TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, NOV. 24, the 328th day of 2014. There are 37 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers based on Saipan attacked Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese capital by land-based planes.
In 1784, Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, was born in Orange County, Va.
In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
In 1864, French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi.
In 1922, Irish nationalist and author Robert Erskine Childers was executed in Dublin by Free State forces.
In 1939, British Overseas Airways Corp. (BOAC) was formally established.
In 1950, the musical “Guys and Dolls,” based on the writings of Damon Runyon and featuring songs by Frank Loesser, opened on Broadway.
In 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.
In 1969, Apollo 12 splashed down safely in the Pacific.
In 1971, a hijacker calling himself “Dan Cooper,” but who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper,” parachuted from a Northwest Orient
Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 dollars in ransom — his fate remains unknown.
In 1974, the bone fragments of a 3.2 million-year-old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nicknamed “Lucy.”
In 1989, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu was unanimously re-elected Communist Party chief. Within a month, he was overthrown in a popular uprising and executed along with his wife, Elena, on Christmas Day.
In 1992, a China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 crashed in southern China, killing all 141 people on board.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson is 76. Country singer Johnny Carver and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue are 74. Rock drummer Pete Best is 73. Former Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman is 70. Singer Lee Michaels is 69. Actor Dwight Schultz is 67. Rock musician Clem Burke (Blondie; The Romantics) is 60. Actress Denise Crosby is 57. Actress Shae D’Lyn, rock musician John Squire (The Stone Roses) and rock musician Gary Stonadge (Big Audio) are 52. Actor Conleth Hill, actor-comedian Brad Sherwood and actor Garret Dillahunt are 50. Rock musician Chad Taylor (Live) is 44. Actress Danielle Nicolet is 41. Actor/writer/ director/producer Stephen Merchant is 40. Actor Colin Hanks is 37. Actress Katherine Heigl is 36. Actress Sarah Hyland is 24.