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326 - The old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.

1095 - The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins.

1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull Unam sanctam ("The One Holy").

1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.

1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.

1477 - William Caxton produces Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, the first book printed on a printing press in England.

1493 - Christopher Columbus first sights what is now Puerto Rico.

1626 - St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.

1686 - Charles Francois Felix operates on King Louis XIV's anal fistula after practicing the surgery on several peasants.

1803 - the Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere.

1865 - Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press.

1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.

1903 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

1904 - General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup.

1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.

1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of José Santos Zelaya.

1916 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.

1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.

1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."

1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

1929 - Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area.

1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.

1942 - Holocaust: German SS carry out selection of Jewish ghetto in Lviv, western Ukraine, arresting 5.000 "unproductive Jews". All get deported to Belzec death camp.

1943 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 air crew.

1943 - Holocaust: Aktion Emtefest: Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lviv, western Ukraine, murdering at least 6.000 surviving Jews. German SS leader Fritz Katzman declares Lviv (Lemberg) to be Judenfrei (free from the Jews).

1959 - William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City.

1970 - U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.

1970 - Singer Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his third wife, Myra Gail, after 12 years.

1978 - Jonestown incident: In Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple cult in a mass murder-suicide that claims 918 lives in all, 909 of them at Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.

1978 - The Blues Brothers appear for the first time on Saturday Night Live.

1982 - Duk Koo Kim dies unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.

1985 - Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, is first published.

1985 - Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman breaks his leg, ending his career.

1987 - Iran-Contra scandal: The U.S. Congress issues its final report on the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 - King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross St Pancras.

1988 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers.

1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.

1991 - After the 3-month siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar is invaded by Serbians

1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.

1996 - A fire occurs in the Channel Tunnel soon after it opens.

1997 - Gary Glitter is arrested in the United Kingdom on child pornography charges.

1999 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.

1999 - In Jasper, Texas, 24-year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated death of James Byrd, Jr..

2001 - The Nintendo GameCube was released

2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

2002 - The state of New Jersey banned the game Dodgeball from public schools.

2003 - In the UK the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective.

2003 - The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal's CPI(ML).

2004 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.

2005 - Robert Blake was found liable for the wrongful death of his wife in a civil trial. The jury has ordered him to pay $30 million.

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1522 - Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Flemish general and statesman (d. 1568)

1647 - Pierre Bayle, French philosopher (d. 1706)

1772 - Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, German prince (d. 1806)

1785 - David Wilkie, British artist (d. 1841)

1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826)

1787 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French inventor and photographer (d. 1851)

1804 - Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora, Italian general and statesman (d. 1878)

1832 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Swedish explorer (d. 1901)

1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert, British dramatist (d. 1911)

1836 - Cesare Lombroso, Italian psychiatrist and founder of criminology (d. 1909)

1839 - August Kundt, German physicist (d. 1894)

1856 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929)

1861 - Dorothea Dix, American activist (d. 1887)

1870 - Dorothy Dix, pseudonym of US journalist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (d. 1951)

1874 - Clarence Day, American author (d. 1935)

1882 - Jacques Maritain, French philosopher (d. 1973)

1883 - Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (d. 1981)

1897 - Patrick Blackett, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)

1898 - Joris Ivens, Dutch filmmaker (d. 1989)

1899 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-born conductor (d. 1985)

1901 - George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (d. 1984)

1906 - Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)

1906 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)

1907 - Compay Segundo, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) (d. 2003)

1908 - Imogene Coca, American actress and comedienne (d. 2001)

1909 - Johnny Mercer, American lyricist (d. 1976)

1915 - Ken Burkhart, Baseball player (d. 2004)

1916 - Amelita Galli-Curci, Italian soprano (d. 1963)

1919 - Jocelyn Brando, American actress (d. 2005)

1922 - Luis Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan president (d. 1967)

1923 - Alan Shepard, American astronaut (d. 1998)

1924 - Alexander Mackenzie Stuart, Baron Mackenzie-Stuart, president of the European Court of Justice (d. 2000)

1925 - Gene Mauch, baseball manager (d. 2005)

1927 - Hank Ballard, American musician (d. 2003)

1935 - Rudolf Bahro, German dissident (d. 1997)

