November 27 in History

November 27 spans 57 recorded events across recorded history, from 25 to 2024. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.

Holidays and observances on November 27

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57 events 25 – 2024

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1999 — The centre-left Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female prime minister in New Zealand's history.

More major events on November 27

The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.

  1. 1971 The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars. Source
  2. 2001 A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet. Source

Did you know

In 1999, The centre-left Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female prime minister in New Zealand's history. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.

Did you know

The New Zealand Labour Party, also known simply as Labour, is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

Did you know

The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour as social democratic and pragmatic in practice. This clarifies the institutional and public response around the event.

Did you know

The party participates in the international Progressive Alliance. This shows how the event shaped policy and public communication in the same period.

Did you know

It is one of two major political parties in New Zealand, alongside its traditional rival, the National Party. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.


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Showing all 56 events

25 20s

Luoyang is declared capital of the Eastern Han dynasty by Emperor Guangwu of Han.

The 20s decade ran from January 1, AD 20, to December 31, AD 29.
176

Emperor Marcus Aurelius grants his son Commodus the rank of "Imperator" and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions.

Year 176 (CLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Proculus and Aper. The denomination 176 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
395

Rufinus, praetorian prefect of the East, is murdered by Gothic mercenaries under Gainas.

Flavius Rufinus (Greek: Φλάβιος Ῥουφῖνος; c. 335 – 27 November 395) was a 4th-century Eastern Roman statesman of Aquitanian extraction who served as Praetorian prefect of the East for the emperor Theodosius I, as well as for his son Arcadius, under whom Rufinus exercised significant influence in the state affairs. He was the subject of the verse invective In Rufinum by the western court poet Claudian.
511 Clovis I

King Clovis I dies at Lutetia and is buried in the Abbey of St Genevieve.

Clovis I (Latin: Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: *Hlodowig; c. 466 – 27 November 511) was the first Frankish king to unite the Franks, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single king, and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. Clovis is an important figure in the history of France. According to Charles de Gaulle, he was "the first king of what would become France." Clovis succeeded his father, Childeric I, as a king of the Salian Franks in 481, and eventually came to rule an area extending from what is now the southern Netherlands to northern France, corresponding in Roman terms to Gallia Belgica (northern Gaul). At the Battle of Soissons (486), he established control over a rump state of the fragmenting Western Roman Empire, which was under the command of Syagrius. By the time of his death in 511, Clovis had conquered several smaller Frankish kingdoms in the northeast of Gaul, stretching into what is now Germany. Clovis also conquered the Alemanni in eastern Gaul and the Visigothic kingdom of Aquitania in the southwest. These campaigns added significantly to his Frankish domains and established his dynasty as a major political and military presence in western Europe. Clovis is also significant because of his baptism between 498 and 506, largely at the behest of his wife, Clotilde, who would later be venerated as a saint for this act, celebrated today in both the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. The adoption of Catholicism (as opposed to the Arianism of most other Germanic tribes) by Clovis led to widespread conversions among the Franks, and eventually to religious unification across what is now modern-day France, the Low Countries and Germany. The alliance between the Franks and Catholicism eventually led to Charlemagne's crowning by the Pope as emperor in 800, and to the subsequent birth of the early Holy Roman Empire in the middle of the 10th century.
602 Byzantine_Empire

Byzantine Emperor Maurice is forced to watch as the usurper Phocas executes his five sons before Maurice is beheaded himself.

The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'.
1095 Pope Urban II

Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.

