This day in history
Today is Monday, Nov. 28, the 332nd day of 2022. There are 33 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. is 93. Former Democratic senator Gary Hart of Colorado is 86. Former Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross is 85. Singer Randy Newman is 79. Former “Late Show” orchestra leader Paul Shaffer is 73. Actor Ed Harris is 72. Epatha Merkerson is 70. Former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff is 69. Movie director Alfonso Cuaron is 61. Rock musician Matt Cameron is 60. Comedian Jon Stewart is 60. Actor Malcolm Goodwin is 47.
▶In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.
▶In 1907, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater, in Haverhill.
▶In 1942, fire engulfed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, killing 492 people in the deadliest nightclub blaze ever. (The cause of the rapidly spreading fire, which began in the basement, is in dispute; one theory is that a busboy accidentally ignited an artificial palm tree while using a lighted match to fix a light bulb.)
▶In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran during World War II.
▶In 1961, Ernie Davis of Syracuse University became the first African-American to be named winner of the Heisman Trophy.
▶In 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course toward Mars, which it flew past in July 1965, sending back pictures of the red planet.
▶In 1965, 20-year-old Arlo Guthrie was convicted of littering in Stockbridge, a tale of irony and humor he retold in “Alice’s Restaurant.’’
▶In 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
▶In 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned as British prime minister during an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, who then conferred the premiership on John Major.
ºIn 2001, Enron Corp., once the world’s largest energy trader, collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion takeover deal. (Enron filed for bankruptcy protection four days later.)
▶In 2016, the first commercial flight from the United States to Havana in more than 50 years arrived in Cuba as the island began week-long memorial services for Fidel Castro.
▶In 2017, a Libyan militant was convicted in federal court in Washington of terrorism charges stemming from the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed the US ambassador and three other Americans, but the jury found Ahmed Abu Khattala not guilty of murder. (Khattala was sentenced the following June to 22 years in prison.)
▶Last year, Lee Elder, who broke down racial barriers as the first Black golfer to play in the Masters, died in California; he was 87.