This day in history
Today is Tuesday, Nov. 28, the 332nd day of 2023. There are 33 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Recording executive Berry Gordy Jr. is 94. Former Democratic senator Gary Hart of Colorado is 87. Former US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross is 86. Singer Randy Newman is 80. Former NASA astronaut Barbara Morgan is 72. Actor Judd Nelson is 64. Comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart is 61. A Black Eyed Peas hip-hop musician apl.de.ap is 49. Actor Aimee Garcia is 45. Rock singerkeyboardist Tyler Glenn (Neon Trees) is 40.
▶ In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.
▶ In 1773, the Dartmouth, a Nantucket whaling ship, returned to Boston Harbor from London after dropping off whale oil and taking on 114 chests of tea weighing about 350 pounds each. It was the first of three ships hauling tea to dock in the harbor, which was at the center of a trade dispute between the British Parliament and soon-tobe revolutionaries in Boston. The British government, through its Tea Act of 1773, granted the East India Tea Company a monopoly in the colonies, undercutting trade among merchants and forcing colonists to pay a tax on their beloved tea. Almost three weeks later, the dispute would disintegrate into the Boston Tea Party.
▶ In 1907, in Haverhill, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater.
▶ 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 Black college football player to be named winner of the Heisman Trophy.
▶ 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 bound for the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
▶ In 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.)
▶ Last year, Payton Gendron, a white gunman who massacred 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, pleaded guilty to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges in an agreement that gave him life in prison without parole.