Today in History

Today is Monday, Nov. 22, the 326th day of 2021. There are 39 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas; Texas Gov. John B. Connally, riding in the same car as Kennedy, was seriously wounded. Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president.

On this date:

In 1718, English pirate Edward Teach -- better known as "Blackbeard" -- was killed during a battle off present-day North Carolina.

In 1906, the "S-O-S" distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin.

In 1914, the First Battle of Ypres during World War I ended with an Allied victory against Germany.

In 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, California, 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.

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 1977, regular passenger service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began on a trial basis.

In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having failed to win reelection to the Conservative Party leadership on the first ballot, announced she would resign.

In 1995, acting swiftly to boost the Balkan peace accord, the U.N. Security Council suspended economic sanctions against Serbia and eased the arms embargo against the states of the former Yugoslavia.

In 2005, Angela Merkel took power as Germany's first female chancellor.

In 2010, thousands of people stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, leaving some 350 dead and hundreds injured in what the prime minister called the country's biggest tragedy since the 1970s reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge.

In 2014, a 12-year-old Black boy, Tamir Rice, was shot and mortally wounded by police outside a Cleveland recreation center after brandishing what turned out to be a pellet gun. (A grand jury declined to indict either the patrolman who fired the fatal shot or a training officer.)

Ten years 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 tests for 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.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to 21 groundbreaking actors, musicians, athletes and others; among those receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom were Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bill and Melinda Gates, Ellen DeGeneres and broadcaster Vin Scully.

One year ago: President Donald Trump appealed a federal judge's dismissal of his campaign's effort to block the certification of votes in Pennsylvania; the judge had rejected claims of widespread irregularities with mail-in ballots. Michigan's House speaker said Trump did not ask Michigan Republican lawmakers to "break the law" or "interfere" with the election when he met with seven GOP state legislators at the White House two days earlier. Taylor Swift won her third consecutive artist of the year prize at the American Music Awards.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Michael Callan is 86. Animator and movie director Terry Gilliam is 81. Actor Tom Conti is 80. Singer Jesse Colin Young is 80. Astronaut Guion Bluford is 79. International Tennis Hall of Famer Billie Jean King is 78. Rock musician-actor Steve Van Zandt (a.k.a. Little Steven) is 71. Rock musician Tina Weymouth (The Heads; Talking Heads; The Tom Tom Club) is 71. Retired MLB All-Star Greg Luzinski is 71. Rock musician Lawrence Gowan is 65. Actor Richard Kind is 65. Actor Jamie Lee Curtis is 63. Alt-country singer Jason Ringenberg (Jason & the Scorchers) is 63. Actor Mariel Hemingway is 60. Actor Winsor Harmon is 58. Actor-turned-producer Brian Robbins is 58. Actor Stephen Geoffreys is 57. Rock musician Charlie Colin is 55. Actor Nicholas Rowe is 55. Actor Mark Ruffalo is 54. International Tennis Hall of Famer Boris Becker is 54. Actor Sidse Babett Knudsen is 53. Country musician Chris Fryar (Zac Brown Band) is 51. Actor Josh Cooke is 42. Actor-singer Tyler Hilton is 38. Actor Scarlett Johansson is 37. Actor Jamie Campbell Bower is 33. Singer Candice Glover (TV: "American Idol") is 32. Actor Alden Ehrenreich is 32. Actor Dacre Montgomery is 27. Actor Mackenzie Lintz is 25.