How many days and weeks until November 15th?

Winston Churchill was twenty-four and covering the Boer War for the Morning Post at a salary no other correspondent could match when the armoured train he was travelling on was ambushed near Chieveley on November 15th 1899. He spent an hour under fire helping to clear the derailed wagons from the line, which allowed the engine to get away with the wounded, and was then captured. He escaped from Pretoria the following month, with a reward of twenty-five pounds posted for his recapture, and came home famous enough to win a seat in Parliament.

Intel advertised the 4004 in the trade press on November 15th 1971, describing a new era of integrated electronics. It was the first microprocessor sold commercially: 2,300 transistors on a chip the size of a fingernail, which the company claimed matched the room-sized ENIAC of 1946.

Petula Clark was born at West Ewell in Surrey on November 15th 1932 and made her first BBC broadcast at nine, standing in during an air raid. She was still having hits more than twenty years later with Downtown.

A Norwegian mother, a German soldier for a father, and a family that moved to Sweden to escape the reprisals against such children: Anni-Frid Lyngstad of ABBA was born on November 15th 1945. Georgia O’Keeffe, the American painter celebrated for her large-scale flowers and desert landscapes, was born in Wisconsin in 1887.

Born on November 15th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Petula Clark and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a November 15th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — topaz for the stone, Scorpio for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

November birthstone necklace

A simple pendant in the actual November birthstone colour, from a long-running UK jewellery brand.

View on Amazon

Scorpio constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Scorpio for a November 15th birthday.

View on Amazon

Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the November birthstone and the chrysanthemum — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

View on Amazon

Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on November 15th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Availability and links were checked on 15 August 2026 and can change.