November

On November 12, 2017, a shallow magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck near the town of Ezgeleh in Kermanshah Province on the Iran–Iraq border, flattening villages, killing hundreds across Iran and Iraq, and exposing deep vulnerabilities in construction and emergency readiness in the mountainous borderlands.

On November 28, 2016, an Avro RJ85 chartered to carry Associação Chapecoense de Futebol and their entourage crashed near Cerro Gordo, close to La Unión in Antioquia, Colombia, after both engines flamed out from fuel exhaustion. Seventy-one of the 77 people on board died; the disaster exposed failures in fuel planning, operator oversight, and the pressures that can push pilots and companies past safe limits.

In the early minutes of 14 November 2016, a Mw 7.8 earthquake that began near Culverden shook much of New Zealand, triggering cascading ruptures along a tangled network of faults, lifting long stretches of coastline, and isolating the town of Kaikōura. The disaster left two people dead, damaged critical transport links, upended coastal ecosystems and industries, and changed how scientists and planners understand multi‑fault earthquakes and coastal risk.

On the evening of November 13, 2015, a coordinated series of shootings and suicide bombings struck Paris and nearby Saint-Denis — including a mass shooting and hostage siege at the Bataclan concert hall and explosions near the Stade de France — killing 130 people and wounding hundreds. The assaults, claimed by ISIL, launched a multinational manhunt, led to a state of emergency in France, and reshaped counterterrorism policy across Europe.

On November 28, 2014, a sequence of coordinated bombings and shootings struck Kano metropolis in northern Nigeria — explosions in markets and motor parks, chaotic exchanges of gunfire, overwhelmed hospitals, and an exhausted city left counting the costs. Authorities attributed the strikes to Boko Haram amid conflicting casualty tallies and mounting fear across the region.

On November 29, 2013, LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470, an Embraer ERJ-190 flying from Maputo to Luanda, entered a prolonged, controlled descent over northern Namibia and struck terrain in Bwabwata National Park near Divundu. All 33 people aboard died. The Namibian accident investigation concluded the descent resulted from deliberate actions by the commander; no technical failure or external event explained the loss of the aircraft.

On the morning of November 19, 2013, a vehicle-borne bomb detonated at the gate of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, killing roughly 23 people and wounding more than 150. Set against the spillover of the Syrian civil war and Lebanon’s sectarian tensions, the attack struck a diplomatic symbol and left a trail of shattered glass, unanswered questions, and heightened security that reshaped perceptions of safety in the capital.

On November 17, 2013, Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363, a Boeing 737-500 flying from Moscow to Kazan, stalled and crashed during a go-around at Kazan International Airport. Of the 50 people on board, 44 died and 6 survived. An Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) investigation found that excessive pitch during an attempted go-around, poor crew coordination, and shortcomings in the airline’s training and oversight led to an aerodynamic stall at low altitude from which recovery was impossible.

On November 24, 2012, a fire swept through the Tazreen Fashions garment complex in the Ashulia industrial zone on Dhaka’s outskirts, killing at least 112 people and injuring more than 200. The blaze exposed chronic safety failures—locked exits, combustible storage, and weak enforcement—that had become woven into a rapidly expanding ready-made garment industry and helped push global buyers and labor groups toward broader safety agreements the following year.

On November 17, 2012, a private bus carrying schoolchildren returning from a field trip was struck at an unmanned level crossing near Manfalut in Upper Egypt. The collision killed roughly 50–51 people, most of them children, injured dozens more, and ignited national outrage over unsafe crossings and neglected rail infrastructure.

In the early hours of November 26, 2011, NATO forces operating from Afghanistan engaged targets near the porous Pakistan–Afghanistan border. Gunfire and returned aerial strikes hit two Frontier Corps checkposts in the Salala area of Mohmand Agency, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers and wounding 13 according to Pakistani authorities. The strike touched off an eight‑month diplomatic rupture between Islamabad and NATO, produced divergent official inquiries, and became a lasting symbol of how a few chaotic minutes can reverberate across armies and governments.

On the early morning of November 19, 2010, a massive underground explosion ripped through the Pike River coal mine near Greymouth on New Zealand’s West Coast. Twenty-nine men who were working underground that night died; repeated explosions and unsafe atmospheres kept rescuers from reaching them for years. A Royal Commission in 2012 found systemic failings in the mine’s safety systems and regulatory oversight. After long legal and political battles, a government recovery effort re‑entered the drift in May 2021 and recovered the remains of five men; many questions and the memory of the lost miners continue to shape New Zealand’s approach to industrial safety.

On November 25, 2009, a rare and intense storm struck Jeddah on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. Heavy overnight rains on November 25–26 produced rapid flash floods that overwhelmed the city’s drainage, swept away vehicles and debris, and left an official death toll of 122 people. The catastrophe exposed weaknesses in urban planning and infrastructure and provoked a prolonged public debate over responsibility and reform.