Pope Urban II (Latin: Urbanus II; c. 1035 – 29 July 1099), otherwise known as Odo of Châtillon or Otho de Lagery, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 March 1088 to his death. He is best known for convening the Council of Clermont, which ignited the series of Catholic military expeditions known as the Crusades. Pope Urban was a native of France and a descendant of a noble family from the French commune of Châtillon-sur-Marne. Before his papacy, Urban was the grand prior of Cluny and bishop of Ostia. As pope, he dealt with Antipope Clement III, the infighting of various Christian nations, and the Turkish invasions into Anatolia. In 1095, he started preaching for the start of the First Crusade (1096–1099). He promised forgiveness and pardon for all of the past sins of those who would fight to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslims and free the Eastern churches. This pardon would also apply to those fighting the Muslims in Spain. While the First Crusade resulted in the capture of Jerusalem and expulsion of the Fatimids, Pope Urban II died before he could receive the news. Urban II also set up the modern-day Roman Curia in the manner of a royal ecclesiastical court to help run the church. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 14 July 1881.
1382 Al-Salih Hajji

Al-Salih Hajji, the last Qalawunid sultan, is deposed by Barquq, ending the long Turkic Bahri Mamluk period in general and particularly the Qalawunid dynasty, and beginning the reign of the Circassian Burji Mamluk.

Al-Salih Hajji (Epithet: Al-Salih Salah Zein al-Din Hajji II), also Haji II, was a Bahri Turkic Mamluk ruler, and the last ruler of the Bahri dynasty in 1382. He briefly ruled again in 1389, during the advent of the Burji Circassian dynasty. He fell hostage to Sayf ad-Din Barquq before the small battle of Marj al-Saffar in 1390. He was the son of Al-Ashraf Sha'ban.
1542 Palace plot of Renyin year

Palace plot of Renyin year: A group of Ming dynasty palace women fail to murder the Jiajing Emperor, and are executed by slow-slicing.

The Palace plot of Renyin year (simplified Chinese: 壬寅宫变; traditional Chinese: 壬寅宮變), also known as the Palace Women's Uprising (宮女起義), was a Ming dynasty plot against the Jiajing Emperor, where sixteen palace women attempted to murder him. It occurred in 1542, the 21st year of the reign of the Jiajing Emperor and the renyin year of the sexagenary cycle, hence its name.
1727 Jerusalem_Church_(Berlin)

The foundation stone to the Jerusalem Church in Berlin is laid.

Jerusalem Church is one of the churches of the Evangelical Congregation in the Friedrichstadt, a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The present church building is located in Berlin, borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, in the quarter of Friedrichstadt. Jerusalem Church is fourth in rank of the oldest oratories in the town proper.
1755

An earthquake in northern Morocco devastates the cities of Fes and Meknes.

The 1755 Meknes earthquake affected Morocco on 27 November 1755. The earthquake had a moment magnitude (Mw) estimated at between 6.5 and 7.0. It devastated the cities of Fes and Meknes—killing at least 15,000 people in both cities. The earthquake struck less than a month after another earthquake that devastated Morocco and Lisbon on 1 November. Previously regarded as an aftershock, this earthquake likely represented rupture of a separate fault due to changes in tectonic stress following their first event.
1809 Berners_Street_hoax

The Berners Street hoax is perpetrated by Theodore Hook in the City of Westminster, London.

The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by the writer Theodore Hook in Westminster in 1810. After several weeks of preparation he made an apparently spontaneous bet with a friend that he could transform any property into the most talked-about address in London. Hook spent six weeks sending between a thousand and four thousand letters to tradespeople and businesses ordering deliveries of their goods and services to 54 Berners Street, Westminster, at various times on 27 November 1810. Several well-known people were also invited to call on the address, including the chairmen of the Bank of England and the East India Company, the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Mayor of London.
1815

Adoption of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland.

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Konstytucja Królestwa Polskiego) was granted to the 'Congress' Kingdom of Poland by King of Poland Alexander I of Russia in 1815, who was obliged to issue a constitution to the newly recreated Polish state under his domain as specified by the Congress of Vienna. It was considered among the most liberal constitutions of its time; however, it was never fully respected by the government. It was modified during the November Uprising by the revolutionary government and discarded afterwards by the victorious Russian authorities in 1832.
1830 Catherine Labouré

Saint Catherine Labouré experiences a Marian apparition.

