November 15 ...

In 1777 after months of debate, the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, a precursor to the Constitution of the United States. In 1806 explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now known as "Pikes Peak." In 1889 Brazil's monarchy was overthrown. In 1926 the National Broadcasting Company debuted with a radio network of 24 stations. In 1939 President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. In 1940 the first 75,000 men were called to armed forces duty under peacetime conscription. In 1948 William Lyon Mackenzie King retired as prime minister of Canada after 21 years; he was succeeded by Louis St. Laurent. In 1966 the flight of Gemini 12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic. In 1969 250,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War. In 1982 funeral services were held in Moscow's Red Square for the late Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev. In 1995 a partial government shutdown stretched into a second day; also on this day, the space shuttle Atlantis docked with the orbiting Russian space station Mir. In 2004 the White House announced that Secretary of State Colin Powell was leaving President Bush's Cabinet, along with Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.