Today in History

Today in History

Today is Sunday, Nov. 27, the 332nd day of 2016. There are 34 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 27, 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White. (White served five years for manslaughter; he committed suicide in Oct. 1985.)

On this date:

In 1815, the constitution for the Congress Kingdom of Poland was signed by Russian Czar Alexander I, who was also king of Poland.

In 1901, the U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.

In 1910, New York's Pennsylvania Station officially opened.

In 1924, Macy's first Thanksgiving Day parade -- billed as a "Christmas Parade" -- took place in New York.

In 1939, the play "Key Largo," by Maxwell Anderson, opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York.

In 1942, during World War II, the Vichy French navy scuttled its ships and submarines in Toulon to keep them out of the hands of German troops.

In 1945, General George C. Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China by President Harry S. Truman to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists.

In 1953, playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65.

In 1962, the first Boeing 727 was rolled out at the company's Renton Plant.

In 1973, the Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who'd resigned.

In 1983, 181 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Madrid's Barajas airport.

In 1989, a bomb blamed on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian Avianca Boeing 727, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush, stopping over in Estonia en route to a NATO summit in Latvia and meetings in Jordan, intensified diplomatic efforts to quell rising violence in Iraq and Afghanistan. An early morning fire burned down a group home for the elderly and mentally ill in Anderson, Missouri, killing 10 residents and a caretaker. (Faulty wiring was cited as the likely cause of the blaze.)

Five years ago: In an unprecedented move against an Arab nation, the Arab League approved economic sanctions against Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly suppression of an 8-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad. British movie director Ken Russell, 84, died in Lymington, Hampshire, England.

One year ago: A gunman attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing three people and injuring nine. (Suspect Robert Dear has been undergoing treatment at a psychiatric hospital after being deemed incompetent for trial.) A subdued France paid homage to those killed in the Paris attacks two weeks earlier, honoring each of the 130 victims by name as President Francois Hollande pledged to "destroy the army of fanatics" who had claimed so many young lives.

Today's Birthdays: Author Gail Sheehy is 79. Footwear designer Manolo Blahnik is 74. Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is 65. TV host Bill Nye ("Bill Nye, the Science Guy") is 61. Actor William Fichtner is 60. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy is 59. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri is 59. Rock musician Charlie Burchill (Simple Minds) is 57. Jazz composer/big band leader Maria Schneider is 56. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is 56. Rock musician Charlie Benante (Anthrax) is 54. Rock musician Mike Bordin (Faith No More) is 54. Actor Fisher Stevens is 53. Actress Robin Givens is 52. Actor Michael Vartan is 48. Rapper Skoob (DAS EFX) is 46. Actor Kirk Acevedo is 45. Rapper Twista is 44. Actor Jaleel White is 40. Actor Arjay Smith is 33. Actress Alison Pill is 31. Actress/singer Aubrey Peeples is 23.

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).