Today's Highlight in History:
On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas; Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same open car as the president, was seriously wounded. A suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested.
On this date:
In 1718, English pirate Edward Teach — better known as "Blackbeard" — was killed during a battle off present-day North Carolina.
In 1862, Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Forza del Destino" had its world premiere in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In 1928, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was first performed, in Paris.
In 1930, listeners of the British Broadcasting Corp. heard, for the first time, radio coverage of an American college football game as Harvard defeated Yale, 13-0.
In 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, Calif., carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan. Lyricist Lorenz Hart died in New York at age 48.
In 1954, the Humane Society of the United States was incorporated as the National Humane Society.
In 1965, the musical "Man of La Mancha" opened on Broadway.
In 1967, the U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it had captured the previous June, and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.
In 1975, Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain.
In 1986, Elzire Dionne, who gave birth to quintuplets in 1934, died at a hospital in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, at age 77.
In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having failed to win re-election of the Conservative Party leadership on the first ballot, announced her resignation.
Ten years ago: The Medicare prescription drug bill narrowly passed the House, 220-215, following a dusk-to-dawn debate. Thousands of mourners gathered in downtown Dallas along the street where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 40 years earlier. College student Dru Sjodin disappeared while leaving her job at a Grand Forks, N.D., mall. (Sjodin's body was found in April 2004; a suspect, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., was later convicted of kidnapping and murdering her and was sentenced to death.)
Five years ago: In the weekly Democratic radio address, President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan he said would provide 2.5 million jobs, although his spokesman later clarified that the plan would "save and create" that many jobs. President George W. Bush snared fresh international support on the economy and North Korea at a Pacific Rim economic summit in Peru. A revised Nebraska safe-haven law took effect with a 30-day age limit, ending abandonments of older children. Rapper MC Breed died in Ypsilanti, Mich., at age 37, reportedly of kidney failure.
One year ago: The traditional "Black Friday" sales began even earlier than before, on Thanksgiving evening, as stores including Target and Toys R Us opened their doors in hopes that Americans would be willing to shop right after their Thanksgiving meal. Some of the people displaced by Superstorm Sandy had front-row seats to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, while others enjoyed free holiday meals. In a series of constitutional amendments, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi granted himself sweeping new powers and placed himself above judicial oversight.
Today's Birthdays: Movie director Arthur Hiller is 90. Actor Robert Vaughn is 81. Actor Michael Callan is 78. Actor Allen Garfield is 74. Animator and movie director Terry Gilliam is 73. Actor Tom Conti is 72. Singer Jesse Colin Young is 72. Astronaut Guion Bluford is 71. International Tennis Hall of Famer Billie Jean King is 70. Rock musician-actor Steve Van Zandt (a.k.a. Little Steven) is 63. Rock musician Tina Weymouth (The Heads; Talking Heads; The Tom Tom Club) is 63. Retired MLB All-Star Greg Luzinski is 63. Rock musician Lawrence Gowan is 57. Actor Richard Kind is 57. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is 55. Alt-country singer Jason Ringenberg (Jason & the Scorchers) is 55. Actress Mariel Hemingway is 52. Actor Winsor Harmon is 50. Actor-turned-producer Brian Robbins is 50. Actor Stephen Geoffreys is 49. Rock musician Charlie Colin is 47. Actor Nicholas Rowe is 47. Actor Mark Ruffalo is 46. International Tennis Hall of Famer Boris Becker is 46. Country musician Chris Fryar (Zac Brown Band) is 43. Actor Josh Cooke is 34. Actor-singer Tyler Hilton is 30. Actress Scarlett Johansson is 29. Actor Jamie Campbell Bower is 25. Singer Candice Glover is 24. Actor Alden Ehrenreich is 24.
Thought for Today: "Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so." — Charles de Gaulle (born this date in 1890, died 1970).
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