Today in history

On Nov. 29, 1832, “Little Women” author Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pa.

In 1864 a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in what became known as the Sand Creek Massacre.

In 1890 at West Point, N.Y., the first Army-Navy football game was played; Navy won 24–0.

In 1895 film director and choreographer Busby Berkeley was born William Berkeley Enos in Los Angeles.

In 1908 clergyman, civil rights leader and lawmaker Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born in New Haven, Conn.

In 1928 Paul Simon, who became a longtime Democratic senator from Illinois, was born in Eugene, Ore.

In 1947 the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

In 1952 President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower kept his campaign promise to visit Korea to assess the ongoing conflict.

In 1961 a chimpanzee named Enos was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the

Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited the Earth twice before returning.

In 1963 President Lyndon Johnson named a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1964 the U.S. Roman Catholic Church instituted sweeping changes in the liturgy, including the use of English instead of Latin.

In 1972 the coin-operated video arcade game Pong, created by Atari, made its debut at Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, Calif.

In 1981 actress Natalie Wood drowned off California’s Santa Catalina Island in what was described as a boating accident; she was 42.

In 1986 actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa; he was 82.

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 1989 in response to a growing prodemocracy movement in Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run parliament ended the party’s 40-year monopoly on power.