November ( 1974 ) : The Serial Killer Ted Bundy is defeated in an abduction attempt when Carol DaRonch narrowly escapes being abducted. Utah authorities were trying to figure out what had happened to several young women who disappeared earlier. Seattle area officials were looking for a young man named Ted who was the suspected culprit in many murder cases. On August 16, 1975, an officer noticed a suspicious Volkswagen driving around his patrol area. After pulling the vehicle over, he found handcuffs in the back of the automobile and arrested the driver--Ted Bundy. In March 1976, he was convicted of aggravated kidnapping, which put him behind bars while investigators tried to connect him to the many unsolved murders in Washington, Colorado, and Utah but December 30, 1977, Bundy managed to escape from jail. A few months later, he was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, and on February 15, 1978, he was finally captured. He eventually confessed to the murders of 28 women, and was executed in Florida on January 24, 1989.

Enniskillen Bombing
8th November ( 1987 ) : A terrorist bomb has exploded during Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland injuring 63 and killing 11 .

John F. Kennedy
8th November ( 1960 ) : Senator John F. Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States, at 43 years of age the youngest president to be elected in the nation's history .


Featured Video
John F. Kennedy

Veteran’s Day ( 1954 ) : Armistice Day is renamed Veteran’s Day to honor American vets from all wars and conflicts

2000 Presidential Elections
7th November ( 2000 ) : In one of the most controversial Presidential Elections in modern times between Al Gore ( Vice President ) and Republican candidate George W. Bush. The election unlike normal presidential elections ended with controversy over who had won Florida's 25 electoral votes. Some television news networks had called the winner earlier in the evening with Al Gore declared the winner but retracted as the results came in. Then at 2:30 AM the networks declared that George W. Bush had won Florida and therefore the presidency. But once again by 4:30 AM the pendulum swung again as only 2,000 votes separated the two and the networks retracted their predictions. After a number of court cases involving the United States Supreme Court George Bush was declared the winner but because of the very small majority ( depending on who provides figures ranging from 500 to 2000 ) and also questions over the 58,000 names who had been taken off the registered voters list by governor Jeb Bush ( with allegations that most were thought to be democratic voters ), the 2000 presidential election will always be considered one of the most controversial ever. The election was also considered to be unusual because Al Gore gained more popular votes than George Bush but lost the election.

Narrows suspension Bridge
7th November ( 1940 ) : Strong winds gusting to 35 MPH break the the Narrows suspension Bridge to pieces in Tacoma, Washington causing the bridge to fall to the bottom of Puget Sound .

Museum Of Modern Art
7th November ( 1929 ) : The Museum Of Modern Art is opened in New York City devoted exclusively to modern art and the largest and most comprehensive of it's kind in the United States.


Featured Video
Museum Of Modern Art

Australia ( 1999 ) : Australian voters decided to keep the queen and not become a republic.

Evansville Tornado
6th November ( 2005 ) : A powerful F3 tornado strikes Evansville, Indiana taking the lives of 25 people making it one of the deadliest single tornadoes on record. The tornado stayed on the ground for 41 miles and in places was as wide as 400 yds causing extensive damage to parts of Evansville, Newburgh, and Boonville in Indiana

Kelly Barnes Dam
6th November ( 1977 ) : The Kelly Barnes Dam in Georgia fails during the middle of the night, killing 39 people from the small bible college "Toccoa Falls Bible Institute" situated below the dam.

El Alamein
6th November ( 1942 ) : The British win the Second Battle of El Alamein with the British Eighth Army headed by ( Monty ) Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery when the ( Afrika Korps ) commanded by Field Marshal Rommel ( Desert Fox ) are forced to surrender exhausted and dying from dehydration.
In a famous speech a few days later Winston Churchill uses these well known lines "This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.".


Featured Video
El Alamein

Saddam Hussein ( 2006 ) : Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for his role in the massacre of the 148 Shi'as in 1982

Ancient port of Alexandria
5th November ( 1996 ) : Divers have discovered the ancient port of Alexandria from 2000 years ago which was swallowed by the sea and contains the ruins of Cleopatras Palace and Mark Anthony's home and temple when the Roman warrior was in Egypt. Divers have found thousands of artifacts dating back to 323BC to 30BC and many of the original columns are still standing and in remarkable condition.

Robert Maxwell
5th November ( 1991 ) : The body of the millionaire newspaper publisher, Robert Maxwell, has been found in the sea off the coast of Tenerife. After his death it emerged that the Mirror Group's debts vastly outweighed its assets and £440m was missing from the company's pension funds.

El Alamein
5th November ( 1942 ) : The British win the Second Battle of El Alamein with the British Eighth Army headed by ( Monty ) Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery when the ( Afrika Korps ) commanded by Field Marshal Rommel ( Desert Fox ) are forced to surrender exhausted and dying from dehydration.
In a famous speech a few days later Winston Churchill uses these well known lines "This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.".


Featured Video
El Alamein