TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, Nov. 14, the 318th day of 2017. There are 47 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History On Nov. 14, 1889, inspired by the Jules Verne novel “Around the World in Eighty Days,” New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) set out to make the trip in less time than the fictional Phileas Fogg. (She completed the journey in 72 days.)
On this date • In 1851, Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale” was published in the United States, almost a month after being released in Britain.
• In 1910, Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to take off from a ship as his Curtiss pusher rolled off a sloping platform on the deck of the scout cruiser USS Birmingham off Hampton Roads, Va.
• In 1925, the first group exhibition of surrealistic paintings opened at the Galerie Pierre in Paris.
• In 1940, during World War II, German planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry.
• In 1954, the president of Egypt, Muhammad Naguib, was deposed by the Revolutionary Command Council, leaving Gamal Abdel Nasser fully in charge as acting head of state.
• In 1965, the U.S. Army’s first major military operation of the Vietnam War began with the start of the five-day Battle of Ia Drang. (The fighting between American troops and North Vietnamese forces ended on Nov. 18 with both sides claiming victory.)
• In 1969, Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon.
• In 1970, a chartered Southern Airways DC-9 crashed while trying to land in West Virginia, killing all 75 people on board, including the Marshall University football team and its coaching staff.
• In 1986, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a $100 million penalty on insidetrader Ivan F. Boesky and barred him from working again in the securities industry.
• In 1996, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the senior Roman Catholic prelate in the United States and leader of Chicago’s 2.3 million Catholics, died at his home at age 68. Singer Michael Jackson married his plastic surgeon’s nurse, Debbie Rowe, in a ceremony in Sydney, Australia. (Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.)
• In 1997, a jury in Fairfax, Va., decided that Pakistani national Aimal Khan Kasi should get the death penalty for gunning down two CIA employees outside agency headquarters. (Five years later on this date, Aimal Khan Kasi was executed.)
Ten years ago • Michael Mukasey took a ceremonial oath as the new U.S. Attorney General, five days after he was privately sworn in. A justice of the peace in Las Vegas ordered O.J. Simpson to stand trial on kidnapping and armed robbery charges stemming from a confrontation with memorabilia dealers in a casino hotel room. (Simpson was convicted and served nine years in prison before being paroled in Sept. 2017.) The prime ministers of North and South Korea launched their first talks in 15 years.
Five years ago • President Barack Obama, in his first news conference since winning a second term, challenged congressional Republicans to let taxes rise on the wealthiest Americans, saying that would ease the threat of another recession as the nation faced a “fiscal cliff.” Israel said it had killed the leader of Hamas’ military wing in a wave of airstrikes launched in response to days of rocket fire out of Hamas-ruled Gaza. Baseball’s Cy Young Awards went to Tampa Bay’s David Price in the American League and R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets in the National League.
One year ago • In his first extended remarks on the election, President Barack Obama abandoned his dire warnings and dark predictions about his newly elected successor and urged Americans to give President-elect Donald Trump time to rise to the daunting responsibilities of the office. Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers won the National League Rookie of the Year award unanimously and Detroit’s Michael Fulmer took the American League honor. Gwen Ifill, co-anchor of PBS’ “NewsHour,” died in Washington at age 61. Country singer Holly Dunn, 59, died in Albuquerque, New Mexico.