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Union General Sherman’s scorched-earth March to the Sea campaign begins

Born on This Day

Georgia O’Keeffe

1887 - 1986

Influential American artist best known for her striking modernist paintings of flowers and desert landscapes.

Ed Asner

1929 - 2021

Character actor best known for the 1970s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Also had memorable film roles in Elf and Up.

J.G. Ballard

1930 - 2009

British author who wrote seminal dystopian novels like The Drowned World and Crash.

Georgia O’KeeffeBettmann Archive

Ed AsnerGetty Images

J.G. BallardGetty Images

2004

NOV15

A grilled cheese sandwich with toast marks bearing an image of the Virgin Mary sells on eBay for $28,000. The Florida-based seller claimed the 10-year-old sandwich had miraculously never sprouted any mold.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on November 15th

Articles of Confederation adopted

After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress, sitting in its temporary capital of York, Pennsylvania, agrees to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union on November 15, 1777. Not until March 1, 1781 would the last of the 13 states, Maryland, ratify the agreement. In 1777, Patriot leaders, stinging from British oppression, were […]

John Hanson, so-called first president, dies

On November 15, 1783, John Hanson, the first president of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation, dies in his home state of Maryland. Hanson is sometimes called the first president of the United States, but this is a misnomer, since the presidency did not exist as an executive position separate from Congress until […]

Zebulon Pike spots an imposing mountain

Approaching the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spots a distant mountain peak on November 15, 1806. The mountain was later named Pike’s Peak in his honor.

First stock ticker debuts

The first stock ticker is unveiled in New York City. The advent of the ticker ultimately revolutionized the stock market by making up-to-the-minute prices available to investors around the country.

Georges Clemenceau named French prime minister

On November 15, 1917, with his country embroiled in a bitter international conflict that would eventually take the lives of over 1 million of its young men, 76-year-old Georges Clemenceau is named prime minister of France for the second time. The young Clemenceau was first elected to parliament in 1876, five years after France’s defeat […]

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James Montgomery is accused of rape, launching his struggle for justice

Mamie Snow, a mentally disabled white woman from Waukegan, Illinois, claims that James Montgomery, a Black veteran and factory worker, raped her. Montgomery, who was promptly thrown in jail, spent more than 25 years in prison before his conviction was overturned and he was released. From the start, Montgomery’s trial seemed ill fated. Local Ku […]

Himmler orders Roma to concentration camps

On November 15, 1943, Heinrich Himmler makes public an order that Romani people are to be put on “the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.”

Elvis makes movie debut in ‘Love Me Tender’

On November 15, 1956, “Love Me Tender,” featuring the singer Elvis Presley in his big-screen debut, premieres in New York City at the Paramount Theater.

Nikita Khrushchev challenges United States to a missile ‘shooting match’

In a November 1957 interview, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims the Soviet Union has missile superiority over the U.S. and challenges America to a missile “shooting match” to prove his assertion.

Craig Breedlove sets new land-speed record

On November 15, 1965 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 28-year-old Californian Craig Breedlove sets a new land-speed record—600.601 miles an hour—in his car, the Spirit of America, which cost $250,000 and was powered by a surplus engine from a Navy jet. He actually drove across the desert twice that day, since international world-record […]

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President Carter hosts shah of Iran

On November 15, 1977, President Jimmy Carter welcomes Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran, and his wife, Empress (or “Shahbanou”) Farrah, to Washington. Over the next two days, Carter and Pahlavi discussed improving relations between the two countries. Two years later, the two leaders’ political fates would be further entwined when Islamic fundamentalists overthrew […]

Baby Fae, infant who received baboon heart transplant, dies

“Baby Fae,” a month-old infant who had received a baboon-heart transplant, dies at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. The infant, named Baby Fae by doctors to protect her parents’ anonymity, was born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, an almost always fatal deformity found in newborns in which parts or all of the […]

Microsoft releases Xbox gaming console

Microsoft releases the Xbox gaming console on November 15, 2001, dramatically influencing the history of consumer entertainment technology. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates first decided to venture into the video game market because he feared that gaming consoles would soon compete with personal computers. At the time, Japanese companies Sony and Nintendo dominated the field, and […]

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