On This Day

November 6, 2015

1789 - Father John Carroll was appointed as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States of America.

1832 - Joseph Smith, III, was born. He was the first president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was also the son of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.

1851 - Charles Henry Dow was born. He was the founder of Dow Jones & Company.

1860 - Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the sixteenth president of the United States.

1861 - Jefferson Davis was elected as the president of the Confederacy in the U.S.

1861 - The inventor of basketball, James Naismith, was born.

1869 - The first official intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick, NJ.

1894 - William C. Hooker received a patent for the mousetrap.

1903 - Philippe Bunau-Varilla, as Panama's ambassador to the United States, signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty. The document granted rights to the United States to build and indefinitely administer the Panama Canal Zone and its defenses.

1913 - Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested as he led a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1917 - During World War I, Candian forces take the village of Passchendaele, Belgium, in the Third Battle of Ypres.

1923 - Jacob Schick was granted a patent for the electric shaver.

1935 - Edwin H. Armstrong announced his development of FM broadcasting.

1952 - The first hydrogen bomb was exploded at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1961 - In the Saraha Desert of Algeria, a natural gas well ignited when a pipe ruptured. The flames rose between 450 feet and 800 feet. The fire burned until April 28, 1962 when a team led by Red Adair used explosives to deprived the fire of oxygen. (Devil's Cigarette Lighter)

1962 - The U.N. General Assembly adopts a resolution that condemned South Africa's racist apartheid policies. The resolution also called for all member states to terminate military and economic relations with South Africa.

1965 - The Freedom Flights program began which would allow 250,000 Cubans to come to the United States by 1971.

1967 - Phil Donahue began a TV talk show in Dayton, OH. The show was on the air for 29 years.

1973 - NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft began photographing Jupiter.

1975 - King Hassan II of Morocco launches the Green March, a mass migration of 300,000 unarmed Moroccans, that march into the nation of Western Sahara.

1977 - 39 people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water through the campus of Toccoa Falls Bible College in Georgia.

1983 - U.S. Army choppers dropped hundreds of leaflets over northern and central Grenada. The leaflets urged residents to cooperate in locating any Grenadian army or Cuban resisters to the U.S-led invasion.

1984 - For the first time in 193 years, the New York Stock Exchange remained open during a presidential election day.

1985 - Leftist guerrillas belonging to Columbia's April 19 Movement seized control of the Palace of Justice in Bogota.

1986 - Former Navy radioman John A. Walker Jr., was sentenced in Baltimore to life imprisonment. Walker had admitted to being the head of a family spy ring.

1986 - U.S. intelligence sources confirmed a story run by the Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa that reported the U.S. had been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven American hostages.

1989 - In the hopes of freeing U.S. hostages held in Iran, the U.S. announced that it would unfreeze $567 million in Iranian assets that had been held since 1979.

1990 - About 20% of the Universal Studios backlot in southern California was destroyed in an arson fire.

1991 - Kuwait celebrated the dousing of the last of the oil fires ignited by Iraq during the Persian Gulf War.

1995 - Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced plans to move his team to Baltimore. (Maryland)

1995 - Mark Messier scored his 500th NHL goal.

1996 - Michael Jordan scored 50 points for the 29th time in his NBA career.

1998 - The Islamic militant group Hamas exploded a car bomb killing the two attackers and injuring 21 civilians.

1999 - Australian voters rejected a referendum to drop Britain's queen as their head of state.

2001 - In London, the "Lest We Forget" exhibit opened at the National Memorial Arboretum. Fred Seiker was the creator of the 24 watercolors. Seiker was a prisoner of war that had been forced to build the Burma Railroad, the "railway of death," for the Japanese during World War II.

2001 - In Madrid, Spain, a car bomb injured about 60 people. The bomb was blamed on Basque separatists.

2001 - Ten people were executed in Beijing, China. The state newspaper of China said that all of the people executed were robbers and killers aged 20-23.

November 7, 2015

1637 - Anne Hutchinson, the first female religious leader in the American colonies, was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy.

1665 - "The London Gazette" was first published.

1811 - The Shawnee Indians of chief Tecumseh were defeated by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Wabash (or (Tippecanoe).

1837 - In Alton, IL, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot to death by a mob (supporters of slavery) while trying to protect his printing shop from a third destruction.

1874 - The Republican party of the U.S. was first symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.

1876 - The cigarette manufacturing machine was patented by Albert H. Hook.

1877 - "The Sorcerer" was performed for the first time of 178 total performances.

1893 - The state of Colorado granted its women the right to vote.

1895 - The last spike was driven into Canada's first transcontinental railway in the mountains of British Columbia.

1914 - The "New Republic" magazine was printed for the first time.

1916 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.

1917 - Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place. The provisional government of Alexander Kerensky was overthrown by forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

1918 - During World War I, a false report through the United Press announced that an armistice had been signed.

1929 - The Museum of Modern Art in New York City opened to the public.

1932 - "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" was broadcast for the first on CBS Radio.

1933 - Voters in Pennsylvania eliminated sports from Pennsylvanian "Blue Laws."

1940 - The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state collapsed during a windstorm. The suspension bridge had opened to traffic on July 1, 1940.

1944 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first person to win a fourth term as president.

1963 - The comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" premiered in Hollywood.

1963 - Elston Howard, of the New York Yankees, became the first black player to be named the American League's Most Valuable Player.

1965 - The "Pillsbury Dough Boy" debuted in television commercials.

1967 - Carl Stokes was elected the first black mayor Cleveland, OH, becoming the first black mayor of a major city.

1967 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

1967 - The U.S. Selective Service Commission announced that college students arrested in anti-war demonstrations would lose their draft deferments.

1973 - New Jersey became the first U.S. state to permit girls to play on Little League baseball teams.

1973 - The U.S. Congress over-rode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval.

1983 - A bomb exploded in the U.S. Capitol. No one was injured.

1985 - The Colombian army stormed the country's Palace of Justice. The siege claimed the lives of 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court Justices. The Palace had been seized by leftist guerrillas belonging to the April 19 Movement.

1987 - Tunisia's president Habib Bourguiba was overthrown. He had been president since the country's independence in 1956.

1988 - Sugar Ray Leonard knocked out Donnie LaLonde.

1989 - L. Douglas Wilder won the governor's race in Virginia, becoming the first elected African-American state governor in U.S. history.

1989 - David Dinkins was elected and become New York City's first African-American mayor.

1989 - Richard Ramirez, convicted of California's "Night Stalker" killings, was sentenced to death.

1991 - Magic Johnson (NBA) announced that he had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, and that he was retiring from basketball.

1991 - Pro- and anti-Communists rallies took place in Moscow on the 74th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

1991 - Actor Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman, pled no contest to charges of indecent exposure. Reubens had been arrested in Sarasota, FL, for exposing himself in a theater.

1995 - In a Japanese courtroom, three U.S. military men admitted to the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl.

1999 - Tiger Woods became the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win four straight tournaments.

2000 - Hillary Rodham Clinton made history as the first president's wife to win public office. The state of New York elected her to the U.S. Senate. (New York)

2001 - The new .BIZ domain extension was officially launched.

2001 - After a 16-month stoppage the Concorde resumed flying commercially.

November 8, 2015

1793 - The Louvre Museum, in Paris, opened to the public for the first time.

1805 - The "Corps of Discovery" reached the Pacific Ocean. The expedition was led by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. The journey had begun on May 14, 1804, with the goal of exploring the Louisiana Purchase territory.

1880 - French actress Sarah Bernhardt made her American stage debut in "Adrienne Lecouvreur" in New York City.

1889 - Montana became the 41st U.S. state.

1895 - Wilhelm Roentgen while experimenting with electricity discovered the scientific principle involved and took the first X-ray pictures.

1910 - William H. Frost patented the insect exterminator.

1923 - Adolf Hitler made his first attempt at seizing power in Germany with a failed coup in Munich that came to be known as the "Beer-Hall Putsch."

1933 - The Civil Works Administration was created by executive order by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The organization was designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed people in the U.S.

1939 - "Life With Father" premiered on Broadway in New York City.

1942 - The U.S. invaded Morocco and Algeria.

1942 - During World War II, Operation Torch began as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 - During the Korean conflict, the first jet-plane battle took place as U.S. Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shot down a North Korean MiG-15.

