TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT

On Nov. 24, 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.

ON THIS DATE

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

nine members of the Milwaukee police department and two civilians were killed when a bomb exploded inside a police station. (The suspicious-looking package was brought to the station by a local resident after it was discovered outside a church; anarchists were suspected, but the culprits were never caught.)

the U.S. Supreme Court, in Edwards v. California, unanimously struck down a California law prohibiting people from bringing impoverished non-residents into the state.

during World War II, U.S. bombers based on Saipan attacked Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese capital by land-based planes.

a group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the “Hollywood Ten”was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry. John Steinbeck’s novel“The Pearl”was first published.

Apollo 12 splashed down safely in the Pacific.

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.

the hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner parked on the ground in Malta ended violently as Egyptian commandos stormed the plane. Fifty-eight people died in the raid, in addition to two others killed by the hijackers.

rock singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.

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.

A Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, and five of its former leaders were convicted by a federal jury in Dallas of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly condemned the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran, calling it a“historic mistake”and saying he was not bound by the agreement.

Militants attacked a crowded mosque in Egypt with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest-ever attack by Islamic extremists in the country.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt.”— Minna Antrim, American writer (1861-1950).

— ASSOCIATED PRESS