Today In History

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 24, the 329th day of 2020. There are 37 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

ON THIS DATE

› 1963: Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.

› 1971: A hijacker calling himself “Dan Cooper” (but who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper”) parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom; his fate remains unknown.

› 1974: The bone fragments of a 3.2 millionyear-old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nicknamed “Lucy.”

› 1995: Voters in Ireland narrowly approved a constitutional amendment legalizing divorce.

› 2000: The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House, agreeing to consider George W. Bush’s appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida.

› 2014: It was announced that a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, had decided against indicting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brownt.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson is 82. Country singer Johnny Carver is 80. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is 80. Rock drummer Pete Best is 79. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 78. Singer Lee Michaels is 75. Actor Dwight Schultz is 73. Actor Stanley Livingston is 70. Rock musician Clem Burke (Blondie; The Romantics) is 66. Actor/director Ruben Santiago-Hudson is 64. Actor Denise Crosby is 63. Actor Shae D’Lyn is 58. Rock musician John Squire (The Stone Roses) is 58. Rock musician Gary Stonadge (Big Audio) is 58. Actor Conleth Hill is 56. Rock musician Chad Taylor (Live) is 50. Actor Lola Glaudini is 49. Actor Danielle Nicolet is 47. Actor-writer-director-producer Stephen Merchant is 46. Olympic bronze medal figure skater Chen Lu is 44. Actor Katherine Heigl is 42. Actor Sarah Hyland is 30.