TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS MONDAY, NOV. 29, the 333rd day of 2021. There are 32 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2001, former Beatle George Harrison died in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer; he was 58. In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre. In 1910, British explorer Robert F. Scott’s ship Terra Nova set sail from New Zealand, carrying Scott’s expedition on its ultimately futile — as well as fatal — race to be first to reach the South Pole. In 1929, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinney made the first airplane flight over the South Pole. In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews; 33 members, including the United States, voted in favor of the resolution, and 13 voted against, while 10 abstained. (The plan, rejected by the Arabs, was never implemented.) In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited Earth twice before returning. In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1972, the coin-operated video arcade game Pong, created by Atari, made its debut at Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California. In 1981, film star Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, California, at age 43. In 1987, a Korean Air Boeing 707 jetliner flying from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok was destroyed by a bomb planted by North Korean agents, with the loss of all 115 people aboard. In 2000, bracing the public for more legal wrangling, Vice President Al Gore said in a series of TV interviews that he was prepared to contest the Florida presidential vote until “the middle of December.” In 2008, Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel, ending a 60-hour rampage through India’s financial capital by suspected Pakistani-based militants that killed 166 people. In 2017, “Today” host Matt Lauer was fired for what NBC called “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a colleague; a published report accused him of crude and habitual misconduct with women around the office. Garrison Keillor, who’d entertained public radio listeners for 40 years on “A Prairie Home Companion,” was fired by Minnesota Public Radio after allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Hall of Fame sportscaster Vin Scully is 94. Blues singer-musician John Mayall is 88. Actor Diane Ladd is 86. Songwriter Mark James and composer-musician Chuck Mangione are 81. Former Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee is 75. Actor Jeff Fahey is 69. Movie director Joel Coen is 67. Actor-comedian-celebrity judge Howie Mandel is 66. Former Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano is 64. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is 62. Actor Cathy Moriarty is 61. Actors Kim Delaney and Tom Sizemore are 60. Actor Andrew McCarthy is 59. Actor Don Cheadle is 57. Actorproducer Neill Barry is 56. Pop singer Jonathan Knight (New Kids on the Block) and rock musician Martin Carr (Boo Radleys) are 53. Actor Jennifer Elise Cox and Baseball Hal of Famer Mariano Rivera is 52. Actors Larry Joe Campbell and Paola Turbay, and rock musician Frank Delgado (Deftones) are 51. Contemporary Christian singer Crowder and actor Gena Lee Nolin are 50. Actor Brian Baumgartner is 49. Actor Julian Ovenden is 46. Actor Anna Faris is 45. Gospel singer James Fortune is 44. Actor Lauren German is 43. Rapper The Game is 42. Actor Janina Gavankar is 41. Actor Lovie Simone (TV: “Greenleaf”) is 23.