November 15

1532 – Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Inca Empire leader Atahualpa outside Cajamarca, and arrange a meeting on the city plaza the following day.

1777 – The 2nd Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation and sends them to the states for ratification.

1806 –  While on mission to explore the south and western sections of the Louisiana Purchase, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike espies a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains, later named for him.

1849 – Boilers of the steamboat Louisiana explode as she pulls from the dock in New Orleans, killing more than 150 people.

1864 – Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his ‘March to the Sea’, leaving Atlanta to attack towards Savannah.

1889 – Brazil is declared a republic by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup.

1920 – The first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, one of its first acts being to establish Danzig, Prussia, (now Gdansk Poland) as a Free City under its protection.

1926 – The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations.

1938 – Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht.

1939 – President Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.

1942 – The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy with the sinking of a Japanese battleship, destroyer and 4 transports.

1943 – SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps”.

1949 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed by hanging at Ambala Central Jail, Haryana state, India, for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

1965 – Craig Breedlove drives his General Electric J79 turbojet engine powered Spirit of America – Sonic 1 car at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to a land speed record of 600.601 mph which stands for nearly 4 years before being exceeded.

1966 – Gemini 12 completes the program’s final mission, splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

1967 – The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed midair over the Mojave Desert.

1969 – At a depth of 200 feet, the Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the U.S. submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea with no casualties reported, but heavy damage to the Soviet boat.

1971 – Intel releases the world’s first commercial single chip microprocessor, the 4004.

1979 – American Airlines Flight 444, a Boeing 727 flying from Chicago to  Washington National Airport makes an emergency landing at Dulles International Airport after a bomb sent by Unabomber Ted Kazinski partially detonates in the cargo hold, damaging the plane and causing 12 passengers to be treated for smoke inhalation.

1985 – A research assistant and the intended recipient, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan are injured when a package from the Unabomber explodes.

1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a Douglas DC-9, crashes during takeoff from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, killing 28 of the 82 passengers and crew aboard.

2001 – Microsoft launches the Xbox game console.

2013 – Sony releases the PlayStation 4 game console.

2022 – The world population reached 8 billion.