On This Day — 15 November

2022

The world population reached eight billion.

World population

2020

Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix and secures his seventh drivers' title, equalling the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.

Lewis Hamilton

2017

A flood a few miles outside of Athens results in the death of 25 people.

2017 West Attica floods

2016

Hong Kong's High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament.

Hong Kong High Court

2012

Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.

Xi Jinping

2010

A fire in a high-rise apartment building in Shanghai, China kills 58 people.

2010 Shanghai fire

2007

Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.

Cyclone Sidr

2006

Al Jazeera English launches worldwide.

Al Jazeera English

2003

The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, kill 25 people and wound 300 more.

2003 Istanbul bombings

2002

Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.

Hu Jintao

2001

Microsoft launches the Xbox game console in North America.

Microsoft

2000

A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people.

Antonov An-24

2000

Jharkhand officially becomes the 28th state of India, formed from eighteen districts of southern Bihar.

Jharkhand

1994

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to 8.5 m (28 ft) high.

1994 Mindoro earthquake

1990

The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted.

People's Republic of Bulgaria

1990

Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-38, a classified mission for the Department of Defense.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

1988

In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.

Soviet Union

1988

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

1988

The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.

Fair trade certification

1987

In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Brașov

1987

Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashes during takeoff from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, killing 25.

Continental Airlines Flight 1713

1985

A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.

Ted Kaczynski

1985

The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.

Anglo-Irish Agreement

1983

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declares independence; it is only recognized by Turkey.

Northern Cyprus

1979

A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.

Ted Kaczynski

1978

A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.

Douglas DC-8

1976

René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favor of independence.

René Lévesque

1971

Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

Intel

1969

Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.

Cold War

1969

Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".

Vietnam War

1968

The Cleveland Transit System becomes the first transit system in the western hemisphere to provide direct rapid transit service from a city's downtown to its major airport.

Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority

1967

The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.

North American X-15

1966

Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

Project Gemini

1965

Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) in his car, the Spirit of America, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Craig Breedlove

1959

Four members of the Clutter family are murdered near Holcomb, Kansas, by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, a crime later detailed by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.

Clutter family murders

1957

Short Solent 3 crashes near Chessell.

1957 Aquila Airways Solent crash

1955

The first part of the Saint Petersburg Metro is opened.

Saint Petersburg Metro

1951

Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 comrades, is sentenced to death for attempting to reestablish the Communist Party of Greece.

Nikos Beloyannis

1943

The Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps".

The Holocaust

1942

World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.

World War II

1938

Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht.

Nazi Germany

1933

Thailand holds its first election.

Thailand

1928

The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsizes in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew.

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

1922

At least 300 are massacred during a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

1922 Guayaquil general strike

1920

The first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland.

League of Nations

1920

The Free City of Danzig is established.

Free City of Danzig

1917

Eduskunta declares itself the supreme state power of Finland, prompting its declaration of independence and secession from Russia.

Parliament of Finland

1899

Second Boer War: Battle of Chieveley, a British armored train is ambushed and partially derailed. British lose the battle, with 80 soldiers captured, along with war correspondent Winston Churchill.

Second Boer War

1889

Brazil is declared a republic by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup.

Brazil

1884

The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 met on 15 November 1884, and after an adjournment concluded on 26 February 1885, with the signature of a General Act, regulating the European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period.

Berlin Conference

1864

American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his March to the Sea through Georgia towards the city of Savannah.

American Civil War

1849

Boilers of the steamboat Louisiana explode as she pulls back from the dock in New Orleans, killing more than 150 people.

Boiler explosion

1842

A slave revolt in the Cherokee Nation commences.

1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation

1806

Pike Expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spots a mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is later named Pikes Peak in his honor.

Pike Expedition

1777

American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.

American Revolutionary War

1760

The secondly-built Castellania in Valletta is officially inaugurated with the blessing of the interior Chapel of Sorrows.

Castellania (Valletta)

1705

Rákóczi's War of Independence: The Habsburg Empire and Denmark win a military victory over the Kurucs from Hungary in the Battle of Zsibó.

Rákóczi's War of Independence

1533

Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.

Francisco Pizarro

1532

Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Incan Emperor Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging for a meeting in the city plaza the following day.

Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire

1315

Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy: The Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I in the Battle of Morgarten.

Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy

655

Battle of the Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.

Battle of the Winwaed