November 14
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1889
Nellie Bly begins her race around the world
At 9:40 am on this day in 1889, American journalist Nellie Bly set off from New York Harbor aboard a luxury ocean liner bound for Europe on a race around the world. The goal was to beat the record of Phileas Fogg, hero of Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Did Bly succeed in breaking Fogg’s fictional record?
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Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsca-86801); Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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AP/Shutterstock.com
Ruby Bridges’s first day of school
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges began attending an all-white elementary school in New Orleans on this day in 1960, becoming the youngest of a group of Black students to racially integrate schools in the American South. [Read about 10 milestones in U.S. civil rights history.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
AP/Wide World Photos
It would be some time before I fully realized that the United States sees little need for diplomacy. Power is enough. Only the weak rely on diplomacy.…The Roman Empire had no need for diplomacy. Nor does the United States.
Born this day in 1922, Egyptian scholar Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who served as secretary-general of the United Nations from January 1, 1992, to December 31, 1996, was the first Arab and first African to lead the UN.
Famous Birthdays
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2014
Jane Byrne, who was the first woman to serve as mayor of Chicago (1979–83), died at age 81. [Read our list of seven female firsts in U.S. politics.]
Office of U.S. House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi
2002
Chosen to succeed Richard Gephardt as leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi of California became the first woman to be named leader of either party in either house of Congress. [Take our quiz about women leaders.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1972
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time. [Find out what stock market indexes can tell you about Wall Street.]
NASA Great Images in Nasa Collection
1969
Apollo 12 was launched, carrying a crew of Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Alan L. Bean, and five days later the mission made the second landing on the Moon. [What’s been left behind on the Moon?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1948
Prince Charles—the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh—was born in Buckingham Palace. He became king 73 years later. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about English royalty.]
Gamma Liaison
1935
King Hussein, whose reign (1953–99) marked the shaping of the modern kingdom of Jordan, was born in Amman. [Test your knowledge of kings and emperors.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1915
Booker T. Washington, the most influential spokesman for Black Americans of his time, died at age 59. [Explore the history and meaning of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1906
U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt visited Panama, becoming the first sitting president to travel out of the country. [How well do you know U.S. presidents? Play Britannica’s U.S. presidents bingo.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1885
The Serbo-Bulgarian War began when Serbian King Milan Obrenovic IV declared war on Bulgaria. [How much do you know about the history of war?]
The Newberry Library, Gift of Dan Burne Jones, 1978 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
1851
Alinari/Art Resource, New York
1305
Clement V was crowned pope, becoming the first of the Avignon popes. [Take our quiz about the history of Roman Catholicism.]