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November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 41 days remaining until the end of the year.
Up to 1900
- 284 – Diocletian becomes Roman Emperor.
- 1194 – Palermo is conquered by Emperor Henry VI.
- 1272 – Following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward becomes King of England.
- 1316 – King John I of France dies at the age of only 5 days old.
- 1695 – Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho.
- 1739 – Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey.
- 1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
- 1805 – Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, is performed for the first time in Vienna.
- 1820 – An 80–ton sperm whale attacks the ship Essex, 2,000 miles from the west coast of South America.
- 1845 – Anglo–French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado.
- 1861 – American Civil War: The Secession Ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate Governor.
1901 – 2000
- 1902 – Henri Desgrange and fellow journalist Géo Lefèvre dream up the idea of the Tour de France over lunch at the Cafe de Madrid in Paris.
- 1910 – From exile in Texas, Francisco I. Madero calls for a Revolution against the rule of Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, starting the Mexican Revolution.
- 1917 – Ukraine is declared a republic.
- 1917 – World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins.
- 1929 – Salvador Dalí, a Spanish artist, opens his first one–man show.
- 1936 – In Spain, José Antonio Primo de Rivera is killed by a Republican execution squad.
- 1940 – World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.
- 1942 – The Alaska Highway is opened to traffic.
- 1945 – Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
- 1947 – The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.
- 1955 – Bo Diddley makes his TV debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show on CBS.
- 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, US President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
- 1968 – 78 miners are killed in an explosion at Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
- 1974 – A Lufthansa Boeing 747–130 crashes during take–off from Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 people.
- 1975 – Spanish dictator Francisco Franco dies, after more than three–and–a–half decades in power.
- 1977 – In a speech at the Knesset (Israel's parliament), Egypt's President Anwar Sadat recognises the state of Israel's right to exist.
- 1979 – Grand Mosque Seizure: 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest place in Islam, during the Pilgrimage, taking about 6,000 hostages. French special forces help Saudi Arabia to put down the uprising.
- 1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
- 1989 – Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters in Prague, then the capital city of Czechoslovakia, increases to an estimated 500,000.
- 1991 – An Azrebaijani MI–8 helicopter carrying 19 people – members of a peacekeeping team and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan – is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend district of Azerbaijan.
- 1992 – Windsor Castle, one of the residences of Elizabeth II, is damaged by fire.
- 1993 – A plane crash near Ohrid, present–day Republic of Macedonia, kills 115 people, with only one person on board surviving.
- 1994 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (in 1995 localized fighting resumed).
- 1998 – A court in Taliban–controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
- 2000 – Honda introduces the humanoid robot ASIMO.
From 2001
- 2003 – A second set of bombings in five days hits Istanbul, with the British Consulate as one of the targets. 27 people are killed.
- 2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level since 1997.
- 2009 – The Large Hadron Collider is switched back on, after faults caused it to be shut down over a year earlier.
- 2011 – Mariano Rajoy is elected Prime Minister in Spain, as the Partido Popular wins the most seats in parliament.
- 2015 – 19 people are killed in a terrorist attack and siege on a hotel in Bamako, Mali.
