TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Friday, Nov. 24, the 328th day of 2023. There are 37 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:

On Nov. 24, 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.

ON THIS DATE:

In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

In 1865, Mississippi became the first Southern state to enact laws which came to be known as “Black Codes” aimed at limiting the rights of newly freed Blacks; other states of the former Confederacy soon followed.

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, who would become 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” (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 millionyear-old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nicknamed “Lucy.”

In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on terms to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles.

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.)

In 1991, Queen singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDSrelated pneumonia.

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.