November 20
1820. 2,000 miles from the coast of South America, an 80 ton sperm whale attacks by ramming, and sinks, the Nantucket, Massachusetts based whaling ship Essex, which was in the midst of a 2.5 year whaling trip to the South Pacific. This event will inspire Herman Melville's Moby Dick after the young Melville meets the son of the Essex's first mate while serving on the whaling ship Acushnet.
1945. The Nuremberg trials commence.
1947. Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth (II) marries Lieutenant PHilip Montbatten. They remain married to this day, 62 years later.
1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis ends after President Kennedy lifts the quarantine on the island following the Soviet Union's promise to remove its missiles from Cuba. Given the impending advent of ICBMs and submarine launched ballistic missiles, in retrospect it seems a bit of a silly exercise in end-of-the-world gamesmanship, though the adventure will soon cause the ouster of Nikita Khrushchev.
1969. Newsweek and other magazines widely report the My Lai village massacre, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes photographs, bringing intense pressure to bear on the US military.
1985. Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.