Catherine Labouré, DC (2 May 1806 – 31 December 1876) was a French member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and a Marian visionary. She is believed to have relayed the request from the Blessed Virgin Mary to create the Miraculous Medal, now worn by millions of people around the world. Labouré spent forty years caring for the aged and infirm. For this, she is called the patroness of seniors.
1835

James Pratt and John Smith are hanged in London; they are the last two to be executed for sodomy in England.

James Pratt (1805–1835), also known as John Pratt, and John Smith (1795–1835) were two British men who, in November 1835, became the last people to be executed for sodomy in England. Pratt and Smith were arrested in August of that year after allegedly having "carnal knowledge" of each other in a room rented by another man, William Bonill. Bonill was not present when this took place, but was nevertheless convicted of being an accessory and was transported to Australia, where he died. Some modern human rights activists have cast doubt on the facts and legality of the convictions. In January 2017, Pratt and Smith were among those who were posthumously pardoned by the Alan Turing law which pardoned those who had been convicted of same-sex carnal offences which no longer exist in the UK.
1839 Boston

In Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association is founded.

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It serves as a cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. Boston has an area of 48.4 square miles (125 km2) and a population of 675,647 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in the Northeastern United States after New York City and Philadelphia. The larger Greater Boston metropolitan statistical area had a population of 5 million in 2025, making it the largest metropolis in New England and the eleventh-largest in the United States.
1856 Luxembourg coup of 1856

The Coup of 1856 leads to Luxembourg's unilateral adoption of a new, reactionary constitution.

The Luxembourg coup of 1856, also called the putsch of 1856, was a reactionary revision of Luxembourg's constitution on 27 November 1856. Whilst not a true coup d'état or revolution, its detractors dubbed it a "royal coup", as the reigning Grand Duke of Luxembourg, William III, greatly expanded his powers, and the name has stuck. Aimed at reversing the liberal successes embodied in the 1848 constitution, the major changes enacted by William were undone with the promulgation of a new constitution in 1868, after the Luxembourg Crisis. However, some changes have lasted, such as the creation of the Council of State.
1863 American Civil War

American Civil War: Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escape the Ohio Penitentiary and return safely to the South.

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 and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham 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.
1863 Battle of Mine Run

American Civil War: Battle of Mine Run: Union forces under General George Meade take up positions against troops led by Confederate General Robert E.

Lee.
The Battle of Mine Run, also known as Payne's Farm, or New Hope Church, or the Mine Run campaign (November 27 – December 2, 1863), was conducted in Orange County, Virginia, in the American Civil War. An unsuccessful attempt of the Union Army of the Potomac to defeat the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, it was marked by false starts and low casualties and ended hostilities in the eastern theater for the year.
1868 American Indian Wars

American Indian Wars: Battle of Washita River: United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land.

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were initially fought by European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas against various American Indian tribes in North America. These conflicts occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various conflicts resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for tribal lands. The European powers and their colonies enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; many involved retaliatory violence. As American settlement expanded westward after the American Revolution, conflicts between the United States and Native American nations increased in scale and frequency. A major turning point came during the War of 1812, when Native confederacies in the Old Northwest and the Southern United States allied with the British against the United States. Following the war, armed resistance continued in some regions, but relations between the United States and Native nations were increasingly governed through treaties that transferred large areas of Indigenous land to the United States. Historians have noted that the United States frequently failed to uphold treaty obligations, contributing to recurring disputes and further conflict. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the president to negotiate treaties exchanging Native American lands east of the Mississippi River for lands in the west. Although the act itself provided for negotiated removals, federal and state authorities subsequently used a combination of treaties, political pressure, and coercion to relocate many Native nations from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory. The resulting removals, including the Trail of Tears, transferred millions of acres of Indigenous land to the United States and opened much of the Southeast to American settlement. As American settlement expanded across the Great Plains and the Western United States, the federal government increasingly confined Native peoples to Indian reservations through treaties, military campaigns, and congressional legislation. Native American tribes and confederacies often achieved significant military victories against American settlers and soldiers, but generally lacked the population, resources, and logistical capacity to sustain prolonged resistance against the expanding United States. Some scholars have characterized aspects of United States policies toward Native Americans, including forced removals, warfare, and reservation policies, as constituting genocide against Native Americans. Other scholars dispute the application of the term genocide to the American Indian Wars as a whole, arguing that the conflicts varied significantly across time and place.
1879 War of the Pacific

