November 21 in History

Judas Maccabaeus (), also known as Judah Maccabee (Hebrew: יהודה המכבי, romanized: Yehudah HaMakabi), was a Jewish priest (kohen) and a son of the priest Mattathias. He was an early leader in the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, taking over from his father around 166 BCE, and leading the revolt until his death in 160 BCE. The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah ('Dedication') commemorates the restoration of Jewish worship at the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE after Judah Maccabee removed all of the statues depicting Greek gods and goddesses and purified it.

Pope Anterus (Latin: Anterus, Classical Greek: Ανθηρός, romanized: Antheros) was the bishop of Rome from 21 November 235 until his death on 3 January 236.

Timur, also known as Tamerlane, was a Turco-Mongol conqueror, first ruler of the Timurid dynasty, and the founder of the Timurid Empire, which ruled over modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia. He was undefeated in battle and is widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders and tacticians in history, as well as one of the most brutal and deadly. Timur is also considered a great patron of the arts, for he interacted with scholars and poets such as ibn Khaldun, Hafez, and Hafiz-i Abru. His reign led to the Timurid Renaissance.

Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England, founded in 1620, and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on the Mayflower at a location that had previously been surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony and developed as the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of what is now the southeastern portion of Massachusetts; it was approximately coterminous with the combined territories of Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol Counties, all of which were originally established by the General Court of the Plymouth Colony. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American folklore, including the American tradition of Thanksgiving and the monument of Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Colony was founded by a group of Protestant Separatists initially known as the Brownist Emigration, who came to be known as the Pilgrims. The colony established a treaty with Wampanoag chief Massasoit which helped to ensure its success; in this, they were aided by Squanto, a member of the Patuxet tribe. Plymouth played a central role in King Philip's War (1675–1678), one of several Indian Wars. The colony was ultimately merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other territories in 1691 to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Despite the colony's relatively short independent existence, Plymouth holds a special role in American history. The social and legal systems of the colony became closely tied to their religious beliefs, as well as to English custom.

An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers study astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies, by some combination of observation and the application of astrophysical models. Examples of topics or fields astronomers study include planetary science, solar astronomy, the origin or evolution of stars, or the formation of galaxies. A related but distinct subject is physical cosmology, which studies the universe as a whole.

Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ fʁɑ̃swa pilɑtʁ də ʁozje]) (30 March 1754 – 15 June 1785) was a French chemistry and physics teacher, and one of the first pioneers of aviation. He made the first crewed free balloon flight, and first confirmed human flight of any kind, with François Laurent d'Arlandes on 21 November 1783, in a Montgolfier balloon. He later died when his balloon crashed near Wimereux in the Pas-de-Calais during an attempt to fly across the English Channel. He and his companion Pierre Romain thus became the first known fatalities in an air crash.

North Carolina ( KAYR-ə-LIE-nə) is a state in the Southeastern and South Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia to the southwest, and Tennessee to the west. The state is the 28th-largest and ninth-most populous of the United States. Along with South Carolina, it makes up the Carolinas region of the East Coast. At the 2020 census, the state had a population of 10,439,388. Raleigh is the state's capital and Charlotte is its most populous and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. The Charlotte metropolitan area, with an estimated population of 2,883,370 in 2024, is the most populous metropolitan area in North Carolina, the 21st-most populous in the United States, and the largest banking center in the nation after New York City. The Research Triangle, with an estimated population of 2,368,947 in 2023, is the second-most populous combined metropolitan area in the state, 31st-most populous in the United States, and is home to the largest research park in the United States, Research Triangle Park.

The failed Mutiny of Cambiazo occurred during the 1851 Chilean Revolution in Punta Arenas. The leader of the mutiny, José Miguel Cambiazo, had arrived to Punta Arenas as part of the company "La Fija de Magallanes". In October 1851, 29 convicts arrived to Punta Arenas, among them 7 liberal rebels who had been defeated in April 1851. After an incident involving another officer Cambiazo was incarcerated. In November 1851 Cambiazo made a failed attempt to capture the barque Tres Amigos. The military commander of Punta Arenas, Benjamín Muñoz Gamero, pardoned Cambiazo for this attempt. In November 21, Cambiazo and other mutineers took control of the colony with the aid of other liberal soldiers. Muñoz was made prisoner. The Chilean government requested intervention by Britain to suppress the mutiny. The Chilean ships Indefatigable and Meteoro plus the Royal Navy ship HMS Virago participated in the recapture of Punta Arenas.

