1703 – The first Lutheran pastor in America, Justus Falckner in Philadelphia, is ordained.
    1713 - Birth of Father Junipero Serra, Spanish missionary to western America, at Petra, Majorca, Spain.  From 1769, he established 9 of the first 21 Franciscan missions founded along the Pacific coast in California from San Diego to San Francisco, and baptized some 6,000 Indians before his death in 1784. In doing so, he erased the California Indian culture and way of life, often in a cruel manner, but he was on a “mission”.   Studying Fr. Serra and the California missions is part of California elementary school curricula to learn about the Catholic churches built in California. He is credited with helping to bring “civilization” to the California coast, including vineyards, teaching them to farm and raise livestock.  Fr. Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988. Beatification is the third of four steps in canonization toward sainthood. He recently has been criticized by historians for his cruelty to the Indians to convert them to Christianity
and way of Spanish life during this time period.
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/serra.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13730b.htm
    1759 – Mt. Vesuvius erupted.
    1784 - Zachary Taylor's birthday.  The soldier who became twelfth president of the US was born at Orange County, Virginia. Term of office:  March 4, 1849-July 9, 1850. He was nominated at the Whig party convention in 1848, but, the story goes, he did not accept the letter notifying him of his nomination because it had postage due. He cast his first vote in 1846, when he was 62 years old. Becoming ill July 4, 1850, he died at the White House, July 9. His last words, "I am sorry that I am about to leave my friends."
    1812 - Southwesterly winds of hurricane force sank ships and unroofed buildings at Philadelphia and New York City.
    1832 - South Carolina passes Ordinance of Nullification to challenge Federal government rights over states, starting with tariff laws and other issues.  Historians view this as the first sign of a secession from the United States.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/n1/nullific.asp
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/The_Great_Republic_By
_the_Master_Historians_Vol_III/nullificat_bj.html
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/sc/ordnull.htm
    1835 - Texas Rangers, a mounted police force, were authorized by the Texas Provisional Government. Rangers served primarily as volunteers since government offers of payment rarely materialized. In 1835, as the movement for Texas independence was about to boil over, a council of colonial Texas representatives created a "Corps of Rangers" to protect the frontier from hostile Indians. For the first time, their pay was officially set at $1.25 a day and they were to elect their own officers. Settlers rebelled against the Mexican government in 1836 over violations of their rights and the suspension of immigration from the U.S and Europe. The Texas Rangers played an important but little known role in this conflict. They covered the retreat of civilians from dictator Santa Ana's army in the famous "Runaway Scrape," harassed columns of Mexican troops and provided valuable intelligence to the Texas Army. The only men to ride in response to Col. William B. Travis' last minute plea to defend the Alamo were Rangers who fought, and died, in the cause of Texas freedom.
    1838 - Canadian Sulpician missionary François Blanchet, 43, first arrived in the Oregon Territory. A native of Quebec, he spent 45 years building churches in the American Northwest, and is remembered today as the "Apostle of Oregon."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02593a.htm
    1852 - Commodore Matthew Perry sails from Norfolk, VA, to negotiate a treaty with Japan for friendship and commerce.
    1859 - Evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin's “Origin of the Species” is published.
http://www.darwinfoundation.org/
    1859 – Birthday in Zanesville, OH of the architect of the Supreme Court and Woolworth Buildings.  Cass Gilbert was also the designer of the capital building in St. Paul, MN.  He died on May 17, 1934.
    1863 - “Battle of Lookout Mountain.”  Part of a major three day major Civil War battle, after reinforcing the besieged Union army at Chattanooga, Tennessee, General Ulysses S. Grant launched the Battle of Chattanooga. Evidently falsely secure in the knowledge that his troops were in an impregnable position on Lookout Mountain, Confederate General Braxton Bragg and his army were overrun by the Union forces. Bragg himself barely escaped capture. The battle is very famous for the Union Army's spectacular advance up a heavily forced slope into the teeth of the enemy guns. Many historians claim this victory gave Grant the momentum of his campaign. Pre-frontal clouds obscured the upper battlefield, aiding a Union victory.
http://ngeorgia.com/history/lookoutmountain.html
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/The_Great_Republic_By
_the_Master_Historians_Vol_III/civilwar_eh.html
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/Tryp/rubyfalls.html
http://ngeorgia.com/naturally/lookout_mountain.html
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_34050.asp
    1868 – Ragtime composer and pianist Scott Joplin was born at Texarkana, Texas.  During his brief career, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the “Maple Leaf Rag”, became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag.  Joplin died in 1917 in NYC.  http://www.scottjoplin.org/biog.htm
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Bayou/9694/
http://www.ddc.com/~decoy/sjop.htm
http://www.lsjunction.com/people/joplin.htm
    1869 – The American Woman's Suffrage Association was formed in Cleveland.
    1871 - The National Rifle Association was organized and chartered in New York City with 35 members. Its first shooting meet was held on April 25, 1873 at Creedmore, NY. The contestants included nine regiments of the New York National Guard, one regiment of the New Jersey National Guard, the U.S. Engineers, and a squad of regular servicemen from Governors Island. The first president of the association was General Ambrose Everett Burnside, who had commanded the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.
http://www.nra.org/
    1874 - Joseph F. Glidden patents barbed wire
    1877 – Birthday of Truman’s Vice President Alben Barkley at Lowes, KY.  A career politician, he grew from a Kentucky legislator to the US House and Senate.  Barkley died in 1956.
    1880 - In Montgomery, AL, more than 150 delegates from Baptist churches in 11 states met to form the Baptist Foreign Missions Convention of the United States. Liberian missionary William W. Colley was chief organizer, and the Rev. William H. McAlpine was elected the first president.
    1887 - Anglo-American theologian Mary Ely Lyman’s birthday.   She received her B.D. from Union Seminary in 1919 as the only woman in the class. Was not allowed to attend the commencement luncheon and had to sit in the balcony with faculty wives during the graduation ceremony even though she was the ranking scholar of her class. She attended two years at Cambridge on a fellowship and was refused a degree or a transcript because of her sex. She taught religion at Barnard College from 1919-1940 and taught at Union Seminary along with her husband. She was dean and professor of religion at Sweet Briar College. In 1950, became the first woman to hold a faculty chair at Union Seminary although a few years earlier she had been terminated because her husband (15 years her senior) had retired and it was "assumed" she would be retiring also.
http://www.uts.columbia.edu/projects/AWTS/exhibit/lyman1.html
http://www.uts.columbia.edu/projects/AWTS/exhibit/lyman2.html
    1888 - Birthday of Dale Carnegie, American inspirational lecturer and author, at Maryville, MO.   His best known book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” published in 1936, sold nearly five million copies and was translated into 29 languages. Carnegie died at New York, NY Nov 1, 1955.  Currently, Dale Carnegie Course franchises proliferate globally, providing innumerable online and in-person instruction in self-development and interpersonal skills.
http://selfhelp.lifetimeinfo.com/gurus/dalecarnegie.htm
http://www.westegg.com/unmaintained/carnegie/carnegie.html
http://www.dale-carnegie.com/
    1896 - The first absentee voting law was enacted by Vermont. According to its provisions, a voter could obtain a certificate declaring that he was qualified to vote in the state. He could then vote for state officers at any election booth in the state.
