November 15
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1864
General Sherman begins his March to the Sea
Hard war. Scorched earth. Later generations would call it “shock and awe”: On this day in 1864, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led some 62,000 Union troops on a campaign of physical and psychological destruction from Atlanta to Savannah—the modern era’s first example of “total war.” How did Sherman’s campaign help hasten the end the American Civil War?
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Palestinian state proclaimed by Yasser Arafat
Meeting at Algiers, the Palestine National Council, at the urging of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, issued a declaration of independence for a state of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on this day in 1988.
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Featured Biography
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American painter Georgia O’Keeffe—a hugely influential figure in Modernism, known for her large-format paintings of skulls, flowers and plant organs, shells, rocks, mountains, and other natural forms—was born this day in 1887.
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2023
Virat Kohli scored his 50th century in one-day international play for India, breaking a record held by Sachin Tendulkar that many thought would never be broken. [Test your knowledge of one of the newer chapters of cricket history.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2022
The United Nations estimates that the global population reached 8 billion on this day.
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2012
Miguel Cabrera, third baseman for the Detroit Tigers, won the American League’s Most Valuable Player award after a season when he became the first major-league player in 45 years to win the batting Triple Crown. [Find out who actually invented baseball.]
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2001
Microsoft released Xbox, a video game console system. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about gaming.]
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1978
American anthropologist Margaret Mead—who became widely known for her studies of the peoples of Oceania as well as her wide-ranging commentary on social issues such as women’s rights, race relations, and nuclear proliferation—died at age 76. [Read the stories of 10 more women who advanced our understanding of life on Earth.]
© Harry L. Silver—Corbis Historical/Getty Images
1969
More than 500,000 participate in the Second Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam in Washington, D.C. [What was the largest single-day protest in the United States?]
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1959
The Clutter family was discovered murdered on their Kansas farm, and their deaths—as well as the capture, conviction, and execution of two drifters—inspired Truman Capote’s classic nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. [Find out what Capote thought would be his masterpiece—and how he was wrong.]
Courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, Brandeis University Library
1938
A farewell parade was held in Barcelona, Spain, for the volunteers of the International Brigades who had fought for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. [Explore a timeline of the Spanish Civil War.]
Benjamin J. Falk/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.(LC-USZ62-103167)
1904
American inventor King Camp Gillette was granted a U.S. patent for the first razor with disposable blades. [Take our quiz about famous inventions.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1891
Field marshal Erwin Rommel, who led the Afrika Korps to spectacular victories for Nazi Germany during World War II, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]
Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil
1889
Emperor Pedro II of Brazil was forced to abdicate by a group of military officers led by Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca.
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1885
Chronicle /Alamy
1884
The Berlin Conference opened, in which the European countries involved in the colonialist Scramble for Africa met to discuss their claims on the continent. Historians today view the conference as a cover for profiteering and imperial ambitions. [Find out how countries across Africa achieved independence.]
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1848
Pellegrino Rossi, a former member of the Carboneria, was assassinated in Rome during the Revolutions of 1848. [Read about nine infamous assassins and the world leaders they dispatched.]
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1818
The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, the first of four congresses held by Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and France following the Napoleonic Wars, concluded. [Test your knowledge of wars throughout history.]
© Cynthia Spence—500Px Plus/Getty Images
1806
Explorer Zebulon Pike sights his namesake peak in present-day Colorado. [Do you know? What is the highest peak in North America?]
Wellcome Collection, London (4989i)
1630
Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer who formulated three laws of planetary motion, died in Regensburg. [Take our astronomy and space quiz.]
Courtesy of the Burgerbibliothek, Bern
1315
The Swiss Confederation achieved its first great military success against the Austrian Habsburgs at the Battle of Morgarten.