On November 23, 2009, a convoy carrying relatives, aides, lawyers and about two dozen journalists who were accompanying provincial vice mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu to file his candidacy in Shariff Aguak was stopped near Sitio Masalay in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. Occupants were taken by armed men allied to the Ampatuan clan, executed and buried in mass and shallow graves. Fifty-seven to fifty-eight people were killed — including thirty-two media workers — in the single deadliest attack on journalists in modern history. The crime sparked national outrage, one of the Philippines’ longest criminal trials, and a partial reckoning with private armies and local political dynasties.

On the night of November 26, 2008, ten gunmen trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba landed by sea and carried out coordinated shootings and sieges at multiple high-profile locations in Mumbai — including Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Leopold Cafe, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, the Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House — leaving 164 dead and 308 wounded and triggering days of firefights, hostage rescues and international investigations.

On November 16, 2008, a Mw 7.4 earthquake struck offshore the northern coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The shock — centered in the Celebes Sea near Gorontalo and felt across neighboring islands — produced strong coastal shaking, a brief tsunami threat with small local sea-level disturbances, and localized damage and loss of life in seaside communities. The event reinforced continuing efforts at tsunami warning and local preparedness after the 2004 disaster.

On November 23, 2007, the expedition cruise ship MV Explorer struck submerged ice in the Bransfield Strait near the South Shetland Islands. A below‑waterline hull breach led to progressive flooding; all passengers and nonessential crew were evacuated to nearby vessels and naval rescuers without loss of life, and the Explorer sank later that day. The incident intensified scrutiny of polar tourism safety and contributed to momentum for stricter polar shipping rules.

In mid‑November 2007 a powerful tropical cyclone named Sidr swept across the central Bay of Bengal and struck southwestern Bangladesh on November 15, 2007. Packing extreme winds and a destructive storm surge that inundated low‑lying coastal communities and the Sundarbans, Sidr killed thousands, displaced millions, and tested the country’s improved — but still fragile — systems for warning, evacuation, and recovery.

On the morning of November 23, 2006, two vehicle-borne explosions tore through crowded streets of Sadr City, a Shi’a district in northeastern Baghdad, killing at least 215 people and wounding roughly 257. The attacks — timed for rush hour in a densely packed market area — left shops and homes shattered, hospitals overwhelmed, and a community on edge amid an already brutal wave of sectarian violence in Iraq.

On November 30, 2004, a Lion Air Boeing 737‑200 landing at Adisumarmo International Airport near Surakarta (Solo), Central Java, touched down in heavy rain, landed long on a wet runway, and overran the runway end. The aircraft left the prepared surface, sustained severe damage, and evacuation and rescue operations followed; contemporary reports recorded several fatalities and dozens injured. The accident became one of several incidents that intensified scrutiny of Indonesian civil aviation in the 2000s.

In two coordinated waves on November 15 and November 20, 2003, vehicle bombs struck central Istanbul — first outside the Neve Shalom and Bet Israel synagogues in the Şişli district, then five days later near the British Consulate and a bank in central neighborhoods — killing about 57 people and injuring roughly 700. The attacks devastated places of worship and diplomatic and financial sites, set off a long criminal investigation, and reshaped security and communal life in Turkey.

On November 24, 2001, Crossair Flight 3597, an Avro RJ100 registered HB-IXM, struck treetops and crashed in wooded terrain near Bassersdorf while on final approach to Zurich Airport (Kloten). Of the 33 people aboard, 24 were killed and 9 survived. A Swiss investigation concluded the accident was a controlled flight into terrain caused by descent below minima without required visual reference and by breakdowns in crew coordination and decision-making.

On November 14, 2001, a powerful earthquake beneath the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains sent a clean, continuous scar across the roof of the Tibetan Plateau. Measuring about Mw 7.8 and producing a surface rupture that ran some 400–450 kilometers, the quake tore open remote highlands, toppled utility poles and corrals, blocked streams with landslides and left pastoral communities to reckon with a landscape suddenly rearranged.

On the morning of November 25, 2000, a shallow earthquake offshore in the Caspian Sea rocked Baku and the Absheron Peninsula, toppling chimneys, cracking façades, and sending residents into the streets. The quake killed in the low dozens, injured several hundred, and exposed the fragility of older masonry neighborhoods and the limits of preparedness in a city built on oil and old stone.

In the early hours of November 18, 1999, a student-built bonfire stack on the Texas A&M campus in College Station collapsed during construction, killing 12 students and injuring dozens. The disaster ended a century-old tradition, triggered multiple investigations and lawsuits, and prompted broad changes in university oversight and student-safety policy.

