November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 60 days remain until the end of the year.
1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1611 – Shakespeare's play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.
1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
1848 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens.
1861 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing General Winfield Scott.
1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.
1894 – Buffalo Bill, 15 of his Native Americans, and Annie Oakley were filmed by Thomas Edison in his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, New Jersey.