    1896 - Birthday of singer Rosa Henderson (born Rosa Deschamps), Henderson, KY
http://www.redhotjazz.com/rosahenderson.html
http://bluesland.net/thang/RosaHenderson.html
http://music.mainseek.com/1912R46K0_Artists-A-Z-H-Rosa-Henderson.html
    1897 – Birthday of Mafia don Charles “Lucky” Luciano at Lercara, Friddi, Sicily.  His family immigrated to lower Manhattan in 1907.  While a teenager, Luciano started his own gang. Unlike other street gangs whose business was petty crime, Luciano offered protection to Jewish youngsters from gangs for ten cents per week. It was during this time Luciano met Jewish teenager Meyer Lansky, his future business partner and close friend.  Prohibition provided Luciano his first big opportunity that he parlayed into gambling, with Arnold Rothstein, liquor importing, prostitution, and other ills.  The recent organization structure or organize crime was largely of his design but it did not protect him from deportation once the US was able to convict him in 1938.  During World War II, the U.S. government struck a secret deal with the imprisoned Luciano. In 1942, the U.S. was concerned about German and Italian agents entering the United States through the New York waterfront. They also worried about sabotage in these facilities. Knowing that the Cosa Nostra controlled the waterfront, the Navy contacted Meyer Lansky about a deal with Luciano. The Navy, the State of New York and Luciano eventually concluded a deal. In exchange for a commutation of his sentence, Luciano promised the complete assistance of his organization in providing intelligence to the Navy and strike prevention by dockworkers.  On January 3, 1946, as a presumed reward for his alleged wartime cooperation, NY Governor Thomas Dewey reluctantly commuted Luciano's pandering sentence on condition that he did not resist deportation to Italy.  Although he never entered the US again, he was prominent in Cuba’s rise as a gambling mecca at that time.  Luciano died in 1962 at the Naples airport of a heart attack.
    1906 – The Massillon Tigers took a 13-6 victory over the Canton Bulldogs for the Ohio League Championship.  Allegations arose that the championship series was fixed and the first major scandal arose in US pro football.
    1911 – Sky King’s birthday.  Actor Kirby Grant was born.
    1917 - Nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history until the September 11 attacks in 2001.
    1918 – Birthday of piano player/organist/arranger Bill “Wild” Davis, Glasgow, Mo.  http://www.theiceberg.com/artist/28016/wild_davis.html
    1919 - The Oscar Mayer Company reopens a meat-packing plant on Madison's east side. The company searched for skilled workers in a recruiting frenzy that included a sweep of Milwaukee's Polish saloons during the Cudahy packing-plant strike. The Oscar Mayer plant had been operated by the Farmers' Cooperative Packing Company, which formed under a strongly worded state law encouraging cooperatives. Prior to the cooperative's opening in 1917, Madison-area farmers had no choice but to sell their pigs and cattle to the Chicago beer trusts. Response to the cooperative was enthusiastic -- 5,000 area farmers bought nearly 600,000 dollars of stock in the new enterprise. The nation had only two other farm-owned cooperative packing plants, both in Wisconsin. But faced with mounting wages and operating losses, and no real prospect of new capital, the cooperative was forced to sell the plant to the Chicago firm, Oscar F. Mayer & Brother.
    1921 – Former NYC Mayor John V. Lindsay was born in NYC.  During the transit strike that was called on the day he took office, Lindsay walked to work, remarking that New York was a Fun City.  The name took.  Lindsay died in 2000.
    1922 – Pianist Teddy Wilson born Austin, Texas.
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_wilson_teddy.htm
http://www.audioroots.com/musique/new-york-chicago_612.htm
http://www.pianolagoon.com/1702553.html
    1923 - Birthday of baritone sax player Serge Chaloff, Boston, MA
http://www.theiceberg.com/artist/27266/serge_chaloff.html
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r1201_015.htm
    1923 - Birthday of harmonica player Earl Payton, Pine Bluff, AR
    1924 - The first “Corn-husking championship” was held on a farm near Alleman, Polk County, IA.  There were six contestants. The winner was Fred Staek of Webster County, IA, who husked 1891 pounds in 90 minutes.
