Biographies on This Day in History: November 22
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John F. Kennedy
35th president of the United States
May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963
John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States (1961–63), who faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban...
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Scarlett Johansson
American actress and singer
November 22, 1984 -
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress and singer whose acting range earned her popular acclaim in a variety of genres, from period drama to thriller and action adventure. Johansson, daughter of an...
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Mark Ruffalo
American actor
November 22, 1967 -
Mark Ruffalo is an American actor who was a compelling performer in critically acclaimed movies and plays, though he is perhaps more widely known for portraying Bruce Banner/the Hulk in a series of superhero...
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Aldous Huxley
British author
July 26, 1894 - November 22, 1963
Aldous Huxley was an English novelist and critic gifted with an acute and far-ranging intelligence whose works are notable for their wit and pessimistic satire. He remains best known for one novel, Brave...
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C.S. Lewis
Irish-born author and scholar
November 29, 1898 - November 22, 1963
C.S. Lewis was an Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author of about 40 books, many of them on Christian apologetics, including The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. His works of greatest lasting...
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Charles de Gaulle
president of France
November 22, 1890 - November 9, 1970
Charles de Gaulle was a French soldier, writer, statesman, and architect of France’s Fifth Republic. De Gaulle was the second son of a Roman Catholic, patriotic, and nationalist upper-middle-class family....
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Blackbeard
English pirate
c.1680 - November 22, 1718
Blackbeard was one of history’s most famous pirates, who became an imposing figure in American folklore. Little is known of Blackbeard’s early life, and his origins have been left to speculation. He has...
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Oscar Pistorius
South African athlete
November 22, 1986 -
Oscar Pistorius is a South African track-and-field sprinter and bilateral below-the-knee amputee who, at the 2012 London Games, became the first amputee to compete in an Olympic track event. In 2015 Pistorius...
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Jack London
American author
January 12, 1876 - November 22, 1916
Jack London was an American novelist and short-story writer whose best-known works—among them The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906)—depict elemental struggles for survival. During the 20th...
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Terry Gilliam
American director
November 22, 1940 -
Terry Gilliam is an American-born director, writer, comedian, and actor who first achieved fame as a member of the British comedy troupe Monty Python. While a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles,...
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Mae West
American actress and writer
August 17, 1893 - November 22, 1980
Mae West was an American stage and film actress, a sex symbol whose frank sensuality, languid postures, and blasé wisecracking became her trademarks. She usually portrayed women who accepted their lives...
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George Eliot
British author
November 22, 1819 - December 22, 1880
George Eliot was an English Victorian novelist who developed the method of psychological analysis characteristic of modern fiction. Her major works include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860),...
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Mary Of Lorraine
regent of Scotland
November 22, 1515 - June 11, 1560
Mary Of Lorraine was the regent of Scotland for her daughter, Mary Stuart, during the early years of the Scottish Reformation. A Roman Catholic, she pursued pro-French policies that involved her in civil...
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Edward Bernays
American publicist
November 22, 1891 - March 9, 1995
Edward Bernays was a pioneer American publicist who is generally considered to have been the first to develop the idea of the professional public relations counselor—i.e., one who draws on the social sciences...
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Abigail Adams
American first lady
November 22, 1744 - October 28, 1818
Abigail Adams was an American first lady (1797–1801), the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and mother of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. She was a prolific...
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Ahmed I
Ottoman sultan
April 18, 1590 - November 22, 1617
Ahmed I was an Ottoman sultan from 1603 to 1617, whose authority was weakened by wars, rebellions, and misrule. The rebellions he was able to suppress; he executed some of the viziers and exiled many palace...
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Anthony Burgess
British author
February 25, 1917 - November 22, 1993
Anthony Burgess was an English novelist, critic, and man of letters whose fictional explorations of modern dilemmas combine wit, moral earnestness, and a note of the bizarre. Trained in English literature...
