Wikipedia: November 24

November 24
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

November 24 is the 328th day (329th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 37 days remaining.

Events

1639 - Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.
1642 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
1859 - British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sold out its initial print run).
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain - Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.
1904 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
1922 - Popular author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.
1932 - In Washington, DC, the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
1941 - World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
1944 - World War II: Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.
1947 - Red Scare: After refusing to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10.
1947 - Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France
1951 - The Broadway play Gigi opens starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character (the play ran for six months and lead to Hepburn's film debut in Roman Holiday).
1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination: Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is mortally shot by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television.
1963 - Vietnam War: Newly sworn in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically.
1969 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.
1971 - During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a man calling himself Dan Cooper (commonly remembered as D. B. Cooper) parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked with US$200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again).
1976 - The Band gives its last public performance; Martin Scorsese is on hand to film it.
1992 - In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.
1993 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention").
1996 - Rusty Wallace wins the Suzuka NASCAR Thunder 100 racing event at Suzuka Circuitland in Suzuka City (this was the first NASCAR competition held in Japan).
1997 - Following a 554.26 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoke the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading (this was a very controversial move and prompted a quick change in the rule; trading stops will only occur when the DJIA drops at least 10 or 20 percent).
1998 - America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.

Births

1632 - Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (d. 1677)
1713 - Laurence Sterne, novelist (d. 1768)
1713 - Junipero Serra, founder of California missions (d. 1784)
1784 - Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States (d. 1850)
1787 - Franz Xaver Gruber, organist and composer (d. 1863)
1801 - Ludwig Bechstein, narrator and poet (d. 1860)
1826 - Carlo Collodi, author (d. 1890)
1849 - Frances Hodgson Burnett, author (d. 1924)
1853 - Bat Masterson, gunslinger, policeman, sports reporter (d. 1921)
1859 - Cass Gilbert, architect, designer of U.S. Supreme Court Building (d. 1934)
1864 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter (d. 1901)
1868 - Scott Joplin, musician (d. 1917)
1876 - Walter Burley Griffin, architect
1877 - Alben W. Barkley, Vice President of the United States (d. 1956)
1881 - Al Christie, early Hollywood director/producer (d. 1951)
1884 - Itzhak Ben-Zvi, President of Israel (1952-1963) (d. 1963)
1888 - Dale Carnegie, writer (d. 1955)
1905 - Irving Allen, producer, director (d. 1987)
1912 - Garson Kanin, writer (d. 1999)
1912 - Teddy Wilson, jazz musician (d. 1986)
1913 - Geraldine Fitzgerald, actress
1916 - Forrest J. Ackerman, writer, publisher
1917 - Howard Duff, actor
1921 - John Lindsay, American politician (d. 2000)
1925 - William F. Buckley Jr, writer, political commentator
1934 - Alfred Schnittke, composer (d. 1998)
1936 - Sophie Daumier, actress
1938 - Oscar Robertson, basketball hall of famer
1941 - Pete Best, drummer
1943 - Dave Bing, basketball star
1947 - Dwight Schultz, actor
1946 - Ted Bundy, serial killer
1948 - Steve Yeager, baseball player
1952 - Thierry Lhermitte, actor
1953 - Mudbone Cooper, singer (P Funk)
1955 - Ian Botham, English cricketer

Deaths

1541 - Margaret Tudor
1848 - Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1922 - Robert Erskine Childers, author, Irish nationalist (executed)
1929 - Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France
1956 - Guido Cantelli, conductor
1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald, assassination suspect
1957 - Diego Rivera, painter
1973 - John Neihardt, ghostwriter of Black Elk Speaks
1980 - George Raft, actor
1991 - Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen)
1996 - Sorley MacLean, Scots Gaelic poet
2001 - Melanie Thornton, singer
2002 - John Rawls, philosopher
2003 - Warren Spahn, Major League Baseball pitcher

Events

Births

Deaths

See also