    1925 - Eugene O'Neill Theater opens at 230 W 49th St. New York City
    1925 - Birthday of sax player Al Cohn at Brooklyn NY
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/cohn_al/bio.jhtml
http://www.52ndstreet.com/reviews/reissues/cohnovertones.reissues.html
He was one of the four tenor saxophone players known as the  “Four Brothers:” Serge Chaloff, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Herbie Stewart. Later, Al Cohn replaced Herbie Stewart. Jimmy Giuffre, also replaced Zoot Sims on Tenor sax (Guiffre is known as a great clarinet player. But what is best known beside the sound, is the tune arranged by Jim Guiffre with Serge Chaloff on baritone sax and Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Al Cohn on tenor sax.
http://www.gerrymulligan.info/m_4-again.html
http://www.mymusic.ca/product.asp?myptr=theiceberg&muzenbr=
192717&last_page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etheiceberg%2Ecom
%2Fartist%2Ehtml%3Fartist%5Fid%3D4639
http://www.blacksaint.com/bios/jgiuffre.html
    1925 – William F. Buckley, Jr. was born in NYC.  A conservative author and commentator, he founded the political magazine “National Review” in 1955, which had a major impact in stimulating the conservative movement. He hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show “Firing Line” from 1966 until 1999, where he became known for his accent and wide vocabulary that became grist for the comedians of the time. He also wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column, and wrote numerous spy novels.  He died in 2008
    1930 – The first woman pilot on a transcontinental air flight was Ruth Nichols in a Lockheed-Vega.  The flight from Mineola, New York to California took 7 days.
    1932 - The FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory officially opens in Washington, D.C.  The lab, which was chosen because it had the necessary sink, operated out of a single room and had only one full-time employee. In fact, J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, provided the lab with very few resources and used the "cutting-edge lab" primarily as a public relations tool. But by 1938, the FBI lab added polygraph machines and started conducting controversial lie detection tests as part of its investigations. In its early days, the FBI Crime Lab worked on about 200 pieces of evidence a year. By the 1990s, that number multiplied to approximately 200,000. Currently, the FBI Crime Lab obtains 600 new pieces of criminal evidence every day.
    1933 - Singer Bessie Smith, 38, cuts her last record, “I'm Down in the Dumps.”  Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists.  She would die in an automobile accident in 1937.
http://physics.lunet.edu/blues/Bessie_Smith.html
http://www.redhotjazz.com/bessie.html
http://alt.venus.co.uk/weed/bessie/
    1937 - The Andrews Sisters record “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” (Decca). We had dinner once next to the two surviving sisters and their husbands at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada. They still looked great and appeared to be very gracious people.
http://www.cmgww.com/music/andrews/
http://www.bigbands.net/andrewsbio.htm
    1938 – Birthday of ‘The Big O’, NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson at Charlotte, TN.  He is the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season.  14-time All-Star and a member of the All-NBA team, he was also elected to the Naismith Collegiate Basketball Hall in its inaugural class in 2006.  Robertson was also an integral part of the “Oscar Robertson Suit” of 1970. The landmark antitrust suit, named after the then-president of the NBA Players’ Assn, led to an extensive reform of the league's strict free agency and draft rules and, subsequently, to higher salaries for all players.
    1940 – Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was born in Jersey City.  Judging by recent headlines, he left office just in time.
    1941 - Birthday of bass player Donald “Duck” Dunn, of Booker T. & The MG's, at Memphis, TN.  Perhaps best known for playing himself in “The Blues Brothers.” A Saturday night studio musician who is one of the architects of the Stax / Volt sound.
http://www.ericclaptonfaq.com/questions/Donald_Duck_Dunn.htm
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0242551/
    1941 - Birthday of drummer Pete Best, Madras India, known for being the original “Beatles” drummer, and for setting the beat sound.  Fans were “outraged” when he was replaced by Ringo Starr.
http://www.beatlesagain.com/bpete.html
http://www.pete-best.com/
http://www.petebest.com/1988.asp
http://petebestdiscography.com/
    1941 - The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French Forces.
