TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Nov. 29.
Today’s highlight:
On Nov. 29, 2001, former Beatle George Harrison died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.
On this date:
In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.
In1 910, British explorer Robert F. Scott’s ship Terra Nova set sail from New Zealand, carrying Scott’s expedition on its ultimately futile — as well as fatal — race to reach the South Pole first.
In 1929, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley Mckinney made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.
In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews; 33 members, including the United States, voted in favor of the resolution, 13 voted against while 10 abstained. (The plan, rejected by the Arabs, was never implemented.)
In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.
In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In 1972, the coin-operated video arcade game Pong, created by Atari, made its debut at Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.
In 1981, film star Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, California, at age 43.
In 1987, a Korean Air 707 jetliner en route from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok was destroyed by a bomb planted by North Korean agents with the loss of all 115 people aboard.
In 2000, bracing the public for more legal wrangling, Vice President Al Gore said in a series of TV interviews that he was prepared to contest the Florida presidential vote until “the middle of December.”
In 2008, Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel, ending a 60-hour rampage through India’s financial capital by suspected Pakistani-based militants that killed 166 people.
In 2017, “Today” host Matt Lauer was fired for what NBC called “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a colleague; a published report accused him of crude and habitual misconduct with women around the office. Garrison Keillor, who’d entertained public radio listeners for 40 years on “A Prairie Home Companion,” was fired by Minnesota Public Radio following allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior.
Ten years ago: American Airlines’ parent company, AMR Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection, citing high labor and fuel costs and the weak economy. (American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy protection in December 2013 as it merged with US Airways.)