November 24

Birthdays:

1977 ~ Colin Hanks, American actor and son of actor Tom Hanks.

1946 ~ Ted Bundy (né Theodore Robert Cowell, d. Jan. 24, 1989), American serial killer.  He was born in Burlington, Vermont.  He was executed at age 42.

1944 ~ Daniel Glickman, 26^th United States Secretary of Agriculture.  He served from 1995 until 2001 during the Bill Clinton administration.

1943 ~ David Bing, 70^th Mayor of Detroit, Michigan.

1942 ~ Marlin Fitzwater (né Max Marlin Fitzwater), 17^th White House Press Secretary.  He served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

1941 ~ Pete Best, British musician and original drummer for The Beatles.

1938 ~ Charles Starkweather (d. June 25, 1959), teenaged murderer who, along with Caril Ann Fugate (b. 1943), want on a killing spree in which 11 people were killed.  He was executed for his crimes.  He was 20 years old at the time of his execution.  His exploits were depicted in several movies, including Badlands and Natural Born Killers.

1929 ~ George Moscone (d. Nov. 27, 1978), 37^th Mayor of San Francisco.  He served as Mayor from January 1976 until his assassination nearly 3 years later.  He was assassinated along with Harvey Milk. He died three days after his 49^th birthday.

1926 ~ Tzung-Dao Lee, Chinese-born American physicist and recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was 30 years old at the time he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

1925 ~ Simon van der Meer (d. Mar. 4, 2011), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 85.

1925 ~ William F. Buckley, Jr. (d. Feb. 27, 2008), American writer and founder of the National Review.  He died at age 82.

1921 ~ John V. Lindsay (d. Dec. 19, 2000), American politician and 103^rd mayor of New York City.  He served as Mayor from January 1966 through December 1973.  He died 25 days after his 79^th birthday.

1921 ~ Herbert York (d. May 19, 2009), American physicist and atomic scientist who tried to curb the use of atomic arms.  He died at age 87.

1916 ~ Forrest James Ackerman (d. Dec. 4, 2008), American collector of science fiction books and fantasy buff who coined the term “Sci-Fi.”  He died about 2 weeks after his 92^nd birthday.

1913 ~ Geraldine Fitzgerald (d. July 17, 2005), Irish-American actress.  She died at age 91.

1897 ~ Lucky Luciano (né Salvadore Lucania, d. Jan. 26, 1962), Italian-American mobster.  He was also known as Charles Luciano.  He died of a heart attack at age 64.

1895 ~ Esther Applin (d. July 7, 1972), American geologist and paleontologist.  She is best known for her work with microfossils and their use in determining the age of rock formations.  This was important in the oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.  She died at age 76.

1893 ~ Charles Hurley (d. Mar. 24, 1946), 54^th Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1937 until January 1939.  He died at age 52.

1888 ~ Dale Carnegie (d. Nov. 1, 1955), American author and educator.  He died 23 days before his 67^th birthday.

1884 ~ Itzhak Ben-Ziv (d. Apr. 23, 1963), 2^nd President of the State of Israel.  He served as President from December 1952 until his death at age 78 in April 1963.

1877 ~ Alben W. Barkley (d. Apr. 30, 1956). 35^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Harry S. Truman from January 1949 until January 1953.  He collapsed and died of a heart attack while giving a speech in Virginia.  He died at age 78.

1868 ~ Scott Joplin (d. April 1, 1917), African-American ragtime musician and composer.  The actual date of his birth is unknown, but this is the best estimate of his birth.  He is believed to have been about 49 years old at the time of his death in April 1917.

1864 ~ Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (d. Sept. 9, 1901), French painter.  He died at age 36.

1859 ~ Cass Gilbert (d. May 17, 1934), American architect and designer of the United States Supreme Court Building.  He died at age 74.

1849 ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett (b. Oct. 29, 1924), British author best known for her children’s classic, The Secret Garden.  She died less than a month before her 75^th birthday.

1784 ~ Zachary Taylor (d. July 9, 1850), 12^th President of the United States.  He died suddenly after eating raw fruit and iced milk after only 16 months following his inauguration.  He was 65 years old.

1713 ~ Laurence Sterne (d. Mar. 18, 1768), English clergyman and novelist, whose most famous novel was The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.  He died of fever at age 54.

1713 ~ Father Junípero Serra (d. Aug. 28, 1784), Franciscan missionary who, in 1769, explored the California coast and founded the first mission in present-day San Diego de Alcala, California.  He died at age 70.

1655 ~ Charles XI of Sweden (d. Apr. 5, 1697).  He died at age 41 of stomach cancer.

1632 ~ Baruch Spinoza (d. Feb. 21, 1677), Dutch-Jewish philosopher.  He was born in Amsterdam of Portuguese-Jewish parents.  Because he was a free-thinker, he was the most famous individual to be excommunicated by the Amsterdam Jewish community.  He died at age 44.