1939 - Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer

1939 - Brenda Vaccaro, American actress

1940 - Qaboos ibn Sa’id, Sultan of Oman

1941 - David Hemmings, British actor (d. 2003)

1942 - Linda Evans, American actress

1944 - Susan Sullivan, American actress

1944 - Wolfgang Joop, German artist, fashion designer and art collector

1946 - Alan Dean Foster, American author

1947 - Jameson Parker, American actor

1948 - Andrea Marcovicci, American singer and actress

1948 - Jack Tatum, American football player

1950 - Eric Pierpoint, American actor

1951 - Justin Raimondo, American author

1952 - Delroy Lindo, British actor

1953 - Alan Moore, British comic book writer and novelist

1954 - John Parr, British pop singer

1956 - Noel Brotherston, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1995)

1956 - Warren Moon, American football player

1957 - Seán Mac Falls, Irish-born poet

1958 - Laura Miller, Mayor of Dallas, Texas

1959 - Jimmy Quinn, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

1960 - Kim Wilde, British singer

1962 - Kirk Hammett, American guitarist (Metallica)

1962 - Jamie Moyer, baseball player

1963 - Dante Bichette, baseball player

1963 - Peter Schmeichel, Danish footballer

1963 - Len Bias, American basketball player (d. 1986)

1966 - Jorge Camacho, Spanish poet

1968 - Barry Hunter, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

1968 - Gary Sheffield, baseball player

1968 - Owen Wilson, American actor

1969 - Sam Cassell, American basketball player

1970 - Peta Wilson, Australian actress

1973 - Nic Pothas, South African/English Wicket-keeper

1974 - Chloë Sevigny, American actress

1975 - David Ortiz, Dominican Major League Baseball player

1976 - Martin Bertram, author of Vanity of Vanities

1977 - Trent Barrett, Australian rugby league player

1977 - Fabolous, American rapper

1978 - Damien Johnson, Northern Irish footballer

1983 - Jon Johansen, Norwegian software developer

1984 - Jonathan "Johnny Christ" Seward, American musician (Avenged Sevenfold)

1985 - Rex Goudie, Canadian singer

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1154 - Adélaide de Maurienne, wife of Louis VI of France (b. 1092)

1305 - John II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1239)

1559 - Cuthbert Tunstall, English churchman (b. 1474)

1590 - George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, English statesman (b. 1528)

1724 - Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Portuguese naturalist (b. 1685)

1785 - Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier and writer (b. 1725)

1797 - Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder and merchant (b. 1719)

1814 - William Jessop, British civil engineer (b. 1745)

1886 - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States (b. 1829)

1889 - William Allingham, Irish author

1922 - Marcel Proust, French novelist (b. 1871)

1941 - Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)

1941 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1867)

1952 - Paul Eluard, French poet (b. 1895)

1962 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)

1965 - Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States (b. 1888)

1967 - Luis Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan president (b. 1922)

1969 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American politician (b. 1888)

1976 - Man Ray, American artist (b. 1890)

1978 - Jim Jones, American cult leader suicide (b. 1931)

1978 - Leo Ryan, U.S. Congressman (b. 1905)

1979 - Freddie Fitzsimmons, baseball player (b. 1901)

1980 - Conn Smythe, NHL coach 1927-1931 (b. 1895)

1982 - Duk Koo Kim, Korean boxer (b. 1959)

1984 - Mary Hamman, American writer and editor, modern living editor LIFE and eidtor in chief Bride & Home (b. 1907)

1986 - Gia Carangi, American model AIDS (b. 1960)

1987 - Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist cancer (b. 1934)

1991 - Gustáv Husák, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1913)

1994 - Cab Calloway, American bandleader (b. 1907)

1999 - Paul Bowles, American novelist (b. 1910)

2002 - James Coburn, American actor (b. 1928)

2003 - Michael Kamen, American composer (b. 1948)

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Roman festivals - day 1 Dios dedicated to the sun god by emperor Licinius

R.C. Saints - Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul

Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne

also St Mawes, St Odo of Cluny, St Romanus of Antioch

Also see November 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Latvia - Independence Day (1918)

Oman - National Holiday

Venezuela - Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá, also known as la Chinita, in the western state of Zulia