1954 - The American League approved the transfer of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team to Kansas City, MO.

1956 - After turning down 18,000 names, the Ford Motor Company decided to name their new car the "Edsel," after Henry Ford's only son.

1959 - Elgin Baylor (Minneapolis Lakers) scored 64 points and set a National Basketball Association scoring record.

1965 - The soap opera "Days of Our Lives" debuted on NBC-TV.

1966 - Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.

1966 - Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.

1979 - The program, "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage", premiered on ABC-TV. The show was planned to be temporary, but it evolved into "Nightline" in March of 1980.

1979 - U.S. Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Mac Mathias (R-MD) introduced legislation to provide a site on the National Mall for the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1980 - Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California announced that they had discovered a 15th moon orbiting the planet Saturn.

1981 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek asserted that Egypt was "an African State" that was "neither East nor West".

1985 - A letter signed by four American hostages in Lebanon was delivered to The Associated Press in Beirut. The letter, contained pleas from Terry Anderson, Rev. Lawrence Jenco, David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland to President Reagan to negotiate a release.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered more troop deployments in the Persian Gulf, adding about 150,000 soldiers to the multi-national force fighting against Iraq.

1991 - The European Community and Canada imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an attempt to stop the Balkan civil war.

1992 - About 350,000 people rallied in Berlin against racist violence.

1993 - Five Picasso paintings and other artwork were stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, Sweden. The works were valued at $52 million.

1997 - Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.

2000 - In Florida, a statewide recount began to decide the winner of the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

2000 - Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report that absolved the government of wrongdoing in the 1993 seige of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.

2001 - The "Homage to Van Gogh: International Artists Pay Tribute to a Legend" exhibit opened at the Appleton Museum of Art in Florida.

November 9, 2015

1857 - The "Atlantic Monthly" first appeared on newsstands and featured the first installment of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

1872 - A fire destroyed about 800 buildings in Boston, MA.

1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt left for Panama to see the progress on the new canal. It was the first foreign trip by a U.S. president.

1911 - George Claude of Paris, France, applied for a patent on neon advertising signs.

1918 - Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II announced he would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.

1923 - In Munich, the Beer Hall Putsch was crushed by German troops that were loyal to the democratic government. The event began the evening before when Adolf Hitler took control of a beer hall full of Bavarian government leaders at gunpoint.

1935 - United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.

1938 - Nazi troops and sympathizers destroyed and looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, burned 267 synagogues, killed 91 Jews, and rounded up over 25,000 Jewish men in an event that became known as Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass."

1953 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that major league baseball did not come within the scope of federal antitrust laws.

1961 - Major Robert White flew an X-15 rocket plane at a world record speed of 4,093 mph.

1961 - The Professional Golfer's Association (PGA) eliminated its "caucasians only" rule.

1963 - In Japan, about 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion.

1963 - In Japan, 160 people died in a train crash.

1965 - The great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.

1967 - A Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.

1976 - The U.N. General Assembly approved ten resolutions condemning the apartheid government in South Africa.

1979 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously called upon Iran to release all American hostages "without delay." Militants, mostly students had taken 63 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4.

1981 - U.S. troops began arriving in Egypt for a three-week Rapid Deployment Force excercise. Somalia, Sudan and Oman were also involved in the operation.

1981 - The Internation Monetary Fund approved a $5.8 billion load to India. It was the highest loan to date.

1982 - Sugar Ray Leonard retired from boxing. In 1984 Leonard came out of retirement to fight one more time before becoming a boxing commentator for NBC.

1984 - A bronze statue titled "Three Servicemen," by Frederick Hart, was unveiled at the site of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

1989 - Communist East Germany opened its borders, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany.

1990 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin, visiting London, appealed for assistance in rescheduling his country's debt, and asked British businesses to invest.

1997 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) became the first player in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in nine straight seasons. In the same game Sanders passed former Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett for third place on the all-time rushing list.

1998 - A federal judge in New York approved the richest antitrust settlement in U.S. history. A leading brokerage firm was ordered to pay $1.03 billion to investors who had sued over price-rigging of Nasdaq stocks.

1998 - PBS aired its documentary special "Chihuly Over Venice."

2004 - U.S. First Lady Laura Bush officially reopened Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to pedestrians.

November 10, 2015

1775 - The U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress. The Marines went out of existence after the end of the Revolutionary War in April of 1783. The Marine Corps were formally re-established on July 11, 1798. This day is observed as the birth date of the United States Marine Corps.

1801 - The U.S. state of Tennessee outlawed the practice of dueling.

1871 - Henry M. Stanley, journalist and explorer, found David Livingstone. Livingston was a missing Scottish missionary in central Africa. Stanley delivered his famous greeting: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1879 - Western Union and the National Bell Telephone Company reached a settlement over various telephone patents.

1917 - 41 suffragists were arrested in front of the White House.

1919 - The American Legion held its first national convention, in Minneapolis, MN.

1928 - Michinomiya Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.

1951 - Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began when Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, NJ, called his counterpart in Alameda, CA.

1954 - The Iwo Jima Memorial was dedicated in Arlington, VA.

1957 - 102,368 people attended the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams game. The crowd was the largest regular-season crowd in NFL history.

1969 - "Sesame Street" made its debut on PBS.

1970 - The Great Wall of China opened for tourism.

1975 - The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution that equated Zionism with racism. The resolution was repealed in December of 1991.

1975 - The Edmund Fitzgerald, an ore-hauling ship, and its crew of 29 vanished during a storm in Lake Superior.

1976 - The Utah Supreme Court gave approval for Gary Gilmore to be executed, according to his wishes. The convicted murderer was put to death the following January.

1977 - The Major Indoor Soccer League was officially organized in New York City. (New York)

1980 - CBS News anchor Dan Rather claimed he had been kidnapped in a cab. It turned out that Rather had refused to pay the cab fare.

1982 - Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev died of a heart attack at age 75. He was suceeded by Yuri V. Andropov.

1982 - In Washington, DC, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to visitors.

1984 - The U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1986 - Camille Sontag and Marcel Coudari, two Frenchmen were released by the captors that held them in Lebanon.

1988 - The U.S. Department of Energy announced that Texas would be the home of the atom-smashing super-collider. The project was cancelled by a vote of the U.S. Congress in Oct. 1993.

1990 - Chandra Shekhar was sworn in as India's new prime minister.

1991 - Robert Maxwell was buried in Israel, five days after his body was recovered off the Canary Islands.

1993 - John Wayne Bobbitt was acquitted on the charge of marital sexual assault against his wife who sexually mutilated him. Lorena Bobbitt was later acquitted of malicious wounding her husband.

1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Brady Bill, which called for a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.

1994 - U.S. officials announced that it planned to stop enforcing the arms embargo against the Bosnian government the following week. The U.N. Security Council was opposed to lifting the ban.

1994 - Iraq recognized Kuwait's borders in the hope that the action would end trade sanctions.

1995 - Nigeria's military rulers hanged playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa along with several other anti-government activists.

1995 - In Katmandu, Nepal, searchers rescued 549 hikers after a massive avalanche struck the Himalayan foothills. The disaster left 24 tourists and 32 Nepalese dead.

1996 - Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) became the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 50,000 yards. (Florida)

1997 - WorldCom Inc. acquired MCI Communication Corporation. It was the largest merger in U.S. history valued at $37 billion.

1997 - A jury in Virginia convicted Mir Aimal Kasi of the murder of two CIA employees in 1993.

1997 - A judge in Cambridge, MA, reduced Louise Woodward's murder conviction to manslaughter and sentenced the English au pair to time served. She had served 279 days in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

1998 - At the White House, "The Virtual Wall" website (www.thevirtualwall.org) was unveiled. The site allows visitors to experience The Wall through the Internet.

1999 - Ted Danson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2001 - The World Trade Organization approved China's membership.

2001 - The musical "Lady Diana - A Smile Charms the World" opened in Germany.

2004 - Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) was awarded the "Man for Peace" prize in Rome at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

November 11, 2015

1620 - The Mayflower Compact was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower when they landed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. The compact called for "just and equal laws."

1831 - Nat Turner, a slave and educated minister, was hanged in Jerusalem, VA, after inciting a violent slave uprising.

1851 - The telescope was patented by Alvan Clark.

1868 - The first indoor amateur track and field meet was held by the New York Athletic Club.

1880 - Australian outlaw and bank robber Ned Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne jail at age 25.

1887 - Labor Activists were hanged in Illinois after being convicted of being connected to a bombing that killed eight police officers.

1889 - Washington became the 42nd state of the United States.

1918 - World War I came to an end when the Allies and Germany signed an armistice. This day became recognized as Veteran's Day in the United States.

1918 - Poland was reestablished shortly after the surrender of Germany.

1920 - The body of an unknown British soldier was buried in Westminster Abbey. The service was recorded with the first electronic recording process developed by Lionel Guest and H.O. Merriman.

1921 - The Tomb of the Unknowns was dedicated at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia by U.S. President Harding.

1938 - Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on network radio.

1940 - The Jeep made its debut.

1942 - During World War II, Germany completed its occupation of France.

1946 - The New York Knickerbockers (now the Knicks) played their first game at Madison Square Garden.

1952 - The first video recorder was demonstrated by John Mullin and Wayne Johnson in Beverly Hills, CA.

1965 - The government of Rhodesia declared its independence from Britain. The country later became known as Zimbabwe.

1966 - The U.S. launched Gemini 12 from Cape Kennedy, FL. The craft circled the Earth 59 times before returning.

1972 - The U.S. Army turned over its base at Long Bihn to the South Vietnamese army. The event symbolized the end of direct involvement in the Vietnam War by the U.S. military.

1975 - Civil war broke out when Angola gained independence from Portugal.

1981 - Stuntman Dan Goodwin scaled the outside of the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago in about six hours.

1981 - The U.S.S. Ohio was commissioned at the Electric Boat Division in Groton, CT. It was the first Trident class submarine.

1984 - The Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. died in Atlanta at age 84.

1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan accepted the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a gift to the nation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

1984 - Gary Coleman, at age 13, underwent his second kidney transplant in Los Angeles. He had his first transplant at age 5.

1986 - Sperry Rand and Burroughs merged to form "Unisys," becoming the second largest computer company.

1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Irises" was sold for a then record 53.9 million dollars in New York.

1988 - Police in Sacramento, CA, found the first of seven bodies buried on the grounds of a boardinghouse. Dorothea Puente was later charged in the deaths of nine people, convicted of three murders and sentenced to life in prison.

1990 - Stormie Jones, the world's first heart-liver transplant recipient, died at a Pittsburgh hospital at age 13.

1991 - The U.S. stationed its first diplomat in Cambodia in 16 years to help the nation arrange democratic elections.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin told U.S. senators in a letter that Americans had been held in prison camps after World War II. Some were "summarily executed," but others were still living in his country voluntarily.

1992 - The Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.

1993 - Walt Disney Co. announced plans to build a U.S. history theme park in a Virginia suburb of Washington. The plan was halted later due to local opposition.

Disney movies, music and books

1993 - In Washington, DC, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated to honor the more than 11,000 women who had served in the Vietnam War.

1994 - In Gaza, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at an Israeli military checkpoint killing three soldiers.

1996 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund unveiled "The Wall That Heals." The work was a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that would tour communities throughout the United States.

1997 - The Eastman Kodak Company announced that they were laying off 10,000 employees.

1997 - Roger Clemens (Toronto Blue Jays) became the third major league player to win the Cy Young Award four times.

1998 - Jay Cochrane set a record for the longest blindfolded skywalk. He walked on a tightrope between the towers of the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas, NV. The towers are 600 feet apart.

1998 - Vincente Fernandez received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Israel's Cabinet ratified a land-for-peace agreement with the Palestinians.

2002 - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates pledged $100 million to fight AIDS in India.

November 12, 2015

1799 - Andrew Ellicott Douglass witnesses the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys.

1815 - American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, NY.

1840 - Sculptor Auguste Rodin was born in Paris. His most widely known works are "The Kiss" and "The Thinker."

1859 - The first flying trapeze act was performed by Jules Leotard at Cirque Napoleon in Paris, France. He was also the designer of the garment that is named after him.

1892 - William "Pudge" Heffelfinger became the first professional football player when he was paid a $500 bonus for helping the Allegheny Athletic Association beat the Pittsburgh Athletic Club.

1915 - Theodore W. Richards, of Harvard University, became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

1918 - Austria and Czechoslovakia were declared independent republics.

1920 - Judge Keneshaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of the American and National Leagues.

1921 - Representatives of nine nations gathered for the start of the Washington Conference for Limitation of Armaments.

1927 - Joseph Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union. Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party leading to Stalin coming to power.

1931 - Maple Leaf Gardens opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was to be the new home of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League (NHL).

1933 - In Philadelphia, the first Sunday football game was played.

1940 - Walt Disney released "Fantasia."

Disney movies, music and books

1942 - During World War II, naval battle of Guadalcanal began between Japanese and American forces. The Americans won a major victory.

1944 - During World War II, the German battleship "Tirpitz" was sunk off the coast of Norway.

1946 - The first drive-up banking facility opened at the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, IL.

1948 - The war crimes tribunal sentenced Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and six other World War II Japanese leaders to death.

1953 - The National Football League (NFL) policy of blacking out home games was upheld by Judge Allan K. Grim of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

1954 - Ellis Island, the immigration station in New York Harbor, closed after processing more than 20 million immigrants since 1892.

1964 - Paula Murphy set the female land speed record 226.37 MPH.

1972 - Don Shula, coach of the Miami Dolphins, became the first NFL head coach to win 100 regular season games in 10 seasons.

1975 - U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retired because of failing health, ending a record 36½-year term.

1979 - U.S. President Carter ordered a halt to all oil imports from Iran in response to 63 Americans being taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran on November 4.

1980 - The U.S. space probe Voyager I came within 77,000 miles of Saturn while transmitting data back to Earth.

1982 - Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.

1984 - Space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared the Palapa B-2 satellite in history's first space salvage.

1985 - In Norfolk, VA, Arthur James Walker was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a spy ring run by his brother, John A. Walker Jr.

1987 - The American Medical Association issued a policy statement that said it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person had AIDS or was HIV-positive.

1990 - Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumed the Chrysanthemum Throne.

1991 - In the U.S., Robert Gates was sworn in as CIA director.

1995 - The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

1997 - Four Americans and their Pakistani driver were shot to death in Karachi, Pakistan. The Americans were oil company employees.

1997 - The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iraq for constraints being placed on UN arms inspectors.

1997 - Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

1998 - Daimler-Benz completed a merger with Chrysler to form Daimler-Chrysler AG.

2001 - American Airlines flight 587 crashed just minutes after take off from Kennedy Airport in New York. The Airbus A300 crashed into the Rockaway Beach section of Queens. All 260 people aboard were killed.

2001 - It was reported that the Northern Alliance had taken the Kabul, Afghanistan, from the ruling Taliban. The Norther Alliance at this point was reported to have control over most of the northern areas of Afghanistan.

2002 - Stan Lee filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment Inc. that claimed the company had cheated him out of millions of dollars in movie profits related to the 2002 movie "Spider-Man." Lee was the creator of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil.

2013 - A series of portraits of Lucian Freud by the British painter Francis Bacon known as Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142.4 million at an auction in New York City.

2013 - In New York, it was announced that the new World Trade Center was the tallest building in the United States. The height was measured at 1,776 feet. The building was also the fourth tallest building in the world at the time.

2013 - U.S. Airways and AMR reached an antitrust settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice which would allow a merger that would create the world's largest airline.

2014 - NATO commander Gen Philip Breedlove reported that Russian military equipment and Russian combat troops had been seen entering Ukraine in columns over several days.

2014 - The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft used its lander Philae to perform the first soft landing on a comet. The comet was 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

November 13, 2015

1775 - During the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal.

1789 - Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

1805 - Johann George Lehner, a Viennese butcher, invented a recipe and called it the "frankfurter."

1927 - The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

1933 - In Austin, MN, the first sit-down labor strike in America took place.

1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

1971 - The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, Mars.

1977 - The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.

1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

1984 - A libel suit against Time, Inc. by former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to trial in New York.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged that the U.S. had sent "defensive weapons and spare parts" to Iran. He denied that the shipments were sent to free hostages, but that they had been sent to improve relations.

1991 - Roger Clemens won his third Cy Young Award for the American League.

1994 - Sweden voted to join the European Union.

1995 - Greg Maddox (Atlanta Braves) became the first major league pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards.

1997 - Iraq expelled six U.N. arms inspectors that were U.S. citizens.

1998 - "The Wizard of Oz" was released on the big screen by Warner Bros. 59 years after its original release.

1998 - Monica Lewinsky signed a deal with St. Martin's Press for the North American rights to her story about her affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order that would allow for military tribunals to try any foreigners captured with connections to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. It was the first time since World War II that a president had taken such action.

2006 - A deal was finalized for Google Inc. to acquire YouTube for $1.65 million in Google stock.

2009 - NASA announced that water had been discoved on the moon. The discovery came from the planned impact on the moon of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).

November 14, 2015

1832 - The first streetcar went into operation in New York City, NY. The vehicle was horse-drawn and had room for 30 people.

1851 - Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" was first published in the U.S.

1881 - Charles J. Guiteau's trial began for the assassination of U.S. President Garfield. Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year.

1889 - New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began domestic radio service.

1935 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth after its new constitution was approved. The Tydings-McDuffie Act planned for the Phillipines to be completely independent by July 4, 1946.

1940 - During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked.

1951 - The first telecast of a world lightweight title fight was seen coast to coast. Jimmy Carter beat Art Aragon in Los Angeles.

1956 - The USSR crushed the Hungarian uprising.

1968 - Yale University announced it was going co-educational.

1969 - Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon from Cape Kennedy, FL.

1969 - During the Vietnam War, Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, commander of the Third Marine Division, became the first general to be killed in Vietnam by enemy fire.

1972 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 (1,003.16) level for the first time.

1972 - Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike.

1973 - Britain's Princess Anne married a commoner, Capt. Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. They divorced in 1992, and Princess Anne re-married.

1979 - U.S. President Carter froze all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks abroad in response to the taking of 63 American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran.

1983 - The British government announced that U.S.-made cruise missiles had arrived at the Greenham Common air base amid protests.

1988 - Israeli President Chaim Herzog formally asked Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to form a new government.

1989 - The U.S. Navy ordered an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down in the wake of a recent string of serious accidents.

1990 - Simon and Schuster announced it had dropped plans to publish Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho."

1991 - After 13 years in exile Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to his homeland.

1994 - U.S. experts visited North Korea's main nuclear complex for the first time under an accord that opened such sites to outside inspections.

1995 - The U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while most government offices operated with skeleton crews.

November 15, 2015

1777 - The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, precursor to the U.S. Constitution.

1806 - Explorer Zebulon Pike spotted the mountaintop that became known as Pikes Peak.

1864 - Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops began their "March to the Sea" during the U.S. Civil War.

1867 - the first stock ticker was unveiled in New York City.

1889 - Brazil's monarchy was overthrown.

1901 - Miller Reese patented an electrical hearing aid.

1902 - Anarchist Gennaro Rubin failed in his attempt to murder King Leopold II of Belgium.

1920 - The League of Nations met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland.

1926 - The National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) debuted with a radio network of 24 stations. The first network radio broadcast was a four-hour "spectacular."

1939 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.

1940 - The first 75,000 men were called to Armed Forces duty under peacetime conscription.

1965 - The Soviet probe, Venera 3, was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. On March 1, 1966, it became the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet when it crashed on Venus.

1966 - The flight of Gemini 12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

1969 - In Washington, DC, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War.

1985 - Britain and Ireland signed an accord giving Dublin an official consultative role in governing Northern Ireland.

1986 - A government tribunal in Nicaragua convicted American Eugene Hasenfus of charges related to his role in delivering arms to Contra rebels. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and was pardoned a month later.

1986 - Ivan F. Boesky, reputed to be the highest-paid person on Wall Street, faced penalties of $100 million for insider stock trading. It was the highest penalty ever imposed by the SEC.

1988 - The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at the close of a four-day conference in Algiers.

1992 - Richard Petty drove in the final race of his 35-year career.

1993 - A judge in Mineola, NY, sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory rape of Amy Fisher. Fisher was serving a prison sentence for shooting and wounding Buttafuoco's wife, Mary Jo.

1995 - Texaco agreed to pay $176 million to settle a race-discrimination lawsuit.

1999 - Representatives from China and the United States signed a major trade agreement that involved China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

2000 - Three police officers from the Rampart division of the Los Angeles police department were convicted on several counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. One other officer was acquitted. The case was the first major case against the anti-gang unit.

2005 - In Amiens, France, Isabelle Dinoire became the first person to undergo a partial face transplant. She had been attacked by a dog earlier in the year.

2006 - Andy Warhol's painting of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong sold for $17.4 million. At the same auction "Orange Marilyn" sold for $16.2 million and "Sixteen Jackies" sold for $15.6 million

November 17, 2015

1558 - Elizabeth I ascended the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary Tudor.

1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.

1796 - Catherine the Great of Russia died at the age of 67.

1798 - Irish nationalist leader Wolfe Tone committed suicide while in jail awaiting execution.

1800 - The U.S. Congress held its first session in Washington, DC, in the partially completed Capitol building.

1869 - The Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas.

1880 - The first three British female graduates received their Bachelor of Arts degrees from London University.

1903 - Russia's Social Democrats officially split into two groups - Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

1904 - The first underwater submarine journey was taken, from Southampton, England, to the Isle of Wight.

1913 - The steamship Louise became the first ship to travel through the Panama Canal.

1913 - In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm banned the armed forces from dancing the tango.

1922 - Siberia voted for union with the U.S.S.R.

1962 - Washington's Dulles International Airport was dedicated by U.S. President Kennedy.

1968 - NBC cut away from the final minutes of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to begin a TV special, "Heidi," on schedule. The Raiders came from behind to beat the Jets 43-32.

1970 - The Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1. The vehicle was released by Luna 17.

1973 - U.S. President Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, FL, "people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."

1979 - Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

1982 - The Empire State Building was added to the National Register of Historical Places.

1988 - Benazir Bhutto became the first woman leader of an Islamic country. She was elected in the first democratic elections in Pakistan in 11 years.

1990 - A mass grave was discovered by the bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand. The bodies were believed to be those of World War II prisoners of war.

1990 - The Soviet government agreed to change the country's constitution.

1997 - 62 people were killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt. The attackers were killed by police.

1997 - Mario Lemieux was voted into the NHL Hall of Fame.

2001 - "Toys "R" Us Times Square - The Center of the Toy Universe" opened in New York City.

2006 - Sony's PlayStation 3 went on sale in the United States.

2010 - Reasearchers trapped 38 antihydrogen atoms. It was the first time humans had trapped antimatter.

November 18, 2015

1477 - William Caxton produced "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres," which was the first book to be printed in England.

1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica.

1865 - Samuel L. Clemens published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under the pen name "Mark Twain" in the New York "Saturday Press."

1883 - The U.S. and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.

1903 - The U.S. and Panama signed a treaty that granted the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal.

1916 - Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, called off the Battle of the Somme in France. The offensive began on July 1, 1916.

1928 - The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered in New York. It was Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse.

1936 - Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.

1942 - "The Skin of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder opened on Broadway.

1951 - Chuck Connors (Los Angeles Angels) became the first player to oppose the major league draft. Connors later became the star of the television show "The Rifleman."

1959 - William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" premiered at Loew's Theater in New York City's Times Square.

1966 - Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles Dodgers) announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1966 - U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.

1969 - Apollo 12 astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean landed on the lunar surface during the second manned mission to the moon.

1976 - The parliament of Spain approved a bill that established a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

1983 - Argentina announced its ability to produce enriched uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

1985 - Joe Theismann (Washington Redskins) broke his leg after being hit by Lawrence Taylor (New York Giants). The injury ended Theismann's 12 year National Football League (NFL) career.

1987 - The U.S. Congress issued the Iran-Contra Affair report. The report said that President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.

1987 - CBS Inc. announced it had agreed to sell its record division to Sony Corp. for about $2 billion.

1988 - U.S. President Reagan signed major legislation provided the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.

1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate in approving legislation aimed at protecting abortion facilities, staff and patients.

1993 - American Airlines flight attendants went on strike. They ended their strike only 4 days later.

1993 - Representatives from 21 South African political parties approved a new constitution.

1997 - First Union Corp. announced its purchase of CoreStates Financial Corp. for $16.1 billion. To date it was the largest banking deal in U.S. history.

2001 - Nintendo released the GameCube home video game console in the United States.

November 19, 2015

1794 - Britain's King George III signed the Jay Treaty. It resolved the issues left over from the Revolutionary War.

1850 - The first life insurance policy for a woman was issued. Carolyn Ingraham, 36 years old, bought the policy in Madison, NJ.

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.

1893 - The first newspaper color supplement was published in the Sunday New York World.

1895 - The "paper pencil" was patented by Frederick E. Blaisdell.

1919 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles with a vote of 55 in favor to 39 against. A two-thirds majority was needed for ratification.

1928 - "Time" magazine presented its cover in color for the first time. The subject was Japanese Emperor Hirohito.

1942 - During World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.

1954 - Two automatic toll collectors were placed in service on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.

1959 - Ford Motor Co. announced it was ending the production of the unpopular Edsel.

1969 - Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.

1970 - Hafiz al-Assad seized power in Syria.

1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to set foot in Israel on an official visit.

1979 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) signed a four-year contract for $4.5 million. At the time, Ryan was the highest paid player in major league baseball.

1981 - U.S. Steel agreed to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.

1984 - Dwight Gooden, 20-year-old, of the New York Mets, became the youngest major-league pitcher to be named Rookie of the Year in the National League. (MLB)

1985 - U.S. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.

1990 - NATO and the Warsaw Pact signed a treaty of nonaggression.

1993 - The U.S. Senate approved a sweeping $22.3 billion anti-crime measure.

1994 - The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO to bomb rebel Serb forces striking from neighboring Croatia.

1997 - In Carlisle, IA, septuplets were born to Bobbi McCaughey. It was only the second known case where all seven were born alive.

1998 - The impeachment inquiry of U.S. President Clinton began.

1998 - Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of the Artist Without Beard" sold at auction for more than $71 million.

1998 - Michelle Lee received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - In Istanbul, Turkey, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded a two-day summit after adopting a new arms accord. During the conference, Russia was criticized for its military campaign against Chechnya's separatist movement.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed the most comprehensive air security bill in U.S. history.

2002 - The oil tanker Prestige broke into two pieces and sank off northwest Spain. The tanker lost about 2 million gallons of fuel oil when it ruptured November 13th and was towed about 150 miles out to sea.

2002 - The U.S. government completed its takeover of security at 424 airports nationwide.

2003 - Eight competing designs for a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center were unveiled. One design would be built at the site of the World Trade Center.

2007 - The Amazon Kindle was first released.

November 20, 2015

1789 - New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

1818 - Simon Bolivar formally declared Venezuela independent of Spain.

1873 - Budapest was formed when the rival cities of Buda and Pest were united to form the capital of Hungary.

1901 - The second Hay-Pauncefoot Treaty provided for construction of the Panama Canal by the U.S.

1910 - Francisco I. Madero led a revolution that broke out in Mexico.

1929 - The radio program "The Rise of the Goldbergs," later known as "The Goldbergs," made its debut on the NBC Blue Network.

1943 - During World War II, U.S. Marines began their landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands.

1945 - 24 Nazi leaders went before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

1947 - Britain's Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey.

1959 - Britain, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden met to create the European Free Trade Association.

1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba and the U.S. ended its blockade of the island.

1962 - Mickey Mantle was named the American League Most Valuable Player for the third time.

1967 - The Census Clock at the Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, went past 200 million.

1969 - The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase out of the substance.

1970 - The majority in U.N. General Assembly voted to give China a seat, but two-thirds majority required for admission was not met.

1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's parliament.

1980 - On Jefferson Island, Louisiana, an oil rig in Lake Pigneur pierced the top of the salt dome beneath the island. The freshwater lake completely drained within a few hours. The Delcambre Canal reversed flow and two days later the previous freshwater lake was a 1,300-foot-deep saltwater lake.

1983 - An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial ABC-TV movie "The Day After." The movie depicted the outbreak of nuclear war.

1986 - Dr. Halfdan Maher, the director of the World Health Organization, announced the first coordinated global effort to fight the disease AIDS.

1986 - The one billionth Little Golden Book was printed. The title was The Poky Little Puppy.

1987 - Police investigating the fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station, said that arson was unlikely to be the cause of the event that took 31 lives.

1988 - Egypt and China announced that they would recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.

1989 - Over 200,000 people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms.

1990 - Saddam Hussein ordered another 250,000 Iraqi troops into the country of Kuwait.

1990 - The space shuttle Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, FL, after completing a secret military mission.

1992 - A fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle in England.

1993 - The U.S. Senate passed the Brady Bill and legislation implementing NAFTA.

1994 - The Angolan government and rebels signed a treaty in Zambia to end 19 years of war.

1995 - Princess Diana admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles in an interview that was broadcast on BBC Television.

1998 - Afghanistan's Taliban militia offered Osama bin Laden safe haven. Osama bin Laden had been accused of orchestrating two U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and later terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.

1998 - Forty-six states agreed to a $206 billion settlement of health claims against the tobacco industry. The industry also agreed to give up billboard advertising of cigarettes.

2001 - The U.S. Justice Department headquarters building was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy building by President George W. Bush. The event was held on what would have been Kennedy's 76th birthday.

November 21, 2015

1620 - The Mayflower reached Provincetown, MA. The ship discharged the Pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, on December 26, 1620.

1694 - French author and philosopher Jean Francois Voltaire was born. At age 65 he spent only three days writing "Candide."

1783 - The first successful flight was made in a hot air balloon. The pilots, Francois Pilatre de Rosier and Francois Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, flew for 25 minutes and 5½ miles over Paris.

1789 - North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1871 - M.F. Galethe patented the cigar lighter.

1877 - Thomas A. Edison announced the invention of his phonograph.

1922 - Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve as a member of the U.S. Senate.

1929 - Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali had his first art exhibit.

1934 - The New York Yankees purchased the contract of Joe DiMaggio from San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League.

1942 - The Alaska Highway across Canada was formally opened.

1953 - British Natural History Museum authorities announced that "Piltdown Man" was a hoax.

1962 - U.S. President Kennedy terminated the quarantine measures against Cuba.

1963 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, arrived in San Antonio, TX. They were beginning an ill-fated, two-day tour of Texas that would end in Dallas.

1973 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, announced the presence of an 18½-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to the Watergate case.

1979 - The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was attacked by a mob that set the building afire and killed two Americans.

1980 - An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to find out "who shot J.R." on the CBS prime-time soap opera Dallas. Kristin was the character that fired the gun. (Texas)

1980 - 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, NV.

1982 - The National Football League (NFL) resumed its season following a 57-day player's strike.

1985 - Former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested after being accused of spying for Israel. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

1986 - U.S. Attorney General Meese was asked to conduct an inquiry of the Iran arms sales.

1987 - An eight-day siege began at a detention center in Oakdale, LA, as Cuban detainees seized the facility and took hostages.

1989 - The proceedings of Britain's House of Commons were televised live for the first time.

1992 - U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, issued an apology but refused to discuss allegations that he'd made unwelcome sexual advances toward 10 women in past years.

1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted against making the District of Columbia the 51st state.

1994 - NATO warplanes bombed an air base in Serb-held Croatia that was being used by Serb planes to raid the Bosnian "safe area" of Bihac.

1995 - France detonated its fourth underground nuclear blast at a test site in the South Pacific.

1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 5,000-mark (5,023.55) for the first time.

1999 - China announced that it had test-launched an unmanned space capsule that was designed for manned spaceflight.

2000 - The Florida Supreme Court granted Al Gore's request to keep the presidential recounts going.

2001 - Microsoft Corp. proposed giving $1 billion in computers, software, training and cash to more than 12,500 of the poorest schools in the U.S. The offer was intended as part of a deal to settle most of the company's private antitrust lawsuits.

2002 - NATO invited Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.

2013 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 16,000 for the first time.

November 22, 2015

1699 - A treaty was signed by Denmark, Russia, Saxony and Poland for the partitioning of the Swedish Empire.

1718 - English pirate Edward Teach (a.k.a. "Blackbeard") was killed during a battle off the coast of North Carolina. British soldiers cornered him aboard his ship and killed him. He was shot and stabbed more than 25 times.

1880 - Lillian Russell made her vaudeville debut in New York City.

1899 - The Marconi Wireless Company of America was incorporated in New Jersey.

1906 - The International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin adopted the SOS distress signal.

1909 - Helen Hayes appeared on stage for the first time. She was a member of the cast of "In Old Dutch."

1910 - Arthur F. Knight patented a steel shaft to replace wood shafts in golf clubs.

1928 - In Paris, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was first performed publicly.

1935 - The first trans-Pacific airmail flight began in Alameda, CA, when the flying boat known as the China Clipper left for Manila. The craft was carrying over 110,000 pieces of mail.

1942 - During World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad began.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss the measures for defeating Japan.

1950 - The lowest scoring game in the NBA was played. The Fort Wayne Pistons (later the Detroit Pistons) defeated the Minneapolis Lakers (later the Los Angeles Lakers) 19-18.

1961 - The film, "A Man for All Seasons", opened in New York City.

1963 - U.S. President Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, TX. Texas Governor John B. Connally was also seriously wounded. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was inaugurated as the 36th U.S. President.

1967 - The U.N. Security Council approved resolution 242. The resolution called for Israel to withdraw from territories it had captured in 1967 and called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.

1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon lifted a ban on American travel to Cuba. The ban had been put in place on February 8, 1963.

1974 - The U.N. General Assembly gave the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.

1975 - Juan Carlos I was proclaimed King of Spain upon the death of Gen. Francisco Franco.

1975 - "Dr. Zhivago" appeared on TV for the first time. NBC paid $4 million for the broadcast rights.

1977 - Regular passenger service on the Concorde began between New York and Europe.

1983 - The Bundestag approved NATO's plan to deploy new U.S. nuclear missiles in West Germany.

1984 - Fred Rogers of PBS' "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" presented a sweater to the Smithsonian Institution.

1985 - Anne Henderson-Pollard was taken into custody a day after her husband Jonathon Jay Pollard was arrested for spying for Israel.

1985 - 38,648 immigrants became citizens of the United States. It was the largest swearing-in ceremony.

1986 - An Iranian surface-to-surface missile hit a residential area in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, wounding 20 civilians.

1986 - Attorney Generel Meese's office discovered a memo in Colonel Oliver North's office that included an amount of money to be sent to the Contras from the profits of weapons sales to Iran.

1986 - Mike Tyson became the youngest to wear the world heavyweight-boxing crown. He was only 20 years and 4 months old.

1988 - The South African government announced it had joined Cuba and Angola in endorsing a plan to remove Cuban troops from Angola.

1989 - Rene Moawad, the president of Lebanon, was assassinated less than three weeks after taking office by a bomb that exploded next to his motorcade in West Beirut.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush, his wife, Barbara, and other congressional leaders shared Thanksgiving dinner with U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.

1990 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced she would resign.

1993 - Mexico's Senate overwhelmingly approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.

1993 - American Airlines flight attendants ended their strike that only lasted four days.

1994 - Inside the District of Columbia's police headquarters a gunman opened fire. Two FBI agents, a city detective and the gunman were killed in the gun battle.

1994 - In northwest Bosnia, Serb fighters set villages on fire in response to a retaliatory air strikes by NATO.

1998 - CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a tape of jack Kevorkian giving lethal drugs in an assisted suicide of a terminally ill patient. Kevorkian was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.

2005 - Angela Merkel was elected as Germany's first female chancellor.

2005 - Microsoft's XBOX 360 went on sale.

2013 - The discovery of Siats meekerorum was announced. The dinosaur skeleton, more than 30 feet long, was found in eastern Utah.

November 23, 2015

1765 - Frederick County, MD, repudiated the British Stamp Act.

1835 - Henry Burden patented the horseshoe manufacturing machine.

1889 - The first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon.

1890 - Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands at the age of 10 when her father William III died.

1936 - The first edition of "Life" was published.

1943 - During World War II, U.S. forces seized control of Tarawa and Makin from the Japanese during the Central Pacific offensive in the Gilbert Islands.

1945 - The U.S. wartime rationing of most foods ended.

1948 - Dr. Frank G. Back patented the "Zoomar" lens.

1946 - Mound Metalcraft changed its name to Tonka Toys Incorporated.

1961 - The Dominican Republic changed the name of its capital from Ciudad Trujillo to Santo Domingo.

1964 - In Fort Lauderdale, FL, the International Swimming Hall of Fame was founded.

1971 - The People's Republic of China was seated in the United Nations Security Council.

1979 - In Dublin, Ireland, Thomas McMahon was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of Earl Mountbatten.

1980 - In southern Italy, approximately 4,800 people were killed in a series of earthquakes.

1983 - The first Pershing II missiles were deployed in West Germany. In response, the U.S.S.R. broke off International Nuclear Forces (INF) talks in Geneva.

1985 - Larry Wu-tai Chin, a retired CIA analyst, was arrested and accused of spying for China. He committed suicide a year after his conviction.

1985 - Gunmen hijacked an Egyptian jetliner en route from Athens to Cairo. The plane was forced to land in Malta.

1986 - In Manila, President Aquino dismissed Defense Minister Enrile.

1988 - Wayne Gretzky scored his 600th National Hockey League (NHL) goal.

1989 - Lucia Barrera de Cerna, a housekeeper who claimed she had witnessed the slaying of six Jesuit priests and two other people at the Jose Simeon Canas University in El Salvador, was flown to the U.S.

1991 - Yugoslavia's rival leaders agreed to a new cease-fire, the 14th of the Balkan civil war.

1991 - The Sacramento Kings ended the NBA's longest road losing streak at 43 games.

1992 - The play "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" opened.

1994 - About 111 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a stampede after Indian police baton-charged tribal protesters in the western city of Nagpur.

1995 - Charles Rathbun, free-lance photographer, was booked in Hermosa Beach, CA, for investigation of murder in the disappearance of model Linda Sobek. He was later convicted.

1998 - Dennis Rodman filed for an annulment from Carmen Electra. The two had been married on November 14, 1998.

1998 - The tobacco industry signed the biggest U.S. civil settlement. It was a $206-billion deal to resolve remaining state claims for treating sick smokers.

1998 - A U.S. federal judge rejected a Virginia county's effort to block pornography on library computer calling the attempt unconstitutional.

2001 - A crowd of 87,555 people watched the Texas Longhorns beat the Texas A&M Aggies 21-7. The crowd was the largest to see a football game in Texas.

2010 - North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island.

November 24, 2015

1615 - French King Louis XIII married Ann of Austria. They were both 14 years old.

1859 - Charles Darwin, a British naturalist, published "On the Origin of Species." It was the paper in which he explained his theory of evolution through the process of natural selection.

1863 - During the Civil War, the battle for Lookout Mountain began in Tennessee.

1871 - The National Rifle Association was incorporated in the U.S.

1874 - Joseph F. Glidden was granted a patent for a barbed fencing material.

1903 - Clyde J. Coleman received the patent for an electric self-starter for an automobile.

1940 - Nazis closed off the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. Over the next three years the population dropped from 350,000 to 70,000 due to starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps.

1944 - During World War II, the first raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo was made by land-based U.S. bombers.

1947 - The "Hollywood 10," were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in their industry.

1947 - John Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl" was published for the first time.

1963 - Dallas nightclub owner jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald live on national television.

1969 - Apollo 12 landed safely in the Pacific Ocean bringing an end to the second manned mission to the moon.

1971 - Hijacker Dan Cooper, known as D.B. Cooper, parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom.

1983 - The Palestine Liberation Organization released six Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of 4,500 Palestinians and Lebanese held by the Israelis.

1985 - In Malta, Egyptian commandos stormed an Egyptian jetliner. 60 people died in the raid.

1987 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap short- and medium-range missiles. It was the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.

1989 - Czechoslovakia's hard-line party leadership resigned after more than a week of protests against its policies.

1992 - In China, a domestic jetliner crashed, killing 141 people.

1993 - The U.S. Congress gave its final approval to the Brady handgun control bill.

1993 - Robert Thompson and Jon Venables (both 11 years old) were convicted of murdering 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool, England. They were both sentenced to "indefinite detention."

1995 - In Ireland, the voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment legalizing divorce.

1996 - Rusty Wallace won the first NASCAR event to be held in Japan.

1996 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) set an NFL record when he recorded his eighth straight 1,000-yard season.

1998 - AOL (America Online) announced a deal for their purchase of Netscape for $4.21 billion.

November 25, 2015

1715 - Sybilla Thomas Masters became the first American to be granted an English patent for cleaning and curing Indian corn.

1758 - During the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne at what is now known as Pittsburgh.

1783 - During the Revolutionary War, the British evacuated New York. New York was their last military position in the U.S.

1837 - William Crompton patented the silk power loom.

1850 - Texas relinquished one-third of its territory in exchange for $10 million from the U.S. to pay its public debts and settle border disputes.

1867 - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.

1882 - The first of 400 performances of "lolnathe" took place.

1884 - J.B. Meyenberg received the patent for evaporated milk.

1936 - The Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement between Japan and Germany, was signed.

1947 - Movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the "Hollywood 10," who were cited a day earlier and jailed for contempt of Congress when they failed to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1952 - Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London.

1955 - In the U.S., the Interstate Commerce Commission banned racial segregation on interstate trains and buses.

1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a stroke.

1970 - Japanese author Yukio Mishima committed ritual suicide after giving a speech attacking Japan's post-war constitution.

1973 - Greek President George Papadapoulos was ousted in military coup.

1976 - O.J. Simpson (Buffalo Bills) ran for 273 yards against the Detroit Lions.

1983 - Mediators from Syria and Saudi Arabia announced a cease-fire in the PLO civil war in Tripoli, Lebanon.

1985 - Ronald W. Pelton was arrested on espionage charges. Pelton was a former employee of the National Security Agency. He was later convicted of 'selling secrets' to Soviet agents.

1986 - U.S. President Reagan and Attorney Gen. Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to rebels in Nicaragua. National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigned and Oliver North was fired.

1990 - Poland held its first popular presidential election.

1992 - The Czech parliament voted to split the country into separate Czech and Slovak republics beginning January 1, 1993.

1993 - Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Sedki escaped an attempt on his life when a bomb was detonated by Islamic militants near his motorcade.

1995 - Serbs protested in the streets of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo The protest was against a peace plan.

1998 - Britain's highest court ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose extradition was being sought by Spain, could not claim immunity from prosecution for the crimes he committed during his rule.

1998 - President Jiang Zemin arrived in Tokyo for the first visit to Japan by a Chinese head of state since World War II.

1998 - The IMF (International Monetary Fund) approved a $5.5 billion bailout for Pakistan.

November 26, 2015

1716 - The first lion to be exhibited in America went on display in Boston, MA.

1731 - English poet William Cowper was born. He is best known for "The Poplar Trees" and "The Task."

1789 - U.S. President Washington set aside this day to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

1825 - The first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, NY.

1832 - Public streetcar service began in New York City.

1867 - J.B. Sutherland patented the refrigerated railroad car.

1917 - The National Hockey League (NHL) was officially formed in Montreal, Canada.

1922 - In Egypt, Howard Carter peered into the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

1940 - The Nazis forced 500,000 Jews of Warsaw, Poland to live within a walled ghetto.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. In 1939 Roosevelt had signed a bill that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November.

1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing to begin December 1.

1942 - The motion picture "Casablanca" had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.

1943 - The HMS Rohna became the first ship to be sunk by a guided missile. The German missile attack led to the death of 1,015 U.S. troops.

1949 - India's Constituent Assembly adopted the country's constitution The country became republic within the British Commonwealth two months later.

1950 - China entered the Korean conflict forcing UN forces to retreat.

1958 - Maurice Richard (Montreal Canadiens) scored his 600th NHL career goal.

1965 - France became the third country to enter space when it launched its first satellite the Diamant-A.

1973 - Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she was responsible for the 18-1/2 minute gap in a key Watergate tape. Woods was U.S. President Nixon's personal secretary.

1975 - Lynette"Squeaky" Fromme was found guilty by a federal jury in Sacramento, CA, for trying to assassinate U.S. President Ford on September 5.

1979 - The International Olympic Committee voted to re-admit China after a 21-year absence.

1983 - A Brinks Mat Ltd. vault at London's Heathrow Airport was robbed by gunmen. The men made off with 6,800 gold bars worth nearly $40 million. Only a fraction of the gold has ever been recovered and only two men were convicted in the heist.

1985 - The rights to Richard Nixon's autobiography were acquired by Random House for $3,000,000.

1986 - U.S. President Reagan appointed a commission headed by former Sen. John Tower to investigate his National Security Council staff after the Iran-Contra affair.

1988 - The U.S. denied an entry visa to PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, who was seeking permission to travel to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.

1990 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz at the Kremlin to demand that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait.

1990 - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. agreed to acquire MCA Inc. for $6.6 billion.

1992 - The British government announced that Queen Elizabeth II had volunteered to start paying taxes on her personal income. She also took her children off the public payroll.

1995 - Two men set fire to a subway token booth in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The clerk inside was fatally burned.

1997 - The U.S. and North Korea held high-level discussions at the State Department for the first time.

1998 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a speech to the Irish Parliament. It was a first time event for a British Prime Minister.

1998 - Hulk Hogan announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling and would run for president in 2000.

2003 - The U.N. atomic agency adopted a resolution that censured Iran for past nuclear cover-ups and warning that it would be policed to put to rest suspicions that the country had a weapons agenda.

2011 - The Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. The Mars rover Curiosity landed on the floor of Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.

November 27, 2015

1684 - Japan's shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa was born.

1701 - Anders Celsius was born in Sweden. He was the inventor of the Celsius thermometer.

1779 - The College of Pennsylvania became the University of Pennsylvania. It was the first legally recognized university in America.

1839 - The American Statistical Association was founded in Boston.

1889 - Curtis P. Brady was issued the first permit to drive an automobile through Central Park in New York City.

1901 - The Army War College was established in Washington, DC.

1910 - New York's Pennsylvania Station opened.

1934 - The U.S. bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson was killed by FBI agents near Barrington, IL.

1939 - The play "Key Largo," by Maxwell Anderson, opened in New York.

1951 - Hosea Richardson became the first black horse racing jockey to be licensed in Florida.

1963 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress.

1970 - Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was attacked at the Manila airport by a Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.

1973 - The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president after the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew.

1978 - San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by Dan White, a former supervisor.

1980 - Dave Williams (Chicago Bears) became the first player in NFL history to return a kick for touchdown in overtime.

1983 - 183 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Barajas airport in Madrid.

1985 - The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord giving Dublin a consulting role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.

1987 - French hostages Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque were set free by their pro-Iranian captors in West Beirut, Lebanon.

1989 - 107 people were killed when a bomb destroyed a Colombian jetliner minutes after the plane had taken off from Bogota's international airport. Police blamed the incident on drug traffickers.

1991 - The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that led the way for the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia.

1992 - In Venezuela, rebel forces tried but failed to overthrow President Carlos Andres Perez for the second time in ten months.

2008 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was taken out of service after more than 30 years. The ship was launched on September 20, 1967.

November 28, 2015

1520 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait. The strait was named after him. He was the first European to sail the Pacific from the east.

1582 - William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married.

1757 - English poet, painter and engraver William Blake was born. Two of his best known works are "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience."

1919 - American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.

1922 - Capt. Cyril Turner of the Royal Air Force gave the first public exhibition of skywriting. He spelled out, "Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200" over New York's Times Square.

1925 - The Grand Ole Opry made its radio debut on station WSM.

1929 - Ernie Nevers (St. Louis Cardinals) became the first professional football player to score six touchdowns in a single game.

1942 - In Boston, MA, 491 people died in a fire that destroyed the Coconut Grove.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to map out strategy concerning World War II.

1953 - New York City began 11 days without newspapers due to a strike of photoengravers.

1958 - The African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.

1963 - U.S. President Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral would be renamed Cape Kennedy in honor of his assassinated predecessor. The name was changed back to Cape Canaveral in 1973 by a vote of residents.

1964 - The U.S. launched the space probe Mariner IV from Cape Kennedy on a course set for Mars.

1977 - Larry Bird was introduced as "College Basketball's Secret Weapon" with a cover story in Sports Illustrated. (NBA)

1978 - The Iranian government banned religious marches.

1979 - An Air New Zealand DC-10 flying to the South Pole crashed in Antarctica killing all 257 people aboard.

1983 - The space shuttle Columbia took off with the STS-9 Spacelab in its cargo bay.

1985 - The Irish Senate approved the Anglo-Irish accord concerning Northern Ireland.

1987 - A South African Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean. All 159 people aboard were killed.

1989 - Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci arrived in New York after escaping her homeland through Hungary.

1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister of Britain.

1992 - In Bosnia-Herzegovina, 137 tons of food and supplies were to be delivered to the isolated town of Srebrenica.

1992 - In King William's Town, South Africa, black militant gunmen attacked a country club killing four people and injuring 20.

1993 - The play "Mixed Emotions" closed after 48 performances.

1994 - Jeffrey Dahmer, a convicted serial killer, was clubbed to death in a Wisconsin prison by a fellow inmate.

1994 - Norwegian voters rejected European Union membership.

1995 - U.S. President Clinton signed a $6 billion road bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.

2010 - WikiLeaks released to the public more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. About 100,000 were marked "secret" or "confidential."

November 29, 2015

1530 - Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, former adviser to England's King Henry VIII, died.

1864 - The Sand Creek Massacre occurred in Colorado when a militia led by Colonel John Chivington, killed at least 400 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who had surrendered and had been given permission to camp.

1890 - Navy defeated Army by a score of 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game. The game was played at West Point, NY.

1892 - A patent was issued to Almon Brown Strowger for the rotary dial.

1929 - The first airplane flight over the South Pole was made by U.S. Navy Lt. Comdr. Richard E. Byrd.

1939 - The USSR broke off diplomatic relations with Finland prior to a Soviet attack.

1945 - The monarchy was abolished in Yugoslavia and a republic proclaimed.

1947 - The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution that called for the division of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

1961 - The Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft was launched by the U.S. with Enos the chimp on board. The craft orbited the earth twice before landing off Puerto Rico.

1963 - A Trans-Canada Airlines DC-8F with 111 passengers and 7 crew members crashed in woods north of Montreal 4 minutes after takeoff from Dorval Airport. All aboard were killed. The crash was the worst in Canada's history.

1963 - U.S. President Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.

1967 - U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank.

1974 - In Britain, a bill that outlawed the Irish Republican Army became effective.

1975 - Bill Gates adopted the name Microsoft for the company he and Paul Allen had formed to write the BASIC computer language for the Altair.

1981 - Actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, CA, at the age 43.

1982 - The U.N. General Assembly voted that the Soviet Union should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

1986- Actor Cary Grant died at the age of 82.

1987 - A Korean jetliner disappeared off Burma, with 115 people aboard.

1987 - Cuban detainees released 26 hostages they'd been holding for more than a week at the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, LA.

1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the rights of criminal defendants are not violated when police unintentionally fail to preserve potentially vital evidence.

1989 - In Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run parliament ended the party's 40-year monopoly on power.

1990 - The U.N. Security Council voted to authorize military action if Iraq did not withdraw its troops from Kuwait and release all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

1991 - 17 people were killed in a 164-vehicle wreck during a dust storm near Coalinga, CA, on Interstate 5.

1992 - Dennis Byrd (New York Jets) was paralyzed after a neck injury in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

1994 - The U.S. House passed the revised General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

1994 - Fighter jets attacked the capital of Chechnya and its airport only hours after Russian President Boris Yeltsin demanded the breakaway republic end its civil war.

1996 - A U.N. court sentenced Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic to 10 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 1,200 Muslims. The sentence was the first international war crimes sentence since World War II.

1998 - Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected legalizing heroin and other narcotics.

2004 - The French government announced plans to build the Louvre II in northern France. The 236,808 square foot museum was the planned home for 500-600 works from the Louvre's reserves.

2004 - Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2008 - In China, construction on the Shanghai Tower began.

November 30, 2015

1700 - 8,000 Swedish troops under King Charles XII defeated an army of at least 50,000 Russians at the Battle of Narva. King Charles XII died on this day.

1782 - The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

1803 - Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France.

1804 - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial accused of political bias. He was later acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

1838 - Three days after the French occupation of Vera Cruz Mexico declared war on France.

1853 - During the Crimean War, the Russian fleet attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet at the battle of Sinope.

1858 - John Landis Mason received a patent for the first pepper shaker with a screw-on cap.

1875 - A.J. Ehrichson patented the oat-crushing machine.

1897 - Thomas Edison's own motion picture projector had its first commercial exhibition.

1936 - London's famed Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire. The structure had been constructed for the International Exhibition of 1851.

1939 - The Russo-Finnish War began when 20 divisions of Soviet troops invaded Finland.

1940 - Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz were married.

1949 - Chinese Communists captured Chungking.

1954 - In Sylacauga, AL, Elizabeth Hodges was injured when a meteorite crashed through the roof of her house. The rock weighed 8½-pounds.

1956 - CBS replayed the program "Douglas Edward and the News" three hours after it was received on the West Coast. It was the world's first broadcast via videotape.

1962 - U Thant of Burma was elected secretary-general of the United Nations, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.

1966 - The former British colony of Barbados became independent.

1971 - ABC-TV aired "Brian's Song." The movie was about Chicago Bears' Brian Picolo and his friendship with Gale Sayers.

1981 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva that were aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.

1982 - The motion picture "Ghandi" had its world premiere in New Delhi.

1986 - "Time" magazine published an interview with U.S. President Reagan. In the article, Reagan described fired national security staffer Oliver North as a "national hero."

1988 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. took over RJR Nabisco Inc. with a bid of $24.53 billion.

1989 - PLO leader Yasser Arafat was refused a visa to enter the United States in order to address the U.N. General Assebly in New York City.

1993 - U.S. President Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill. The bill required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.

1995 - President Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.

1998 - The Deutsche Bank AG announced that it would acquire Bankers Trust Corp. for $10.1 billion creating the world's largest financial institution.

2001 - For the first time in it's history, McDonald's teamed up with a retail partner on its Happy Meal promotions. Toys R Us provided plush figures from it's Animal Alley.

2004 - In Stockholm, Sweden, the Carl Larsson painting "Boenskoerd" ("Bean Harvest") was sold at auction for $730,000. The work had been in a private collection for more than a century. The Larsson work "Vid Kattegatt" ("By Kattegatt") sold for $640,000 at the same auction.

December 1, 2015

1835 - Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.

1909 - The Pennsylvania Trust Company, of Carlisle, PA, became the first bank in the in the U.S. to offer a Christmas Club account.

1913 - Ford Motor Co. began using a new movable assembly line that ushered in the era of mass production.

1913 - The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh, PA.

1919 - Lady Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.

1925 - The Locarno Pact finalized the treaties between World War I protagonists.

1934 - Sergei M. Kirov, a collaborator of Joseph Stalin, was assassinated at the Leningrad party headquarters.

1941 - In the U.S., the Civil Air Patrol was created. In April 1943 the Civil Air Patrol was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces.

1942 - In the U.S., nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect.

1943 - In Teheran, leaders of the United States, the USSR and the United Kingdom met to reaffirm the goal set on October 30, 1943. The previous meeting called for an early establishment of an international organization to maintain peace and security.

1952 - In Denmark, it was announced that the first successful sex-change operation had been performed.

1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress in Montgomery, AL, refused to give up her seat to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested marking a milestone in the civil rights movement in the U.S.

1959 - 12 countries, including the U.S. and USSR, signed a treaty that set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, which would be free from military activity.

1965 - An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began.

1969 - The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.

1984 - A remote-controlled Boeing 720 jetliner was deliberately crashed into California's Mojave Desert to test an anti-flame fuel additive. The test proved to be disappointing.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagansaid he would welcome an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair if it were recommended by the Justice Department.

1987 - Construction began on the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France.

1987 - NASA announced four companies had been given contracts to help build a space station. The companies were Boeing Aerospace, G. E.'s Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas Aeronautics, and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International.

1989 - Dissidents in the Philippine military launched an unsuccessful coup against Corazon Aquino's government.

1989 - East Germany's Parliament abolished the Communist Party's constitutional guarantee of supremacy.

1990 - Iraq accepted a U.S. offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.

1990 - British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel finally met under the English Channel.

1991 - Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt by hard-liners at the opening of the Russian Congress.

1994 - The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval to the 124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

1998 - Exxon announced that it was buying Mobil for $73.7 billion creating the largest company in the world to date.

2013 - Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos revealed "Amazon Prime Air" on "60 Minutes." The services was planned to use unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver packages to customers.

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