Among many other events, November saw of one of London’s best-loved landmarks, the Crystal Palace (see picture above) burn down.
| 1 Nov. | 1858 | Following the bloody events of the Indian Mutiny Queen Victoria is proclaimed ruler of India, replacing the reign of the East India Company. | |
| 2 Nov. | 1936 | The world’s first regular TV service was started by the British Broadcasting Corporation, an estimated 100 TV owners tuned in. | |
| 3 Nov. | 1942 | British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery’s troops break through the front line of Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps capturing 9000 prisoners. | |
| 4 Nov. | 1843 | The 5.5 metre statue of Lord Nelson was hauled to the top of its 60 metre column in Trafalgar Square, London. | |
| 5 Nov. | 1605 | Guy Fawkes is arrested beneath the House of Parliament as a plot to blow up England’s King James I is uncovered. | |
| 6 Nov. | 1429 | Henry VI is crowned King of England. | |
| 7 Nov. | 1917 | Bolshevik Red Guards seize control of the Winter Palace and confirm Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) as leader of Russia. | |
| 8 Nov. | 1656 | Birth of Edmond Halley, English astronomer and mathematician, best known for identifying the comet named after him. | |
| 9 Nov. | 1953 | Death of the flamboyant Welsh bard Dylan Thomas at the age of 39. His heavy drinking and wild living contributing to his early demise. | |
| 10 Nov. | 1871 | Henry Morton Stanley tracks down “missing” Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. | |
| 11 Nov. | 1918 | After four years and 97 days the guns finally fell silent as the Great War ended. Around 9 million lives lost with a further 27 million injured. | |
| 12 Nov. | 1035 | Death of Canute, Danish King of England. | |
| 13 Nov. | 1850 | Birth of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson whose classic tales include Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. | |
| 14 Nov. | 1940 | In one raid 449 German Luftwaffe bombers dropped 503 tons of bombs and 881 incendiaries onto the English City of Coventry. | |
| 15 Nov. | 1968 | The largest passenger liner in the world, Cunard’s flagship Queen Elizabeth, docked in Southhampton at the end of her last transatlantic voyage. | |
| 16 Nov. | 1724 | Highwayman Jack Sheppard is hanged at Tyburn, London in front of an estimated crowd of 200,000. | |
| 17 Nov. | 1558 | Death of England’s first ruling Queen, Mary Tudor. Unpopular daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. | |
| 18 Nov. | 1852 | A massive state funeral for the Duke of Wellington is held in London. | |
| 19 Nov. | 1620 | The 180-ton wine ship Mayflower arrives at Cape Cod, America, it’s passengers, 87 members of a Protestant sect – The Pilgrim Fathers. | |
| 20 Nov. | 1947 | Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) married her cousin Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (Duke of Edinburgh) at Westminster Abbey. | |
| 21 Nov. | 1695 | Death of Henry Purcell, English composer and organist. | |
| 22 Nov. | 1963 | The world mourns at the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. | |
| 23 Nov. | 1910 | American-born Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London after poisoning his wife and dismembering her body. | |
| 24 Nov. | 1859 | Charles Darwin publishes his book Origin of the Species | |
| 25 Nov. | 1984 | Band Aid rock stars gather at Sarm Studios in London to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, all proceeds to Ethiopian famine relief. | |
| 26 Nov. | 1922 | Archaeologist Howard Carter and his sponsor the Earl of Caernavon make a hole in the door and gaze into the tomb of Tutankhamun. | |
| 27 Nov. | 1875 | Britain buys shares worth £4 million ($7 million) in the Suez Canal Company. | |
| 28 Nov. | 1919 | Nancy Astor is elected Member of Parliament for Plymouth, Devon, becoming Britain’s first woman MP. | |
| 29 Nov. | 1641 | England’s first newspaper is published. | |
| 30 Nov. | 1936 | One of London’s best-loved landmarks, the Crystal Palace burned down. The huge glass building originally housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. | |
