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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 (November 24 in the
Julian calendar, or December 4 in the Gregorian calendar).
- 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 led 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)
- 1655 - King Charles
XI of Sweden (d. 1697)
- 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)
- 1811 - Ulrich
Ochsenbein, member of the
Swiss Federal Council (d. 1890)
- 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)
- 1924 - Victor Grinich
US-Croatian businesman (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
- 1946 - Ted Bundy, serial killer
- 1947 - Dwight Schultz, actor
(The A-Team, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
- 1948 - Steve Yeager, baseball player
- 1949 - Linda Tripp, figure in
Lewinsky scandal
- 1952 - Thierry Lhermitte, actor
- 1953 - Mudbone Cooper, singer (P Funk)
- 1955 - Ian Botham, English cricketer
- 1957 - Denise Crosby, actress
(Star Trek: The Next
Generation)
- 1971 - Keith Primeau, Canadian NHL
star
- 1976 - Chen Lu, figure skater
Deaths
- 1541 - Margaret Tudor
- 1572 - John Knox, Scottish reformer
- 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
- 1985 - Big Joe Turner,
blues singer (b. 1911)
- 1991 - Freddie Mercury,
musician (Queen)
- 1996 - Sorley MacLean,
Scottish Gaelic poet
- 2001 - Melanie Thornton, singer
- 2002 - John Rawls, philosopher
- 2003 - Warren Spahn, Major League Baseball pitcher (b. 1921)
November 23 - November 25
- October 24 - December 24
-- listing of all days
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