November 3 in History

In 1534, the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which declared King Henry VIII "Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England." The law ended the pope's authority over the English church and placed it under royal control. It was a decisive step in the English Reformation, and it reshaped the religious, political, and cultural life of England for centuries.

The Bhola Cyclone, which struck the Bay of Bengal coast in November 1970, is generally regarded as the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded. It devastated the low-lying delta of what was then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and killed an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people. The exact toll will never be known, and the storm mattered far beyond its human cost: the government's response became a catalyst for the political crisis that led to the creation of Bangladesh.