Today’s highlight in history

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 15, the 319th day of 2023. There are 46 days left in the year.

On Nov. 15, 1864, late in the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman began their “March to the Sea” from Atlanta; the campaign ended with the capture of Savannah on Dec. 21.

On this date

In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation.

explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now known as Pikes Peak in present-day Colorado. In 1942, the naval Battle of Guadalcanal ended with a decisive U.S. victory over Japanese forces.

In 1806, In 1959,

four members of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kan., were found murdered in their home. (Ex-convicts Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were later convicted of

the killings and hanged in a case made famous by the Truman Capote book “In Cold Blood.”)

In 1966,

the flight of Gemini 12, the final mission of the Gemini program, ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic after spending four days in orbit.

In 1969,

a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War.

In 1984, Stephanie Fae Beauclair, the infant publicly known as “Baby Fae” who had received a baboon’s heart to replace her own congenitally deformed one, died at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California three weeks after the transplant.

Today’s birthdays

Singer Petula Clark is 91. Actor Sam Waterston is 83. Singer Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad (ABBA) is 78. Actor Bob Gunton is 78. Actor Beverly D’Angelo is 72. News correspondent John Roberts is 67. Former “Tonight Show” bandleader Kevin Eubanks is 66.