Today is Thursday, Nov. 12, the 317th day of 2020. There are 49 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
Recommended Videos
- On Nov. 12, 1975, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retired because of failing health, ending a record 36-year term.
On this date:
- In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
- In 1929, Grace Kelly -- the future movie star and Princess of Monaco -- was born in Philadelphia.
- In 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies ended up winning a major victory over Japanese forces.)
- In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
- In 1977, the city of New Orleans elected its first Black mayor, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the winner of a runoff.
- In 1982, Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee.
- In 1987, the American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person had AIDS or was HIV-positive.
- In 1990, Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumed the Chrysanthemum Throne. Actor Eve Arden died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 82.
- In 1994, Olympic track-and-field gold medalist Wilma Rudolph died in Brentwood, Tennessee, at age 54.
- In 1996, a Saudi Boeing 747 jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a Kazak Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, killing 349 people.
- In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 headed to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.
- In 2009, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting rampage. (Hasan was later convicted and sentenced to death; no execution date has been set.)
Today’s Birthdays:
Sportscaster Al Michaels is 76. Singer-songwriter Neil Young is 75. Rock musician Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (Blue Oyster Cult) is 73. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., is 71. Country/gospel singer Barbara Fairchild is 70. Actor Megan Mullally is 62. Actor Vincent Irizarry is 61. Olympic gold medal gymnast Nadia Comaneci is 59. Rock musician David Ellefson is 56. Retired MLB All-Star Sammy Sosa is 52. Figure skater Tonya Harding is 50. Actor Rebecca Wisocky is 49. Actor Radha Mitchell is 47. Actor Lourdes Benedicto is 46. Actor Tamala Jones is 46. Actor Angela Watson is 46. Singer Tevin Campbell is 44. Actor Ashley Williams is 42. Actor Cote de Pablo is 41. Actor Ryan Gosling is 40. Contemporary Christian musician Chris Huffman is 40. Actor Anne Hathaway is 38. Pop singer Omarion is 36. NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook is 32. Folk-rock musician Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes) is 30. Actor Macey Cruthird is 28.