On this date in 1947, Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) marries Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey. Mountbatten is a distant cousin of Elizabeth’s and was prince of Greece and Denmark who renounced his titles in order to marry the English princess. The celebrations surrounding the wedding of the popular princess lifted the spirits of the people of Britain, who were enduring economic difficulties in the aftermath of World War II. Princess Elizabeth, heir to the British throne, was 21 years old at the time of the wedding and Mountbatten, age 26, had fought as a British naval officer during World War II and was made the duke of Edinburgh on the eve of his wedding to Elizabeth. On February 6, 1952, the death of King George VI sent Elizabeth to the throne, and Philip ended his naval career to concentrate on his new duties as consort of the British monarch. Elizabeth and Philip eventually had four children–Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.

On November 14, 1687, Nell Gwyn mistress of King Charles II of Britain dies in London. She became a legend, the only royal mistress in English history to provoke popular affection. She was one of many (there were 13 in all during his lifetime), but she was the least greedy of them all. When he lay dying he begged his heir, the Duke of York, “not to let poor Nellie starve.” In her early teens, Nell Gwyn was engaged to sell oranges at the King’s Theatre. Her natural wit and complete lack of self-consciousness caught the eye of the actor Charles Hart and others, and Dryden wrote plays to exploit her talents as a comic actress. She became Charles Hart’s mistress; she called him Charles the First, and was then passed to Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, whom she dubbed Charles the Second, and later the King, calling him her Charles the Third. Barbara Palmer had been King Charles’ mistress for many years when he became enamoured of Nell. The rivalry between his mistresses made the King’s life difficult at times. He had 13 children by these women and agreed to support the children he believed were his. Nell was not greedy and grasping like her rivals, but did receive a house near Pall Mall. Towards the end of 1669 Nell withdrew from the stage because she was pregnant. The child was a boy: however her other son, born two years later, died. Unlike Charles’ other mistresses, Nell never received a title herself, but by using clever tactics she obtained a title for her son. When Charles died in 1685 Nell’s creditors descended upon her, she never did starve, but was in grave danger of being sent to a Debtors prison. She appealed to King James and to his credit; he settled her immediate debts and gave her a pension. Nell survived Charles by only two years and was only in her thirties when she died from a stroke on November 14, 1687 at Pall Mall House.

Charles, Prince of Wales was born on November 14, 1948 in Buckingham Place. He is the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II. He is the longest-serving heir apparent in British history. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles served a tour of duty with the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. His 1981 wedding to Diana Spencer produced two sons, William and Harry. The couple divorced in 1996 after Diana publicly accused Charles of having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, and Charles admitted adultery on television. Diana died in a car crash in 1997. In 2005, after a lengthy continued association, the Prince married Camilla.

King Edward III of England was born on November 13, 1312 at Windsor Castle. He was the son of King Edward II and Isabella of France. He reigned as king of England from 1327 until his death in 1377 and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward III went on to transform the England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. His reign saw vital developments in legislation and government, and in particular the evolution of the English parliament, as well as the ravages of the Black Death. He remains one of only five monarchs to have ruled England for more than fifty years.

Edward was crowned at the age of fifteen, following the deposition of his father. When he was only seventeen years old, Edward III led a coup against the de facto ruler of the country, his mother’s consort Roger Mortimer, and began his personal reign. After a successful campaign in Scotland in 1333, he declared himself rightful heir to the French throne in 1337, starting what would become known as the Hundred Years’ War. Following some initial setbacks, the war went exceptionally well for England; the victories of Crecy and Poitiers led to the highly favorable Treaty of Bretigny. Edward’s later years, however, were marked by international failure and domestic strife, largely as a result of his inactivity and bad health. He died on June 21, 1377 at Sheen Palace from a stroke and was buried at Westminster Abbey. He was succeeded to the throne by his ten year old grandson Richard II, son of the Black Prince, who had died in 1376.

Actress Grace Kelly was born on November 12, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions as well as in more than forty episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s. In October 1953, with the release of Mogambo, she became a movie star, a status confirmed in 1954 with a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination as well as leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, for which she won the Oscar for best actress in 1955. On April 18, 1956, Kelly married prince Rainier III of Monaco. Kelly then retired from acting at to enter upon her duties in Monaco. She and Prince Rainier had three children. Kelly died on September 14, 1982 after suffering a stroke she lost control of her automobile and crashed. Her daughter, Princess Stephanie, was in the car with her, and survived the accident.

George II of Britain is born on November 10, 1683 in Hanover, Germany. He was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. In 1701, his grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, became second-in-line to the British throne. After her death, and that of Queen Anne, in 1714, his father George I, Elector of Hanover, inherited the British throne. In the first years of his father’s reign as king, young George was associated with opposition politicians, until they re-joined the governing party in 1720. He ascended to throne of Britain upon the death of his father George I on June 11, 1727 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey in October 1727. As king George II exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by Parliament. As elector, he spent 12 summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy. He had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, Fredrick, who supported the parliamentary opposition. During the War of Austrian Succession, George II participated at the battle of Dettingen (1743), and thus became the last British monarch to lead an army in battle. In 1745, supporters of the Catholic claimant to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart (The Old Pretender), led by James’s son Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie), attempted and failed to depose George in the last of the Jacobite rebellions. After Prince Frederick died unexpectedly in 1751, George’s grandson, George III, became heir and ultimately king. For two centuries after his death on October 25, 1760, history tended to view George II with disdain, concentrating on his mistresses, short temper, and boorishness. Since then, some scholars have re-assessed his legacy and conclude that he held and exercised influence in foreign policy and military appointments.

