TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, Nov. 12, the 316th day of 2017. There are 49 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Nov. 12, 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies ended up winning a major victory over Japanese forces.)
On this date
1787 — Severe flooding struck Dublin, Ireland, as the River Liffey rose. 1866 — Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, the first provisional president of the Republic of China, was born.
1927 — Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
1936 — The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., giving the green light to traffic.
1948 — Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo was sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
1969 — News of the My Lai Massacre carried out by U.S. forces in South Vietnam in March 1968 was broken by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.
1977 — The city of New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, in a runoff.
1984 — Space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared a wandering satellite in history’s first space salvage; the Palapa B2 satellite was secured in Discovery’s cargo bay for return to Earth.
1987 — The American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person had AIDS or was HIV-positive.
1992 — The British situation comedy “Absolutely Fabulous,” starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, premiered on BBC2 Television.
1996 — A Saudi Boeing 747 jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a Kazak Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, killing 349 people.
2001 — American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 headed to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.
2007 — Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest for the second time in four days ahead of a planned march to protest emergency rule.
2010 — The Medical College of Georgia announced that it would open the Northwest Georgia Clinical Campus of the school in Georgia Highlands College’s Heritage Hall.
Five years ago
The United States was re-elected to another three-year term on the U.N. Human Rights Council in the only contested election for the organization’s top human rights body.
One year ago
Tens of thousands of people marched in streets across the United States, staging the fourth day of protests against Donald Trump’s surprise victory as president.
Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Seoul, South Korea, demanding the resignation of President Park Geun-hye amid an explosive political scandal.
Today’s Birthdays
Pauline Wilson of Lindale and Pearline Stamey Cowart of Rome are 82. Singer Brian Hyland is 74. Rock musician Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MGs) is 73. Singer-songwriter Neil Young is 72. Country/gospel singer Barbara Fairchild is 67. Actress Megan Mullally is 59. Olympic gold medal gymnast Nadia Comaneci is 56. Retired MLB All-Star Sammy Sosa is 49. Figure skater Tonya Harding is 47. Actress Radha Mitchell is 44. Singer Tevin Campbell is 41. Actress Cote de Pablo is 38. Actor Ryan Gosling is 37. Actress Anne Hathaway is 35. Pop singer Omarion is 33. Actress Macey Cruthird is 25. Pepperell Primary School kindergartner Jemma White, daughter of Jason and Faith White of Rome, is 6.