Today in History

Today is Thursday, Nov. 19, the 323rd day of 2015. There are 42 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 19, 1915, labor activist Joe Hill was executed by firing squad in Utah for the murders of Salt Lake City grocer John Morrison and his son, Arling.

On this date:

In 1794, the United States and Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which resolved some issues left over from the Revolutionary War.

In 1831, the 20th president of the United States, James Garfield, was born in Orange Township, Ohio.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

In 1919, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55 in favor, 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.

In 1924, movie producer Thomas H. Ince died after celebrating his 42nd birthday aboard the yacht of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. (The exact circumstances of Ince's death remain a mystery.)

In 1942, during World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.

In 1955, the first issue of National Review, created by William F. Buckley Jr., was published.

In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon.

In 1975, the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," starring Jack Nicholson, was released by United Artists.

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva. Actor Stepin Fetchit, whose on-screen persona of a shuffling, no-account character generated much controversy, died in Woodland Hills, California, at age 83.

In 1990, the pop duo Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy Award because other singers had lent their voices to the "Girl You Know It's True" album.

In 1995, the animated film "Toy Story," a Buena Vista Pictures release, had its world premiere in Hollywood. The video of the new Beatles single "Free as a Bird" aired on ABC-TV.

Ten years ago: Two dozen Iraqi men, women and children in Haditha were killed by U.S. Marines after a Marine was killed by a roadside bomb. (Eight Marines were initially charged in the case; one was acquitted and six others had their cases dropped. The squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, received a general discharge under honorable conditions after pleading guilty to negligent dereliction of duty.) President George W. Bush arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders. For the first time in 58 years, Indians legally walked into Pakistan after a landmark decision to temporarily open divided Kashmir's heavily militarized border following a major earthquake. Tropical Storm Gamma deluged the coast of Central America.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, attending a NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, won an agreement to build a missile shield over Europe, a victory that risked further aggravating Russia. Twenty-nine miners were killed by a methane explosion in a southern New Zealand coal mine.

One year ago: Defying Congress, President Barack Obama ordered sweeping changes in U.S. immigration policy possibly affecting as many as 5 million living illegally in the U.S. Authorities in Honduras discovered the buried bodies of Maria Jose Alvarado, Miss Honduras 2014, and her sister, Sofia, six days after they had disappeared. (Sofia Alvarado's boyfriend, Plutarco Antonio Ruiz, is accused of the slayings.) Film and theater director Mike Nichols, 83, died in New York.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Alan Young is 96. Talk show host Larry King is 82. Former General Electric chief executive Jack Welch is 80. Talk show host Dick Cavett is 79. Broadcasting and sports mogul Ted Turner is 77. Singer Pete Moore (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles) is 76. Former Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is 76. Actor Dan Haggerty is 74. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson is 74. Fashion designer Calvin Klein is 73. Sportscaster Ahmad Rashad is 66. Actor Robert Beltran is 62. Actress Kathleen Quinlan is 61. Actress Glynnis O'Connor is 60. Broadcast journalist Ann Curry is 59. Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins is 59. Actress Allison Janney is 56. Rock musician Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver) is 55. Actress Meg Ryan is 54. Actress-director Jodie Foster is 53. Actress Terry Farrell is 52. TV chef Rocco DiSpirito is 49. Actor Jason Scott Lee is 49. Olympic gold medal runner Gail Devers is 49. Actress Erika Alexander is 46. Rock musician Travis McNabb is 46. Singer Tony Rich is 44. Actress Sandrine Holt is 43. Country singer Jason Albert (Heartland) is 42. Country singer Billy Currington is 42. Dancer-choreographer Savion Glover is 42. Country musician Chad Jeffers is 40. Rhythm-and-blues singer Tamika Scott (Xscape) is 40. Rhythm-and-blues singer Lil' Mo is 38. Olympic gold medal gymnast Kerri Strug is 38. Actor Reid Scott is 38. Actress Katherine Kelly (TV: "Mr. Selfridge") is 36. Neo-soul musician Browan Lollar is 33. Actor Adam Driver is 32. Actress Samantha Futerman is 28. Rapper Tyga is 26.

Thought for Today: "You can always tell gifted and highly intelligent people as they always turn to the past. Any young person who knows anything that happened before 1980, or 1990, or 2000 for that matter, is immediately someone who is intelligent, probably creative, maybe a writer. Nobody who is drawn to the past and learning about the past is not gifted." -- Mike Nichols (1931-2014).

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