Today in History
By the Associated Press
Today is Friday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2019. There are 32 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 29, 1963, President Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.
On this date:
In 1890, the first Army-Navy football game was played at West Point, New York; Navy defeated Army, 24-0.
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 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 1952, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower secretly left on a trip to Korea, keeping his campaign promise to assess the ongoing conflict first-hand.
In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.
In 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, California, at age 43.
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 1991, 17 people were killed in a 164-vehicle pileup during a dust storm on Interstate 5 near Coalinga (koh-LING’-guh), California. Actor Ralph Bellamy died in Santa Monica, California, at age 87.
In 2000, bracing the public for more legal wrangling, Vice President Al Gore said in a series of TV interviews that he was prepared to contest the Florida presidential vote until “the middle of December.”
In 2001, George Harrison, the “quiet Beatle,” 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.
Ten years ago: A gunman shot and killed four Lakewood, Washington, police officers at a coffee shop (suspect Maurice Clemmons was shot to death by a Seattle police officer two days later). Iran approved plans to build 10 industrial scale uranium enrichment facilities in defiance of U.N. demands it halt enrichment. Swiss voters approved a constitutional ban on construction of new minarets, the iconic mosque towers. Francesco and Edoardo Molinari of Italy became the first brother combination to win the World Cup of Golf.
Five years ago: An Egyptian judge dismissed murder charges against former President Hosni Mubarak (HOHS’-nee moo-BAH’-rahk) and acquitted his security chief over the killings of protesters during Egypt’s 2011 uprising. Pope Francis stood in two minutes of silent prayer facing east inside one of Istanbul’s most important religious sites, the 17th-century Sultan Ahmet mosque, on the second leg of his three-day visit to Turkey.
One year ago: As he headed to the Group of 20 Nations summit in Argentina, President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian vessels. (Trump and Putin ended up talking briefly on the sidelines of the summit.) 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. China’s government ordered a halt to work by a medical team that claimed to have helped make the world’s first gene-edited babies. U.S. health officials reported that suicides and drug overdoses pushed up U.S. deaths in 2017 and drove a continuing decline in how long Americans are expected to live.
Thought for Today: “When you’ve seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.” — George Harrison (1943-2001).
