12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for November 20, 2025
Today’s History:
- 284 – Diocletian is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
- 1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
- 1820 – The whaleship Essex is struck by a giant sperm whale in the Pacific, inspiring “Moby-Dick.”
- 1910 – Francisco I. Madero’s call launches the Mexican Revolution.
- 1945 – The Nuremberg Trials begin against major Nazi war criminals.
- 1947 – Princess Elizabeth marries Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey.
- 1959 – U.N. General Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
- 1962 – The U.S. lifts the Cuban quarantine as the missile crisis winds down.
- 1969 – Native American activists begin the 19-month Occupation of Alcatraz.
- 1979 – The Grand Mosque seizure erupts in Mecca, shocking the Muslim world.
- 1985 – Microsoft releases Windows 1.0.
- 1998 – The first International Space Station module, Zarya, is launched.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1942 – Joe Biden, 46th U.S. President (83).
- 1956 – Bo Derek, actor/model (“10”) (69).
- 1959 – Sean Young, actor (“Blade Runner”) (66).
- 1963 – Ming-Na Wen, actor (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”; “The Mandalorian”) (62).
- 1975 – Dierks Bentley, country singer-songwriter (“Drunk on a Plane”) (50).
- 1976 – Dominique Dawes, Olympic gold-medalist gymnast (49).
- 1983 – Future, rapper (“Mask Off”) (42).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1910 – Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (“War and Peace”) (82).
- 1952 – Benedetto Croce, Italian philosopher/historian (86).
- 1975 – Francisco Franco, Spanish dictator (82).
- 1978 – Giorgio de Chirico, Italian painter (Metaphysical art) (90).
- 2005 – Chris Whitley, American singer-songwriter/guitarist (45).
- 2006 – Robert Altman, American film director (“Nashville,” “Gosford Park”) (81).
- 2020 – Jan Morris, Welsh historian/travel writer (“Pax Britannica”) (94).
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