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This month’s anniversaries

1 Nov 1918 independence of Yemen (from the Ottoman Empire)
1 Nov 1954 start of the War of Independence in Algeria
2 Nov 1908 birth of Lubor Matouš, Czech Assyriologist and Sumerologist
2 Nov 1917 Balfour Declaration concerning the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people
4 Nov 1922 British Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun
4 Nov 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel (1974–1977, 1992–1995), recipient of Nobel Peace Prize 1994
6 Nov 1494 birth of Süleyman I the Magnificent, the most prominent and longest-reigning Sultan of Ottoman Empire (1520–1566)
6 Nov 1878 birth of Rudolf Růžička, Czech Arabist and Semitist
8 Nov 1922 birth of Christiaan Neethling Barnard, South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world’s first heart transplant on 3 December 1967
9 Nov 1953 death of Abdulaziz bin Abdurrahman Al Saud (Ibn Saud), first king of Saudi Arabia (1932–1953)
10 Nov 1938 death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of Republic of Turkey (1923–1938)
10 Nov 2008 death of Miriam Makeba, South African singer and civil rights activist, nicknamed Mama Africa
11 Nov 1911 birth of Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer, recipient of Nobel Prize in Literature 1988
11 Nov 1975 independence of Angola (from Portugal)
11 Nov 2004 death of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian politician, president of Palestinian National Authority, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize 1994
12 Nov 1860 birth of Rudolf Dvořák, founder of Czech Oriental studies
15 Nov 1908 birth of Otakar Klíma, Czech Iranologist
15 Nov 1988 declaration of independence of Palestine
16 Nov 1904 birth of Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, first president of Nigeria (1963–1966)
17 Nov 1869 opening of the Suez Canal
17 Nov 1946 death of Max von Oppenheim, German amateur archaeological explorer of Near East, rival of Lawrence of Arabia during World War I
18 Nov 1940 birth of Qaboos bin Said Al Said, sultan of Oman; National Day of Oman
20 Nov 1893 birth of Felix Tauer, Czech Arabist, Iranologist and Turkologist, translator of One Thousand and One Nights into Czech
20 Nov 1907 death of Josef Wünsch, Czech explorer, who discovered the sources of Tigris (1883)
20 Nov 1923 birth of Nadine Gordimer, South African writer, recipient of Nobel Prize in Literature 1991
20 Nov 1940 birth of Arieh Warshel, Israeli-American biochemist and biophysicist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013
20 Nov 2003 death of David Dacko, first president of Central African Republic (1960–1966, 1979–1981)
20 Nov 2007 death of Ian Douglas Smith, prime minister of Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe (1964–1979)
21 Nov 1914 birth of Abdulkarim Qasim, first prime minister of Republic of Iraq (1958–1963)
21 Nov 2006 death of Hassan Gouled Aptidon, first president of Djibouti (1977–1999)
22 Nov 1808 birth of Thomas Cook, British tourism pioneer, founder of Thomas Cook Group travel agency
22 Nov 1943 independence of Lebanon (from France)
24 Nov 1784 birth of Johann Ludwig (Jean Louis) Burckhardt, Swiss Orientalist and explorer, who discovered the rock city of Petra
25 Nov 1997 death of Hastings Kamuzu Banda, first president of Malawi (1966–1994)
26 Nov 1876 birth of of Abdulaziz bin Abdurrahman Al Saud (Ibn Saud), first king of Saudi Arabia (1932–1953)
27 Nov 1967 death of Gabriel Léon M’ba, first prime minister (1959–1961) and president (1961–1967) of Gabon
28 Nov 1960 independence of Mauritania (from France)
30 Nov 1967 independence of South Yemen (from United Kingdom)
30 Nov 1989 death of Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo, first president of Cameroon (1960–1982)
30 Nov 1999 establishment of the East African Community (EAC)