On November 26, 1998, dense winter fog on the Delhi–Amritsar mainline contributed to a rear‑end collision near Khanna in Ludhiana district, Punjab. Two passenger trains collided in the early morning hours; several coaches were crushed and derailed, and the accident left multiple dead and many injured amid chaotic fog-bound rescue efforts. Official inquiry later attributed the crash to human and operational factors interacting with low-visibility conditions.

On November 17, 1997, armed militants attacked a convoy of tourist buses at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor, Egypt. In a single morning of violence, 62 people were killed—58 foreign tourists and 4 Egyptians—and scores were wounded. The assault shattered a city dependent on visitors, prompted mass arrests and trials, and left a lasting scar on Egypt’s tourism economy and national memory.

On November 23, 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked shortly after leaving Addis Ababa. Hijackers demanded the plane be flown to Australia though it carried only fuel for its scheduled multi-stop route. After hours over the Indian Ocean, the aircraft ran out of fuel and was ditched near Mitsamiouli on Grande Comore. Of 175 people aboard, 125 died and 50 survived; local fishermen and island residents led the first rescues.

On the evening of November 20, 1996, a fast‑moving blaze tore through the Garley Building on Nathan Road in Jordan, Kowloon. The fire raced through crowded wholesale showrooms, factory workshops and narrow stairwells, killing 11 people and injuring 67; early media reports gave higher, fluctuating figures during the chaotic rescue. The disaster exposed how altered interiors, stacked combustible goods and inadequate escape routes in older mixed‑use buildings could make a single ignition deadly, and it prompted sharper enforcement and safety reforms in Hong Kong’s commercial districts.

On November 18, 1996, a heavy goods vehicle on a Le Shuttle freight train caught fire inside the north running tunnel of the Channel Tunnel. The blaze grew quickly in a confined environment, forcing an ordered evacuation into the service tunnel, a long and hazardous firefighting operation, and months of repairs and operational changes. There were injuries from smoke and minor burns but no confirmed fatalities; the incident reshaped safety rules, emergency procedures, and infrastructure for the tunnel’s future.

On November 27, 1994, a shallow, powerful earthquake beneath the Mindoro Sea shook the islands of Mindoro and nearby provinces. With a reported magnitude in the early 7.0s, the temblor toppled unreinforced masonry, triggered landslides and liquefaction, and left dozens dead and hundreds injured. Relief trickled in across damaged roads and cut‑off barangays; the event helped push Philippine agencies toward stronger monitoring and preparedness in a nation all too familiar with seismic risk.

On November 20, 1993, Avioimpex Flight 110 struck rising terrain short of Ohrid Airport during a night instrument approach. The flight, operated by a small Macedonian carrier in the unsettled post‑Yugoslavia era, descended below published minima in poor visibility and was destroyed on impact, with extensive loss of life. The accident highlighted risks of mountainous approaches, limited ground aids, and gaps in crew procedures and training in the region.

On November 24, 1992, a China Southern Airlines Boeing 737-300 on a routine domestic run from Guangzhou to Guilin lost control while on approach and struck terrain near Guilin, killing everyone aboard. The accident added to growing scrutiny of maintenance, training, and oversight in China’s rapidly expanding civil aviation system and remains a touchstone in the country’s journey toward stronger safety practices.

Between November 21 and 23, 1992, a potent mid‑latitude cyclone energized by a strong jet stream and unseasonably moist Gulf air produced a late‑season tornado outbreak across the central Plains, lower Mississippi Valley, and into the Midwest and Ohio Valley. The multi‑day event produced numerous tornadoes — including several long‑track and strong twisters — caused multiple fatalities and many injuries, and left tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The outbreak highlighted the dangers of nocturnal and late‑season tornadoes and reinforced the push to complete Doppler radar coverage and improve public warning systems.

On November 20, 1992, a fire began in the roof void above the Queen’s Private Chapel at Windsor Castle, spreading through timber roofs and historic state rooms. Over a hundred rooms were affected, there were no fatalities, and the restoration that followed—estimated at roughly £36 million—prompted changes in fire safety for heritage sites and intensified public debate about royal finances and access to royal residences.

On November 14, 1992, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474, a Tupolev Tu-134 on a routine domestic run, descended into low clouds above the central Vietnamese coastline and struck mountainous terrain during its approach. The accident — widely classified as a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) — destroyed the aircraft and caused heavy loss of life, and it became one of a string of accidents that pushed Vietnam’s civil aviation system toward upgraded procedures, training, and avionics.

On November 21, 1990, Bangkok Airways Flight 125 crashed shortly after takeoff from Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok, striking ground near the airport perimeter and setting off a fire that destroyed the aircraft. The accident killed passengers and crew, triggered a formal investigation by Thai authorities, and added pressure on a developing regulatory system to improve rescue, maintenance, and operational practices.

