Today in history

On Nov. 14, 1851, Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick” was first published.

In 1881 Charles Guiteau went on trial for assassinating President James Garfield. (Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year.)

In 1889, inspired by Jules Verne, New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) set out to travel around the world in less than 80 days. (She made the trip in 72 days.)

In 1900 Aaron Copland, one of America’s leading composers of the 20th century, was born in New York.

In 1922 the British Broadcasting Corp. began its domestic radio service.

In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth.

In 1940, during World War II, German planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry.

In 1943 an American torpedo was mistakenly fired at the U.S. battleship Iowa, which was carrying President Franklin Roosevelt and his joint chiefs to the Tehran conference; the torpedo exploded harmlessly in the Iowa’s wake. Also in 1943 Leonard Bernstein, the 25-year-old assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, made his debut with the orchestra as he filled in for the ailing Bruno Walter during a nationally broadcast concert.

In 1944 Tommy Dorsey and Orchestra recorded “Opus No. 1” for RCA Victor.

In 1968 Yale University announced it was going co-educational.

In 1969 Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon.

In 1972 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 level for the first time.

In 1973 Britain’s Princess Anne married Capt. Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey. (They divorced in 1992, and Anne re-married.)

In 1986 the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a record $100 million penalty against insidetrader Ivan F. Boesky and barred him from working again in the securities industry.

In 1989 the U.S. Navy, alarmed over a recent string of serious accidents, ordered an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down.

In 1990 British commentator Malcolm Muggeridge died in Sussex, England; he was 87.

In 1991 U.S. and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Also in 1991 Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to his homeland after 13 years of exile.

In 1993 Puerto Rico residents voted in a plebiscite to maintain the island’s existing U.S. commonwealth status, derailing the efforts of those favoring statehood.

In 1995 the U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while government offices operated with skeleton crews.

In 1998 Iraq said it would resume cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors as it appeared to back down in the face of a threatened U.S. attack.

In 1999 the United Nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan for refusing to hand over terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden.

In 2000 Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified George W. Bush’s fragile 300-vote lead over Al Gore, hours after a judge refused to lift a 5 p.m. deadline; however, the judge gave Harris the authority to accept or reject follow-up manual recount totals.

In 2002 Pakistani Aimal Khan Kasi was put to death by injection at a prison in Jarratt, Va., for the killings of two CIA employees in 1993.

In 2004 Mahmoud Abbas, the temporary successor to Yasser Arafat, escaped unharmed when militants firing assault rifles burst into a mourning tent for the deceased Palestinian leader in Gaza, killing two security guards.

In 2005 Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees won his second American League Most Valuable Player award in three seasons.

In 2012 former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney blamed his election loss to “the gifts” that President Barack Obama had given to blacks, Hispanics and young voters during his first term.

In 2014 Jane Byrne, who took on the Democratic political machine to become Chicago’s first female mayor in 1979, died following a stroke a year earlier; she was 81.

In 2016 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck New Zealand’s South Island, killing at least two people and causing damage to buildings and infrastructure.

In 2017 a gunman, shooting at random, killed 5 people including his wife and wounded 10 others after he opened fire at an elementary school and six other locations in the California community of Rancho Tehama Reserve, about 130 miles north of Sacramento.