▷ A month worthy of the history books

As I promised you last month, I’m back with the most important events that happened throughout the story in November. The following list contains: inventions, curiosities, historical events, famous people and memorable statements. If I have piqued your curiosity, read to the end, I can almost guarantee you will learn new things.

November it is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the fourth and final of four months lasts 30 days, and the fifth and final of five months lasts less than 31 days. November was the ninth month of the Romulus calendar c. 750 BC November retained its name (from the Latin novem meaning «nine») when January and February were added to the Roman calendar. November is a month of late spring in the Southern Hemisphere and late autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, November in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of May in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa. In ancient Rome, the Ludi Plebeii were held from November 4 to 17, the Epulum Jovis was held on November 13, and the Brumalia celebrations began on November 24. These dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar.

November it was called Blōtmōnaþ by the Anglo-Saxons. Brumaire and Frimaire were the months in which November fell in the French Republican calendar.

The birthstone for November is topaz (especially yellow) which symbolizes friendship and citrine.
Its native flower is chrysanthemum.

November 4

1737: The San Carlo Theater of Naples, the oldest opera house in Europe, opens in Naples, Italy
1899: Sigmund Freud’s book The Interpretation of Dreams is published.
2019: NASA announces that it has received the first message from interstellar space from its Voyager 2 spacecraft.

November 5

1880: Mihail Sadoveanu is born, Romanian writer († 1961)

November 7

1504: Christopher Columbus returns from his fourth and final voyage
1801: Alessandro Volta presents the first electric drum.

November 8

1874: the statue of Mihai Viteazul is inaugurated in Bucharest (Universității square); the statue was created by the French sculptor Albert Ernest Carriere de Belleuse and is the first monument of this kind in the capital.

November 9th

1961: Romania becomes a member of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
1985: Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union is born and becomes the youngest world chess champion, defeating fellow Soviet Anatoli Karpov.

November 10th

1951: The first long-distance telephone call is made without the need for operator assistance.
1970: The Great Wall of China becomes a tourist attraction
1483: Martin Luther, German writer and religious reformer († 1546) was born

November 11th

1493: Christopher Columbus discovers the island of Saint Martin on his second voyage to the Antilles.
1843: Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Ugly Duckling appears in Denmark.
1974: The famous Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor, was born

November 12

1878: IL Caragiale reads, at the «Junimii» banquet, his first dramatic creation: «A stormy night».
Electric street lighting has been introduced in Timişoara. From that date Timişoara was, together with Paris, Nuremberg, Steyr and Berlin, one of the first cities in Europe equipped with electric street lighting.
1895: The Automobile Club de France, the world’s first automobile club, is founded in Paris.
1961: Perhaps the greatest athlete of our country is born, Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast

November 14th

1910: Aviator Eugene Ely makes the first successful takeoff of an airplane from a ship.
1840: Claude Monet, French impressionist painter († 1926) is born

November 15th

1924: The weekly «Literary Movement» appears in Bucharest (until 17 October 1925), directed by Liviu Rebreanu.
1948: The first electric locomotive with a gas turbine is successfully tested (USA).
1868: Emil Racoviță was born, biologist, member of the Romanian Academy, founder of biospeology, explorer of the Antarctic (d. 1947)

November 16

2001: The first Harry Potter film: «Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone» is released.

November 17

1872: The Mircea cel Bătrân Naval Academy is founded in Constanta.
2003: Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes governor of California

November 18

1926: George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept Nobel Prize money, saying, «I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only an evil person could have invented the Nobel Prize.»
1928: Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney’s famous cartoon character, makes his first appearance at the Colony Theater in New York, in the film entitled «Steamboat Willie»
1963: The first push-button telephone is introduced into the US market.

November 19th

1377: First documentary attestation of Bran Castle, through the deed issued by Louis I of Anjou (1342 – 1382), with which the citizens of Brasov received the privilege of building the Citadel «with their own work and expenses»
1969: Brazilian footballer Pelé scores his thousandth goal.
1998: Vincent van Gogh’s Portrait of the Beardless Artist sold at auction for a record $71.5 million.

November 21st

1877: Thomas Edison announces his invention: the phonograph, a machine capable of recording sounds.

November 22

1869: Courses at the Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest are opened. The first dean was the surgeon Nicolae Turnescu.
1913: The «Mr. Gh. Pastia» Theater building in Focșani is inaugurated.
1956: The Summer Olympics open in Melbourne, Australia; Romania won 13 medals (5 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze).

November 23

1889: The world’s first jukebox is installed in a San Francisco casino.
1843: Mihail Kogălniceanu gives the memorable «Opening speech of the first course in national history» at the Mihăileană Academy in Iasi, in which he defines history and its role in the crystallization of national consciousness

November 25th

1915: Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
1952: Agatha Christie’s The Mouse Race is performed at the Ambassadors Theater in London. It will become the longest running and continuously running show in history on the London stage
1863: Ion Cantacuzino, Romanian doctor and bacteriologist († 1934) is born

November 26

1832: The world’s first streetcar goes into operation in New York.
1909: The premiere of Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea’s opera «Viforul» took place at the National Theater in Bucharest.
1810: William George Armstrong, English engineer and inventor, creator of the electric battery, was born

November 27

2000: The Laerdal Tunnel, the longest road tunnel in the world, 24.5 km, between Aurland and Laerdal, opens in Norway. This creates a continuous road from Oslo to Bergen.

November 29