November 21

Judas Maccabeus rededicates the Second Temple in Jerusalem, an event commemorated annually as Hanukkah.

Judas Maccabeus led a successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Greek Empire, reclaiming and rededicating the Second Temple in Jerusalem after it had been desecrated. The rededication and the legendary miracle of oil lasting eight days rather than one became the basis for the annual Jewish festival of Hanukkah, celebrated ever since.

Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent d'Arlandes complete the first untethered hot air balloon flight over Paris.

French balloonists Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes drifted for roughly 25 minutes over Paris in a hot air balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers, marking humanity's first sustained flight carrying passengers. Their successful demonstration launched intense public fascination with ballooning and opened the modern era of human flight.

Thomas Edison publicly announces his invention of the phonograph, a device capable of recording and reproducing sound.

Thomas Edison's announcement of a device capable of both recording and reproducing sound stunned contemporaries, who had assumed such a feat was scientifically impossible. The phonograph's invention, achieved after Edison had already gained fame for the telegraph and telephone improvements, further cemented his reputation as one of history's most prolific inventors.

On "Bloody Sunday" in Dublin, Irish republican forces kill British intelligence agents while British troops fire into a crowd at a football match, killing fourteen civilians.

Bloody Sunday saw an IRA assassination squad kill several British intelligence operatives across Dublin in coordinated morning attacks, followed by British auxiliary forces firing into a crowd at a Gaelic football match that afternoon in apparent retaliation, killing fourteen civilians and players. The violent day marked a significant escalation in the Irish War of Independence.

Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia becomes the first woman to serve in the United States Senate.

Rebecca Latimer Felton was appointed to a brief, largely symbolic vacancy in the U.S. Senate at age 87, making her the first woman ever to serve in that chamber, though she held the seat for only a single day before her successor was sworn in. Her appointment nonetheless represented a significant symbolic milestone for women's political representation.

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opens to traffic in New York, briefly the longest suspension bridge span in the world.

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn, briefly held the title of the world's longest suspension bridge span upon its completion, a significant engineering achievement led by renowned bridge designer Othmar Ammann. The bridge remains a vital transportation link and a recognizable feature of the New York City skyline.

Bombs explode in two Birmingham pubs, killing 21 people in one of the deadliest attacks of the Troubles.

Bombs planted in two crowded Birmingham pubs by the Provisional IRA killed 21 people and injured nearly 200 others in one of the deadliest attacks of the Troubles on English soil. The bombings led to a wrongful conviction of six men, later exonerated after spending sixteen years imprisoned, in a notorious miscarriage of British justice.

The Dayton Agreement is initialed, ending roughly three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Dayton Agreement, negotiated at an American air base in Ohio, brought an end to the brutal Bosnian War by establishing a complex political framework dividing the country into two largely autonomous entities under a unified national government. The accord, formally signed weeks later in Paris, remains the foundational governing structure for Bosnia and Herzegovina today.

Robert Mugabe resigns as President of Zimbabwe after ruling the country for thirty-seven years.

Robert Mugabe's resignation came after nearly four decades in power, following a military intervention and the ruling party's decision to begin impeachment proceedings against him amid widespread public protests. His departure ended one of Africa's longest-running and most controversial presidencies, marked by both early achievements and later economic collapse and repression.

An SUV drives into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six people and injuring dozens more.

A driver deliberately steered an SUV through barricades into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, striking marching bands and dancers, killing six people including children and injuring dozens more. The attack shocked the small Milwaukee suburb and led to a high-profile murder trial resulting in numerous convictions against the perpetrator.