DAILY ALMANAC

Today is Sunday, Nov. 28, the 332nd day of 2021. There are 33 days left in the year.

On this date in:

1520: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.

1859: American author Washington Irving died in present-day Tarrytown, New York, at age 76.

1907: Future movie producer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater, in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

1919: American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.

1942: Fire engulfed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, killing 492 people in the deadliest nightclub blaze ever. (The cause of the rapidly spreading fire, which began in the basement, is in dispute; one theory is that a busboy accidentally ignited an artificial palm tree while using a lighted match to fix a light bulb.)

1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran during World War II.

1961: Ernie Davis of Syracuse University became the first African-american to be named winner of the Heisman Trophy.

1964: The United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course toward Mars, which it flew past in July 1965, sending back pictures of the red planet.

1979: An Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.

1990: Margaret Thatcher resigned as British prime minister during an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, who then conferred the premiership on John Major.

1994: Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was slain in a Wisconsin prison by a fellow inmate. Sixties war protester Jerry Rubin died in Los Angeles, two weeks after being hit by a car; he was 56.

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 filed for bankruptcy protection four days later.)

Nov. 28

Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. is 92. Singer-songwriter Bruce Channel is 81. Singer Randy Newman is 78. Musician Paul Shaffer (“Late Show With David Letterman”) is 72. Actor Ed Harris is 71. Actor S. Epatha Merkerson (“Law and Order”) is 69. Country singer Kristine Arnold of Sweethearts of the Rodeo is 65. Actor Judd Nelson is 62. Director Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma,” “Gravity”) is 60. Drummer Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) is 59. Actor Jane Sibbett (“Friends, “Herman’s Head”) is is 59. Comedian Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show”) is 59. Actor Garcelle Beauvais (“NYPD Blue,” “The Jamie Foxx Show”) is 55. Singer Dawn Robinson (En Vogue, Lucy Pearl) is 53. Actor Gina Tognoni (“The Young and the Restless”) is 48. Musician apl.de.ap of Black Eyed Peas is 47.

Stewart