Today in History

Today is Thursday, Nov. 22, the 327th day of 2012. There are 39 days left in the year. This is Thanksgiving Day.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas; Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same open car as the president, was seriously wounded. A 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 present-day North Carolina.

In 1862, Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Forza del Destino" had its world premiere in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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

In 1930, listeners of the British Broadcasting Corp. heard, for the first time, radio coverage of an American college football game as Harvard defeated Yale, 13-0.

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 Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan. Lyricist Lorenz Hart died in New York at age 48.

In 1954, the Humane Society of the United States was incorporated as the National Humane Society.

In 1965, the musical "Man of La Mancha" opened on Broadway.

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 1986, Elzire Dionne, who gave birth to quintuplets in 1934, died at a hospital in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, at age 77.

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: At the NATO summit in Prague, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President George W. Bush the United States should not wage war alone against Iraq, and questioned whether Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were doing enough to fight terrorism. The Bush administration eased clean air rules to allow utilities, refineries and manufacturers to avoid having to install new anti-pollution equipment when they modernized their plants.

Five years ago: Retailers lured shoppers to stores and online on Thanksgiving Day ahead of the traditional Black Friday kick-off. A gunman shot and killed his ex-wife, their three children, ages 12, 10 and 6, 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.

One year ago: Baseball players and owners signed an agreement for a new labor contract, a deal making baseball the first North American professional major league to start blood testing on human growth hormone and expanding the playoffs to 10 teams by 2013. Ryan Braun was voted the NL MVP after helping the Milwaukee Brewers win their first division title in nearly 30 years. Death claimed France's former first lady Danielle Mitterrand at age 87 and Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, at age 85. Soldier-turned-soap opera star J.R. Martinez and his professional partner, Karina Smirnoff, were named champions of season 13 of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

Today's Birthdays: Movie director Arthur Hiller is 89. Actor Robert Vaughn is 80. Actor Michael Callan is 77. Actor Allen Garfield is 73. Animator and movie director Terry Gilliam is 72. Actor Tom Conti is 71. Singer Jesse Colin Young is 71. Astronaut Guion Bluford is 70. International Tennis Hall of Famer Billie Jean King is 69. Rock musician-actor Steve Van Zandt (a.k.a. Little Steven) is 62. Rock musician Tina Weymouth (The Heads; Talking Heads; The Tom Tom Club) is 62. Retired MLB All-Star Greg Luzinski is 62. Rock musician Lawrence Gowan is 56. Actor Richard Kind is 56. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is 54. Alt-country singer Jason Ringenberg (Jason & the Scorchers) is 54. Actress Mariel Hemingway is 51. Actor Winsor Harmon is 49. Actor-turned-producer Brian Robbins is 49. Actor Stephen Geoffreys is 48. Rock musician Charlie Colin is 46. Actor Nicholas Rowe is 46. Actor Mark Ruffalo is 45. International Tennis Hall of Famer Boris Becker is 45. Country musician Chris Fryar (Zac Brown Band) is 42. Actor Josh Cooke is 33. Actor-singer Tyler Hilton is 29. Actress Scarlett Johansson is 28. Actor Jamie Campbell Bower is 24. Actor Alden Ehrenreich is 23.

Thought for Today: "Who does not thank for little will not thank for much." -- Estonian proverb.

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.