November 19, 1924: Mystery surrounds the death of director Thomas H. Ince. Rumors suggest he was shot aboard the yacht of William Randolph Hearst.
November 18, 1928: Mickey Mouse whistles a happy tune in his first sound cartoon short, Walt Disney’s groundbreaking Steamboat Willie.
November 21, 1931: Nine months after scoring big with Dracula, Universal Pictures has another horror hit in Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff as the scientist’s creation.
November 17, 1933: “Hail Freedonia!” as Duck Soup, the Marx Brothers’ final film for Paramount and the last to feature youngest sibling Zeppo, opens.
November 16, 1945: A cartoon spirit named Casper first materializes onto movie screens in Paramount’s The Friendly Ghost.
November 22, 1955: Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges suffers a fatal heart attack at 60 after attending a boxing match.
November 16, 1960: Less than two weeks after completion of The Misfits, Clark Gable, 59, dies of a heart attack; he will be buried next to Carole Lombard.
November 20, 1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which producer Michael Douglas’ father Kirk had been trying to bring to the screen for years, opens.
November 21, 1976: Rocky, the low-budget tale of a Philadelphia boxer written by and starring an unknown Sylvester Stallone, debuts.
November 16, 1977: With the future of Columbia resting on its release, Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind debuts and becomes a critical and commercial success.
November 19, 1980: Director Michael Cimino’s $35 million western, Heaven’s Gate, becomes one of the biggest bombs in film history and sinks United Artists.
November 22, 1980: Queen of screen innuendo and double entendre Mae West, 87, dies from complications from a stroke.
November 20, 1981: James Cagney returns to the big screen after a 20-year absence in director Milos Forman’s Ragtime.
November 19, 1985: Lincoln Perry, who gained fame in movies as stereotypical black servant Stepin Fetchit, passes away at 83.
November 16, 1990: John Hughes and Chris Columbus‘ Home Alone opens and will become the season’s biggest surprise and a starmaker for youngster Macaulay Culkin.
November 17, 1995: The name is Brosnan…Pierce Brosnan, who finally becomes the new James Bond in Goldeneye.
November 22, 1995: The first feature-length computer-animated film, Toy Story, is released by Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.
November 17, 2006: Daniel Craig becomes the sixth big-screen James Bond with the release of the 21st entry in the spy film series, Casino Royale.
November 20, 2006: Acclaimed director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H, The Player) dies at 81 from leukemia.
November 21, 2008: Sullen teen Kristen Stewart falls for sparkly vampire Robert Pattinson in Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer’s supernatural romance novel.