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln as US president in 1860 and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the national abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven slave states in the South responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets in the South. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy comprised eleven states, containing a third of the US population. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains, though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. General Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led Lincoln to promote him to command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war. Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Of continuing interest is the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian deaths, making it the deadliest in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman known for his work on the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, electric power distribution and early motion pictures. The merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the competitor Thomson-Houston Electric Company resulted in the formation of General Electric. Edison registered 1,093 patents in the United States. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, but grew up in Michigan with little formal schooling. He became deaf as a child and learned through books and tinkering. Edison began working at a young age; as a railroad telegrapher, he spent much of his time inventing improvements to telegraph systems. By the age of 22, he had sold a few of his early inventions and moved to New York City to focus on engineering. He had three children with his first wife, Mary, but Edison was neglectful. She died at 29 years old. Edison had troubled relationships with his children for the rest of his life. With the help of friends, the inventor attracted investment and grew his company. By the age of 29, he owned a telegraph recorder factory in Newark with over one hundred employees. Edison expanded, developing Menlo Park, now considered the first industrial research laboratory. Edison, known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park", drove his staff extremely hard and constantly worked himself and his associates to exhaustion. The inventor also drove up investment and publicity. He rose to international fame with the invention of the phonograph which took many years to turn into a commercial success. He later built a larger research lab in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1878, Edison began working on an electrical lighting system which he hoped would replace the common gas lamp. Going from electrical light bulb to the modern electric grid took decades of invention, investment, and influence. Edison and his colleagues had the opportunity to get enormously wealthy as they designed and built a nation of light bulbs, generators, and electric distribution systems. Competition with Westinghouse's AC system forced Edison to yield and resulted in the creation of General Electric. Edison simultaneously created a mining company, which was never profitable, and he nearly went bankrupt. As his role in the illumination business declined, he established a cement company and began work on a motion picture camera. The motion picture camera went from an invention to the first movie production studio. He traveled around the United States and Europe promoting his many innovations, during which he met Mina, his second wife. They had three children together, and Edison was again neglectful. During their adulthood, he began to take more interest in his sons and they eventually worked for him. Charles Edison took over his father's business when he died. In addition to acute health issues from handling toxic and radioactive chemicals during his various experiments, Thomas faced a lifelong battle against diabetes. He worked vigorously until his death. Following the success of the illumination business, he ran several companies which produced batteries, movies, musical records, and phenol. His last obsession was the search for domestic rubber production.

Lüshunkou District, commonly known as Lüshun (旅顺), is a district of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. The district has an area of 512.15 km2 (197.74 sq mi) and a permanent population of 398,579 as of 2020.

Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of Impressionism who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his long career, he was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of Impressionism's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions of nature, especially as applied to plein air (outdoor) landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise, which was exhibited in 1874 at the First Impressionist Exhibition, initiated by Monet and a number of like-minded artists as an alternative to the Salon.

The Philadelphia Athletics were a professional American football team based in Philadelphia and founded in 1902. The team was a member of the 1902 National Football League (which has no connection to the active National Football League). The league comprised a curious mixture of baseball and football players.

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for "his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". Born as a subject to the Kingdom of Württemberg, part of the German Empire, Einstein moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his citizenship the following year. In 1896, at the age of seventeen, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zurich, graduating in 1900. He acquired Swiss citizenship a year later, which he kept for the rest of his life, and afterwards secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In 1905, he submitted a successful PhD dissertation to the University of Zurich. In 1914, he moved to Berlin to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Humboldt University of Berlin, becoming director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in 1917; he also became a Prussian and consequently also German citizen again. In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Horrified by the Nazi persecution of his fellow Jews, he decided to remain in the US, and was granted American citizenship in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential German nuclear weapons program and recommending that the US begin similar research, later carried out as the Manhattan Project. In 1905, sometimes described as his annus mirabilis (miracle year), he published four groundbreaking papers. In them, he outlined a theory of the photoelectric effect, explained Brownian motion, introduced his special theory of relativity, and demonstrated that if the special theory is correct, mass and energy are equivalent to each other. In 1915, he proposed a general theory of relativity that extended his system of mechanics to incorporate gravitation. A paper that he published the following year laid out the implications of general relativity for the modeling of the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole. It introduced the cosmological constant and is further regarded as the first step in the field of modern theoretical cosmology. In 1917, Einstein wrote a paper which introduced the concepts of spontaneous emission and stimulated emission, the latter of which is the core mechanism behind the laser and maser, and which contained a trove of information that would be beneficial to developments in physics later on, such as quantum electrodynamics and quantum optics. In the middle part of his career, Einstein made important contributions to statistical mechanics and quantum theory. Especially notable was his work on the quantum physics of radiation, in which light consists of particles, subsequently called photons. With physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, he laid the groundwork for Bose–Einstein statistics. For much of the last phase of his academic life, Einstein worked on two endeavors that ultimately proved unsuccessful. First, he advocated against quantum theory's introduction of fundamental randomness into science's picture of the world, objecting that "God does not play dice". Second, he attempted to devise a unified field theory by generalizing his geometric theory of gravitation to include electromagnetism. As a result, he became increasingly isolated from mainstream modern physics. Many things are named after him, including the element Einsteinium. In 1999, he was named Time's Person of the Century.

Minas Geraes, spelled Minas Gerais in some sources, was a dreadnought battleship of the Brazilian Navy. Named in honor of the state of Minas Gerais, the ship was laid down in April 1907 as the lead ship of its class, making the country the third to have a dreadnought under construction and igniting a naval arms race between Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, World War I caused 15 to 22 million deaths, including those resulting from war crimes and genocides. The war also contributed to the spread of the Spanish flu pandemic. The conflict saw important developments in weaponry, including machine guns, artillery, aircraft, chemical weapons, and tanks.

The national flag of Estonia (Eesti lipp) is a tricolour featuring three equal horizontal bands of blue at the top, black in the middle, and white at the bottom. The flag is called sinimustvalge (lit. 'blue-black-white') in Estonian. The tricolour was already in wide use as the symbol of the nation, when the Republic of Estonia became an independent country in 1918. Formally, the tricolour became the national flag by the decision of the Estonian government on 21 November 1918, and the parliament later reconfirmed the flag's official status with a law in 1922. During World War II, soon after the Soviet army had invaded and occupied Estonia in June 1940, the new Stalinist occupation regime banned the Estonian flag, and its use as well as any use of its blue, black and white colour combination became punishable by laws of the Soviet Union. The Estonian flag was from 1940 until 1991 continuously used by the Estonian government-in-exile, diplomatic service, and the diaspora of Estonian refugees around the world. In October 1988, the public use of the tricolour flag was officially permitted again by the local authorities. On 23 February 1989, the Soviet red flag was taken down permanently from the most symbolic site of display, the Pikk Hermann tower of the Toompea Castle in the capital city Tallinn. It was replaced with the blue-black-white flag on the next morning, 24 February 1989, upon the 71st anniversary of the Estonian Declaration of Independence (1918). The national flag was officially re-adopted by the Estonian authorities in August 1990, one year before the nation's full restoration of independence in August 1991.

The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. 47) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. At 41 words, it is the shortest UK statute.

The Lwów pogrom (Polish: pogrom lwowski, German: Lemberger Pogrom) was a pogrom perpetrated by Polish soldiers and civilians against the Jewish population of the city of Lwów (since 1991, Lviv, Ukraine). It happened on 21–23 November 1918, during the Polish–Ukrainian War that followed World War I. During three days of unrest in the city, an estimated 52–150 Jewish residents were killed, and hundreds were injured. Non-Jewish casualties were also reported; they were mainly Ukrainian, and they outnumbered the Jewish fatalities. The total number of victims was reported to be 340. Roughly 1,600 people, including some soldiers, were arrested by Polish authorities during and after the pogrom. Seventy-nine accused pogromists were tried by Polish military courts, of whom 44 were convicted. Most of them received lenient sentences, ranging from 10 days to 18 months, but three executed. The 1918 Lwów events were widely publicized in the international press. US President Woodrow Wilson appointed a commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., to investigate violence against the Jewish population in Poland. The Morgenthau Report was published in October 1919.

The Irish War of Independence, also known as the Anglo-Irish War or the Tan War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-military Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and its paramilitary forces the Auxiliaries and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC). It was part of the Irish revolutionary period.

Rebecca Ann Felton (née Latimer; June 10, 1835 – January 24, 1930) was an American writer, politician, feminist, white supremacist, and slave owner who was the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, serving for only one day. Felton was a prominent member of the Georgia upper class who advocated for white supremacy, prison reform, women's suffrage and education reform. Her husband, William Harrell Felton, served in both the United States House of Representatives and the Georgia House of Representatives, and she helped organize his political campaigns. She spoke vigorously in favor of lynching African Americans, stating the belief that such acts would protect the sexual purity of European-American women. A major figure in American first-wave feminism, historian Numan Bartley wrote that by 1915 Felton "was championing a lengthy feminist program that ranged from prohibition to equal pay for equal work." The most prominent woman in the state of Georgia during the Progressive Era, she was honored near the end of her life by a symbolic one-day appointment to the Senate. Felton was sworn in on November 21, 1922, and served just 24 hours. At the age of 87, she was the oldest freshman senator to enter the Senate. Felton was the last person to serve in the Senate to have owned slaves in her lifetime. Felton was the only woman to have served as a senator from Georgia until the appointment of Kelly Loeffler in 2020, nearly 100 years later.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East respectively.

