Nov. 22, 2008 - Today In History

Today is Saturday, Nov. 22, the 327th day of 2008. There are 39 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot to death while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same limousine as Kennedy, was seriously wounded. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.

On this date:

In 1718, English pirate Edward Teach — better known as "Blackbeard" — was killed during a battle off the Virginia coast.

In 1890, French president Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France.

In 1928, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was first performed, in Paris.

In 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, Calif., carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.

In 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan.

In 1943, lyricist Lorenz Hart died in New York at age 48.

In 1965, the musical "Man of La Mancha" opened in New York.

In 1967, the U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it had captured the previous June, and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.

In 1975, Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain.

In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having failed to win re-election of the Conservative Party leadership on the first ballot, announced her resignation.

Ten years ago: The CBS News program "60 Minutes" aired videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, an advocate of assisted suicide, administering lethal drugs to Thomas Youk, a terminally ill patient. (Kevorkian, who challenged prosecutors to charge him, was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. He was released in 2007 after serving eight years.)

Five years ago:

The Medicare prescription drug bill narrowly passed the House, 220-215, following a dusk-to-dawn debate.

Thousands of mourners gathered in downtown Dallas along the street where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 40 years earlier.

College student Dru Sjodin disappeared while leaving her job at a Grand Forks, N.D., mall. (Sjodin's body was found in April 2004; a suspect, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., was later convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to death.)

One year ago:

Retailers lured shoppers to stores and online on Thanksgiving Day ahead of the traditional Black Friday kickoff.

A gunman shot and killed his ex-wife, their three children and himself in a park in Laytonsville, Md.

French rail workers who'd staged a nine-day-old strike voted to return to the job.

Today's Birthdays:

Former Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., is 90.

Movie director Arthur Hiller is 85.

Actor Robert Vaughn is 76.

Actor Michael Callan is 73.

Actor Allen Garfield is 69.

Animator and movie director Terry Gilliam is 68.

Actor Tom Conti is 67.

Singer Jesse Colin Young is 67.

Astronaut Guion S. Bluford is 66.

Tennis player Billie Jean King is 65.

Rock musician-actor Steve Van Zandt (AKA Little Steven) is 58.

Rock musician Tina Weymouth (The Heads; Talking Heads; The Tom Tom Club) is 58.

Former baseball player Greg Luzinski is 58.

Rock musician Lawrence Gowan is 52.

Actor Richard Kind is 52.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is 50.

Rock singer Jason Ringenberg (Jason & the Scorchers) is 50.

Actress Mariel Hemingway is 47.

Actor Stephen Geoffreys is 44.

Rock musician Charlie Colin is 42.

Actor Nicholas Rowe is 42.

Actor Mark Ruffalo is 41.

Tennis player Boris Becker is 41.

Actor-singer Tyler Hilton is 25.

Actress Scarlett Johansson is 24.

Thought for Today:

"In youth we feel richer for every new illusion;
in maturer years,
for every one we lose." —

Anne Sophie Swetchine,
Russian-French author
(1782-1857).