Today in History

Today in History

Today is Saturday, Nov. 13, the 317th day of 2021. There are 48 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 13, 2015, Islamic State militants carried out a set of coordinated attacks in Paris on the national stadium, restaurants and streets, and a crowded concert hall, killing 130 people in the worst attack on French soil since World War II.

On this date:

In 1775, during the American Revolution, the Continental Army captured Montreal.

In 1849, voters in California ratified the state’s original constitution.

In 1940, the Walt Disney film “Fantasia,” featuring animated segments set to classical music, had its world premiere in New York.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

In 1956, the Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

In 1969, speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accused network television news departments of bias and distortion, and urged viewers to lodge complaints.

In 1971, the U.S. space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars.

In 1974, Karen Silkwood, a 28-year-old technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Oklahoma, died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.

In 1979, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan announced in New York his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

In 1985, some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a volcanic mudslide buried the city.

In 2019, the House Intelligence Committee opened two weeks of public impeachment hearings with a dozen current and former career foreign service officials and political appointees scheduled to testify about efforts by President Donald Trump and others to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama dove into a day of summit diplomacy in his home state of Hawaii as he gathered with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Five years ago: President-elect Donald Trump named Republican Party chief Reince Priebus (ryns PREE’-bus) as White House chief of staff and conservative media executive Stephen Bannon as his top presidential strategist. Leon Russell, who performed, sang and produced some of rock music’s top records, died in Nashville at age 74.

One year ago: Speaking publicly for the first time since his defeat by Joe Biden, President Donald Trump refused to concede the election. Masked workers in teams of two began counting ballots in counties across Georgia; the hand tally of the presidential race stemmed from an audit required by a new state law. Republicans suffered setbacks to court challenges over the election in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The governors of Oregon and New Mexico ordered near-lockdowns in the most aggressive response yet to the latest wave of coronavirus infections shattering records across the U.S. Peter Sutcliffe, the British serial killer known as the “Yorkshire Ripper,” died at 74; he was serving a life sentence for the killings of 13 women. Former Green Bay Packers star Paul Hornung died at 84. The Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng as general manager, making her the highest-ranking woman in the operation of a major league team.

Today’s Birthdays: Journalist-author Peter Arnett is 87. Actor Jimmy Hawkins is 80. Blues singer John Hammond is 79. Country singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard is 75. Actor Joe Mantegna is 74. Actor Sheila Frazier is 73. Actor Tracy Scoggins is 68. Actor Chris Noth (nohth) is 67. Actor-comedian Whoopi Goldberg is 66. Actor Rex Linn is 65. Actor Caroline Goodall is 62. Actor Neil Flynn is 61. Former NFL quarterback and College Football Hall of Famer Vinny Testaverde (tehs-teh-VUR’-dee) is 58. Rock musician Walter Kibby (Fishbone) is 57. Comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is 54. Actor Steve Zahn is 54. Actor Gerard Butler is 52. Writer-activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is 52. Actor Jordan Bridges is 48. Actor Aisha Hinds is 46. Rock musician Nikolai Fraiture is 43. Former NBA All-Star Metta Sandiford-Artest (formerly Ron Artest and Metta World Peace) is 42. Actor Monique Coleman is 41. Actor Rahul Kohli is 36. Actor Devon Bostick is 30.

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