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. It is one of Canada's two main freight rail companies, along with Canadian Pacific Kansas City.

The Natural History Museum in London, England, is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. The museum is a centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature—both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast that dominated the vaulted central hall before it was replaced in 2017 with the skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. The Natural History Museum Library contains an extensive collection of books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only. The museum is recognised as the pre-eminent centre of natural history and research of related fields in the world. Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881 and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Princess of Wales is a patron of the museum. There are approximately 850 staff at the museum. The two largest strategic groups are the Public Engagement Group and the Science Group.

The People's Action Party (PAP) is a major conservative political party in Singapore and is the contemporary governing political party represented in the Parliament of Singapore, followed by the opposition Workers' Party (WP). The PAP was established in 1954 as a conventional centre-left party. Following its initial electoral success in 1959, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew sought to reposition the party ideologically toward the centre. In pursuit of this objective, he expelled the party's leftist faction, which reorganised as Barisan Sosialis, in 1961, during the period of Singapore's merger with Malaysia. Over the course of the 1960s and since then, the PAP continued its ideological shift towards the centre-right. After Singapore's separation from Malaysia and subsequent independence in 1965, the majority of opposition parties, excluding the WP, boycotted the 1968 general election. Consequently, the PAP secured all parliamentary seats in that election. In the ensuing decades, the PAP consolidated its political dominance through successive electoral victories. It consistently formed the executive branch of government and exerted substantial influence over key national institutions, including the country's sole trade union, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), which is affiliated with the party, as well as the civil service. Between 1965 and 1981, the PAP was the sole political party represented in Parliament. This period of exclusive representation ended with the party's first electoral defeat in a 1981 by-election in the Anson Constituency, where the WP secured the seat. Despite this setback, the PAP has retained its political dominance. In every subsequent general election, the party consistently garnered over 60 percent of the popular vote and secured more than 80 percent of parliamentary seats, achieving landslide victories on each occasion. Having governed continuously for 67 years, the PAP remains the dominant political force in Singapore, effectively operating within the framework of a de facto one-party state. It has maintained an unbroken two-thirds parliamentary supermajority enabling it to amend the Constitution at will. As of 2025, the PAP is the longest-serving uninterrupted ruling party among contemporary multi-party parliamentary democracies and holds the second-longest tenure of any governing party in a multi-party system in modern history, surpassed solely by Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed from 1929 to 2000. Positioned on the centre-right of Singapore's political spectrum, the PAP espouses a combination of social conservatism and economic liberalism. The party generally advocates free-market principles, favouring policies such as low taxation, the absence of tariffs, limited government expenditure relative to gross domestic product (GDP), minimal economic regulation and the promotion of economic freedom. Nonetheless, the PAP occasionally engages in strategic state intervention. A distinctive feature of its economic approach is the support for the development and expansion of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), locally referred to as government-linked corporations (GLCs). These entities were initially established in response to the economic disruptions caused by the British military withdrawal from Singapore in 1971. GLCs played a central role in driving export-oriented industrialisation, fostering economic development and generating employment across key sectors of the economy. On social matters, the PAP endorses communitarian values and civic nationalism. A cornerstone of its social policy is the promotion of national cohesion through the integration of the country's major ethnic groups into a unified Singaporean identity.

Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout North America, including popularizing the term "rock and roll". In 1986, Freed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His "role in breaking down racial barriers in U.S. pop culture in the 1950s, by leading white and black kids to listen to the same music, put the radio personality 'at the vanguard' and made him 'a really important figure'", according to the executive director.

La Ronde was a restaurant in Honolulu, Hawaii. Built in 1961 and designed by John Graham, it was the first revolving restaurant in the United States (preceding the "Eye of the Needle" restaurant in Seattle) and the third of its kind (after the Florian Tower and the Cairo Tower) in the world. The restaurant is now closed.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the primary armed forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four services—Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force—and four arms—Aerospace Force, Cyberspace Force, Information Support Force, and Joint Logistics Support Force. It operates under the CCP's absolute control and is led by the Central Military Commission (CMC) with its chairman as commander-in-chief. Alongside the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) and the Militia, the PLA forms the bulk of the country's armed forces.

The Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge is a suspension bridge connecting the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, New York, U.S. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only fixed crossing of the Narrows. The double-deck bridge carries 13 lanes of Interstate 278: seven on the upper level and six on the lower level. The span is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, who in 1524 was the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River.

The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly called the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II, was the twenty-first and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. It met in four annual sessions in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City between 11 October 1962 and 8 December 1965, spanning the pontificates of Pope John XXIII, who convoked it, and Pope Paul VI, who presided over its final three sessions and promulgated all sixteen of its documents.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Operation Ivory Coast was a mission conducted by United States Special Operations Forces and other American military elements to rescue U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. It was also the first joint military operation in United States history conducted under the direct control of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The specially selected raiders extensively trained and rehearsed the operation at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, while planning and intelligence gathering continued from 25 May to 20 November 1970.

The Mukti Bahini, also known as the Bangladesh Liberation Forces, was a big tent armed guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the East Pakistani military personnel, paramilitary personnel and civilians during the Bangladesh Liberation War that turned East Pakistan into Bangladesh in 1971.

Park Chung Hee was a South Korean politician and army officer who seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961, and served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 until his assassination in 1979. His regime oversaw a period of intense economic growth and transformation, making Park one of the most consequential leaders in Korean history, although his legacy as a military dictator remains a bitter subject.

On 21 November 1974, bombs exploded in two pubs in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others.

The Minister of Internal Affairs is a minister in the New Zealand Government with responsibility over the Department of Internal Affairs. The position of Minister of Internal Affairs has existed since the Department of Internal Affairs replaced the Colonial Secretary's office from 19 November 1907. The responsibilities of the office have been progressively reduced as other ministerial roles have been spun-off from the Department of Internal Affairs. Today his or her remit includes internal security and administering applications for citizenship.

Islamabad is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory — with a metropolitan population of over 2.3 million. Built as a planned city along the Margalla Hills in the 1960s and established in 1967, Islamabad replaced Karachi as Pakistan's national capital. It is located in the northern Punjab region, north of the city of Rawalpindi — with which it forms a metropolitan area of over 5.7 million inhabitants.

Jonathan Jay Pollard is an American-born Israeli spy and former American intelligence analyst who was jailed for spying for Israel.

Oliver Laurence North is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.

Sovetsky Tyumenskaya Airport is an airport in Russia located 4 km south of Sovetsky, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug. It has a 2,500-meter long runway capable of accommodating turboprop, light to long-haul private jets, and regional aircraft.

Bangkok Airways Flight 125 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui, Thailand. On 21 November 1990, the de Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 operating the flight was on approach to Samui Airport in bad weather when the pilots decided to go around after not seeing the runway. With little to no visual reference, the pilots suffered spatial disorientation amidst a left turn, stalled, and crashed into a coconut and mango grove five kilometers southwest of the airport. All 33 passengers and five crew members were killed. Flight 125 is Bangkok Airways' first fatal accident.

A tornado, also known as a twister, is a rapidly rotating column of air that extends vertically from the surface of the Earth to the base of a cumulonimbus or cumulus cloud. Tornadoes are often visible in the form of a condensation funnel originating from the cloud base, with a cloud of rotating debris and dust close to the ground. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 180 kilometers per hour, are about 80 meters across, and travel several kilometers before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 480 kilometers per hour (300 mph), can be more than 3 kilometers (2 mi) in diameter, and can stay on the ground for more than 100 km (62 mi).

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords, and colloquially known as the Dayton, is the peace agreement ending the three-and-a-half-year-long Bosnian War, an armed conflict part of the larger Yugoslav Wars. It was signed on 21 November 1995 in Dayton, Ohio, United States, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It was re-signed ceremonially in Paris, France, on 14 December 1995.

The Humberto Vidal explosion was a gas explosion that occurred on November 21, 1996 at the Humberto Vidal shoe store in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. The explosion killed 33 and wounded 69 others. It is the deadliest disaster to occur in Puerto Rico.

Satanism is a group of religious, ideological, or philosophical beliefs based on Satan—particularly his worship or veneration. Because of the ties to the historical Abrahamic religious figure, Satanism—as well as other religious, ideological, or philosophical beliefs that align with Satanism—is considered a countercultural Abrahamic religion.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance between 32 member states. Founded in the aftermath of World War II, NATO was established with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. The organization serves as a system of collective security and deterrence, whereby its independent members agree to defend each-other from attack by any outside party. This is enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty, which states that an armed attack against the territory of one member shall be considered an attack against them all.

Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 October, 21 November, 26 December 2004 and 1 January 2005. This was the fourth presidential election in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union. The last stages of the election were contested between the opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko and incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych from the Party of Regions. It was later determined by the Ukrainian Supreme Court that the election was plagued by widespread falsification of the results in favour of Yanukovych.

Dominica officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. Dominica's closest neighbours are two constituent territories of the European Union, both overseas departments of France: Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. Dominica comprises a land area of 750 km2 (290 sq mi), and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at 1,448 m (4,751 ft) in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census.

Paris Club is a group of major creditor countries aiming to provide a sustainable way to tackle debt problems in debtor countries. Its creation, which is the first informal meeting, dates back to 1956, when Argentina agreed to hold a meeting with its public creditors.

China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210 (CES5210/MU5210), also known as the Baotou Air Disaster, was a scheduled flight from Baotou in Inner Mongolia, China, to Shanghai, with a planned stopover at Beijing. On 21 November 2004, just two minutes after takeoff from Baotou, the Bombardier CRJ200ER fell from the sky and crashed into a lake in Nanhai Park, next to the airport, killing all 53 people on board and two more on the ground.

Pierre Amine Gemayel was a Lebanese politician in the Kataeb Party, also known as the Phalange Party in English.

The 2009 Heilongjiang mine explosion was a mining accident that occurred on November 21, 2009, near Hegang in the Heilongjiang, northeastern China, which killed 108 people. A further 29 people were hospitalised. The explosion occurred in the Xinxing coal mine shortly before dawn, at 02:30 CST, when 528 people were believed to be in the pit. Of these, 420 are believed to have been rescued.

The 2012 Tel Aviv bus bombing was a mass-injury terror attack carried out on November 21, 2012, on a crowded passenger bus driving in the center of Tel Aviv's business district. The attack was carried out by an Israeli citizen of Arab descent, who remotely detonated an explosive device, which he had hid on the bus in advance. Twenty-eight civilians were injured in the attack, among them three who were injured seriously. The attack was carried out on the 8th and last day of Operation Pillar of Defense, only a few hours before the ceasefire was reached.

On 21 November 2013 the roof of a Maxima shopping centre in the Zolitūde neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia, collapsed at 17:44 local time, resulting in the deaths of 54 people, including three rescue workers, and injuries to another 41 people. An unknown number of people were able to leave the store on their own after the initial collapse. It was the worst disaster in Latvia since 1950, when the steamer Mayakovsky sank in Riga, killing 147 people. The disaster is often called Zolitūdes traģēdija by Latvian media outlets.

Euromaidan, or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. The protests were sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Ukraine's parliament had overwhelmingly approved of finalising the Agreement with the EU, but Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it. The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of Yanukovych and the Azarov government. Protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations, and the influence of oligarchs. Transparency International named Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November caused further anger. Euromaidan was the largest democratic mass movement in Europe since 1989 and led to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

The Federal Government of Belgium exercises executive power in the Kingdom of Belgium. It consists of ministers and secretaries of state drawn from the political parties which form the governing coalition. The federal government is led by the prime minister of Belgium, and ministers lead ministries of the government. Ministers together form the Council of Ministers, which is the supreme executive organ of the government.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who led Zimbabwe from 1980 until 2017. He served as the country's first Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and as its second President from 1987 to 2017. He also led the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and then its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and from the 1990s as a socialist.

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is an Israeli politician and diplomat who has served as Prime Minister of Israel since 2022. Having previously held office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister.

Tesla, Inc. is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures, and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and services.

On November 21, 2021, Darrell Edward Brooks Jr. drove a sport utility vehicle (SUV) through the annual Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States, killing six people and injuring 62 others. The parade was live-streamed, and other attendees captured the incident on videos later posted to social media.

On 21 November 2022, at 13:21 WIB (UTC+07:00), a Mww 5.6 earthquake struck near Cianjur in West Java, Indonesia. The strike-slip earthquake occurred with a focal depth of 11 km (6.8 mi). Between 335 and 635 people died, 7,729 were injured and five remain missing. More than 62,628 homes were damaged across 16 districts in Cianjur Regency and the surrounding region. It is the deadliest earthquake to affect Indonesia since the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, and the deadliest in West Java since 2009 earthquake. Damage evaluated after the event earned it a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe).