At the age of 71

• 20-November-1961 : The funeral of longtime House Speaker Sam Rayburn is held in Washington, DC. Two former Presidents (Truman, Eisenhower) and one future one (Lyndon B. Johnson) join President Kennedy in paying their respects.
• 19-August-1953 : Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see Operation Ajax).
• 11-April-1951 : U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
• 24-December-1940 : Mahatma Gandhi, Indian spiritual novnovviolence leader writes his second letter to Adolf Hitler addressing him "My friend", requesting him to stop the war Germany had begun.
• 05-April-1940 : Neville Chamberlain, in what proves to be a tragic misjudgment, declares in a major public speech that Hitler has "missed the bus".
• 03-February-1882 : P. T. Barnum purchases the elephant Jumbo.
• 16-May-1876 : British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rejects the Berlin Memorandum.
• 14-October-1806 : Battle of Jena-Auerstadt: Napoleon defeats the Prussian army of Prince Hohenlohe at Jena while Marshal Davout defeats the main Prussian army under the Duke of Brunswick, who is killed.
• 08-May-1721 : Pope Innocent XIII succeeds Pope Clement XI as the 244th pope.
• 10-January-1645 : Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud is executed for treason on Tower Hill, London.