A look at some of the key events which took place around the world during this week – 18 to 24 November.

18 November

1916 – General Douglas Haig finally called off the first Battle of the Somme (WWI) after over one million soldiers were killed or wounded.

1928 – Walt Disney released its first cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse and its first animation with sound called ‘Steamboat Willie’.

1978 – 918 members of the Peoples Temple were murdered or committed suicide in Jonestown, Guyana under the direction of cult leader Jim Jones.

1987 – A fire at London’s busiest tube station, King’s Cross, killed 31 people. It was started by a discarded cigarette.

19 November

1493 – Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico.

1863 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address during the American Civil War.

1916 – Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn established Goldwyn Pictures which would become one of the world’s most successful independent film studios.

1985 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time.

1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton over his alleged affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

20 November

1889 – American astronomer Edwin Hubble, after whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named, was born in Missouri. He died in 1953.

1925 – U.S. politician Robert F. Kennedy was born in Massachusetts. He was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 42.

1959 – The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights.

1982 – Actress Drew Barrymore hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ at the age of seven.

1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released.

21 November

1970 – General Hafez al-Assad became Prime Minister of Syria following a military coup.

1976 – Boxing epic ‘Rocky’, directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Sylvester Stallone, premiered in New York.

1977 – Supersonic plane Concorde flew for the first time, travelling from London to New York.

2017 – The resignation of Zimbabwe’s longtime President Robert Mugabe, 93, was announced.

22 November

1955 – RCA Records paid $35,000 (US) to Sun Records for Elvis Presley’s contract.

1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.

1963 – Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

1975 – Juan Carlos I was proclaimed King of Spain when the monarchy was restored after 31 years.

1986 – Mike Tyson, 20, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history after stopping Trevor Berbick to claim the World Boxing Council (WBC) title.

1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced her resignation.

2005 – Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany.

2017 – General Ratko Mladic was convicted of genocide and other atrocities during the Bosnian war and jailed for life after a trial at the Hague.

23 November

1869 – The clipper Cutty Sark was launched in Dumbarton, Scotland. It was one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving.

1897 – The pencil sharpener was patented by J L Love.

1990 – British children’s author Roald Dahl died. He was 74.

2005 – Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became the first woman to lead an African country after being elected President of Liberia.

24 November

1859 – English naturalist Charles Darwin published his book on evolutionary biology called ‘On the Origin of Species’.

1963 – Two days after being accused of assassinating John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot dead live on TV by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

1983 – Former West Indies cricket captain Richie Richardson made his debut against India in Bombay.

1989 – Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar became the youngest player to score 50 runs during a Test match at the age of 16 years, 214 days.

1991 – Lead singer of the band Queen, Freddie Mercury, died a day after announcing he had AIDS. He was 45.

2017 – Former First Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as President of Zimbabwe.

Source: On This Day (https://www.onthisday.com/)