Muhammad I

Muhammad I (1195–1273) was the first ruler of the Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula. In the 1230s he took power in his native Arjona and gained control over Spain's southern cities, including Granada, Almería and Málaga. Settling in Granada, he became the most powerful Muslim leader in the peninsula. Under attack from Castile, he was forced to become a vassal of Ferdinand III in 1246. A peace with Castile followed until 1264 when Muhammad participated in an unsuccessful rebellion of their newly conquered Muslim subjects. In 1266 his former allies, the Banu Ashqilula, rebelled against him with help from Castile. This conflict was still unresolved in 1273 when he died after falling off his horse. The emirate was finally annexed by Castile in 1492. The Alhambra, a well-preserved palace and fortress complex that Muhammad initiated, is a World Heritage site. (Full article...)

Lady Angela in 1921

• ... that the British socialite Lady Angela Forbes (pictured) organized soldiers' canteens in France during World War I?


• ... that the stretch limousine involved in the recent crash near Schoharie, New York, killing 20, appeared at two vehicle inspections earlier this year with different license plates?


• ... that in 1800, a reviewer of Francis Hews's writings was unsure whether he should be sent to "Bridewell for correction, or to Bedlam for a cure"?


• ... that Cliona orientalis is a bioeroding sponge that tunnels into such corals as Goniopora tenuidens, Dipsastraea pallida, and Astreopora listeri?


• ... that Liamani Segura, who sang the US national anthem before 1,300 high school basketball fans at age six, taught herself by watching music videos on YouTube?


• ... that Tania Tetlow is the first female president of Loyola University New Orleans?


• ... that Greenwich pensioners played one-armed versus one-legged cricket?

Maithripala Sirisena

• Amidst a constitutional crisis, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka suspends the attempt by President Maithripala Sirisena (pictured) to dissolve parliament.


• American comic-book creator Stan Lee dies at the age of 95.


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  An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed more than 200 people since August.


• Four wildfires in California, including the Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire, burn more than 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares) and kill at least 44 people.

November 14: World Diabetes Day

The ruins of the old Coventry Cathedral

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  1680 – Gottfried Kirch, a German astronomer, discovered the Great Comet of 1680, the first to be found using a telescope.


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  1940 – Second World War: Coventry Cathedral (ruins pictured) and much of the city centre of Coventry, England, were destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the Coventry Blitz.


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  1960 – Ruby Bridges and the McDonogh Three became the first black children to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana as part of the New Orleans school desegregation crisis.


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  1975 – With the signing of the Madrid Accords, Spain agreed to withdraw its presence from the territory of Spanish Sahara.


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  1990 – Germany and Poland signed the German–Polish Border Treaty, confirming their border at the Oder–Neisse line, which was originally defined by the Potsdam Agreement in 1945.

Marie François Xavier Bichat (b. 1771) · John Lumsden (b. 1869) · Andrew Inglis Clark (d. 1907)