On November 14, 1990, Alitalia Flight 404, a scheduled passenger service from Rome to Zürich–Kloten, descended through low clouds and instrument conditions on final approach. Misleading or unreliable altitude and navigation indications led the crew to continue below published minima without visual reference; the aircraft struck wooded terrain short of the runway, killing all on board. The Swiss investigation attributed the accident to a combination of instrument unreliability and continued descent below safe altitude and recommended changes to procedures, training, and equipment redundancy.

On November 29, 1987, Korean Air Flight 858 broke apart over the Andaman Sea after a time‑activated bomb hidden in carry‑on luggage detonated. All 115 people aboard were killed. Two covert operatives, traveling on false identities and later tied by investigators to North Korean intelligence, planted the device and left the aircraft at an intermediate stop. One operative died shortly afterward; the other, Kim Hyon‑hui, was detained, confessed, and described a state‑directed sabotage operation. The attack intensified international concern about state‑sponsored terrorism, forced changes in aviation checks and Olympic security planning, and left questions that echo through diplomatic history.

On November 28, 1987, South African Airways Flight 295, a Boeing 747 combi known as the Helderberg, departed Taipei for Johannesburg with a planned stop at Mauritius. Cruising over the Indian Ocean, the crew reported smoke and attempted a diversion. The aircraft later crashed into the sea east of Mauritius with the loss of all 159 people on board. A deep‑water salvage and the Margo Commission concluded an intense cargo compartment fire caused the accident, but investigators could not determine the precise ignition source. The disaster shaped later rules on cargo fire detection and the handling of mixed passenger/cargo operations.

In late November 1987 a tropical disturbance east of the northern Philippines grew into Typhoon Nina — locally Sisang — and crossed northern Luzon before re-strengthening in the South China Sea to strike Taiwan’s waters and the southeastern Chinese coast in early December. Over several days the storm brought heavy rain, floods, landslides, and maritime losses that killed and displaced hundreds across the Philippines, Taiwan, and China, and left tens of thousands rebuilding farms, homes, and lives.

On the evening of 18 November 1987 a small fire smouldering beneath a wooden escalator at King’s Cross St Pancras station in central London transformed into a sudden, lethal flashover. Thirty-one people died and more than 100 were injured. The disaster exposed aging infrastructure, routine litter and unsafe practices, and it led to the Taylor Inquiry and sweeping safety reforms across the London Underground, including the removal of wooden escalators and a ban on smoking.

On the morning of November 15, 1987, a Boeing 737-200 attempting to depart Stapleton International Airport in Denver during a winter snowstorm failed to climb after rotation, rolled right, struck the runway and broke apart. Of the 82 people aboard, 28 died and 54 survived. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the accident to wing contamination from snow and ice and to crew control issues, with airline training and pairing practices cited as contributing factors; the crash prompted changes in deicing, holdover procedures, and pilot training.

On the morning of November 29, 1986, Surinamese National Army units attacked the Maroon village of Moiwana on the Marowijne River. Soldiers swept through homes in a pre‑dawn raid that left at least 39 villagers dead, many more injured or displaced, and drove hundreds across the river into French Guiana. The massacre became a touchstone of the Interior War and led, years later, to a landmark Inter‑American Court of Human Rights ruling that found the State of Suriname internationally responsible and ordered reparations and measures to restore the village and investigate the crimes.

Shortly after it left Athens for Cairo on November 23, 1985, EgyptAir Flight 648 was seized by three armed hijackers and forced to land at Luqa Airport, Malta. After a prolonged, tense standoff the night of November 23–24, Egyptian commandos were allowed to board and retake the Airbus A300. The assault was chaotic and deadly: dozens of passengers were killed or injured, the hijackers were neutralized (one captured), and the operation left lingering questions about the use of force, jurisdiction, and how states respond to hijackings.

On November 13, 1985, an eruption of the glacier‑capped Nevado del Ruiz melted summit ice and sent fast, deadly lahars down river valleys that overwhelmed the town of Armero, Colombia. An estimated 20,000–25,000 people died—commonly cited as about 23,000—while the town was effectively destroyed. The disaster exposed failures in warning, communication, and preparedness that reshaped how Colombia and the world approach volcanic risk.

On November 19, 1984, a leak at a Pemex liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage terminal in San Juan Ixhuatepec, in the State of Mexico near Mexico City, produced a flammable vapor cloud that ignited and triggered a cascade of violent tank failures and explosions. The event destroyed neighborhoods, killed hundreds by the best-known counts and injured thousands, and became a watershed moment in Mexico’s approach to industrial safety, urban planning, and emergency response.

On November 16, 1983, a powerful crustal earthquake struck near Kaʻōiki on the southeast slope of the Island of Hawaiʻi. Commonly reported as about Mw 6.7, the quake produced strong shaking, rockfalls, and localized damage to roads, water systems, and older masonry structures. There were no widely confirmed fatalities; injuries were limited. The event sharpened scientific attention on the island’s complex mix of volcanic and tectonic forces and pushed forward improvements in monitoring, emergency planning, and building resilience.

