How many days and weeks until November 28th?

Twelve men remained at Gresham College in the City of London on November 28th 1660 after hearing Christopher Wren, then Professor of Astronomy, give his weekly lecture, and resolved to found a college for the promoting of physico-mathematical experimental learning. Among them were Robert Boyle and John Wilkins. Charles II granted a charter in 1662 and the body became the Royal Society, whose motto, Nullius in verba, amounts to an instruction to take nobody’s word for it. It has met, in one form or another, every year since.

Magellan’s three surviving ships passed out of the strait now named after him on November 28th 1520 into an ocean so unexpectedly calm after the passage that he called it the Pacific. The crossing took nearly four months, far longer than anyone had allowed for, and he did not survive the voyage.

The Tehran Conference opened on November 28th 1943, the first time Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin sat down together. Churchill presented Stalin with the Sword of Stalingrad, forged in Sheffield at the King’s request, and turned sixty-nine before the conference broke up.

The lines now sung as Jerusalem were set to music by Hubert Parry almost ninety years after the death of the man who wrote them. William Blake, the poet and artist whose visionary verse and engravings later made his name, a hosier’s son from Soho, born on November 28th 1757, sold almost nothing in his lifetime.

Born on November 28th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

William Blake and Friedrich Engels — 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 28th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — topaz for the stone, Sagittarius 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.

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Sagittarius constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Sagittarius for a November 28th birthday.

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Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

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

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on November 28th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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