- 2016 – Pukhrayan train derailment: At least 146 people are killed when a train derails (comes off the rail track) near Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
- 2019 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York announces that he is withdrawing from public duties because of the controversy surrounding his friendship with the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Up to 1900
- 270 – Maximinus, Roman Emperor (d. 313)
- 1602 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist (d. 1686)
- 1620 – Avvakum, Russian priest and saint (d. 1682)
- 1715 – Pierre Charles Le Monnier, French astronomer (d. 1799)
- 1750 – Tipu Sultan, Indian ruler (d. 1799)
- 1761 – Pope Pius VIII (d. 1830)
- 1765 – Thomas Fremantle, English naval officer (d. 1819)
- 1787 – Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse, German inventor (d. 1867)
- 1801 – Mungo Ponton, Scottish inventor (d. 1880)
- 1825 – Antonio de Serpa Pimentel, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1900)
- 1841 – Victor D'Hondt, Belgian jurist (d. 1901)
- 1841 – Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1919)
- 1851 – Margherita of Savoy, Queen of Italy (d. 1926)
- 1858 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature winner (d. 1940)
- 1860 – José Figueroa Alcorta, 16th President of Argentina (d. 1931)
- 1862 – Georges Palante, French philosopher, author and anarchist (d. 1925)
- 1866 – Kenesaw Mountain Landis, American judge and baseball commissioner (d. 1944)
- 1867 – Patrick Joseph Hayes, Archbishop of New York City (d. 1938)
- 1869 – Zinaida Gippius, Russian poet and writer (d. 1945)
- 1873 – Ramon Castillo, President of Argentina (d. 1944)
- 1873 – Walter Evans Edge, Governor of New Jersey (d. 1956)
- 1874 – James Michael Curley, 53rd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1958)
- 1875 – Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, German diplomat and Resistance activist (d. 1944)
- 1877 – Herbert Pitman, English 3rd Officer of the RMS Titanic (d. 1968)
- 1880 – Walter Brack, German swimmer (d. 1919)
- 1880 – George McBride, American baseball player (d. 1973)
- 1886 – Karl von Frisch, Austrian zoologist (d. 1982)
- 1889 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (d. 1953)
- 1892 – James Collip, Canadian biochemist (d. 1965)
- 1896 – Chiyono Hasegawa, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2011)
- 1900 – Chester Gould, American cartoonist (d. 1985)
1901 – 1950
- 1902 – Gianpiero Combi, Italian footballer (d. 1956)
- 1902 – Erik Eriksen, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1972)
- 1903 – Alexandra Danilova, Russian ballerina (d. 1997)
- 1904 – John MacCormick, Scottish lawyer and politician (d. 1961)
- 1908 – Alistair Cooke, British–born American journalist (d. 2004)
- 1911 – Jean Shiley, American high jumper (d. 1958)
- 1912 – Otto von Habsburg, Austrian aristocrat, nobleman and politician (d. 2011)
- 1913 – Judy Canova, American actress (d. 1986)
- 1913 – Kostas Choumis, Greek footballer (d. 1981)
- 1914 – Emilio Pucci, Italian fashion designer and politician (d. 1993)
- 1915 – Kon Ichikawa, Japanese movie director (d. 2008)
- 1916 – Michael J. Ingelido, American air force general (d. 2015)
- 1917 – Bobby Locke, South African golfer (d. 1987)
- 1917 – Robert Byrd, American politician (d. 2010)
- 1919 – Phyllis Thaxter, American actress (d. 2012)
- 1920 – Shlomo Erell, Israeli military general (d. 2018)
- 1921 – Jim Garrison, American attorney and judge (d. 1992)
- 1923 – Nadine Gordimer, South African writer and activist, Nobel Prize in Literature winner (d. 2014)
- 1924 – Benoit Mandelbrot, Polish–born French–American mathematician (d. 2010)
- 1924 – Karen Harup, Danish swimmer (d. 2009)
- 1925 – Robert F. Kennedy, American politician (d. 1968)
- 1925 – Kaye Ballard, American actress and singer (d. 2019)
- 1925 – Maya Plisetskaya, Russian ballerina and choreographer (d. 2015)
- 1925 – George Barris, American automobile designer (d. 2015)
- 1927 – Estelle Parsons, American actress
- 1927 – Wolfgang Schreyer, German writer (d. 2017)