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Svetlana Alliluyeva
Russian writer
February 28, 1926 - November 22, 2011
Svetlana Alliluyeva was the Russian-born daughter of Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin; her defection to the United States in 1967 caused an international sensation. She was Stalin’s only daughter and a product...
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Robert Clive
British colonial administrator
September 29, 1725 - November 22, 1774
Robert Clive was a soldier and the first British administrator of Bengal, who was one of the creators of British power in India. In his first governorship (1755–60) he won the Battle of Plassey and became...
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Benjamin Britten
British composer
November 22, 1913 - December 4, 1976
Benjamin Britten was a leading British composer of the mid-20th century, whose operas were considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the 17th century. He was also an outstanding...
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Billie Jean King
American tennis player
November 22, 1943 -
Billie Jean King is an American tennis player whose influence and playing style elevated the status of women’s professional tennis beginning in the late 1960s. In her career, she won 39 major titles, competing...
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John Hanson
United States statesman
April 13, 1721 - November 22, 1783
John Hanson was an American Revolutionary leader and president under the U.S. Articles of Confederation. A member of the Maryland Assembly (1757–79), he represented Maryland in the Continental Congress...
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Hoagy Carmichael
American composer, musician, and actor
November 22, 1899 - December 27, 1981
Hoagy Carmichael was an American composer, singer, self-taught pianist, and actor who wrote several of the most highly regarded popular standards in American music. Carmichael’s father was an itinerant...
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Boris Becker
German tennis player
November 22, 1967 -
Boris Becker is a German tennis player who, on July 7, 1985, at age 17, became the youngest champion in the history of the men’s singles at Wimbledon. At the same time, he became the only unseeded player...
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René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle
French explorer
November 22, 1643 - March 19, 1687
René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle was a French explorer in North America who led an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and claimed all the region watered by the Mississippi and its...
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Richard Neville, 16th earl of Warwick
English noble
November 22, 1428 - April 14, 1471
Richard Neville, 16th earl of Warwick was an English nobleman called, since the 16th century, “the Kingmaker,” in reference to his role as arbiter of royal power during the first half of the Wars of the...
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John Nance Garner
32nd vice president of the United States
November 22, 1868 - November 7, 1967
John Nance Garner was the 32nd vice president of the United States (1933–41) in the Democratic administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He maintained his conservatism despite his prominent position...
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Geraldine Page
American actress
November 22, 1924 - June 13, 1987
Geraldine Page was a versatile American actress noted primarily for her interpretations of the heroines of Tennessee Williams’s plays. Page had aspirations of becoming a pianist or visual artist, but at...
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André Gide
French writer
November 22, 1869 - February 19, 1951
André Gide was a French writer, humanist, and moralist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. Gide was the only child of Paul Gide and his wife, Juliette Rondeaux. His father was of southern...
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Mulayam Singh Yadav
Indian politician
November 22, 1939 - October 10, 2022
Mulayam Singh Yadav was an Indian politician and government official who founded and was the longtime leader of the Samajwadi (Socialist) Party (SP) of India. He served three times as chief minister of...
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Lynn Margulis
American biologist
March 5, 1938 - November 22, 2011
Lynn Margulis was an American biologist whose serial endosymbiotic theory of eukaryotic cell development revolutionized the modern concept of how life arose on Earth. Margulis was raised in Chicago. Intellectually...
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Arthur Eddington
British scientist
December 28, 1882 - November 22, 1944
Arthur Eddington was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician who did his greatest work in astrophysics, investigating the motion, internal structure, and evolution of stars. He also was the...
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Enver Paşa
Ottoman general
November 22, 1881 - August 4, 1922
Enver Paşa was an Ottoman general and commander in chief, a hero of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, and a leading member of the Ottoman government from 1913 to 1918. He played a key role in the Ottoman...
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Thomas Cook
British businessman
November 22, 1808 - July 18, 1892
Thomas Cook was an English innovator of the conducted tour and founder of Thomas Cook and Son, a worldwide travel agency. Cook can be said to have invented modern tourism. Cook left school at the age of...
