HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Tuesday, November 18, the 322nd day of 2014. There are 43 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1963 – The first push-button telephone goes into service. 1970 – President Richard Nixon asks the US Congress for $155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government. 1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple cult to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo J. Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier. 1987 – King’s Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city’s busiest underground station, King’s Cross St Pancras. 1988 – War on Drugs: President Ronald Reagan signs a bill
into law allowing the death penalty for drug traffickers. 1991 – Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon release Anglican
Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland. 1991 – After an 87-day siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar capitulates to the besieging Yugoslav People’s Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces. 1993 – In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is approved by the House of Representatives. 1993 – In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution, expanding voting rights and ending white minority rule. 1999 – In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when the 18-metre Aggie Bonfire, under construction for the annual football game against the University of Texas, collapses at 2:42am. 2002 – Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons
inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq. 2003 – In the United Kingdom, the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective. 2003 – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4 to 3 in Goodridge vs Department of Public Health that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and gives the state legislature 180 days to change the law making Massachusetts the first state in the United States to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.
2013 – Nasa launches the MAVEN probe to Mars.