Today in History
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2023. There are 32 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 29, 1981, film star Natalie Wood drowned at age 43 while boating off California’s Santa Catalina Island with her her actor husband Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken.
On this date:
In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.
In 1910, British explorer Robert F. Scott’s ship Terra Nova set sail from New Zealand, carrying Scott’s expedition on its ultimately futile — as well as fatal — race to reach the South Pole first.
In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera “Turandot.” (It was finished by Franco Alfano.)
In 1929, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinney made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.
In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews; 33 members, including the United States, voted in favor of the resolution, 13 voted against while 10 abstained. (The plan, rejected by the Arabs, was never implemented.)
In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.
In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In 1986, actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82.
In 1987, a Korean Air 707 jetliner en route from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok was destroyed by a bomb planted by North Korean agents with the loss of all 115 people aboard.
In 2001, former Beatle George Harrison died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.
In 2008, Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel, ending a 60-hour rampage through India’s financial capital by suspected Pakistani-based militants that killed 166 people.
In 2012, the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state, a vote that came exactly 65 years after the General Assembly adopted a plan to divide Palestine into separate states for Jews and Arabs. (The 2012 vote was 138 in favor; nine members, including the United States, voted against and 41 abstained.)
In 2013, a police helicopter crashed onto a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, killing 10 people.
In 2017, “Today” host Matt Lauer was fired for what NBC called “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a colleague; a published report accused him of crude and habitual misconduct with women around the office.
In 2018, in a surprise guilty plea, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen confessed that he lied to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal he pursued on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 campaign.
In 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York City would reopen its school system to in-person learning, and increase the number of days a week many children attend class, even as the coronavirus pandemic intensified in the city.
In 2021, a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states that had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement.
In 2022, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win, handing the Justice Department a major victory in its massive prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Today’s Birthdays: Blues singer-musician John Mayall is 90. Actor Diane Ladd is 88. Songwriter Mark James is 83. Composer-musician Chuck Mangione is 83. Pop singer-musician Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals) is 81. Former Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee is 77. Actor Jeff Fahey is 71. Movie director Joel Coen is 69. Actor-comedian-celebrity judge Howie Mandel is 68. Former Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano is 66. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is 64. Actor Cathy Moriarty is 63. Actor Kim Delaney is 62. Actor Andrew McCarthy is 61. Actor Don Cheadle is 59. Actor-producer Neill Barry is 58. Pop singer Jonathan Knight (New Kids on the Block) is 55. Rock musician Martin Carr (Boo Radleys) is 55. Actor Jennifer Elise Cox is 54. Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera is 54. Actor Larry Joe Campbell is 53. Rock musician Frank Delgado (Deftones) is 53. Actor Paola Turbay is 53. Contemporary Christian singer Crowder is 52. Actor Gena Lee Nolin is 52. Actor Brian Baumgartner is 51. Actor Julian Ovenden is 48. Actor Anna (AH’-nuh) Faris is 47. Gospel singer James Fortune is 46. Actor Lauren German is 45. Rapper The Game is 44. Actor Janina Gavankar is 43. Rock musician Ringo Garza is 42. Actor-comedian John Milhiser is 42. Actor Lucas Black is 41. NFL quarterback Russell Wilson is 35. Actor Diego Boneta is 33. Actor Lovie Simone (TV: “Greenleaf”) is 25.
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