War of the Pacific: Battle of Tarapacá: The confrontation between the Chilean Army and the Peruvian Army takes place in Tarapacá, the Peruvian victory is consummated with the death of the 2 generals and the capture the Chilean general in said place of battle, headed by the Peruvian victory of General Juan Buendía y Noregia.

The War of the Pacific (Spanish: Guerra del Pacífico), also known by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought over Chilean claims on coastal Bolivian territory in the Atacama Desert, the war ended with victory for Chile, which gained a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia. The war demonstrated Chile's military-technological superiority over its opponents at the time. The direct cause of the war was a nitrate taxation dispute between Bolivia and Chile, with Peru being drawn in due to its secret alliance with Bolivia. Some historians have pointed to deeper origins of the war, such as the interest of Chile and Peru in the nitrate business, a long-standing rivalry between Chile and Peru for regional hegemony, as well as the political and economical disparities between the stability of Chile and the volatility of Peru and Bolivia. In February 1878, Bolivia increased taxes on the Chilean mining company Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta (CSFA), in violation of the Boundary Treaty of 1874 which established the border between both countries and prohibited tax increases for mining. Chile protested the violation of the treaty and requested international arbitration, but the Bolivian government, presided by Hilarión Daza, considered this an internal issue subject to the jurisdiction of the Bolivian courts. Chile insisted that the breach of the treaty would mean that the territorial borders denoted in it were no longer settled. Despite this, Hilarión Daza rescinded the license of the Chilean company, seized its assets and put it up for auction. On the day of the auction, 14 February 1879, Chile's armed forces occupied without resistance the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta, which was mostly inhabited by Chilean miners. War was declared between Bolivia and Chile on 1 March 1879, and between Chile and Peru on 5 April 1879. Battles were fought on the Pacific Ocean, in the Atacama Desert, the Peruvian deserts, and the mountainous interior of Peru. For the first five months, the war played out in a naval campaign, as Chile struggled to establish a marine resupply corridor for its forces in the world's driest desert. Afterwards, Chile's land campaign overcame the Bolivian and Peruvian armies. Bolivia withdrew after the Battle of Tacna, on 26 May 1880, leaving allied Peru fighting alone for most of the war. Chilean forces occupied Peru's capital Lima in January 1881. Remnants and irregulars of the Peruvian army waged a guerrilla war but could not prevent war-weary Peruvian factions from reaching a peace deal with Chile involving territorial cessions. Chile and Peru signed the Treaty of Ancón on 20 October 1883. Bolivia signed a truce with Chile in 1884. Chile acquired the Peruvian territory of Tarapacá, the disputed Bolivian department of Litoral (turning Bolivia into a landlocked country), and temporary control over the Peruvian provinces of Tacna and Arica. In 1904, Chile and Bolivia signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which established definite boundaries. The 1929 Tacna–Arica compromise gave Arica to Chile and Tacna to Peru.
1895 Alfred Nobel

At the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( noh-BEL; Swedish: [ˈǎlːfrɛd nʊˈbɛlː] ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer, and businessman. Nobel is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He worked on various important contributions and inventions to science, holding 355 patents during his life. Born into the prominent Nobel family in Stockholm, Nobel displayed an early aptitude for science and learning, particularly in chemistry and languages; he became fluent in six languages and filed his first patent at the age of 24. He embarked on many business ventures with his family, most notably owning the company Bofors—which was an iron and steel producer that he had developed into a major manufacturer of cannons and other armaments. Nobel's most famous invention, dynamite, was an explosive made using nitroglycerin, which was patented in 1867. He further invented gelignite in 1875 and ballistite in 1887. Upon his death, Nobel donated his fortune to a foundation to fund the Nobel Prizes, which annually recognize those who have "conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". The synthetic element nobelium was named after him, and his name and legacy also survive in companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel, which descend from mergers with companies he founded. Nobel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which, pursuant to his will, is responsible for choosing the Nobel laureates in Physics and in Chemistry.
1896 Also sprach Zarathustra

Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss is first performed.

Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (German: [ˈalzo ʃpʁaːx t͡saʁaˈtʊstʁa] , Thus Spoke Zarathustra or Thus Spake Zarathustra) is a tone poem by the German composer Richard Strauss, written in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's 1883–1885 philosophical work of the same name. Strauss conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt. A typical performance lasts approximately 33 minutes. The initial fanfare – titled "Sonnenaufgang" ("Sunrise") in the composer's programme notes – became well and widely known after its repeated use as the main musical theme in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Thereafter, Eumir Deodato's hit jazz-funk adaptation of the piece won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
1901 United States Army War College

The U.S.

Army War College is established.
The United States Army War College (AWC) is a U.S. Army staff college in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, with a Carlisle postal address, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officers, government officials, and civilians to prepare them for senior leadership assignments and responsibilities. Each year, a number of Army colonels and lieutenant colonels are considered by a board for admission. Approximately 800 students attend at any one time, half in a two-year-long distance learning program, and the other half in an on-campus, full-time resident program lasting ten months. Upon completion, the college grants its graduates a master's degree in Strategic Studies (MSS). The Army War College is a split-functional institution. Emphasis is placed on research and students are also instructed in leadership, strategy, and joint-service/international operations. It is one of the senior service colleges including the Naval War College and the USAF Air War College. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defense operates the National War College. On 2 October 2025, The United States Army War College (AWC), a direct reporting unit (DRU) to the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA); together with its authorities, responsibilities, assigned subordinate elements, personnel, and resources (including funding and equipment); is redesignated and reassigned to the CG, Combined Arms Command (USACAC), subordinated unit of the United States Army Transformation and Training Command (T2COM).
1912 Spain

Spain declares a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.

Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Europe and the fourth-most populous European Union (EU) member state. Spanning the majority of the Iberian Peninsula, its territory also includes the Canary Islands, in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean; the Balearic Islands, in the Western Mediterranean Sea; and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in mainland Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea, Gibraltar and Morocco ; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville, Bilbao, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca and Las Palmas.
1917 Pehr Evind Svinhufvud

P.

E. Svinhufvud becomes the chairman of his first senate, technically the first Prime Minister of Finland.
Pehr Evind Svinhufvud af Qvalstad (Finland Swedish: [ˈpæːr ˈeːʋin(d) ˈsviːnhʉːʋʉd ɑːv kʋɑːlstɑːd], 15 December 1861 – 29 February 1944) served as the president of Finland from 1931 to 1937. Before 1917, as a lawyer, judge, and politician in the Grand Duchy of Finland (at that time an autonomous state within the Russian Empire), Svinhufvud played a major role in the movement for Finnish independence, and he presented the Declaration of Independence to the Parliament on 15 December [O.S. 2 December] 1917. From December 1917 until May 1918, Svinhufvud operated as the first head of government of independent Finland as Chairman of the Senate. He led the White government during the Finnish Civil War of January to May 1918, while Mannerheim led the White Finnish armies. After the war, he served as Finland's first temporary head of state with the title of Regent (May to December 1918) during the project to establish a German-aligned monarchy in the country, prior to stepping down in favour of Mannerheim. He later served as Prime Minister from 1930 to 1931, before his election as national president in January 1931. During his presidency, Svinhufvud successfully called for an end to the Mäntsälä rebellion of 1932. As a conservative and nationalist who strongly opposed communism and the Left in general, Svinhufvud did not become a President embraced by all the people, although as the amiable Ukko-Pekka ("Old Man Pekka"), he did enjoy wide popularity. Svinhufvud's sharp line as a defender of Finland's legal rights during the period under Russian rule was especially valued from the early years of independence until the end of World War II, unlike in later decades. After the collapse of the communist bloc and the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, appreciation of Svinhufvud increased.
1918

The Makhnovshchina is established.

