November 24th in History

Michael Dobson | November 24

Jack Ruby prepares to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald

On This Day in History

  • Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovers an island off the south coast of Australia that will later be named for him (1642)
  • The Texas provincial government creates a horse-mounted mobile police force, the Texas Rangers (1835)
  • Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered on live television by Jack Ruby while being escorted from Dallas police department headquarters (1963)
  • Joseph Mobutu seizes power in the Congo (later Zaire), and will rule for more than 30 years (1965)
  • Apollo 12 splashes down in the Pacific (1969)
  • Airplane hijacker “D. B. Cooper” parachutes from a Northwest passenger plane carrying $200,000 in ransom money; he has never been found (1971)
  • The Australopithecus afarensis skeleton Lucy (named after the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”) is discovered in Ethiopia (1974)

Births

  • Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (1632)
  • Laurence Stern, author of Tristram Shandy (1713)
  • Zachary Taylor, 12th US President (1784)
  • Carlo Collodi, author of Pinocchio (1826)
  • Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden (1849)
  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter (1864)
  • Scott Joplin, composer (1867)
  • Walter Burley Griffin, architect, designer of Canberra, Australia (1876)
  • Alben Barkley, 35th US Vice President (1877)
  • Erich von Manstein, German field marshal (1887)
  • Dale Carnegie, self-help author (1888)
  • Lucky Luciano, mobster (1897)
  • Kirby Grant, actor, played Sky King (1911)
  • Joe Medwick, baseball player (1911)
  • Garson Kanin, scriptwriter (1912)
  • Teddy Wilson, jazz pianist (1912)
  • Geraldine Fitzgerald, actress (1913)
  • Forrest J. Ackerman, author, editor, and science fiction fan (1916)
  • Howard Duff, actor (1917)
  • John Lindsay, 103rd Mayor of New York City (1912)
  • William F. Buckley, Jr., editor, author, founder of National Review (1925)
  • Bob Friend, baseball player (1930)
  • Charles Starkweather, spree killer (1938)
  • Paul Tagliabue, football commissioner (1940)
  • Pete Best, fifth Beatle (1941)
  • Marlin Fitzwater, White House press secretary (1942)
  • Candy Darling, model and actress (1944)
  • Ted Bundy, serial killer (1946)
  • Dwight Schultz, actor (1947)
  • Spider Robinson, author (1948)
  • Linda Tripp, Clinton scandal figure (1949)
  • Stanley Livingston, child actor (1950)
  • Denise Crosby, actress (1957)
  • John Kovalic, cartoonist (1962)
  • Katherine Heigl, actress (1978)

Deaths

  • John Knox, theologian (1572)
  • Hiram Maxim, machine gun inventor (1916)
  • Georges Clemenceau, French prime minister (1929)
  • Anna Jarvis, founded Mother’s Day in the US (1948)
  • Diego Rivera, artist (1957)

Holidays

  • Afterfeast of the Entry of the Theotkos (Eastern Orthodox)
  • Brownielocks Day (celebrating brown hair) (Brownielocks.com)
  • Brumalia (first day of winter solstice festival) (ancient Rome)
  • Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day (ESPN Zone)
  • Feast of Chrysogonus (Roman Catholicism)
  • Lachit Divas (Assam)
  • National Sardines Day (US food holidays)
  • Öğretmenler Günü (Teacher’s Day), Turkey

November 24 is the 328th day of the year (329th in leap years), with 37 days remaining until year’s end.