TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, Nov. 15, the 319th day of 2014. There are 46 days left in the year.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman began their “March to the Sea” from Atlanta, with the goal of crippling the region’s military and economic resources; the campaign ended with the capture of Savannah on Dec. 21.

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

In 1806, explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now known as Pikes Peak in present-day Colorado.

In 1942, the naval Battle of Guadalcanal ended during World War II with a decisive U. S. victory over Japanese forces.

In 1954, actor-director Lionel Barrymore, 76, died in Van Nuys, California.

In 1958, actor Tyrone Power, 44, died in Madrid, Spain, while filming “Solomon and Sheba.” (Power’s part was recast with Yul Brynner.)

In 1959, four members of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, were found murdered in their home. (Ex-convicts Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were later convicted of the killings and hanged.)

In 1964, Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114, a Fairchild F-27A, crashed outside of Las Vegas, killing all 29 people on board.

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.

In 1989, Polish labor activist Lech Walesa addressed a joint meeting of the U. S. Congress. Time Warner launched The Comedy Channel, which later merged with Viacom’s HA! network to form Comedy Central.