Today in History

By The Associated Press

Today is Sunday, Nov. 12, the 316th day of 2023. There are 49 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Nov. 12, 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

ON THIS DATE

In 1920, baseball got its first “czar” as Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected commissioner of the American and National Leagues.

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

› In 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies would win a major victory over Japanese forces.)

› 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 1970, the Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan; it is believed that as many as a half million people were killed.

› In 1975, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retired because of failing health, ending a record 36-year term.

› In 1982, Yuri V. Andropov succeeded the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as leader of the U.S.S.R. with his election as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee.

› In 1996, a Saudi jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a cargo plane, killing 349 people.

› In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, 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.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Singer Brian Hyland is 80. Actor-playwright Wallace Shawn is 80. Rock musician Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MGs) is 79. Sportscaster Al Michaels is 79. Singer-songwriter Neil Young is 78. Rock musician Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (Blue Oyster Cult) is 76. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., is 74. Country/gospel

singer Barbara Fairchild is 73. Actor Megan Mullally is 65. Actor Vincent Irizarry is

64. Olympic gold medal gymnast Nadia Comaneci (koh-muh-NEECH’) is 62. Rock musician David Ellefson is 59. Retired MLB All-Star Sammy Sosa is 55. Figure skater Tonya Harding is 53. Actor Rebecca Wisocky is 52. Actor Radha Mitchell is 50. Actor Lourdes Benedicto is 49. Actor Tamala Jones is 49. Singer Tevin Campbell is 47. Actor Ashley Williams is 45. Actor Cote de Pablo is

44. Actor Ryan Gosling is 43. Actor Anne Hathaway is 41. Pop singer Omarion is 39. NBA AllStar Russell Westbrook is 35. Folk-rock musician Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes) is 33. Actor Macey Cruthird is 31.