    1943 - The USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks, killing 650 men.
    1944 – Birthday of Rita Mae Brown, novelist and poet.  Gained fame with her rollicking “Rubyfruit Jungle” about growing up a lesbian in South Florida when she became friends with actor Alexis Smith. Later she had an affair with tennis player Martina Navratilova and wrote a controversial “revenge” book about women’s tennis.
    1944 – 111 U.S. B-29 Superfortress bombers raid Tokyo for the first time since Capt. Jimmy Doolittle’s raid in 1942. Their target: the Nakajima aircraft engine works. The Fall of 1944 saw the sustained strategic bombing of Japan. Despite the barrage of bombs that were dropped in this raid, fewer than 50 hit the main target, the Nakajima Aircraft Works, doing little damage. The upside was that at such a great height, the B-29s were protected from counter-attack; only one was shot down. One Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded as a result of the raid. It went to Captain Steakley.
    1946 – Ted Bundy, mass murderer was born Theodore Robert Cowell in Burlington, VT.  He confessed to 30 homicides committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. The true victim count remains unknown and is thought to be much higher. He died in the electric chair in Florida State Prison in 1989. 
    1947 – John Steinbeck’s novel “The Pearl” published  http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/pearl/about.html
    1947 - Congress voted to cite the Hollywood Ten, who opposed the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) hearings, as “unfriendly witnesses” for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry. At the same time, 50 top Hollywood executives convened and decided to discharge or suspend the Hollywood Ten until acquittal or declaration that they were not Communists. Among the ten were director Edward Dmytrak, who later recanted and gave names of suspected Communists, Lester Cole, and writer Ring Lardner Jr. Lester Cole later wrote “Hollywood Red.”
    1949 – Linda Tripp, confidant to Monica Lewinsky, was born in Jersey City.  Tripp's action in secretly recording Lewinsky's confidential phone calls about her relationship with the President caused a sensation with their links to the earlier Jones v. Clinton lawsuit and with the disclosing of notably intimate details.  This was part of the chronology that eventually led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
    1950 - Frank Loesser's musical comedy, "Guys and Dolls", opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City. The show ran for 1,200 performances.
    1950 - The temperature at Chicago, IL, dipped to 2 below zero to equal their record for the month established on the 29th in 1872. On the first of the month that year Chicago established a record high for November with a reading of 81 degrees.
    1950 – “Guys and Dolls” opened on Broadway.
    1950 - U.N. troops begin an assault intending to end Korean War by Christmas
    1951 - KNIGHT, NOAH O., Medal of Honor.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company F, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kowang-San, Korea, 23 and 24 November 1951. Entered service at: Jefferson, S.C. Born: 27 October 1929, Chesterfield County, S.C. G.O. No.: 2, 7 January 1953. Citation: Pfc. Knight, a member of Company F, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He occupied a key position in the defense perimeter when waves of enemy troops passed through their own artillery and mortar concentrations and charged the company position. Two direct hits from an enemy emplacement demolished his bunker and wounded him. Disregarding personal safety, he moved to a shallow depression for a better firing vantage. Unable to deliver effective fire from his defilade position, he left his shelter, moved through heavy fire in full view of the enemy and, firing into the ranks of the relentless assailants, inflicted numerous casualties, momentarily stemming the attack. Later during another vicious onslaught, he observed an enemy squad infiltrating the position and, counterattacking, killed or wounded the entire group. Expending the last of his ammunition, he discovered 3 enemy soldiers entering the friendly position with demolition charges. Realizing the explosives would enable the enemy to exploit the breach, he fearlessly rushed forward and disabled 2 assailants with the butt of his rifle when the third exploded a demolition charge killing the 3 enemy soldiers and mortally wounding Pfc. Knight. Pfc. Knight's supreme sacrifice and consummate devotion to duty reflect lasting glory on himself and uphold the noble traditions of the military service.
