TODAY INHISTORY
Today isWednesday, Nov. 25.
TODAY’SHIGHLIGHT:
OnNov.25,2002, President GeorgeW. Bush signed legislation creating the Department ofHomeland Security, and appointedTom Ridge to be its head.
ONTHISDATE:
In 1783, the British evacuatedNewYork during theRevolutionaryWar.
In 1915, a newversion of the Ku Klux Klan, targeting blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants, was founded byWilliam Joseph Simmons.
In 1961, thefirst nuclearpoweredaircraft carrier, USSEnterprise, was commissioned.
In 1963, the bodyof PresidentJohn F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington NationalCemetery; his widow, Jacqueline, lighted an“eternalflame”at the gravesite.
In1986, the Iran-Contra affaireruptedasPresident RonaldReagan andAttorney General EdwinMeese revealed thatprofits from secret arms sales to Iran had been divertedto Nicaraguan rebels.
In1999, Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-oldCuban boy, was rescuedby apairof sport fishermenoffthe coast of Florida, settingoffan international custodybattle. In 2001, as thewar in Afghanistan entered its eighthweek, CIAofficer Johnny“Mike”Spannwas killed during a prison uprising inMazar-e-Sharif, becoming America’sfirst combat casualtyof the conflict. In2009, Toyota said itwould replace the gaspedals on4 million vehicles in the United States because the pedals could get stuck in the floor mats and cause sudden acceleration.
In 2014, attorneys for Michael Brown’s family vowed to push for federal charges against the Ferguson, Missouri, police officerwho killed the Black 18-year-old, a day after a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson. (The Justice Department later declined to prosecuteWilson.) President BarackObama sharply rebuked protesters for racially charged violence in Ferguson, saying there was no excuse for burning buildings, torching cars and destroying other property. In2016, Fidel Castro, who led his rebels tovictorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the powerof 10 U.S. presidents during his half-centuryof rule inCuba, died at age90.
In2018, U.S. borderagents fired teargas on hundreds of migrantsprotesting near the borderwithMexico after someofthemtried to get through the fencing andwire separating the two countries; U.S. authorities temporarily shut downthe border crossing fromTijuana, Mexico, where thousands werewaiting to apply for asylum.
Tenyears ago: Incumbent IraqiPrime Minister Nouri al-Maliki cemented his grip on power, bringing an end to nearly nine months of political deadlock afterhe was asked to formthe next government.
Fiveyearsago: Vice PresidentJoe Biden attended an urgent summit ofsoutheast European leaders inZagreb, Croatia, focusing on tensions and security concerns overa surge of asylum-seekers and migrants crossing the region. Oneyearago: The Supreme Court rejected the bid of a Maryland man, Adnan Syed, for a newtrial based on information uncovered by the hit podcast“Serial”; Syed had been sentenced to life in the strangling death of a high school classmate.