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Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich
Soviet official
November 22, 1893 - July 25, 1991
Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet Communist Party leader and supporter of Joseph Stalin. As a young Jewish shoemaker, Kaganovich became involved in the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic...
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Arthur Sullivan
British composer
May 13, 1842 - November 22, 1900
Arthur Sullivan was a composer who, with W.S. Gilbert, established the distinctive English form of the operetta. Gilbert’s satire and verbal ingenuity were matched so well by Sullivan’s unfailing melodiousness,...
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Sumi Jo
South Korean opera singer
November 22, 1962 -
Sumi Jo is a South Korean soprano known for her light, expressive voice and her virtuosic performance of major coloratura roles of the operatic repertoire. Jo began studying music at an early age. She...
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Joaquín Rodrigo
Spanish composer
November 22, 1901 - July 6, 1999
Joaquín Rodrigo was one of the leading Spanish composers of the 20th century. Although blind from age three, Rodrigo began music studies at an early age and later became a pupil of Paul Dukas. While in...
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Sir Martin Frobisher
English explorer
c.1535 - November 22, 1594
Sir Martin Frobisher was an English navigator and early explorer of Canada’s northeast coast. Frobisher went on voyages to the Guinea coast of Africa in 1553 and 1554, and during the 1560s he preyed on...
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Peter Hall
English theatrical manager and director
November 22, 1930 - September 11, 2017
Peter Hall was an English theatrical manager and director who held notably successful tenures as director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Hall produced and acted in amateur productions...
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John
antipope
- November 22, 1419
John (XXIII) was a schismatic antipope from 1410 to 1415. After receiving his doctorate of law at Bologna, Cossa entered the Curia during the Western Schism, when the papacy suffered from rival claimants...
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Walter Reed
American pathologist and bacteriologist
September 13, 1851 - November 22, 1902
Walter Reed was a U.S. Army pathologist and bacteriologist who led the experiments that proved that yellow fever is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center,...
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Luis Barragán
Mexican architect
March 9, 1902 - November 22, 1988
Luis Barragán was a Mexican engineer and architect whose serene and evocative houses, gardens, plazas, and fountains won him the Pritzker Prize in 1980. Barragán, who was born into a wealthy family, grew...
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Joe Adonis
American crime boss
November 22, 1902 - November 26, 1971
Joe Adonis was a major American crime-syndicate boss in New York and New Jersey. Born near Naples, Adonis came to America as a child and in the 1920s became a follower of Lucky Luciano. He was one of the...
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Emil Zátopek
Czech runner
September 19, 1922 - November 22, 2000
Emil Zátopek was a Czech athlete who is considered one of the greatest long-distance runners in the history of the sport. He won the gold medal in the 10,000-metre race at the 1948 Olympics in London and...
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Lin Zexu
Chinese official
August 30, 1785 - November 22, 1850
Lin Zexu was a leading Chinese scholar and official of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty, known for his role in the events leading up to the first Opium War (1839–42) between Britain and China. He was a proponent...
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Sir Hans Adolf Krebs
German-British biochemist
August 25, 1900 - November 22, 1981
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs was a German-born British biochemist who received (with Fritz Lipmann) the 1953 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery in living organisms of the series of chemical...
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Jacques-Philippe Leclerc
French general
November 22, 1902 - November 28, 1947
Jacques-Philippe Leclerc was a French general and war hero who achieved fame as the liberator of Paris. Born into a patrician family, he graduated from the prestigious military schools at Saint-Cyr (1924)...
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Dorothea Jordan
Irish actress
November 22, 1761 - July 3, 1816
Dorothea Jordan was an actress especially famed for her high-spirited comedy and tomboy roles. Jordan’s mother, Grace Phillips, who was also known as Mrs. Frances, was a Dublin actress. Her father, a man...
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Henry Wilson
18th vice president of the United States
February 16, 1812 - November 22, 1875
Henry Wilson was the 18th vice president of the United States (1873–75) in the Republican administration of President Ulysses S. Grant and a national leader in the antislavery movement. Wilson was the...