Events that Changed the World:

2016 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

2015 ~ A Russian Air Force fighter jet was shot down by the Turkish Air Force over the Syrian-Turkey border.

2012 ~ A fire in a Dhaka, Bangladesh clothing factory killed over 100 workers.

2011 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

2005 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1976 ~ The Çaldıran-Maradiye earthquake in Turkey killed an estimated 5,000 people.

1974 ~ Donald Johanson (b. 1943) and Graduate Student Tom Gray discovered the skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis, now commonly nicknamed “Lucy”, in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia.  Lucy was named after the Beatle’s song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

1973 ~ Germany imposed a national speed limit on the Autobahm due to the 1973 oil crisis.  The speed limit, however, lasted only 4 months.

1971 ~ Hijacker Dan B. Cooper, parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane over Washington State with $200,000 in ransom money.  The name Dan B. Cooper is suspected to have been a pseudonym.  Neither he nor the money has been found.

1969 ~ The Apollo 12 command module splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean following the second manned mission to land on the moon.  This was the sixth manned flight of the Apollo program.  Astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad (1930 ~ 1999), Alan Bean (b. 1932) and Richard Gordon (b. 1929) were on this mission.

1963 ~ Lee Harvey Oswald (1939 ~ 1963) was murdered on live television by Jack Ruby (1911 ~ 1967) as he was being transported in the basement of the Dallas Police Department headquarters.

1950 ~ A violent snowstorm hit the northeastern United States and the Appalachians, bringing hurricane force winds, with speeds up to 100 mph, in what was known as The Storm of the Century.  The storm brought blizzard conditions to the Appalachian Mountains and the Ohio Valley.  Over 350 people were killed as a result of the storm.  The storm lasted for three days.

1932 ~ The FBI Crime Lab officially opened in Washington, D.C.

1917 ~ Nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department and two civilians were killed when a bomb exploded.  Until the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, this was the most deaths of law enforcement officers in a single event in the United States.

1877 ~ Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (1820 ~ 1878) was published.

1859 ~ Charles Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species, was first published.

1835 ~ The Texas Rangers were established by the Texas Provincial Government.

1642 ~ Abel Tasman (1603 ~ 1659) became the first known European to discover the island now known as Tasmania, off the coast of Australia.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ Florence Henderson (b. Feb. 14, 1934), American actress.  She is best known for her role as Carol Brady on the television sit-com, The Brady Bunch.  She died at age 82.

2005 ~ Pat Morita (né Noriyuki Morita, b. June 28, 1932), American actor best known for his role as Mr. Kesuke Miyagi in The Karate Kid movies.  He died of kidney failure at age 73.

2004 ~ Arthur Hailey (b. Apr. 5, 1920), British-Canadian author.  He wrote such books as Hotel and Airport.  He died at age 84.

1991 ~ Freddie Mercury (né Farrokh Bulsara, b. Sept. 5, 1946), Tanzanian-English singer and songwriter and frontman for the band, Queen.  He died at age 45.

1980 ~ Henrietta Hill Swope (b. Oct. 26, 1980), American astronomer.  She died a month after her 78^th birthday.

1963 ~ Lee Harvey Oswald (b. Oct. 18, 1939), American accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.  He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He was murdered by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Police Department while in police custody.  His murder occurred on live television.  He was 24 years old at the time of his death.

1958 ~ Edgar Algernon Robert Cecil, 1^st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (b. Sept. 14, 1864), English lawyer and politician.  He was one of the architects of the League of Nations.  He was the recipient of the 1937 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 94.

1957 ~ Diego Rivera (b. Dec. 8, 1886), Mexican painter.  He was married to the artist Frida Kahlo.  He died 2 weeks before his 71^st birthday.

1948 ~ Anna Jarvis (b. May 1, 1864), American founder of Mother’s Day.  She died at age 84.

1946 ~ László Moholy-Nagy (b. July 20, 1895), Hungarian painter, sculptor and photographer.  He died of leukemia at age 51.

1929 ~ Georges Clemenceau (b. Sept. 28, 1841), Prime Minister of France.  He was Prime Minister from November 1917 until January 1920.  He died at age 88.

1890 ~ August Belmont, Sr. (b. Dec. 8, 1816), Prussian-born financier.  He served as the 16^th United States Ambassador to the Netherlands.  The Belmont Stakes are named in his honor.  He died 2 weeks before his 77^th birthday.

1848 ~ William Lamb, 2^nd Viscount Melbourne (b. Mar. 15, 1779), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served two terms as Prime Minister, the first term was during the reign of King William IV, and the second during the term of Queen Victoria.  He is also known as being the cockholded husband in one of Britain’s most scandalous affairs when his wife, Lady Caroline Ponsonby, had a very public affair with the poet Lord Byron.  He died at age 69.

1741 ~ Ulrika Eleonora (b. Jan. 23, 1688), Queen of Sweden.  She died at age 53.

1572 ~ John Knox (d. 1513), Scottish religious reformer.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 58 or 59 at the time of his death.