TODAY IN HISTORY

On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald in a scene captured on live television.

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 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 1991, rock singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45.

In 2014, it was announced that a grand jury had decided against indicting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown; the decision enraged protesters who set fire to buildings and looted businesses in the area where Brown had been fatally shot.