- 1927 – Mikhail Ulyanov, Russian actor (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Aleksey Batalov, Russian actor and movie director (d. 2017)
- 1929 – Don January, American golfer
- 1930 – Bernard Horsfall, English actor (d. 2013)
- 1932 – Richard Dawson, British–born American actor and game show host (d. 2012)
- 1934 – Jimmy Millar, Scottish footballer
- 1935 – Imre Makovecz, Hungarian architect (d. 2011)
- 1936 – Charles R. Larson, American admiral (d. 2014)
- 1937 – Viktoriya Tokareva, Russian playwright
- 1937 – Eero Mantyranta, Finnish skier (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Dick Smothers, American comedian (The Smothers Brothers)
- 1939 – Copi, Argentine comic artist and author (d. 1987)
- 1940 – Arieh Warshel, Israeli–American chemist, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1940 – Helma Sanders–Brahms, German movie director, screenwriter, producer and actress (d. 2014)
- 1941 – Dr. John, American musician (d. 2019)
- 1941 – Haseena Moin, Pakistani screenwriter and playwright
- 1942 – Joe Biden, 47th Vice President of the United States/soon–to–be 46th President of the United States
- 1942 – Bob Einstein, American actor (d. 2019)
- 1942 – Norman Greenbaum, American singer–songwriter
- 1942 – Meredith Monk, American composer and choreographer
- 1943 – Veronica Hamel, American actress
- 1944 – Donald DiFrancesco, American politician, 51st Governor of New Jersey
- 1945 – Nanette Workman, American–Canadian singer–songwriter and actress
- 1946 – Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow
- 1946 – Duane Allman, American guitarist (d. 1971)
- 1947 – Joe Walsh, American singer–songwriter, guitarist, producer and actor
- 1948 – John R. Bolton, American politician and diplomat
- 1948 – Barbara Hendricks, American–Swedish soprano
- 1948 – Richard Masur, American actor
- 1949 – Ulf Lundell, Swedish singer and musician
1951 – 1975
- 1951 – David Walters, American politician, 24th Governor of Oklahoma
- 1954 – Aneka, Scottish folk singer
- 1954 – Berit Andnor, Swedish politician
- 1956 – Bo Derek, American actress
- 1956 – Gareth Chilcott, English rugby player
- 1957 – Goodluck Jonathan, former President of Nigeria
- 1957 – Wylie Stateman, American sound editor
- 1957 – John Eriksen, Danish footballer (d. 2002)
- 1959 – James P. McGovern, American politician
- 1959 – Franz–Peter Tebartz–van Elst, German Roman Catholic Bishop, of Limburg
- 1959 – Diane James, English politician, leader of UKIP for 18 days in 2016
- 1961 – Tim Harvey, British racing driver
- 1962 – Gerardo Martino, Argentine footballer and manager
- 1963 – Timothy Gowers, British mathematician
- 1963 – Wan Yanhai, Chinese activist
- 1964 – Doug Ford, Canadian politician, 26th Premier of Ontario
- 1965 – Yoshiki, Japanese musician, songwriter and producer
- 1965 – Sen Dog, Cuban rapper
- 1965 – Mike D, American hip hop musician
- 1968 – Tommy Asinga, Surinamese track athlete
- 1970 – Matt Blunt, American politician, former Governor of Missouri
- 1970 – Melissa Disney, American actress
- 1970 – Sabrina Lloyd, American actress
- 1970 – Phife Dawg, American rapper (d. 2016)
- 1971 – Joel McHale, American actor and comedian
- 1973 – Neil Hodgson, English motorcycle racer
From 1976
- 1976 – Ji Yun–nam, North Korean footballer
- 1977 – Fábio Júnior Pereira, Brazilian footballer
- 1978 – Nadine Velazquez, American actress and model
- 1979 – Dmitri Bulykin, Russian footballer
- 1980 – Malachy Tallack, Scottish singer–songwriter, journalist and writer
- 1981 – Carlos Boozer, American basketball player
- 1981 – Espen Hoff, Norwegian footballer
- 1981 – Kimberley Walsh, English singer (Girls Aloud)
- 1982 – Nathan Vetterlein, American voice actor and Internet personality
- 1984 – Justin Hoyte, English footballer
- 1985 – Dan Byrd, American actor
- 1986 – Jared Followill, American musician
- 1988 – Rhys Wakefield, Australian actor
- 1988 – Roberto Rosales, Venezuelan footballer
- 1989 – Eduardo Vargas, Chilean footballer
- 1989 – Cody Linley, American actor
- 1993 – Sumire Sato, Japanese singer (AKB48)
- 1995 – Michael Clifford, Australian singer, 5 Seconds of Summer.
