This Month in History: November

Mask of King Tut, Egyptian pyramids and hieroglyph

November 4, 1922 - King Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in Luxor, Egypt by British archaeologist Howard Carter after several years of searching. Throughout November, Carter and his excavation team unearthed the staircase, antechamber, treasury, and door to the tomb. By Nov. 26, they could see inside the gold burial chamber which contained a sarcophagus with the mummified king inside. The child-king became pharaoh at age nine and died around 1352 B.C.E. at age 19. The tomb was found mostly intact, containing numerous priceless items now exhibited in Egypt's National Museum in Cairo.

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Berlin Wall with Germany's flag of a black, red and yellow stripe. A graffitied Berlin Wall, with people hammering it.

November 9, 1989 - As the Cold War began to thaw, a spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in the city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight, citizens were free to cross the country's borders. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and was 28 miles long. Thousands tried to cross the wall in various ways during its 28 years of division between East and West Berlin, some losing their lives. On the weekend of Nov. 9, some 2 million people flocked to the wall in celebration and began breaking up the wall with hammers and picks, while bulldozers took down large sections. It would be almost another year before Germany was officially reunited. (photo of wall pickers by Raphaël Thiémard from Wikimedia Commons)

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Picture of Nellie Bly waving her hat, blue and yellow world map, another image of Nellie Bly.

November 14, 1889 - Newspaper reporter Nellie Bly set out from New York to beat the record of Jules Verne's fictitious hero Phileas Fogg, who traveled the world in 80 days. Her employer, the New York World, at first didn't want to send her on the voyage, stating that a woman couldn't make the trip. However, Cosmopolitan magazine was dispatching a woman on the same journey but traveling west. Bly (pen name for Elizabeth Cochrane), returned 72 days later after a 25,000-mile journey around the globe. Bly traveled by ocean liner, tugboat, steamship, train, ferry, carriage, rickshaw, sedan chair, tram, and streetcar. She met people from numerous nations and experienced the culture, religious practices, architecture, natural beauty, and cuisine of the places she visited. A huge crowd welcomed her home as her train pulled into the station in Jersey City.

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Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who in front of the TARDIS, the TARDIS, George Pertwee standing in front of the console inside the TARDIS

November 23, 1963 - The first episode of Doctor Who aired on the BBC on a Saturday afternoon. Doctor Who is a science-fiction program depicting the adventures of a Time Lord, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. Doctor Who travels through time and space with various companions to save civilizations and help people in need. Doctor Who travels in a time machine, the TARDIS (Travel and Relative Dimensions in Space), which looks like a British police box from the outside but is much larger on the inside. The Doctor can regenerate and take new forms, and therefore be played by different actors. The first run of the series was from 1963-1989 but began again in 2005. The 13th Doctor was the first woman to play the role. The 14th Doctor was David Tennant for a second time (he was previously the 10th Doctor). Tennant came back for three episodes to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the series. The 15th Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, is the current Doctor Who. (image on left from Flickr, image on right from Wikimedia Commons)

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Factual information adapted from: National Geographic, History, Heinz History Center, and The Doctor Who Site.

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By BethN on November 12, 2024