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What happened on November 15
Every November 15 carries a layer of history: wars that began or ended, inventions, premieres, treaties, and people born or lost on this day across the centuries. We gathered 12 of the most striking events recorded on November 15, plus notable births and deaths, each with its year and a link to the Wikipedia article where the story continues. It is a fast way to answer "what happened on November 15" without digging through many sources: the list arrives ranked by relevance and dated.
Notable events
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Xi Jinping replaced Hu Jintao as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, succeeding as the paramount leader of China. Xi Jinping |
| 2000 | Edoardo Agnelli, son of the industrialist patriarch Gianni Agnelli, was found dead under a bridge on the outskirts of Turin, Italy. Edoardo Agnelli |
| 1988 | The Soviet spacecraft Buran, a reusable vehicle built in response to NASA's Space Shuttle program, was launched, uncrewed, on its only flight. Buran (spacecraft) |
| 1959 | Two men murdered a family in Holcomb, Kansas; the events became the subject of Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, a pioneering work of the true crime genre. Clutter family murders |
| 1943 | The Holocaust: In the Romani Holocaust, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler ordered that the Romani were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps". The Holocaust |
| 1922 | During a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador, police and military fired into a crowd, killing at least 300 people. 1922 Guayaquil general strike |
| 1922 | Fountain of Time, in Chicago's Washington Park, was dedicated as a tribute to 100 years of peace between the United States and Great Britain following the Treaty of Ghent. Fountain of Time |
| 1908 | As a result of numerous atrocities in the territory, the Congo Free State was annexed to Belgium to form the Belgian Congo. Atrocities in the Congo Free State |
| 1889 | Brazilian emperor Pedro II was overthrown in a coup led by Deodoro da Fonseca, while the country was proclaimed a republic. Pedro II of Brazil |
| 1864 | American Civil War: Union army general William Tecumseh Sherman began his March to the Sea, inflicting significant damage to property and infrastructure using scorched-earth tactics on his way from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. American Civil War |
| 1859 | Sponsored by Greek businessman Evangelos Zappas, the first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens. Evangelos Zappas |
| 1760 | The chapel of the newly constructed Castellania in Valletta, Malta, was consecrated. Castellania (Valletta) |
Births
| Year | Who |
|---|---|
| 2001 | TyTy Washington Jr., American basketball player TyTy Washington Jr. |
| 1997 | Paula Badosa, Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa |
| 1996 | Kim Min-jae, South Korean footballer Kim Min-jae (footballer) |
| 1995 | Karl-Anthony Towns, Dominican-American basketball player Karl-Anthony Towns |
Deaths
| Year | Who |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Béla Károlyi, Romanian-American gymnastics coach (born 1942) Béla Károlyi |
| 2024 | Jon Kenny, Irish comedian and actor (born 1957) Jon Kenny |
| 2024 | Yuriko, Princess Mikasa, Japanese princess (born 1923) Yuriko, Princess Mikasa |
| 2017 | Lil Peep, American singer and rapper (born 1996) Lil Peep |
A single anniversary does not explain on its own why a day matters: one November 15 can hold a scientific milestone, a tragedy and the birth of an artist, centuries apart. That is why we date every row and link the source, so you can follow what interests you. The selection mixes 12 events, 4 births and 4 deaths; the full list, with every reference, lives on Wikipedia.
Source, license and method
This page curates the day's anniversaries for November 15 from Wikipedia, delivered through the Wikimedia "On this day" feed (the encyclopedia's own open dataset). It is not original research: the facts, years and wording come from Wikipedia and are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 4.0), which requires crediting the source and keeping the same license. We pick each day's most relevant items, favouring the editors' own selection and the most prominent articles, and every row links back to the matching entry. For the full list and primary references, see the day's article on Wikipedia (November 15).
Continue in the dates cluster
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Last updated: · Methodology and sources