18 Aban 1387 | Saturday 8 November 2008

This day in four calendars

1923 (103 years ago) Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
1936 (90 years ago) Spanish Civil War: Francoist troops fail in their effort to capture Madrid, but begin the three-year Siege of Madrid afterwards.
1939 (87 years ago) In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
1950 (76 years ago) Korean War: United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, while piloting an F-80 Shooting Star, shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history.
1997 (29 years ago) Eritrea adopts the nakfa as its official currency.
2004 (22 years ago) Iraq War: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
2013 (13 years ago) Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, strikes the Visayas region of the Philippines; the storm left at least 6,340 people dead with over 1,000 still missing, and caused $2.86 billion (2013 USD; equivalent to $3.95 billion in 2025) in damage.
2016 (10 years ago) Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination.

30 (1996 years ago) Nerva, Roman emperor (died 98)
1656 (370 years ago) Edmond Halley, English astronomer and mathematician (died 1742)
1847 (179 years ago) Bram Stoker, Irish novelist and critic, created Count Dracula (died 1912)
1848 (178 years ago) Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and philosopher (died 1925)
1900 (126 years ago) Margaret Mitchell, American journalist and author (died 1949)
1935 (91 years ago) Alain Delon, French-Swiss actor, producer, screenwriter (died 2024)
1954 (72 years ago) Kazuo Ishiguro, Japanese-British novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer
1986 (40 years ago) Aaron Swartz, American computer programmer and activist (died 2013)

397 (1629 years ago) Martin of Tours, Frankish bishop and saint
618 (1408 years ago) Adeodatus I, pope of the Catholic Church
1308 (718 years ago) Duns Scotus, Scottish priest, philosopher, and academic (born 1266)
1674 (352 years ago) John Milton, English poet and philosopher (born 1608)
1953 (73 years ago) Ivan Bunin, Russian author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1870)
1986 (40 years ago) Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian politician and diplomat, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1890)
1998 (28 years ago) Jean Marais, French actor and director (born 1913)
2009 (17 years ago) Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist and astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916)