On the evening of November 23, 1980, a powerful earthquake struck the Irpinia region in southern Italy, killing nearly three thousand people, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, and triggering a decades-long reconstruction marred by controversy. The Mw ~6.9 shock at 19:34:52 CET ruptured normal faults in the Apennines, collapsing masonry towns and exposing both the physical and institutional fragility of rural Italy.

In the early morning hours of November 21, 1980, an electrical ground fault ignited combustibles on the casino floor of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Flames were relatively localized, but thick, toxic smoke poured through elevator shafts, HVAC ducts and stairwells, racing up into the hotel tower. Eighty-five people died—most from smoke inhalation—and roughly 784 were injured. The disaster exposed critical gaps in hotel fire protection and helped prompt sweeping changes to sprinkler, smoke-control, and life-safety codes across the nation.

On the morning of November 20, 1980, an exploratory oil well being drilled from barges on Lake Peigneur punctured the roof of an active underground salt mine beneath Jefferson Island, Louisiana. The breach turned the lake into a massive sink, creating a whirlpool that pulled barges, equipment, and shoreline into a newly formed abyss. Miraculously there were no confirmed fatalities; the event left the lake permanently altered, the mine flooded, and industry practices around subsurface mapping and coordination sharply rethought.

On November 28, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 on a daylight sightseeing flight over Antarctica, struck the western slope of Mount Erebus on Ross Island in whiteout conditions. All 257 people aboard were killed. Investigations found the aircraft had been navigated onto an unintended track after a change to preprogrammed coordinates—made by company operations staff and not communicated to the flight crew—combined with diffuse light that erased visual cues. The disaster led to a Royal Commission inquiry, heated disputes over responsibility, major changes in airline procedures, and lasting lessons in human factors and navigational-data management.

On November 26, 1979, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 740—a Boeing 707 carrying Hajj pilgrims between Jeddah and Karachi—caught fire in flight near Taif, Saudi Arabia. The crew declared an emergency and attempted to divert, but the blaze overwhelmed the aircraft. All 156 people on board were killed; investigators could not determine a definitive ignition source because the wreckage was consumed by fire.

On November 20, 1979, a group of militants led by Juhayman al‑Otaybi entered and occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, proclaiming Muhammad al‑Qahtani the Mahdi. The seizure and the two‑week siege that followed—ending with Saudi forces retaking the mosque on December 4, 1979—left hundreds dead, dozens executed, and set off political and social changes that reshaped the kingdom for decades.

In mid‑November 1978 a tropical storm that formed over the southeastern Bay of Bengal intensified and struck Sri Lanka’s eastern coast in the nights around November 22–24, 1978. Batticaloa, Ampara and nearby low‑lying villages took the brunt: storm surge, gale‑force winds and torrential rains flattened homes, ruined paddy fields and swept away fishing boats. Contemporary reports put the death toll near 900–1,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless; the disaster exposed gaps in warning, shelter and infrastructure that shaped Sri Lanka’s later disaster planning.

On November 18, 1978, more than nine hundred people died at Jonestown, a remote Guyanese settlement run by the Peoples Temple under Jim Jones. The deaths followed a visit by a U.S. congressional delegation the previous day and an earlier shooting at the Port Kaituma airstrip that left Congressman Leo Ryan and others dead. Investigations, survivor testimony, audio recordings, and forensic reports have since documented a mixture of coercion, poisonings, and killings that left a complicated legacy for families, investigators, and the public.

On November 19, 1977, TAP Air Portugal Flight 425, a Boeing 727 (registration CS‑TBR) arriving from Lisbon, overran the short, rain‑slick runway at Funchal (Santa Catarina) Airport in Madeira. Of the 164 people on board (156 passengers and 8 crew), 131 were killed and 33 survived. The accident — a long touchdown on a wet runway followed by an overrun, descent down a steep embankment, breakup and post‑impact fire — exposed the limits of both human judgment and airport infrastructure in demanding coastal conditions.

In the early hours of November 24, 1976, a shallow, powerful earthquake struck between the districts of Çaldıran and Muradiye in Van Province, eastern Turkey. The Mw ≈ 7.3 (Ms reported slightly higher) strike‑slip event leveled many villages of unreinforced masonry and adobe, killed thousands, and left survivors to face winter nights in the open while aftershocks and damaged roads slowed rescue efforts.

On the evening of November 21, 1974, two time‑delay bombs exploded in crowded city‑centre pubs in Birmingham, killing 21 people and injuring 182. Six local Irish‑born men were arrested, tried and convicted in 1975 — the “Birmingham Six” — convictions that were overturned in 1991 after persistent campaigning, questions about forensic evidence, and concerns over police conduct. The case changed British policing, forensic practice, and the legal safeguards that followed.

