Today in History
Today is Monday, Nov. 27, the 331st day of 2017. There are 34 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight
On Nov. 27, 1967, the Beatles album “Magical Mystery Tour” was released in the United States by Capitol Records.
On this date
In 1815, the constitution for the Congress Kingdom of Poland was signed by Russian Czar Alexander I, who was also king of Poland.
In 1901, the U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.
In 1910, New York’s Pennsylvania Station officially opened.
In 1924, Macy’s first Thanksgiving Day parade — billed as a “Christmas Parade” — took place in New York.
In 1937, the musical revue “Pins and Needles,” produced by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, opened in New York.
In 1942, during World War II, the Vichy French navy scuttled its ships and submarines in Toulon (tooLOHN’) to keep them out of the hands of German troops.
In 1945, General George C. Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China by President Harry S. Truman to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists.
In 1953, playwright Eugene O’Neill died in Boston at age 65.
In 1962, the first Boeing 727 was rolled out at the company’s Renton Plant.
In 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone (mahs-KOH’-nee) and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White. ( White served five years for manslaughter; he committed suicide in Oct. 1985.)
In 1983, 181 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Madrid’s Barajas airport.
In 1989, a bomb blamed on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian Avianca Boeing 727, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.
Ten years ago: Israeli and Palestinian leaders meeting at a Mideast conference in Annapolis, Maryland, agreed to formally restart peace talks. Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died a day after being shot in his Florida home by an intruder. Bill Willis, a Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns and Ohio State’s first black football All-American, died in Columbus, Ohio, at age 86. Dr. J. Robert Cade, inventor of Gatorade, died at age 80.
Five years ago: U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice met privately with three Republican senators who had indicated they would block her possible nomination to be U.S. secretary of state; they said afterward that they were even more troubled by her initial explanation of the attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. (The following month, Rice withdrew from consideration to be secretary of state.) The government said consumer confidence reached its highest level in nearly five years, with the help of rising home values, more hiring and lower gas prices.
One year ago: Presidentelect Donald Trump claimed that “millions” had voted illegally in the national election, scoffing at Hillary Clinton’s nearly 2 million edge in the popular vote and returning to his campaign mantra of a rigged race even as he prepared to enter the White House in less than two months. Argentina won its first Davis Cup title when Federico Delbonis swept past Ivo Karlovic in straight sets to complete a stunning 3-2 comeback win over Croatia.
Today’s Birthdays: Author Gail Sheehy is 80. Footwear designer Manolo Blahnik is 75. Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is 66. TV host Bill Nye (“Bill Nye, the Science Guy”) is 62. Actor William Fichtner (FIHK’-nuhr) is 61. Caroline Kennedy is 60. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri is 60. Rock musician Charlie Burchill (Simple Minds) is 58. Jazz composer/big band leader Maria Schneider is 57. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is 57. Rock musician Charlie Benante (Anthrax) is 55.