1605 - The "Gunpowder Plot" attempted by Guy Fawkes failed when he was captured before he could blow up the English Parliament. Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated every November 5th in Britain to celebrate his failure to blow up all the members of Parliament and King James I.
1935 - The game "Monopoly" was introduced by Parker Brothers Company.
1991: The body of the millionaire newspaper publisher, Robert Maxwell, was found in the sea off the coast of Tenerife.
1998 - Liam Gallagher of Oasis was arrested for allegedly attacking a photographer and damaging his camera equipment.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1860 - Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the sixteenth president of the United States.
1975 - The Sex Pistols made their live debut at St. Martin's School of Art in London.
1998 - The Islamic militant group Hamas exploded a car bomb killing the two attackers and injuring 21 civilians.
1999 - Australian voters rejected a referendum to drop Britain's queen as their head of state.
2001 - In London, the "Lest We Forget" exhibit opened at the National Memorial Arboretum. Fred Seiker was the creator of the 24 watercolors. Seiker was a prisoner of war that had been forced to build the Burma Railroad, the "railway of death," for the Japanese during World War II.
2001 - In Madrid, Spain, a car bomb injured about 60 people. The bomb was blamed on Basque separatists.
2001 - Ten people were executed in Beijing, China. The state newspaper of China said that all of the people executed were robbers and killers aged 20-23.
1965 - The "Pillsbury Dough Boy" debuted in television commercials.
1985 - The Colombian army stormed the country's Palace of Justice. The siege claimed the lives of 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court Justices. The Palace had been seized by leftist guerrillas belonging to the April 19 Movement.
1989 - Richard Ramirez, convicted of California's "Night Stalker" killings, was sentenced to death.
1991 - Magic Johnson (NBA) announced that he had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, and that he was retiring from basketball.
2001 - After a 16-month stoppage the Concorde resumed flying commercially.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1793 - The Louvre Museum, in Paris, opened to the public for the first time.
1974: Detectives began searching for British aristocrat Lord Lucan, following the murder of his children's nanny and an attack on his estranged wife. To this day he's never been located but in June 1975 an inquest jury found him guilty of murder.
1986 - Vyacheslav M. Molotov died at age 96. During World War II, Molotov ordered the mass production of bottles filled with flammable liquid later called the "Molotov cocktail."
1987: A bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, killing 11 people.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1970: One of the greatest figures in the history of France, General Charles de Gaulle, dies at his home of a heart attack.
1979: Four men are found guilty of killing paperboy Carl Bridgewater. Eighteen years later their convictions were quashed.
1989: The Berlin Wall is dramatically breached after nearly three decades of keeping East and West Berliners apart.
1998 - Michael Jackson settled a lawsuit over stories and pictures in the London Daily Mirror that said his face had been disfigured by cosmetic surgery. A lawyer for the publisher said, "The photographs were taken honestly and were not tampered with, but the Mirror has since met with the plaintiff in person and acknowledges that the photographs do not accurately represent the plaintiff's true appearance."
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1871 - Henry M. Stanley, journalist and explorer, found David Livingstone. Livingston was a missing Scottish missionary in central Africa. Stanley delivered his famous greeting: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
1960: Bookshops all over England sold out of Penguin's first run of the controversial novel Lady Chatterley's Lover - a total of 200,000 copies - on the first day of publication.
1969 - "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Gene Autry received a gold record. The song had been released 20 years earlier.
1970 - The Great Wall of China opened for tourism.
2004 - Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) was awarded the "Man for Peace" prize in Rome at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1620 - The Mayflower Compact was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower when they landed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. The compact called for "just and equal laws."
1880 - Australian outlaw and bank robber Ned Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne jail at age 25.
1918 - World War I came to an end when the Allies and Germany signed an armistice.
1920 - The body of an unknown British soldier was buried in Westminster Abbey. The service was recorded with the first electronic recording process developed by Lionel Guest and H.O. Merriman.
1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin told U.S. senators in a letter that Americans had been held in prison camps after World War II. Some were "summarily executed," but others were still living in his country voluntarily.
1992 - The Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1859 - The first flying trapeze act was performed by Jules Leotard at Cirque Napoleon in Paris, France. He was also the designer of the garment that is named after him.
1954 - Ellis Island, the immigration station in New York Harbor, closed after processing more than 20 million immigrants since 1892.
1997 - Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
2001 - American Airlines flight 587 crashed just minutes after take off from Kennedy Airport in New York. The Airbus A300 crashed into the Rockaway Beach section of Queens. All 260 people aboard were killed. The accident took place only two months and one day after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Several factors, such as the date, time, aircraft size, airline, eyewitness accounts, and location in New York, raised concerns that the crash was caused by another terrorist attack. According to Northeast Intelligence Network, Al-Qaeda listed the crash among its successes, and a Canadian militant cooperating with authorities suggested that it had been brought down with a shoe bomb. Nonetheless, terrorism was officially ruled out as the cause by the National Transportation Safety Board, which instead attributed the disaster to the first officer's overuse of rudder controls in response to wake turbulence released by a Japan Airlines Boeing 747-400.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1789 - Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is best known for Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
1985 - About 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a gigantic mudslide buried the city. The slide was triggered by a mild eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.
2009 - NASA announced that water had been discoved on the moon. The discovery came from the planned impact on the moon of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1851 - Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" was first published.
1889 - New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.
1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began domestic radio service.
1940 - During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked.
1969 - Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon from Cape Kennedy, FL.
1973: The wedding of the Queen's only daughter, Princess Anne, took place at Westminster Abbey.
1983 - The British government announced that U.S.-made cruise missiles had arrived at the Greenham Common air base amid protests.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1956 - Elvis Presley made his acting debut in the premiere of the "Love Me Tender" movie.
1977: Princess Anne gave birth to a boy - the first royal baby to be born a commoner for more than 500 years.
1990 - Frank Farian, producer of Milli Vanilli, publicly admitted that Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus never sang a note on the Milli Vanilli album and that they lip-synch when they perform live.
2005 - In Amiens, France, Isabelle Dinoire became the first person to undergo a partial face transplant. She had been attacked by a dog earlier in the year.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1915 - Coca-Cola had its prototype for a countoured bottle patented. The bottle made its commercial debut the next year.
1959 - The musical "The Sound of Music" opened.
1978 - The movie version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" opens. The Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Billy Preston made their acting debuts in the movie.
1983: More than 20 English football supporters were arrested in Luxembourg after a night of violence.
2004 - A NASA unmanned "scramjet" (X-43A) reached a speed of nearly 10 times the speed of sound above the Pacific Ocean.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1558 - Elizabeth I ascended the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary Tudor.
1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.
1869 - The Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas.
1880 - The first three British female graduates received their Bachelor of Arts degrees from London University.
1904 - The first underwater submarine journey was taken, from Southampton, England, to the Isle of Wight.
1990 - A mass grave was discovered by the bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand. The bodies were believed to be those of World War II prisoners of war.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1477 - William Caxton produced "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres," which was the first book to be printed in England.
1978 - In Jonestown, Guyana, Reverend Jim Jones persuaded his followers to commit suicide by drinking a death potion. Some people were shot to death. 914 cult members were left dead including over 200 children.
1987 - 31 people died in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest underground station.
1987 - U2 opened for itself by pretending to be a country-rock group called The Dalton Brothers during a concert in Los Angeles.
1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1969 - Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
1990 - Milli Vanilli was stripped of their Grammy Award because other singers had lent their voices to the "Girl You Know It's True" album.
1994 - Seven jackpot winners got around £800,000 each in the uk's first lottery draw.
2003 - Eight competing designs for a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center were unveiled. One design would be built at the site of the World Trade Center.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1947 - Britain's Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey.
1959 - Britain, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden met to create the European Free Trade Association.
1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba and the U.S. ended its blockade of the island.
1987 - Police investigating the fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station, said that arson was unlikely to be the cause of the event that took 31 lives.
1992 - A fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle.
1995 - Princess Diana admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles in an interview that was broadcast on BBC Television.
1998 - Afghanistan's Taliban militia offered Osama bin Laden safe haven. Osama bin Laden had been accused of orchestrating two U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and later terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1620 - The Mayflower reached Provincetown, MA. The ship discharged the Pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, on December 26, 1620.
1783 - The first successful flight was made in a hot air balloon. The pilots, Francois Pilatre de Rosier and Francois Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, flew for 25 minutes and 5½ miles over Paris.
1953 - British Natural History Museum authorities announced that "Piltdown Man" was a hoax.
1960 - George Harrison was deported from Germany for being too young to perform there with the Beatles.
1980 - An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to find out "who shot J.R." on the CBS prime-time soap opera Dallas. Kristin was the character that fired the gun.
1989 - The proceedings of Britain's House of Commons were televised live for the first time.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1718 - English pirate Edward Teach (a.k.a. "Blackbeard") was killed during a battle off the coast of North Carolina. British soldiers cornered him aboard his ship and killed him. He was shot and stabbed more than 25 times.
1928 - In Paris, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was first performed publicly.
1963: The President of the United States assassinated by a gunman in Dallas, Texas. John F Kennedy was hit in the head and throat when three shots were fired at his open-topped car.
The presidential motorcade was travelling through the main business area of the city. Texas Governor John Connally was also seriously injured when one of the unknown sniper's bullets hit him in the back.
1990: Margaret Thatcher stood down as prime minister after her Cabinet refused to back her in a second round of leadership elections.
1995: Rosemary West was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 10 young women and girls. Justice Charles Mantell told Britain's most prolific female serial killer she should never be released.
2003: England won the Rugby World Cup, beating Australia 20-17 in a game which is already entering the history books as one of the country's great moments of sporting triumph.
"Astrology teaches us one thing and one thing only.... There's one born every minute!" Patrick Moore.
1890 - Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands at the age of 10 when her father William III died.
1964 - The Rolling Stones show up late for the BBC radio shows, "Top Gear" and "Saturday Club" and are banned by the BBC.
1976 - Police arrested Jerry Lee Lewis outside the gates of Graceland after he showed up for the second time that night and made a scene by shouting, waving a pistol and demanding to see Elvis Presley.
1996: A hijacked passenger jet crashed into the Indian Ocean after running out of fuel. Out of the 175 passengers and crew on board at least 100 people were killed when Flight ET961 broke up during an emergency landing 1,640 feet (500 metres) from a holiday beach on the Comoro Islands.