On 20 November 1974, a Lufthansa Boeing 747-200 climbing out of Nairobi International Airport suffered a leading-edge slat asymmetry shortly after rotation, stalled at low altitude and crashed near the runway. The forward fuselage burned and the aircraft was destroyed; many lives were lost and survivors were rescued amid chaotic emergency efforts. The subsequent investigation pointed to a slat configuration or actuation/locking failure and prompted industry changes to high-lift device maintenance, indications, and crew procedures.

In the days between November 14 and 17, 1973, students and citizens occupied the National Technical University of Athens, broadcasting calls for democracy from an improvised radio and erecting barricades along Patission Street. The occupation ended in the early hours of November 17 when military forces moved in; the precise details of the breach and the number of fatalities remain disputed. The event became a decisive symbol in the collapse of Greece’s military junta and a defining moment in the country’s return to democracy.

On the evening of November 14, 1970, a chartered Southern Airways Martin 4‑0‑4 carrying the Marshall University football team, coaches, administrators and supporters crashed on approach to Tri‑State Airport near Huntington, West Virginia. In low clouds and fog the aircraft descended below published minima, struck trees on a wooded hillside several miles short of the runway, and burned. All 75 people on board were killed. The crash devastated a university and a town, led to a federal investigation that blamed controlled flight into terrain due to descent below minima, and became a touchstone in Marshall University's recovery and remembrance.

On the morning of November 20, 1968, an underground explosion at Consolidation Coal Company’s No. 9 mine near Farmington, West Virginia, killed 78 miners and changed the course of U.S. mine safety regulation. Investigators concluded a methane ignition followed by coal‑dust propagation and lethal afterdamp caused most of the deaths. The disaster galvanized passage of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 and remains a defining moment in American mining history.

On the night of 24 November 1966, a TABSO Ilyushin Il-18 on approach to Bratislava struck rising ground short of the airport in poor visibility. The aircraft was destroyed and all on board were killed; official investigators concluded the crew descended below the safe altitude in instrument conditions, a classic controlled-flight-into-terrain accident that fed later improvements in approach procedures and navigation safety.

On November 13, 1966, an ANA NAMC YS‑11 on approach to Matsuyama Airport descended into the Seto Inland Sea short of the runway, killing all 50 people on board and prompting investigation into instrument approach practices at Japan’s regional airports.

In the early hours of November 13, 1965, the cruise ship SS Yarmouth Castle caught fire about 25 nautical miles off the east coast of Florida. Within hours the blaze consumed the ship’s largely combustible superstructure, dozens died and hundreds were rescued. The disaster exposed dangerous gaps in ship design, equipment, and training and pushed international rules on passenger-ship fire safety toward major change.

On November 29, 1963, a Vickers Viscount turboprop operating Trans‑Canada Air Lines Flight 831 plunged from the sky near Sainte‑Thérèse, Quebec, north of Montreal. The aircraft broke apart on impact; there were no survivors. An official investigation recovered wreckage and records but never produced a single, conclusive explanation. The crash stands as a somber marker of an era when rising air travel outpaced the investigative tools needed to answer every question.

On the night of November 16, 1959, a Douglas DC‑7B operating National Airlines Flight 967 vanished over the central Gulf of Mexico after departing Tampa for New Orleans. Searchers recovered only small floating wreckage; investigators considered an in‑flight explosion a possible explanation but could not reach a definitive cause. The loss remains an unsolved, haunting example of the challenges of mid‑century over‑water air disasters.

On the night of November 21, 1950, two trains collided head‑on on the Canadian Pacific Railway main line near Canoe River, British Columbia. The crash—caused by conflicting train orders on a single‑track mountain route—killed about 21 people, injured many more, and helped push Canadian railways toward clearer procedures and wider use of radio communications.

On the evening of November 18, 1947, a blaze broke out in Ballantynes, a long-established department store on the corner of Colombo and Cashel Streets in Christchurch. A combination of combustible stock, open internal spaces and limited escape routes allowed smoke and flame to race through the building, killing 41 people and leaving a city dealing with grief, questions and calls for safer buildings.

On 23 November 1946, French warships bombarded the port city of Haiphong in northern Vietnam after a series of escalating confrontations over control of the docks and customs. The shelling and subsequent ground operations killed and wounded large numbers of civilians and combatants, devastated port infrastructure, and shattered a fragile truce—turning a tense standoff into the open fighting that would become the First Indochina War.

On November 20, 1946, in the hills near Margarana, western Bali, a small band of Balinese republican guerrillas led by I Gusti Ngurah Rai made a final stand against a larger Dutch column. Outgunned and encircled, they fought until they were all killed—a clash that became known locally as Puputan Margarana and is remembered across Indonesia as a symbolic sacrifice in the struggle for independence.

