November 6, 1860: Abraham Lincoln, a Republican from Illinois, is elected U.S. president. He wins 1 percent of the vote in Virginia.
November 7, 1989: L. Douglas Wilder narrowly defeats Republican J. Marshall Coleman to become the first elected black governor in U.S. history.
November 11, 1839: The Virginia Military Institute in Lexington is founded on the site of a Virginia state arsenal.
November 12, 1925: In Buck v. Bell, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upholds the sterilization order of Carrie Buck. That ruling, in turn was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
November 15, 1805: The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean.
November 15, 1897: John Mercer Langston, the first African American elected to Congress from Virginia, dies at his home in Washington, D.C.
November 27, 1909: A group of women, including Kate Waller Barrett, Kante Langley Bosher, Adèle Clark, Ellen Glasgow, Nora Houston, Mary Johnston, and Lila Meade Valentine, found the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia.