On this day...

1492 Christopher Columbus notes first recorded reference to tobacco
1660 First kosher butcher (Asser Levy) licensed in New York City (New Amsterdam)
1715 Barrier Treaty, Austria cedes area to the Netherlands
1763 Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon begin surveying Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania & Maryland
1777 Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental Congress
1791 First Catholic college in US, Georgetown, opens
1806 First US college magazine, Yale Literary Cabinet, publishes first issue
1806 Explorer Zebulon Pike sights Pikes Peak
1845 The opera "Maritana" is produced (London)
1849 First US poultry show opens in Boston
1864 First US mines school opens in basement of Columbia University, NY
1864 Sherman burns Atlanta
1869 Free postal delivery formally inaugurated
1881 American Federation of Labor (AFL) founded (Pittsburgh)
1884 Colonization of Africa organized at international conference in Berlin
1889 Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, deposed; republic proclaimed
1919 Senate first invokes cloture to end a filibuster (Versailles Treaty)
1920 Free City of Danzig established under League of Nations protection
1920 League of Nations holds first meeting, in Geneva
1926 NBC on-air debut with a radio network of 24 stations
1932 Walt Disney Art School created
1935 Commonwealth of Philippines inaugurated
1937 First congressional session in air-conditioned chambers
1939 Nazis begin mass murder of Warsaw Jews
1939 Social Security Administration approves first unemployment check
1940 First 75,000 men called to armed forces duty during peacetime
1941 Cow Palace opens in San Francisco
1948 William Lyon Mackenzie King retires as PM of Canada
1950 First Negro player in organized hockey (Arthur Dorrington) signed
1954 First regularly scheduled commercial flights over North Pole begins
1957 US sentences Soviet spy Rudolf Ivanovich Abel to 30 years & $3,000 fine
1960 Elgin Baylor of NBA LA Lakers scores 71 points vs. NY Knicks
1964 Mickey Wright shoots a 62, lowest golf score for a female pro
1965 Craig Breedlove sets land speed record (600.601 mph-966.57 kph)
1966 Gemini XII returns to Earth
1969 250,000 peacefully demonstrate in Washington DC against the Vietnam War
1969 Janis Joplin accused of vulgar & incident language in Tampa, Florida
1972 Small Astronomy Satellite Explorer 48 launched to study gamma rays
1978 183 die as Icelandic Airlines DC-8 crashes in Colombo, Sri Lanka
1979 ABC-TV announces it would broadcast nightly specials on Iran hostage crisis
1979 British government identifies Sir Anthony Blunt as 4th man in Soviet spy ring
1980 Pope John Paul II began 5 day visit to West Germany,
1982 Funeral services held in Moscow's Red Square for Leonid I. Brezhnev
1983 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus proclaimed
1987 28 of 82 aboard Continental Airlines DC-9 die in crash at Denver
1988 91 m radio telescope dish at Green Bank, WV collapses
1988 PLO proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizes Israeli existence
1988 Soviet space shuttle makes unmanned maiden flight (2 orbits)
1989 "Batman" is released on video tape
1989 Walter Davis (Denver) begins NBA free throw streak of 53 games
1990 President Bush signs the Clean Air Act of 1990
1990 Producers confirm that Milli Vanilla didn't sing on their album
1991 Dow Jones average drops 120.31 points (5th largest dive at that time)
1991 Ricky Pierce (Seattle) begins NBA free throw streak of 75 games

Birthdays on November 15th:

1397 Nicholas V, pope (1447-55) founded Vatican Library
1708 William Pitt the Elder (Whig) UK PM (1756-61, 66-68) `Great Commoner'
1738 Sir William Herschel, astronomer (discovered Uranus)
1815 John Banvard, New York, painted worlds largest painting (3 mile canvas)
1862 Gerhart Hauptmann, Germany, writer (Before Dawn-Nobel 1912)
1874 August Krogh, Denmark, physiologist (Nobel-1920)
1879 Lewis Stone, Worcester Massachusetts, actor (Prisoner of Zenda)
1881 Franklin P. Adams, Chicago, columnist (Information Please)
1882 Felix Frankfurter, Vienna Austria, US supreme court justice (1939-62)
1887 Georgia O'Keefe, Sun Prairie Wisconsin, painter (Cow's Skull)
1887 Marianne Moore, St. Louis, poet (Pulitzer-1951-Collected Poems)
1891 Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal (WW II-African campaign)
1895 Ina Claire, actress (Claudia, Ninotchka, Rebound)
1905 Mantovani, Venice Italy, orchestra leader
1909 Don Large, Canada, choral director (Wayne King)
1914 Jorge Bolet, Havana Cuba, pianist (C'eurties Instituka)
1919 Carol Bruce, Great Neck NY, actress (Lillian Carlson-WKRP)
1919 Joseph Albert Wapner, Louisiana, judge (People's Court)
1922 Francesco Rosi, Naples Italy, director (Lucky Luciano)
1923 Peter Hammond, London England, actor (Buccaneers)
1925 Howard Baker (Sen-R-Tenn), presidential chief of staff
1929 Edward Asner, Kansas City C Kansas, actor (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant)
1930 Whitman Mayo, New York, actor (Grady-Sanford & Son)
1931 John Kerr, New York, actor (South Pacific, Peyton Place, Pit & Pendulum)
1932 Petula Clark, England, singer (Downtown, My Love)
1933 Barbara Carson, Memphis, actress (Comedy Tonight, Carter Country)
1933 Jack Burns, Boston, comedian (Burns & Schreiber)
1934 Joanna Barnes, Boston, actor (Parent Trap, Spartacus, Goodbye Charlie)
1937 Yaphet Kotto, New York, actor (Brubaker, Alien, Raid on Entebbe)
1939 Erik Hansen, Denmark, 1K kayak (Olympic gold-1960)
1939 Thalmus Rasulala [Jack Crowder], Miami, actor (Roots)
1940 Sam Waterson, Cambridge Massachusetts, actor (Capricorn One, Heaven's Gate)
1942 Daniel Barenboim, Buenos Aires, pianist/conductor
1945 Anni-Frid Lyngsdtad [Fryeda Anderson] Sweden, rocker (ABBA)
1946 Janet Lennon, Culver City California, singer (Lennon Sisters)
1954 Beverly D'Angelo, Columbus Ohio, actress (Vacation, European Vacation)
1955 Oliver Conant, New York, actor (Summer of '42)
1968 James Brady, Brooklyn, columnist (NY Post)

Deaths on November 15th:

1280 Albertus Magnus, German scholar, dies at 87
1630 Johann Kepler, German astronomer, dies at 58
1958 Tyrone Power, actor, dies of a heart attack at 44
1963 Fritz Reiner, conductor (Chicago Symphony Orch), dies at 74
1978 Margaret Mead, anthropologist, dies in NY at 76
1983 John LeMesurier, actor, dies at 71
1984 Baby Fae, who received a baboon's heart, dies at California medical center