November 15th

• 1397 - Pope Nicholas V (d. 1455)
• 1492 - Christopher Columbus notes 1st recorded reference to tobacco
• 1511 - Johannes Secundus, Dutch poet (d. 1536)
• 1731 - William Cowper, English poet (d. 1800)
• 1777 - American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.
• 1806 - Pike expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains (it was later named Pikes Peak).
• 1862 - Gerhart Hauptmann, German dramatist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1946)
• 1864 - American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Sherman's March to the Sea.
• 1887 - Marianne Moore, American poet (d. 1972)
• 1887 - Georgia O'Keeffe, American painter (d. 1986)
• 1905 - Mantovani, Italian-born composer, musician, and arranger (d. 1980)
• 1907 - Claus von Stauffenberg, German army colonel who plotted to assassinate Hitler (d. 1944)
• 1913 - Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist and resistance fighter (d. 2005)
• 1919 - Judge Joseph Wapner
• 1920 - First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva.
• 1923 - Accused of rape, James Montgomery's struggle for justice begins.
• 1926 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations.
• 1929 - Ed Asner, American actor
• 1932 - Walt Disney Art School created
• 1936 - Wolf Biermann, German writer
• 1939 - In Washington, DC, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
• 1941 - SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the arrest and deportation to concentration camps of all homosexuals in Germany, with the exception of certain top Nazi officials.
• 1943 - German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
• 1945 - Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Norwegian singer (ABBA)
• 1951 - Beverly D'Angelo, American actress
• 1956 - The first film starring Elvis Presley, Love Me Tender, opens.
• 1957 - Kevin Eubanks, American jazz guitarist
• 1961 - Roger Maris is voted the American League MVP (baseball)
• 1969 - Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war.
• 1971 - Intel releases world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
• 1971 - I was born; I opened my eyes for the first time and thought, "What the hell am I doing here?".
• 1977 - President Jimmy Carter welcomes Shah of Iran
• 1979 - A package from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
• 1988 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.
• 1990 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.
• 2004 - New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey leaves office, three months after resigning due to a gay extra-marital affair. State Senator Richard Codey takes over as interim governor.
• America Recycles Day
  

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"It's my belief that history is a wheel. 'Inconstancy is my very essence,' says the wheel. Rise up on my spokes if you like but don't complain when you're cast back down into the depths. Good time pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it's also our hope. The worst of time, like the best, are always passing away."
--Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy