NOW & THEN
NOVEMBER 28
1520: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the strait later named after him and into the Pacific Ocean.
1660: The Royal Society was founded at a meeting in London of 12 scholars, including Sir Christopher Wren.
1666: Battle of Rullion Green and defeat of the Covenanters by Sir Thomas Dalyell.
1717: The pirate Blackbeard attacked the French merchant ship La Concorde, which he then captured and renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge.
1720: Irish pirate Anne Bonny and her English accomplice, Mary Read, were sentenced to death in Jamaica. They were subsequently given a stay of execution as they were both pregnant.
1814: The Times newspaper printed for the first time using automatic, steam- powered presses, making newspapers being available to a mass readership.
1843: Hawaii independence day. The kingdom of Hawaii was officially recognised by the UK and France as an independent nation.
1885: British forces occupied Mandalay in Burma.
1871: Trials of the Ku Klux Klan began at the Federal district Court, South Carolina.
1905: Sinn Fein founded in Dublin.
1912: Albania declared independence.
1916: London experienced its first air raid.
1918: The Kaiser abdicated the crown of Prussia and Germany. 1919: American- born Lady Astor became the first female to take her seat in the House of Commons. Constance Markievicz was the first woman elected although, being a representative of Sinn Fein, she did not take her seat.
1934: Winston Churchill gave warning that weak defences could leave Britain “tortured into absolute subjection” in a war with Germany.
1937: General Franco began naval blockade of Spanish coast. 1942: A fire that destroyed Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston resulted in 492 deaths. 1943: The “Big Three” – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin – met in Tehran to discuss post- war policy.
1948: “Hopalong” Cassidy made his first television appearance.
1960: Mauritania became independent Islamic republic.
1964: Nasa launched Mariner 4 to explore Mars.
1968: John Lennon was fined £ 150 for unauthorised possession of cannabis.
1971: Jordan’s prime minister, Wasfi Tell, was assassinated at an Arab conference in Cairo. 1977: Rhodesia announced at least 1,200 deaths in raids against black nationalist guerrillas across border in Mozambique.
1987: South African Airways jet with 159 people aboard crashed in Indian Ocean near Mauritius. 1990: Singapore’s prime minister Lee Kwan Yew stepped down after 31 years in power.
1994: In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was clubbed to death by a fellow inmate.