DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 24, the 328th day of 2021. There are 37 days left in the year.
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.
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.
1947: A group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the “Hollywood Ten” was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry. John Steinbeck’s novel “The Pearl” was first published.
1950: The musical “Guys and Dolls,” based on the writings of Damon Runyon and featuring songs by Frank Loesser, opened on Broadway.
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.
1974: The bone fragments of a 3.2 million-year-old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nicknamed “Lucy.”
1987: The United States and the Soviet Union agreed on terms to scrap shorterand medium-range missiles. (The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev the following month.)
1991: Rock singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of Aids-related pneumonia.
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.
2012: Fire raced through a garment factory in Bangladesh that supplied major retailers in the West, killing 112 people; an official said many of the victims were trapped because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits.
2014: It was announced that a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, had decided against indicting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown; the decision enraged protesters who set fire to buildings and cars and looted businesses in the area where Brown had been fatally shot.
Former Beatles drummer Pete Best is 80. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 79. Actor Dwight Schultz is 74. Actor
Stanley Livingston (“My Three Sons”) is 71. Drummer Clem Burke of The Romantics and of Blondie is 67. Record producer/musician Terry Lewis of The Time is 65. Actor Denise Crosby (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”) is 64. Actor Garret Dillahunt
(“Raising Hope”) is 57. Actor Conleth Hall
(“Game of Thrones”) is 57. Comedian
Brad Sherwood (“Whose Line Is It Anyway?”) is 57. Guitarist Chad Taylor of Live is 51. Actor Lola Glaudini (“Criminal Minds”) is 50. Actor Colin Hanks
(“Life in Pieces”) is 44. Actor Katherine Heigl (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 43. Actor
Sarah Hyland (“Modern Family”) is 31.