    1953 – The Brooklyn Dodgers signed Walter Alston to a 1-year contract as their new manager for 1954, after the incumbent, Charlie Dressen, demanded a multi-year deal following two consecutive trips to the World Series.  For the entire time Alston managed the Dodgers including in Los Angeles, through 1976, he never signed for more than one year.
    1954 – The first Presidential airplane, Air Force One, is christened, a Lockheed Constellation Columbine for President Eisenhower.
    1955 - Top Hits
“Sixteen Tons” - Tennessee Ernie Ford
“Autumn Leaves” - Roger Williams
“Love and Marriage” - Frank Sinatra
“Love, Love, Love” - Webb Pierce
    1958 - Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops" was released, as was a Richie Valens' album featuring "Donna" on one side and "La Bamba" on the other.
    1957 - Cleveland rookie Jim Brown, arguably the greatest NFL running back, rushes for an NFL record 237 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Browns to a 45-31 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
http://images.nfl.com/history/images/1124.jpg
    1957 - Harry Belafonte was at #1 on the UK chart with "Mary's Boy Child", the first single to sell over 1 million copies in the UK. It stayed at the top for seven weeks.
    1958 - The Kingston Trio became the very first group to ever have an album reach the top of the US chart. Before them, only solo artists had hit number one. They would go on to record a total of fourteen Top Ten albums and an additional five would enter the top 25.
    1958 - Harold Jenkins, who became Conway Twitty, got his first #1 hit with "It's Only Make Believe", which was the United States' most popular song for one week.
    1960 – Wilt Chamberlain grabbed a record 55 rebounds.
    1961 – “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” became the first African song to hit the Number 1 spot on the American pop chart. The American version, recorded by the Tokens, was a translation of a South African folk song known variously as "Mbube" or "Wimoweh".
    1963 - The first murder to be shown on television took place at 12:20pm in the police headquarters at Dallas, Texas. While television news cameras were rolling, a Dallas police officer brought in Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Oswald was in the process of being transferred to the county jail. A man in the crowd stepped forward and fired a concealed pistol at Oswald, killing him. The crime was witnessed by millions of people. The murderer was Jack Ruby (Jacob L. Rubenstein), a Dallas nightclub owner.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov24.html
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/RR/fru3.html
http://www.jfk-online.com/rubydef.html
http://ourworld-top.cs.com/mikegriffith1/id153.htm
    1963 - Top Hits
“I'm Leaving It Up to You” - Dale & Grace
“Washington Square” - The Village Stompers
“She's a Fool” - Lesley Gore
“Love's Gonna Live Here” - Buck Owens
    1964 – For the first time since 1800, the residents of our Nation’s capital are permitted to vote.
    1966 - The Beatles begin recording sessions for the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" LP by laying down tracks for "Strawberry Fields Forever". The song however, doesn't make the 1967 album, but would appear the following year on "Magical Mystery Tour".
    1966 - Several thousand teenagers battle with Kansas City police after a James Brown concert is halted because of what officials call "obscene dances being performed on the stage."
    1966 - 400 die of respiratory failure and heart attack in killer New York City smog
    1968 – Todd Beamer was born in Flint, MI.  On 9/11/2001, Beamer was one of the passengers on United Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, PA on its way to Washington DC after hijackers took control.  He was one of the passengers who tried to reclaim the aircraft from the hijackers, leading them to crash it into a field.  Investigation revealed that Flight 93 may have been headed to crash land into the White House or the Capitol in Washington, DC as part of the terror attacks that hit the Pentagon and the World trade Center in NYC.
    1969 - United States Army Lieutenant William L. Calley, charged with the massacre of over 100 civilians in the Vietnamese village of My Lai in March 1968, was ordered to stand trial by court martial.
    1969 - Apollo 12 returned to Earth after its moon landing.
