Today is Wednesday, Nov. 28, the 332nd day of 2018.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 28, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran during World War II.
On this date:
In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.
In 1861, the Confederate Congress admitted Missouri as the 12th state of the Confederacy after Missouri’s disputed secession from the Union.
In 1905, Sinn Fein (shin fayn) was founded in Dublin.
In 1907, future movie producer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater, in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
In 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 had its world premiere in New York, with Rachmaninoff at the piano.
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 1961, Ernie Davis of Syracuse University became the first African-American to be named winner of the Heisman Trophy.
In 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course toward Mars, which it flew past in July 1965, sending back pictures of the red planet.
In 1975, President Ford nominated Federal Judge John Paul Stevens to the U-S Supreme Court seat vacated by William O. Douglas.
In 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
In 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned as British prime minister during an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, who then conferred the premiership on John Major.
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.)
Ten years ago: Indian forces fired grenades at the landmark Taj Mahal hotel, the last stand of suspected Muslim militants, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish outreach center and found six hostages dead. (The 60-hour rampage in Mumbai came to an end the following day.) Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress (PLEK’-sih-koh BUR’-ihs) accidentally shot himself in the right thigh with a gun tucked into his waistband at a New York nightclub (Burress was later sentenced to two years in prison for a weapons conviction).
Five years ago: China said it had sent warplanes into its newly declared maritime air defense zone, days after the U.S., South Korea and Japan all sent flights through the airspace in defiance of rules Beijing said it had imposed in the East China Sea.
One year ago: A Libyan militant was convicted in federal court in Washington of terrorism charges stemming from the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, but the jury found Ahmed Abu Khattala not guilty of murder. (Khattala was sentenced the following June to 22 years in prison.) Jay-Z led the 2018 Grammy Award nominations as the top four categories were heavily dominated by rap and R&B artists.
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