November 12 in history — On This Day

A photograph taken after the 1871 fire can make Chicago look as though its future had been decided by a wall of flame. A view from around 1905 tells a different story: tall offices, busy transport routes and commercial streets crowded again.

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November

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Philae Makes the First Landing on a Comet

Also on November 12

A Proposal Sets Out the World Wide Web Project

Voyager 1 Flies Past Saturn

Sentences Are Pronounced at the Tokyo War Crimes Trial

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Opens

This Week in History

Surgeons Announce a Whole-Eye and Partial-Face Transplant

Shanghai's West Bund Museum Opens Its Pompidou Project to Visitors

India Announces the Withdrawal of High-Value Banknotes

Catalonia Holds a Nonbinding Consultation on Its Future

AI History Recreations

Politics

Australia's Governor-General Dismisses the Whitlam Government

War & Conflict

Coordinated Attacks Strike Paris

Space

Philae Makes the First Landing on a Comet

Technology

A Proposal Sets Out the World Wide Web Project

History

The Mayflower Compact Is Signed

The BBC Begins Daily Radio Broadcasting

TAESA Flight 725 Crashes After Leaving Uruapan

Crime & Justice

Sentences Are Pronounced at the Tokyo War Crimes Trial

The DeFeo Family Murders in Amityville

Five Members of the List Family Are Killed

Science

The Night the Leonids Filled the Sky

Tycho Brahe Measures a New Star in Cassiopeia

Scientists Produce the First Recognized Darmstadtium Atom

Medicine & Health

Surgeons Announce a Whole-Eye and Partial-Face Transplant

Surgeons Perform the First Partial Face Transplant

The First World AIDS Day

Nature & Disasters

Nevado del Ruiz Erupts and Lahars Devastate Armero

The Edmund Fitzgerald Sinks in Lake Superior

The Great Lakes Storm Reaches Its Most Destructive Phase

Exploration

Nellie Bly Begins Her Journey Around the World

Stanley Meets Livingstone at Ujiji

Abel Tasman's Expedition Reaches Tasmania

Sport

Magic Johnson Announces He Has HIV and Retires From the Lakers

Rutgers and Princeton Play the First Intercollegiate Football Game

Mike Tyson Becomes the Youngest Heavyweight Titleholder

Art & Literature

Moby-Dick Is Published in the United States

Shanghai's West Bund Museum Opens Its Pompidou Project to Visitors

Rupert Bear Makes His Newspaper Debut

Music

Hindemith's Cardillac Premieres in Dresden

Michael Jackson's Thriller Is Released

Mozart Dies in Vienna

Film & TV

Fantasia Premieres at New York's Broadway Theatre

Sesame Street Makes Its Television Debut

HBO Begins With a Small Cable Audience

The Story Behind the Photo

Chicago After the Fire: From Burned Blocks to a New Skyline

Collections

The Road to the Moon

Fires That Changed Cities

The Age of Invention

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