The Makhnovshchina was a mass movement to establish anarchist communism during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, its aim was to create a system of free soviets that would manage the transition towards a stateless and classless society. It controlled territory in southern and eastern Ukraine.
1924 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the world's largest parade, is an annual parade in New York City presented by the American department store chain Macy's. While not the first such event held in the United States, the Macy's Parade has become a traditional event watched by many millions of television viewers and in-person spectators each year. The parade was first held in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit (with both parades being four years younger than Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day Parade). The three-hour parade is held in Manhattan, ending outside Macy's Herald Square, and takes place from 8:30 a.m. to noon Eastern Standard Time on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1953. The 100th anniversary of the first parade was 2024. Since the parade was canceled during World War II (1942–1944), the 100th parade will take place in 2026.
1940 Kingdom_of_Romania

In Romania, the ruling Iron Guard fascist party assassinates over 60 of arrested King Carol II of Romania's aides and other political dissidents.

The Kingdom of Romania was a constitutional monarchy that existed from 25 March [O.S. 13 March] 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I, until 30 December 1947 with the abdication of King Michael I and the Romanian Parliament proclamation of the Romanian People's Republic.
1940 World_War_II

World War II: At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engages the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea.

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.
1942 Toulon

World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.

Toulon is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera at the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Lion, it formed part of the historical region of Provence. The city functions as the prefecture of the Var department.
1944 RAF_Fauld_explosion

World War II: RAF Fauld explosion: An explosion at a Royal Air Force ammunition dump in Staffordshire kills seventy people.

The RAF Fauld explosion occurred during the Second World War at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot in Staffordshire, England at 11:11 am on Monday, 27 November 1944. The blast, which was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, detonated between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of high explosive military ordnance. It created an explosion crater with a depth of 100 feet (30 m) and a maximum width of 1,007 feet (307 m).
1945 CARE_International

CARE (then the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) is founded to send CARE Packages of food relief to Europe after World War II.

CARE is a major international humanitarian agency delivering emergency relief and long-term international development projects. Founded in 1945, CARE is nonsectarian, impartial, and non-governmental. It is one of the largest and oldest humanitarian aid organizations focused on fighting global poverty. In 2019, CARE reported working in 104 countries, supporting 1,349 poverty-fighting projects and humanitarian aid projects, and reaching over 92.3 million people directly and 433.3 million people indirectly.
1954 Alger_Hiss

Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury.

Alger Hiss was an American government official who, in 1948, was accused of spying for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before the trial, Hiss was involved in the establishment of the United Nations, both as a U.S. State Department official and as a UN official. In later life, he worked as an author, lecturer and salesman.
1965 Vietnam_War

Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S.

President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.
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.
1968

Penny Ann Early becomes the first woman to play in a major professional men's basketball league, for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars.

Penny Ann Early was an American athlete who achieved two notable firsts in her lifetime as she was the first female jockey to be licensed to ride parimutuel horse races and was the first woman ever to play in a professional men's basketball league in the United States, both during the 1960s.
1971 Soviet_space_program

The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module.

It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.
The Soviet space program was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Unlike its Space Race competitor, the United States, which consolidated its space program under NASA, the Soviet space program was divided between several competing design bureaus led by Korolev, Kerimov, Keldysh, Yangel, Glushko, Chelomey, Makeyev, Chertok and Reshetnev, often under the Ministry of General Machine-Building. The program was an important part of the Soviet claim to superpower status.
1973 Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92–3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States.

