Today in history

On Nov. 12, 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies ended up winning a major victory over Japanese forces.)

In 1787, severe flooding struck Dublin, Ireland, as the River Liffey rose.

In 1866, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, the first provisional president of the Republic of China, was born.

In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., giving the green light to traffic.

In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.

In 1969, news of the My Lai (mee ly) Massacre carried out by U.S. forces in South Vietnam in March 1968 was broken by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

In 1977, the city of New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the winner of a runoff.

In 1984, space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared a wandering satellite in history’s first space salvage; the Palapa B2 satellite was secured in Discovery’s cargo bay for return to Earth.

In 1987, the American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person had AIDS or was HIV-positive.

In 1992, the British situation comedy “Absolutely Fabulous,” starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, premiered on BBC2 Television.

In 1996, a Saudi Boeing 747 jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a Kazak Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, killing 349 people.

In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 headed to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

Ten years ago: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto (BEN’-uh-zeer BOO’-toh) was placed under house arrest for the second time in four days ahead of a planned march to protest emergency rule. The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 13,000 for first time since Aug. 2007. Ryan Braun won the NL Rookie of the Year award in one of the closest votes, while Dustin Pedroia ran away with the AL honor. Author Ira Levin, 78, died in New York.

“Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.” — Florence Nightingale, English nursing pioneer (1820-1910).