What Happened On November 24th?

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1632 Philosopher Baruch Spinoza was born.

1703 Justus Falckner was ordained as the first Lutheran pastor in America, in Philadelphia.

1713 Missionary Father Junípero Serra was born.
1713 Novelist Laurence Sterne was born.

1759 Mount Vesuvius erupted.

1784 Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States, was born.

1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species.

1863 The Battle of Lookout Mountain began.

1864 Painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born.

1871 The National Rifle Association was organized in New York City.

1874 Joseph F. Glidden patented barbed wire.

1896 The first U.S. absentee voting law was enacted by Vermont.

1903 Clyde Coleman patented the automobile electric starter.

1916 Inventor Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim died.

1944 U.S. bombers based on Saipan launched the first U.S. attack on Tokyo.

1947 The House Un-American Activites Committee found the "Hollywood 10" in contempt for refusing to reveal whether they were communists.

1949 Britain nationalized its steel and iron industry.

1950 Communist China joined forces with North Korea against South Korea and the United Nations.

1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being taken through the Dallas, Texas, police headquarters; it was the first murder to be seen live on television.

1971 Dan "DB" Cooper parachuted from a hijacked Northwest AL 727 with $200,000.

1989 The Communist Party resigned its authority in Czechoslovakia.

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This page was last updated on 11/24/2009.