On the morning of November 26, 1943, the troopship HMT Rohna, carrying mostly U.S. Army personnel, was struck off the Algerian coast by a German radio‑controlled glide bomb launched from a Dornier Do 217. The weapon’s impact and resulting fires left lifeboats unusable, oil and flames on the sea hampered rescue, and the ship sank with the loss of 1,138 lives. Wartime secrecy obscured details for decades, and the sinking pressured Allies to develop electronic countermeasures and change convoy protections.

On November 24, 1943, during Operation Galvanic off Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay was struck by a Japanese torpedo—believed to have been fired by submarine I‑175—setting off a catastrophic explosion in the ship's forward hangar and ordnance spaces. The carrier sank in under half an hour. Of those aboard, 644 men were killed, including Rear Admiral Henry M. Mullinnix; only about 272 survived.

On November 20, 1943, U.S. Marines assaulted the heavily fortified islet of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll as part of Operation Galvanic. What was meant to be a quick capture of a forward airfield became 76 hours of brutal, close combat against concrete pillboxes, coral reefs, and an enemy determined not to yield.

A sustained Royal Air Force area‑bombing campaign against Berlin that began with a large night raid on the night of November 18–19, 1943 and continued through the winter until March 31, 1944. The campaign aimed to damage industry and morale, but it became as much a test of night navigation, radar and fighter tactics as it was of will — exacting heavy costs on Bomber Command and on Berlin’s civilian population while prompting heated debate that endures to this day.

On the night of November 30, 1942, off Tassafaronga Point on Guadalcanal, a small Japanese destroyer force using Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes ambushed a U.S. cruiser-destroyer interception group; the clash left one heavy cruiser sunk, several others badly damaged, and lessons about radar, torpedoes, and night tactics painfully reforged.

On the night of November 28, 1942, a small spark in Boston’s crowded Cocoanut Grove nightclub ignited highly flammable decorations and, within minutes, turned a popular wartime dance into one of the deadliest single-building fires in American history. Failures of egress, combustible interior finishes, and overcrowding combined to kill 492 people and to change fire-safety rules nationwide.

Operation Uranus was the Soviet double-pincer counteroffensive that began on November 19, 1942, striking the thinly held Axis flanks north and south of Stalingrad. Within days Soviet armored formations linked near Kalach-on-Don and trapped roughly a quarter-million Axis troops in a ring that would not finally collapse until early February 1943. The operation marked a decisive turning point on the Eastern Front and exposed the dangers of overextended lines and poorly equipped allied contingents.

In late autumn 1941, thousands of Jews from the Riga ghetto — long-time residents and deportees from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate — were marched into the nearby Rumbula forest and systematically murdered by German SS, SD and police units with the assistance of Latvian auxiliary forces. The largest executions occurred on November 30, 1941 and December 8, 1941; historians estimate roughly 24,000–27,000 people were killed on those two days, with additional victims murdered at Rumbula in surrounding weeks. The massacre destroyed the historic Jewish community of Riga and became one of the largest single-site mass shootings of the Holocaust.

In the pre‑dawn hours of November 25, 1941, the veteran British battleship HMS Barham was torpedoed by German U‑boat U‑331 off the approaches to Alexandria. A spread of torpedoes struck the ship and triggered a catastrophic internal magazine explosion; Barham capsized and sank with heavy loss of life. Rescue efforts recovered hundreds, but roughly 862 men were lost. The Admiralty tightly controlled information about the sinking, and the wreck is treated today as a protected war grave.

On November 19, 1941, the Royal Australian Navy light cruiser HMAS Sydney (II) and the German auxiliary cruiser HSK Kormoran met about 150 nautical miles west of Shark Bay. Kormoran, disguised as the Dutch merchant Straat Malakka, revealed concealed armament at close range; a short, violent engagement followed. Sydney was catastrophically damaged and sank with all 645 hands. Kormoran was heavily damaged, scuttled, and many of her crew were later rescued. The loss shocked Australia, spawned decades of questions, and was finally clarified after discovery of both wrecks in March 2008.

On the night of November 14, 1940, the industrial city of Coventry endured one of the most destructive single air raids of the Blitz. A concentrated mix of high explosives and incendiaries tore through a city where factories and homes sat cheek by jowl; the medieval St Michael’s Cathedral was left a blackened shell. The raid and the weeks that followed reshaped civil defence, wartime production practices, and Coventry’s postwar identity as both ruin and memorial.

On November 30, 1939, after a manufactured border incident at Mainila, the Soviet Union launched a full-scale invasion of Finland. Over the next three months Finnish troops—small, mobile, and expert in winter warfare—slowed and at times shattered much larger Soviet formations before a Moscow peace treaty on March 12, 1940 forced Finland to cede territory and resettle hundreds of thousands.

