TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, NOV. 15, the 319th day of 2018. There are 46 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman began their “March to the Sea” from Atlanta; the campaign ended with the capture of Savannah on Dec. 21.
In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation.
In 1806, explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now known as Pikes Peak in present-day Colorado.
In 1937, at the U.S. Capitol, members of the House and Senate met in airconditioned chambers for the first time.
In 1942, the naval Battle of Guadalcanal ended during World War II with a decisive U.S. victory over Japanese forces. In 1959, four members of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kan., were found murdered in their home. Ex-convicts Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were later convicted of the killings and hanged in a case made famous by the Truman Capote book “In Cold Blood.” In 1966, the flight of Gemini 12, the final mission of the Gemini program, ended successfully when astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic after spending four days in orbit.
In 1982, funeral services were held in Moscow’s Red Square for the late Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev.
In 1984, Stephanie Fae Beauclair, the infant publicly known as “Baby Fae” who had received a baboon’s heart to replace her own congenitally deformed one, died at Loma Linda University
Medical Center in California three weeks after the transplant.
In 1986, a government tribunal in Nicaragua convicted American Eugene Hasenfus of charges related to his role in delivering arms to Contra rebels, and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Hasenfus was pardoned a month later.
In 1987, 28 of 82 people aboard a Continental Airlines DC-9, including the pilots, were killed when the jetliner crashed seconds after taking off from Denver’s Stapleton International Airport.
In 1998, Kwame Ture, the civil rights activist formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, died in Guinea at age 57.
In 2003, two Black Hawk helicopters collided and crashed in Iraq; 17 U.S. troops were killed.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Ed Asner is 89. Singer Petula Clark is 86. Comedian Jack Burns is 85. Actress Joanna Barnes is 84. Actor Yaphet Kotto is 79. Actor Sam Waterston is 78. Classical conductor Daniel Barenboim is 76. Pop singer Frida (ABBA) and actor Bob Gunton are 73. Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is 71. Actress Beverly D’Angelo is 67. Director-actor James Widdoes is 65. Rock singerproducer Mitch Easter is 64. News correspondent John Roberts is 62. Former “Jay Leno Show” bandleader Kevin Eubanks is 61. Comedian Judy Gold is 56. Actress Rachel True is 52. Country singer Jack Ingram is 48. Actor Jay Harrington is 47. Actor Jonny Lee Miller is 46. Actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier is 45. Actress Virginie Ledoyen is 42. Actor Sean Murray is 41. Pop singer Ace Young (TV: “American Idol”) is 38. Golfer Lorena Ochoa is 37. Hiphop artist B.o.B is 30. Actress Shailene Woodley is 27.