On this date
In 1851, Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale” was published in the United States, almost a month after being released in Britain.
In 1910, Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to take off from a ship as his Curtiss pusher rolled off a sloping platform on the deck of the scout cruiser USS Birmingham off Hampton Roads, Virginia.
In 1925, the first group exhibition of surrealistic paintings opened at the Galerie Pierre in Paris.
In 1940, during World War II, German planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry.
In 1944, Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded “Opus No. 1” for RCA Victor.
In 1954, the president of Egypt, Muhammad Naguib, was deposed by the Revolutionary Command Council, leaving Gamal Abdel Nasser fully in charge as acting head of state.
In 1965, the U.S. Army’s first major military operation of the Vietnam War began with the start of the fiveday Battle of Ia Drang. (The fighting between American troops and North Vietnamese forces ended on Nov. 18 with both sides claiming victory.)
In 1969, Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon.
In 1970, a chartered Southern Airways DC-9 crashed while trying to land in West Virginia, killing all 75 people on board, including the Marshall University football team and its coaching staff.
In 1986, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a $100 million penalty on inside-trader Ivan F. Boesky and barred him from working again in the securities industry.
In 1996, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin (BURN’-uh-deen), the senior Roman Catholic prelate in the United States and leader of Chicago’s 2.3 million Catholics, died at his home at age 68. Singer Michael Jackson married his plastic surgeon’s nurse, Debbie Rowe, in a ceremony in Sydney, Australia. (Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.)
In 1997, a jury in Fairfax, Virginia, decided that Pakistani national Aimal Khan Kasi (eye-MAHL’ kahn KAH’-see) should get the death penalty for gunning down two CIA employees outside agency headquarters. (Five years later on this date, Aimal Khan Kasi was executed.)
Ten years ago: Michael Mukasey took a ceremonial oath as the new U.S. Attorney General, five days after he was privately sworn in. A justice of the peace in Las Vegas ordered O.J. Simpson to stand trial on kidnapping and armed robbery charges stemming from a confrontation with memorabilia dealers in a casino hotel room. (Simpson was convicted and served nine years in prison before being paroled in Sept. 2017.) The prime ministers of North and South Korea launched their first talks in 15 years.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama, in his first news conference since winning a second term, challenged congressional Republicans to let taxes rise on the wealthiest Americans, saying that would ease the threat of another recession as the nation faced a “fiscal cliff.”