COUNTDOWN TO NOVEMBER 21ST

November 21st

World Television Day and World Hello Day — plus the Mayflower Compact, the first free balloon flight and the first woman sworn into the U.S. Senate.

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Next: Saturday, November 21, 2026.

What Makes This Day Special

November 21st
Significance

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World Television Day

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed November 21 as World Television Day in resolution 51/205, adopted on December 17, 1996. The date marks the first World Television Forum, held at the UN on November 21–22, 1996, where media leaders discussed television's growing role in a changing world. The day recognizes television's influence on public opinion and decision-making, especially its power to draw attention to conflicts, threats to peace and security, and major economic and social issues.

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World Hello Day

World Hello Day was started in 1973 by brothers Brian and Michael McCormack in response to the Yom Kippur War. To launch it, they mailed letters in seven languages to government leaders around the world. The idea is simple: greet at least ten people on November 21 to show that personal communication, rather than force, is the way to settle disputes.

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Mayflower Compact (1620)

On November 21, 1620 (November 11 on the Old Style calendar then used in England), 41 of the Mayflower's passengers signed the Mayflower Compact while the ship lay anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor at the tip of Cape Cod. Because they had landed north of the territory their patent covered, the settlers agreed to "covenant and combine" themselves into a "civil Body Politick" and to obey the laws they would make together. The compact became the founding governing document of Plymouth Colony and is often cited as an early example of self-government by consent in English America.

Historical Events

This Day
in History

1783

First Free Manned Balloon Flight

Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, made the first untethered manned flight in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon. They lifted off from the grounds of the Château de la Muette on the western edge of Paris and rose to roughly 900 meters (about 3,000 feet). After about 25 minutes and some nine kilometers, they landed on the Butte-aux-Cailles, having had to sponge out embers that scorched the balloon fabric along the way.

1789

North Carolina Ratifies the Constitution

North Carolina ratified the United States Constitution and became the 12th state. It had declined to ratify at its first convention in 1788, partly over the lack of a bill of rights. Congress's proposal of the amendments that became the Bill of Rights helped bring the state into the Union, leaving Rhode Island as the last holdout.

1877

Edison Announces the Phonograph

Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that could both record sound and play it back. Earlier devices could capture sound waves as tracings, but Edison's tinfoil cylinder let people hear a recording reproduced. The phonograph laid the groundwork for the recorded-music industry.

1922

First Woman Sworn In as a U.S. Senator

Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia took the oath of office as the first woman to serve in the United States Senate. Appointed by Governor Thomas W. Hardwick to a vacant seat, she was 87 years old, making her the oldest freshman senator ever to enter the chamber. Her service lasted just one day, ending when her elected successor, Walter F. George, was sworn in on November 22.

1995

Dayton Agreement Initialed

The Dayton Agreement was initialed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Negotiated by the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia with U.S. mediation, the accord was formally signed in Paris on December 14, 1995.