Today in History 11/16

1532: Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa.
1776: Hessian mercenaries capture Fort Washington from the Patriots.
1776: The United Provinces (The Netherlands) recognize the independence of the United States.
1849: A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labor.
1907: Oklahoma is admitted as the 46th state.
1908: Burgess Meridith is born. He is best known for playing The Penguin in the old Batman TV show, but he was also in one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, Time Enough At Last.

1914: The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.
1928: Clu Gulager is born. He's been a staple of B-movies for years. He was in Return of the Living Dead and the MST3K episodes San Francisco International and Master Ninja I.

1933: The United States and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations. President Roosevelt sends a telegram to Soviet leader Maxim Litvinov, expressing hope that United States-Soviet relations would "forever remain normal and friendly."
1938: LSD is first synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.
1940: In occupied Poland, the Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.
1945: In Operation Paperclip, the United States Army secretly admits 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.
1950: David Leisure is born. He is best known as Joe Isuzu.

1950: John Swartzwelder is born. He is one of the most prolific Simpsons writers.
1951: Miguel Sandoval is born. He played Mr. Escobar in Get Shorty.
1959: The Sound of Music opens on Broadway.
1973: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
1973: Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.