On this date in 1841, Edward VII King of Great Britain was born. Edward was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and before his accession to the throne, served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. The Edwardian era, which covered his reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society. He married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, and together they would have three sons (including the future George V) and three daughters. Edward ascended to the throne upon the death of his mother on January 22, 1901 and was crowned on August 9, 1902 at Westminster Abbey. He died on May 6, 1910, after a series of heart attacks and was interred within St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

On this date in 1745 Charles Edward Stuart invaded England with an army of 5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden (April 16, 1746). Born on December 31, 1720 and commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender, he was the second Jacobite pretender to the throne of Great Britain. This claim was as the eldest son of James Francis Edward Stuart, himself the son of King James II. Charles is perhaps best known as the instigator of the unsuccessful Jacobite Uprising of 1745, in which he led an insurrection to restore an absolute monarchy in Britain, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Culloden that effectively ended the Jacobite cause. Charles’s flight from Scotland after the uprising has rendered him a romantic figure of heroic failure in later representations. In 1759 he was involved in a French plan to invade the British Isles which was abandoned following British naval victories. He died on January 31, 1788 and is buried at St. Peters Basilica in Rome, Italy.

Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March and 7th Earl of Ulster was born on this date in 1391. In 1398 Edmund succeeded his father not only as earl of March and Ulster but as heir presumptive to the childless Richard II. In 1399 after the usurpation of the throne by the Lancastrian Henry IV, Mortimer was imprisoned, although allowed to inherit his estates. On the accession of Henry V in 1413, he was released and served Henry in the French wars. He refused to stand for plots of supporters to raise him to the throne. In 1422, after Henry V’s death, Mortimer became a member of the regency council for the young Henry VI. In 1424 he took the post of lieutenant of Ireland, where his death in 1425 by plague ended the male line of the Mortimers. His heiress was his sister Anne, whose son by Richard, Earl of Cambridge, was Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III.

On this date in 1429, Henry VI is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
Henry VI was the only child of Henry V and Catherine of Valois, born on December 6, 1421. He married Margaret of Anjou in 1445; the union produced one son, Edward, who was killed in battle one day before Henry’s execution. Henry came to the throne as an infant after the early death of his father; in name, he was king of both England and France, but a protector ruled each realm. He was educated by Richard Beauchamp beginning in 1428. The whole of Henry’s reign was involved with retaining both of his crowns – in the end, he held neither. Hostilities in France continued, but momentum swung to the French with the appearance of Joan of Arc in 1428. The seventeen year old was instrumental in rescuing the French Dauphin Charles in 1429; he was crowned at Reims as Charles VII, and she was burned at the stake as a heretic. English losses in Brittany (1449), Normandy (1450) and Gascony (1453) led to the conclusion of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453. Henry lost his claim to all French soil except for Calais. The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry’s reign. In 1453, Henry had an attack of the hereditary mental illness that plagued the French house of Valois; Richard, Duke of York, was made protector of the realm during the illness. His wife Margaret, a rather headstrong woman, alienated Richard upon Henry’s recovery and Richard responded by attacking and defeating the queen’s forces at St. Albans in 1455. Richard captured the king in 1460 and forced him to acknowledge Richard as heir to the crown. Henry escaped, joined the Lancastrian forces and attacked at Towton in March 1461, only to be defeated by the York’s. Richard’s son, Edward IV, was proclaimed king; Margaret and Henry were exiled to Scotland. They were captured in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1470. Henry was briefly restored to power in September 1470. Edward, Prince of Wales, died after his final victory at Tewkesbury on May 20, 1471 and Henry returned to the Tower. The last Lancastrian king was murdered the following day.

On this date in 2009, army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan kills 13 people and wounds 32 in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood. Early in the afternoon of November 5, Major Hasan, armed with two pistols, allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”) and then opened fire at a crowd inside a Fort Hood processing center where soldiers who were about to be deployed overseas or were returning from deployment received medical screenings. The massacre, which left 12 service members and one Department of Defense employee dead, lasted approximately 10 minutes before Hasan was shot by civilian police and taken into custody.

The Virginia-born Hasan, the son of Palestinian immigrants, entered active military duty following his 1995 graduation from Virginia Tech University. In 2003, he completed his psychiatry training at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and went on to work at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., treating soldiers returning from war with post-traumatic stress disorder. In May 2009, he was promoted to the rank of major in the Army, and that July, was transferred to Fort Hood.

The motivation for the massacre remains unclear. At the time of the shootings, Hasan was facing deployment to a combat zone in Afghanistan or Iraq, about which he apparently had voiced reluctance. Several years prior to the attack, Hasan told relatives he wanted to leave the Army, where he believed he was harassed for being a Muslim. In the aftermath of the shootings, reviews by the Pentagon and a U.S. Senate panel found Hasan’s superiors had continued to promote him despite the fact that concerns had been raised over his behavior, which suggested he had become a radical and potentially violent Islamic extremist. Among other things, he reportedly publicly defended Osama bin Laden and said America’s war on terror was really a war against Islam. Prior to the Fort Hood rampage, government authorities reportedly also learned Hasan had repeated communication with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric and proponent of violent jihad against America; however, this information about Hasan was apparently not reported to the Army. Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of shots fired at him by police attempting to stop his rampage, remains in a Texas jail awaiting trial.