Today in history
On Nov. 28, 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.
In 1806 French forces led by Joachim Murat entered Warsaw.
In 1861 the Confederate Congress admitted Missouri as the 12th state of the Confederacy after Missouri’s disputed secession from the Union.
In 1919 American-born Lady Nancy Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.
In 1925 the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville’s famed home of country music, made its radio debut on station WSM.
In 1943 President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II.
In 1958 the African nation Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
In 1964 the United States launched the space probe Mariner IV on a course to Mars.
In 1975 President Gerald Ford nominated Federal Judge John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by William Douglas.
In 1979 an Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
In 1985 the Irish Senate approved the Anglo-Irish accord concerning Northern Ireland.
In 1995 President Bill Clinton signed a $6 billion road bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.
In 1999 Hsing-Hsing, the popular male giant panda who had arrived at the National Zoo in Washington in 1972 as a symbol of U.S.-China detente, was euthanized at age 28 because of deteriorating health.
In 2000 George W. Bush’s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to bring “legal finality” to the presidential election by ending any further ballot recounts; Al Gore’s team countered that the nation’s highest court should not interfere in Florida’s recount dispute. Also in 2000 former Texas Congressman Henry Gonzalez, who had served 37 years on Capitol Hill, died in San Antonio; he was 84.
In 2004 NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol was injured, and his son Teddy among three people killed, in a plane crash outside Montrose, Colo.
In 2005 eight-term Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham pleaded guilty to graft and tearfully resigned; the California Republican admitted he had taken $2.4 million in bribes mostly from defense contractors in exchange for government business and other favors. Also in 2005 a corruption scandal brought down the minority government of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
In 2013 the start of Hanukkah coincided with Thanksgiving for the first time since 1888.
In 2015 more than 100 African-American religious leaders signed an op-ed published on Ebony’s website strongly discouraging their colleagues from supporting or endorsing Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump after the real estate mogul had announced that he would receive endorsements from a group of prominent black ministers.