Today is Thursday, Nov. 12, the 316th day of 2009. There are 49 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Nov. 12, 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies ended up winning a major victory over the Japanese.)
ON THIS DATE
In 1815, American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, N.Y.
In 1908, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun was born in Nashville, Ill.
In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
In 1977, the city of New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the winner of a runoff.
In 1982, Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee.
In 1984, space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared a wandering satellite in history’s first space salvage; the Palapa B2 satellite was secured in Discovery’s cargo bay for return to Earth.
In 1990, Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumed the Chrysanthemum Throne.
In 1996, a Saudi Boeing 747 jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a Kazak Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, killing 349 people.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed a sweeping measure knocking down Depression-era barriers and allowing banks, investment firms and insurance companies to sell each other’s products. An earthquake struck western Turkey, killing some 800 people.
In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, en route from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff, killing 265 people.
In 2004, a jury in Redwood City, Calif., convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. (Peterson, who maintains his innocence, was later sentenced to death.)
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was buried in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Associated Press
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