- 2000 – Connie Talbot, British singer
- 2002 – Madisyn Shipman, American actress
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Up to 1900
- 811 – Li Fan, Chinese statesman (b. 754)
- 869 – Edmund of East Anglia (b. 841)
- 996 – Richard I, Duke of Normandy (b. 938)
- 1316 – King John I of France (b. November 15, 1316)
- 1559 – Lady Frances Brandon, mother of Jane Grey, Queen of England (b. 1517)
- 1591 – Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1540)
- 1662 – Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (b. 1614)
- 1695 – Zumbi, Brazilian King (b. 1655)
- 1737 – Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of George II of Great Britain (b. 1683)
- 1742 – Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (b. 1661)
- 1758 – Johan Helmich Roman, Swedish composer (b. 1694)
- 1764 – Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician (b. 1690)
- 1778 – Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (b. 1726)
- 1856 – Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1775)
- 1894 – Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1829)
1901 – 2000
- 1907 – Paula Modersohn–Becker, German painter (b. 1876)
- 1908 – Georgy Voronoy, Russian mathematician (b. 1868)
- 1910 – Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer (b. 1828)
- 1925 – Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of the United Kingdom (b. 1844)
- 1934 – Willem de Sitter, Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer (b. 1877)
- 1936 – Buenaventura Durruti, Spanish anarchist (b. 1896)
- 1936 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician (b. 1903)
- 1938 – Enzo Matsunaga, Japanese writer (b. 1895)
- 1938 – Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway (b. 1869)
- 1945 – Francis William Aston, British chemist (b. 1877)
- 1950 – Francesco Gilea, Italian composer (b. 1866)
- 1952 – Benedetto Croce, Italian philosopher (b. 1866)
- 1957 – Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Russian–Lithuanian painter (b. 1875)
- 1975 – Francisco Franco, Spanish dictator (b. 1892)
- 1978 – Giorgio de Chirico, Italian–Greek painter (b. 1888)
- 1980 – John McEwen, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1900)
- 1984 – Kristian Djurhuus, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (b. 1895)
- 1984 – Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani poet (b. 1911)
- 1989 – Leonardo Sciascia, Italian writer (b. 1921)
- 1998 – Galina Starovoytova, Russian politician (b. 1946)
- 1999 – Amintore Fanfani, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1908)
From 2001
- 2003 – David Dacko, Central African politician (b. 1930)
- 2003 – Robert Addie, British actor (b. 1960)
- 2005 – Chris Whitley, American musician (b. 1960)
- 2006 – Robert Altman, American director (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Ian Smith, Rhodesian politician (b. 1919)
- 2008 – Boris Fyodorov, Russian economist and politician (b. 1958)
- 2009 – Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountaineer (b. 1925)
- 2012 – David O'Brien Martin, American politician (b. 1944)
- 2013 – Dieter Hildebrandt, German performer (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Pavel Bobek, Czech singer (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Sylvia Browne, American author (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Joseph Paul Franklin, American serial killer (b. 1950)
- 2014 – Cayetana Fitz–James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba, Spanish aristocrat (b. 1926)
- 2014 – Charlie Hall, American politician (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Marian Brown, American media personality (b. 1927)
- 2015 – Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1953)
- 2015 – Keith Michell, Australian actor (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Carlos Oroza, Spanish poet (b. 1923)
- 2016 – Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, President of Greece (b. 1926)
- 2017 – Terry Glenn, American football player (b. 1974)
- 2017 – John Gordon, English author (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Peter Berling, German actor and writer (b. 1934)
- 2018 – Roy Bailey, American folk singer and guitarist (b. 1935)
- 2018 – James H. Billington, American academic (b. 1929)
- 2018 – Eddie C. Campbell, American blues singer and guitarist (b. 1939)
- 2018 – Mac Collins, American politician (b. 1944)
- 2018 – Shlomo Erell, Israeli military general (b. 1920)
- 2018 – Anvar Khamei, Iranian sociologist, economist and journalist (b. 1917)
- 2018 – Aaron Klug, Lithuanian–British chemist and biophysicist (b. 1926)
- 2019 – Fábio Barreto, Brazilian film director (b. 1957)
- 2019 – Fred Cox, American football player (b. 1938)
- 2019 – Mary L. Good, American chemist (b. 1931)
- 2019 – Amos Lapidot, Israeli fighter pilot (b. 1934)
- 2019 – John Mann, Canadian actor, singer–songwriter and musician (b. 1962)
- 2019 – John Martin, American racing driver (b. 1939)
- 2019 – Wataru Misaka, American basketball player (b. 1923)
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- Earliest day on which the Feast of Christ the King can fall, while November 26 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday before Advent
- Revolution Day (Mexico)
- Teacher's Day (Vietnam)
- Day of National Sovereignty (Argentina)
- Black Awareness Day (Brazil)
- Universal Children's Day (United Nations)
- Transgender Day of Remembrance
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