(On December 6, the House will confirm him 387–35).
The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution addresses issues related to presidential succession and disability.
1975 Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army

The Provisional IRA assassinates Ross McWhirter, after a press conference in which McWhirter had announced a reward for the capture of those responsible for multiple bombings and shootings across England.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army, officially known as the Irish Republican Army and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent socialist republic, which would encompass all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It argued that the all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that state's army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.
1978 San_Francisco

In San Francisco, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth-most populous city in California and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with a population of 826,079 in 2025. Among U.S. cities with a population of 200,000 or more, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income, third by population density, and sixth by aggregate income as of 2024. Some 4.6 million residents live in the city's metropolitan statistical area, which is the 13th-largest in the United States. Around 9.2 million live in the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area, the fifth-largest in the United States.
1978 Kurdistan_Workers'_Party

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is founded in the Turkish village of Fis.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla group primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and north-eastern Syria. It was founded in Ziyaret, Lice, on 27 November 1978 and was involved in asymmetric warfare in the Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency. Although the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state, in the 1990s, its official platform changed to seeking autonomy and increased political and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey.
1983 Avianca_Flight_011

Avianca Flight 011: A Boeing 747 crashes near Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 181.

Avianca Flight 011 was a Boeing 747-200BM Combi on an international scheduled passenger flight from Frankfurt to Bogotá via Paris, Madrid, and Caracas that crashed near Madrid on 27 November 1983. It took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris at 22:25 on 26 November 1983 for Madrid Barajas Airport; take-off was delayed waiting for additional passengers from a Lufthansa flight due to a cancellation of the Paris-Frankfurt-Paris segment by Avianca for operational reasons.
1984

Under the Brussels Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain, the former agrees to enter into discussions with Spain over Gibraltar, including sovereignty.

The Brussels Agreement, 1984, was an agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and of Spain concerning the territorial dispute over Gibraltar. The agreement was criticised by Gibraltar politicians for limiting the participation of Gibraltarians in their self-determination.
1985 Space_Shuttle_program

Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches on STS-61-B, with Rodolfo Neri Vela becoming the first Mexican astronaut.

The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was canceled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.
1989 Avianca_Flight_203

Avianca Flight 203: A Boeing 727 explodes in mid-air over Colombia, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.

The Medellín Cartel claimed responsibility for the attack.
Avianca Flight 203 was a Colombian domestic passenger flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia of a Boeing 727. It was destroyed by a bomb over the municipality of Soacha on November 27, 1989. All 107 people on board as well as three people on the ground were killed. The bombing had been ordered by Medellín's drug cartel.
1992 Military

For the second time in a year, military forces try to overthrow president Carlos Andrés Pérez in Venezuela.

A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a distinct military uniform. They may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of a military is usually defined as defence of their state and its interests against external armed threats.
1997

Twenty-five people are killed in the second Souhane massacre in Algeria.

The largest of the Souhane massacres occurred in the small mountain town of Souhane on 20–21 August 1997. 64 people were killed, and 15 women were kidnapped; the resulting terror triggered a mass exodus, reducing the town's population down from 4000 before the massacre to just 103 in 2002. Smaller-scale massacres later took place on November 27, 1997 and 2 March 2000, when some 10 people from a single household were killed by guerrillas. The massacres were attributed on Islamist groups such as the GIA.
2001 Hydrogen

A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.

Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has the symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all normal matter. Under standard conditions, hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules with the formula H2, called dihydrogen, or sometimes hydrogen gas, molecular hydrogen, or simply hydrogen. Dihydrogen is colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and highly combustible. Stars, including the Sun, mainly consist of hydrogen in a plasma state, while on Earth, hydrogen is found as the gas H2 (dihydrogen) and in molecules, such as in water and organic compounds. The most common isotope of hydrogen, 1H, consists of one proton, one electron, and no neutrons.
2004 Pope_John_Paul_II

Pope John Paul II returns the relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Pope John Paul II was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century, as well as the third longest-serving pope in history, after St. Peter and Pius IX. In addition to this, he was an important philosopher and theologian of the 20th century.
2004 Blackwater_61_crash

Blackwater 61 crash: A CASA C-212 Aviocar crashes into the Koh-i-Baba mountain range in Afghanistan, killing six.

