TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, NOV. 24, the 328th day of 2019. There are 37 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date 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 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
In 1941, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Edwards v. California, unanimously struck down a California law prohibiting people from bringing impoverished nonresidents into the state.
In 1947, a group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the “Hollywood Ten” was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry.
In 1971, a hijacker calling himself “Dan Cooper,” who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper,” parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom; his fate remains unknown.
In 1985, the hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner parked on the ground in Malta ended violently after Egyptian commandos stormed the plane. Fiftyeight people died in the raid, in addition to two others killed by the hijackers.
In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on terms to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by President Ronald
Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev the following month.
In 1991, rock singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDSrelated pneumonia.
In 1995, voters in Ireland narrowly approved a constitutional amendment legalizing divorce.
In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House, agreeing to consider George W. Bush’s appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida.
In 2017, militants attacked a crowded mosque in Egypt with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest attack by Islamic extremists in the country.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Basketball Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson is
81. Country singer Johnny Carver and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue are 79. Rock drummer Pete Best is 78. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 77. Singer Lee Michaels is
74. Actor Dwight Schultz is 72. Actor Stanley Livingston is 69. Rock musician Clem Burke (Blondie; The Romantics) is 65. Actress Denise Crosby is 62. Rock musicians John Squire (The Stone Roses) and Gary Stonadge (Big Audio) are 57. Actors Conleth Hill and Garret Dillahunt, and actor-comedian Brad Sherwood are 55. Actor-comedian Scott Krinsky is 51. Rock musician Chad Taylor (Live) is 49. Actress Lola Glaudini is 48. Actress Danielle Nicolet is 46. Actor-writer-director-producer Stephen Merchant is 45. Actor Colin Hanks is 42. Actress Katherine Heigl is 41. Actress Sarah Hyland is 29.