On this day: November 22

Events on November 22

• 845 The first duke of Brittany, Nominoe, defeats the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon. Wikipedia
• 1574 Spanish navigator Juan Fernández discovers islands now known as the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile. Wikipedia
• 1635 Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launch a pacification campaign against native villages, resulting in Dutch control of the middle and south of the island. Wikipedia
• 1718 Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard attacks and boards the vessels of the British pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") off the coast of North Carolina. The casualties on both sides include Maynard's first officer Mister Hyde and Teach himself. Wikipedia
• 1855 In Birmingham, England, Albert, Prince Consort lays the foundation stone of the Birmingham and Midland Institute. Wikipedia
• 1935 The China Clipper inaugurates the first commercial transpacific air service, connecting Alameda, California with Manila. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: Following the initial Italian invasion, Greek troops counterattack into Italian-occupied Albania and capture Korytsa. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Battle of Stalingrad: General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th Army is surrounded. Wikipedia
• 1943 Lebanon gains independence from France, nearly two years after it was first announced by the Free French government. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: Cairo Conference: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan. Wikipedia
• 1955 The Soviet Union launches RDS-37, a 1.6 megaton two stage hydrogen bomb designed by Andrei Sakharov. The bomb was dropped over Semipalatinsk. Wikipedia
• 1963 U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald, who also kills Dallas Police officer J. D. Tippit after fleeing the scene. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States afterwards. Wikipedia
• 1963 John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas; hours later, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States. Wikipedia
• 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242 is adopted, establishing a set of the principles aimed at guiding negotiations for an Arab–Israeli peace settlement. Wikipedia
• 1967 The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Wikipedia
• 1968 The Beatles released their eponymous double album, popularly known as the White Album. Wikipedia
• 1975 Two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I was declared King of Spain according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Wikipedia
• 1975 Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of Francisco Franco two days earlier. Wikipedia
• 1978 The serpent labret with articulated tongue, "perhaps the finest Aztec gold ornament to survive the crucibles of the sixteenth century", was sold at Sotheby's. Wikipedia
• 1987 The Max Headroom signal hijacking incident takes place, in which a pirate broadcast interrupts television broadcasts in Chicago. Wikipedia
• 1989 NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-33, a classified mission for the United States Department of Defense. Wikipedia
• 1990 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdraws from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her Premiership. Wikipedia
• 1995 Toy Story, the first feature film created using only computer-generated imagery, was released in theaters in the United States. Wikipedia
• 2004 The Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections. Wikipedia
• 2010 During the Cambodian water festival, a stampede in Koh Pich, Phnom Penh, kills 347 people. Wikipedia
• 2014 While playing with a toy gun in Cleveland, 12-year-old African American Tamir Rice is killed by a white police officer. Wikipedia

Born on November 22

• 1744 Abigail Adams, American wife of John Adams, 2nd First Lady of the United States (died 1818) Wikipedia
• 1819 George Eliot, English novelist and poet (died 1880) Wikipedia
• 1852 Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant, French politician and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1924) Wikipedia
• 1868 John Nance Garner, American politician, 32nd Vice President of the United States (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1869 André Gide, French novelist, essayist, and dramatist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1951) Wikipedia
• 1877 Joan Gamper, Swiss-Spanish footballer, founded FC Barcelona (died 1930) Wikipedia
• 1881 Enver Pasha, Ottoman general and politician (died 1922) Wikipedia
• 1890 Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician, President of France (died 1970) Wikipedia
• 1904 Louis Néel, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000) Wikipedia
• 1913 Benjamin Britten, English pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1917 Andrew Huxley, English physiologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1940 Terry Gilliam, American-English actor, director, animator, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1943 Billie Jean King, American tennis player Wikipedia
• 1954 Paolo Gentiloni, Italian politician, Prime Minister of Italy Wikipedia
• 1958 Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress Wikipedia
• 1965 Mads Mikkelsen, Danish actor Wikipedia
• 1967 Mark Ruffalo, American actor Wikipedia
• 1967 Boris Becker, German tennis player Wikipedia
• 1969 Marjane Satrapi, Iranian author and illustrator (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1984 Scarlett Johansson, American actress Wikipedia
• 1986 Oscar Pistorius, South African sprinter and convicted murderer Wikipedia
• 1987 Marouane Fellaini, Belgian footballer Wikipedia

Died on November 22

• 365 Antipope Felix II Wikipedia
• 1617 Ahmed I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam (born 1590) Wikipedia
• 1718 Blackbeard, English pirate (born 1680) Wikipedia
• 1875 Henry Wilson, American politician, 18th Vice President of the United States (born 1812) Wikipedia
• 1916 Jack London, American novelist and journalist (born 1876) Wikipedia
• 1944 Arthur Eddington, English astrophysicist and astronomer (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1963 John F. Kennedy, American politician, 35th President of the United States (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 1963 Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher (born 1894) Wikipedia
• 1963 C. S. Lewis, British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 1980 Mae West, American stage and film actress (born 1893) Wikipedia
• 1981 Hans Adolf Krebs, German-English physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1993 Anthony Burgess, English novelist, playwright, and critic (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2011 Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian-American author (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2015 Kim Young-sam, South Korean soldier and politician, President of South Korea (born 1927) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Cecilia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pedro Esqueda Ramírez Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philemon and Apphia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pragmatius of Autun Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Salvatore Lilli Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: November 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Good Spouses Day (いい夫婦の日) celebrates married couples in Japan. Wikipedia
• Independence Day celebrates the independence of Lebanon from France in 1943. Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 22” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.