On Nov. 24, 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
In 1784, Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, was born in Orange County, Va.
In 1863, the Civil War Battle of Lookout Mountain began in Tennessee; Union forces succeeded in taking the mountain from the Confederates.
In 1869, women from 21 states met in Cleveland to organize the American Women Suffrage Association.
In 1871, the National Rifle Association was incorporated.
In 1874, Joseph Glidden received a patent for barbed wire, which made the farming of the Great Plains possible
In 1925, conservative author and editor William F. Buckley Jr. was born in New York.
In 1939, British Overseas Airways Corp. was formally established.
In 1944, U.S. bombers based on Saipan attacked Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese capital by land-based planes.
In 1947, a group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the "Hollywood Ten" was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry. John Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl" was first published.
In 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.
NBC reporter Tom Petit at the sceneIn 1969, Apollo 12 splashed down safely in the Pacific.
In 1971, hijacker "D.B. Cooper" parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom — his fate remains unknown.
In 1985, the hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner parked on the ground in Malta ended with 60 deaths when Egyptian commandos stormed the plane; two of the dead were shot by the hijackers.
In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on terms to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles.
In 1989, Czechoslovakia's hard-line party leadership resigned after more than a week of protests against its policies. Czech reform politician Alexander Dubcek made his first public appearance in Prague since the Soviet invasion of 1968.
In 1992, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger pleaded innocent to making a false statement in the Iran-Contra affair.
In 1998, America Online confirmed it was buying Netscape Communications in a deal ultimately worth $10 billion.
In 1999, some 280 people were killed when a ferry caught fire and foundered off the coast of eastern China's Shandong province.
In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider George W. Bush's appeal against the hand recounting of presidential ballots in Florida.
In 2003, a jury in Virginia Beach, Va., sentenced John Allen Muhammad to death for the Washington-area sniper shootings. (Muhammad was executed in 2009.)
In 2004, Ukraine's election officials declared that Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had won Ukraine's bitterly disputed presidential runoff balloting; thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated in Kiev. Popular author Arthur Hailey died in New Providence, Bahamas, at age 84.
In 2008, a Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, and five of its former leaders were convicted by a federal jury in Dallas of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Pakistan won final approval for a $7.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help stave off a possible economic meltdown. Former West Virginia Gov. Cecil H. Underwood — elected to the job in 1956 and in 1996 — died at age 86.
Today's Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson is 71. Country singer Johnny Carver is 69. Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue is 69. Rock drummer Pete Best is 68. Rock musician Donald "Duck" Dunn (Booker T. & the MG's) is 68. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 67. Former White House news secretary Marlin Fitzwater is 67. Motion Picture Association of America Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman is 65. Singer Lee Michaels is 64. Actor Dwight Schultz is 62. Actor Stanley Livingston is 59. Rock musician Clem Burke (Blondie; The Romantics) is 54. Record producer Terry Lewis is 53. Actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson is 53. Actress Denise Crosby is 52. Actress Shae D'Lyn is 47. Rock musician John Squire (The Stone Roses) is 47. Rock musician Gary Stonadge (Big Audio) is 47. Actor Garret Dillahunt is 45. Rock musician Chad Taylor (Live) is 39. Actress Lola Glaudini is 38. Actress Danielle Nicolet is 36. Olympic bronze medal figure skater Chen Lu is 33. Actor Colin Hanks is 32. Actress Katherine Heigl ("Grey's Anatomy") is 31.
Today In Entertainment History November 24
In 1950, the musical "Guys and Dolls," based on the writings of Damon Runyon and featuring songs by Frank Loesser, opened on Broadway.
In 1966, The Beatles began recording sessions for their next album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." However, the song they recorded on this date, "Strawberry Fields Forever," did not make it onto that album.
In 1972, ABC premiered the late night rock show "In Concert," which was produced by Don Kirshner. Guests on the first show included Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper, Poco and Seals and Crofts.
In 1985, singer "Big" Joe Turner died of a heart attack. He's known for the hits "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Honey Hush."
In 1991, Queen singer Freddie Mercury died of complications from AIDS at his home in London. He was 45. He had sent out a statement confirming rumors that he had AIDS only two days before his death. Also in 1991, former Kiss drummer Eric Carr died of cancer in New York. He was 41. And, singer Cyndi Lauper married actor David Thornton in New York.
In 2005, singer Scott Stapp and members of the band 311 got into a fight at a hotel bar in Baltimore.
Thought for Today: "Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold." — Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, American writer (1900-1948). [Not as much as a ten-gallon hat. — Ed.]
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