    1970 - The United States’ outstanding collegiate football player of the year was awarded the Heisman Memorial Trophy. The winner was Jim Plunkett, quarterback for the Stanford Cardinal, who later went on to a sterling career in the NFL, winning two Super Bowls with the Oakland Raiders.  Yes, at one time, the Raiders were a great football organization that won.
    1971 - Top Hits
“Theme from Shaft” - Isaac Hayes
“Baby I'm-A Want You” - Bread
“Have You Seen Her” - Chi-Lites
“Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)” - Merle Haggard
    1971 - D.B. Cooper Hijacking. A middle-aged man whose plane ticket was made out to "D.B. Cooper" parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 jetliner on Nov 25, 1971, carrying $200,000 which he had collected from the airline as ransom for the plane and passengers as a result of threats made during his Nov 24 flight from Portland, OR, to Seattle, WA. He parachuted near Woodland, WA, into a raging thunderstorm with winds up to 200 miles per hour and the temperature at seven degrees below zero, wearing only a light business suit. He left the plane with 10,000 $20 bills. He was never found, and it is believed that he died after his jump. Several thousand dollars of the marked ransom money turned up in February 1980, along the Columbia River, near Vancouver, WA.  The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history.
http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/News/1971/November/24-DB_Cooper.asp
http://www.aero.com/publications/parachutes/9602/pc0296.htm
    1972 - ABC-TV debuts its late-night Rock show, “In Concert”, put together by The Monkees producer, Don Kirshner. The first show stars Alice Cooper, Chuck Berry, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Poco, and the Allman Brothers Band
    1973 - After more than two years of retirement, Frank Sinatra returned with a NBC television special titled, "Ol' Blue Eyes is Back". Despite finishing third in the ratings, in a three-show race, one critic called the program, "the best popular music special of the year."
    1973 - After cracking Billboard's Top Ten with "It Don't Come Easy" (#4) and "Back Off Boogaloo" (#9), Ringo Starr reaches number one with "Photograph", a song he co-wrote with George Harrison.
    1974 – President Gerald Ford and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT-2-treaty limiting strategic nuclear weapons with verifiable inspections permitted by both sides.
    1979 - A pair of Pop music divas, Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand combined their voices to produce the top tune in the US, "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)". It's Summer's third number one single and Streisand's fourth.
    1979 - Top Hits
“No More Tears (Enough is Enough)” - Barbra Streisand/Donna Summer
“Babe” - Styx
“Please Don't Go” - K.C. & The Sunshine Band
“Come with Me” - Waylon Jennings
    1981 - “Simon and Simon” premieres on television. This popular crime show about private eye brothers starred Jameson Parker as smooth, educated A.J. Simon and Gerald McRaney as brother Rick, a Vietnam vet. Other featured actors included Mary Carver as Cecilia Simon, their mother; Eddie Barth as rival detective Myron Fowler; Jeannie Wilson as Myron's daughter Janet, a district attorney; Tim Reid as undercover policeman Downtown Brown and Joan McMurtrey as Lieutenant Abby Marsh. The series was based on a 1980 made-for-TV movie called "Pirate's Key," with the series locale shifted from Florida to San Diego.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/7691/simonnsimon.html
http://timstvshowcase.com/
    1982 - Hurricane Iwa lashed the Hawaiian Islands of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu with high winds and surf. Winds gusting to 120 mph caused extensive shoreline damage. Damage totaled 150 million dollars on Kauai, and fifty million dollars on Oahu. The peak storm surge on the south shore was six to eight feet. It marked the first time in 25 years that Hawaii had been affected by a hurricane
    1982 – Iron Man Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles is named AL Rookie of the Year.
    1987 - Top Hits
“Mony Mony”  "Live" - Billy Idol
“(I've Had) The Time of My Life” - Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes
“Heaven is a Place on Earth” - Belinda Carlisle
“I Won't Need You Anymore (Always and Forever)” - Randy Travis
    1987 - The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles in the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.    