On November 23, 1939, HMS Rawalpindi — a converted P&O passenger liner serving as an armed merchant cruiser on the Royal Navy’s Northern Patrol — sighted two large Kriegsmarine warships in the North Atlantic. Captain Edward Coverley Kennedy challenged the strangers, sent warning signals, and engaged the German Scharnhorst‑class ships; Rawalpindi was heavily outgunned, suffered catastrophic damage and sank, with heavy loss of life and a small number of survivors recovered from the water.

On November 17, 1939, Nazi authorities in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia closed Czech universities, arrested roughly 1,200 students, executed nine student leaders and deepened a campaign to erase Czech academic life. The crackdown followed the October shooting and November death of student Jan Opletal and the mass funeral on November 15, and it was later commemorated internationally as International Students’ Day.

On the evening of November 30, 1936, the vast iron-and-glass exhibition building known as the Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill was engulfed in a blaze that swept through its combustible interior. By dawn the iconic structure lay ruined. No one died, but the cultural loss and the image of a skeletonized palace changed a landscape and a national conversation about large public buildings.

On November 18, 1929, a powerful earthquake on the continental slope south of Newfoundland triggered a massive submarine landslide that severed undersea telegraph cables and sent a tsunami racing into the fishing communities of the Burin Peninsula. In minutes, wharves, boats and homes were swept away; about 28 people died and many more were left homeless. The event became a landmark case showing that submarine slides — not just fault motion — can produce deadly near‑field tsunamis.

In mid-November 1922 a coordinated labor stoppage in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main Pacific port, escalated into days of street clashes when police and military units opened fire on demonstrators. The confrontations that peaked on November 15, 1922 left the city shaken, with disputed casualty totals, arrested leaders, and a hardening of labor–state conflict that helped set the stage for the 1925 “Julian Revolution.”

On November 21, 1920, Dublin was convulsed by a sequence of coordinated IRA assassinations at dawn, a midday massacre at Croke Park in which Crown forces fired into a crowd at a Gaelic football match, and the killing of three IRA prisoners at Dublin Castle that night. The day left roughly thirty people dead, hardened attitudes on both sides, and became a defining episode of the Irish War of Independence.

In the chaotic aftermath of the Austro‑Hungarian collapse, fighting for control of Lwów (Lemberg) turned inward. Between November 21 and 23, 1918, amid rumors of Jewish collaboration with Ukrainian forces and a breakdown of policing, Polish soldiers, reservists, and armed civilians entered Jewish districts. Dozens of Jewish residents were killed, hundreds beaten and robbed, and many homes and businesses looted. Official Polish inquiries recorded 52 Jewish deaths; Jewish communal tallies at the time reported roughly 70–80, while higher estimates appear in some later accounts. The violence left a lasting wound on the city’s Jewish community and became a contested episode in the wider politics of the new Polish state.

On 25 November 1917, during the East African Campaign of the First World War, Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow‑Vorbeck’s Schutztruppe crossed the Rovuma (Ruvuma) River into Portuguese East Africa and attacked the poorly supplied Portuguese outpost at Ngomano. The German surprise assault captured weapons, ammunition and supplies that allowed Lettow‑Vorbeck to continue his mobile campaign into 1918.

On November 20, 1917, British forces launched a surprise combined-arms assault near Cambrai, northern France, deploying massed tanks, predicted artillery and air support in an effort to break the deadlock on the Western Front. Initial gains were dramatic, but German counter-attacks in late November rolled back much of the advance. The fighting settled into a new stalemate by early December, and historians remember Cambrai as the first large-scale test of armored warfare rather than a decisive strategic victory.

On November 21, 1916, HMHS Britannic — the White Star Line’s hospital ship and sister to Titanic — struck a mine in the Kea Channel off the Greek island of Kea and sank in under an hour. More than a thousand people survived; about 30 were lost. The disaster exposed wartime hazards for marked hospital ships, revealed unexpected vulnerabilities in even the newest liner designs, and left a wreck that would later be explored as both a technical curiosity and a maritime war grave.

On November 26, 1914, the Royal Navy pre-dreadnought HMS Bulwark exploded while anchored off Sheerness in the Thames Estuary. The blast destroyed the ship and killed nearly her entire company—about 741 men by contemporary returns—leaving a stunned naval community, a grim recovery operation along the Medway, and an inquiry that concluded an accidental magazine or cordite ignition was the most likely cause.

On 13 November 1914, a French column sent from Khenifra into the Middle Atlas was ambushed and routed near the village of El Herri by the Zaian Confederation under Mouha ou Hammou Zayani. The encounter — a heavy defeat for the French with disputed but substantial casualties — reshaped French tactics in Morocco during World War I and became a lasting symbol of Moroccan resistance.

On November 28, 1908, an underground explosion ripped through the River Hill (Marianna) coal mine in Marianna, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Ignition of methane and subsequent propagation by coal dust killed 154 miners, collapsing a small mining town and adding urgency to early-20th-century calls for stronger mine safety practices.