Blackwater 61 was the callsign of a CASA 212 aircraft, registration N960BW, operated by Presidential Airways Inc, the aviation subsidiary of the private security contractor Blackwater USA, that crashed in the mountains of remote central Afghanistan on November 27, 2004. The turboprop airplane was carrying three military passengers and three members of the flight crew when it crashed into the highest of a range of mountains stretching west of Kabul. According to the National Transportation Safety Board investigative report of the accident, the Blackwater pilots were "behaving unprofessionally" and were "deliberately flying the nonstandard route low through the valley for fun." The accident contributed to the debate over the use of private military contractors in war-zones and Blackwater's hiring practices and standard operating procedures. Blackwater aircraft had been operating in Afghanistan under contract with the U.S. military to transport troops and supplies throughout the country. All six people aboard the aircraft died in the crash, including one who initially survived but later died awaiting rescue.
2006 House_of_Commons_of_Canada

The House of Commons of Canada approves a motion introduced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognizing the Québécois as a nation within Canada.

The House of Commons of Canada is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
2008 XL_Airways_Germany_Flight_888T

XL Airways Germany Flight 888T: An Airbus A320 performing a flight test crashes near the French commune of Canet-en-Roussillon, killing all seven people on board.

XL Airways Germany Flight 888T was an acceptance flight for an Airbus A320 on 27 November 2008. The aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, 7 km off Canet-en-Roussillon on the French coast, close to the Spanish border, killing all seven people on board. The subsequent investigation attributed the accident to incorrect maintenance procedures that allowed water to enter and freeze in the angle-of-attack sensors during flight, rendering them inoperative, combined with the crew's attempt to perform a test at a dangerously low altitude.
2009 2009_Nevsky_Express_bombing

Nevsky Express bombing: A bomb explodes on the Nevsky Express train between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, derailing it and causing 28 deaths and 96 injuries.

The 2009 Nevsky Express bombing occurred on 27 November 2009 when a bomb exploded under a high speed train travelling between the Russian cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg causing derailment near the town of Bologoye, Tver Oblast, on the Moscow–Saint Petersburg Railway. The derailment occurred at 21:34 local time. Russian officials had stated that 39 people were killed and 95 injured but later retracted that estimate. 27 deaths had been reported by 2 December. A second bomb exploded at the scene of the investigation the following day, injuring one. It was reported to have been triggered by a remote mobile phone.
2015

An active shooter inside a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, shoots at least four police officers.

One officer later dies. Two civilians are also killed, and six injured. The shooter later surrendered.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization that provides reproductive and sexual healthcare and sexual education in the United States and globally. It is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
2020 Mohsen_Fakhrizadeh

Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is assassinated near Tehran.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi was an Iranian nuclear physicist and scientist. He was regarded as the chief of Iran's nuclear program.
2020 Utah_monolith

Days after the announcement of its discovery, the Utah monolith is removed by recreationists.

The Utah monolith was a metal pillar that stood in a slot canyon in northern San Juan County, Utah, United States. The pillar was 9.5 ft (2.9 m) tall and made of metal sheets riveted into a triangular prism. It was unlawfully placed on public land between July and October 2016, where it stood unnoticed for over four years until its discovery and removal in late 2020. The identity of its creators and their objectives remain unknown as of 2026.
2024 Military_Operations_Command

Syrian rebel groups led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham launch a ground offensive into Syria.

The Military Operations Command, or the Military Operations Department, formerly known as Al-Fatah al-Mubin until November 2024, was a joint military operations room of Sunni Islamist and nationalist factions of the Syrian opposition which participated in the Syrian civil war. The operations room was declared in June 2019, evolving from the "Damascus Conquest" operations room formed in May, during the Syrian Army's Dawn of Idlib 1 campaign, and consists of rebel groups operating in opposition-held areas of northwestern Syria concentrated in Idlib.

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