    1988 - Low pressure brought heavy snow and high winds to the Northern and Central Rockies. Snowfall totals in Colorado ranged up to 40 inches at Wolf Creek Pass, with 27 inches falling in 24 hours. Telluride, CO received 32 inches of snow, and winds atop Mines Peak gusted to 95 mph.
    1990 - The first telescope of importance with a compound objective mirror was the William M. Keck I telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. It had a 394-inch main objective mirror of 36 hexagonal segments that could be precisely positioned by computer. An interferometer combined the light from the 36 segments into a single focused image. The first astronomical image from the Keck was produced this day when nine of the segments were in place.
    1991 - In week 13, after going 12-0, Washington loses to Dallas 24-21. Washington ends their season 14-2 and beats the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI, 37-24.  Joe Gibbs coached the Redskins and Marv Levy was coach of the Bills.   
 1991 - Monica Seles sets the female tennis record by winning $2,457,758 for the year.
    1992 - The US Military leaves the Philippines. The Philippines became a US colony at the turn of the century when it was taken over from Spain after the Spanish-American War. Through President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill on March 24, 1934 granting the Philippines independence to be effective July 4, 1946, before that date, Manila and Washington signed a treaty allowing the US to lease military bases on the island. In 1991, the Philippine Senate voted to reject a renewal of that lease, and this day, after almost 100 years of military presence on the island, the last contingent of US marines left the Subic Bay base.
    1992 - A major winter storm across the Texas panhandle, western Oklahoma and western Kansas produced near blizzard conditions which contributed to a massive 200 car pile-up on interstate 40 in Amarillo, TX. All traffic was brought to a virtual standstill in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. 19 inches of snow with drifts over 6 feet at Lavern, OK. Drifts reached 15 feet near Hugoton, KS. 17 inches fell at Liberal, 16 at Garden City and 14 inches at Dodge City in Kansas.
    1993 – The Brady Bill passes, establishing 5-day waiting period for handgun sales
    1994 - The film comedy "Junior," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and Emma Thompson, opened in United States theaters. Schwarzenegger and Thompson were later both nominated for Golden Globe acting awards.
    1996 - Following its United States opening weekend, “Star Trek: First Contact” brought in $30.7 million at the box office.
    1996 – NFL Hall of Fame RB Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions set an NFL record when he recorded his eighth straight season rushing for 1,000 yards.
    1998 - The Spice Girls' "Live at Wembley" video was released by Virgin Music Video, and the following year was certified platinum.
    1998 - Top Hits
“Lately”- Divine
“Doo Wop (That Thing)” - Lauryn Hill
“Nobody s Supposed To Be Here”- Deborah Cox
“One Week”- Barenaked Ladies
    1998 - AOL (America Online) announced a deal for their purchase of Netscape for $4.21 billion.   
    2008 - As a result of being among the top finishers in an Indian reality TV show called the “Million Dollar Arm”, which drew approximately 37,000 contestants, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel sign free-agent deals to pitch for the Pirates. The pair 20-year-old cricket players, who never had thrown a baseball until earlier this year, are the first two players from India to sign a contract with a major league organization. They are the subject of the movie "Million Dollar Arm."  Singh missed the 2013 and 2014
seaon due to injuries. Patel had a brief 2009 season, and the 2010 season was less successful, with an 8.59 ERA in 71⁄3 innings, over nine games; he was released in December 2010 and returned home to finish school.
    2009 - The Rolling Stones began cashing in on British singing sensation Susan Boyle's rendition of their hit "Wild Horses" by re-issuing their original version which was first released 40 years ago this month.
    2010 - A jury in Austin convicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on charges he'd illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.
    2012 - Gangnam Style becomes the most viewed YouTube video surpassing 808 million views.
    2012 - The continued NHL lockout results in all games to December 14 being cancelled.