Today is Wednesday, Nov. 18, the 322nd day of 2009. There are 43 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Nov. 18, 1959, “Ben-Hur,” MGM’s Biblical-era spectacle starring Charlton Heston and directed by William Wyler, had its world premiere in New York.
ON THIS DATE
In 1883, the United States and Canada adopted a system of time zones.
In 1909, President William Howard Taft ordered two warships to Nicaragua, a day after the government of President Jose Santos Zelaya executed two American mercenaries along with several hundred revolutionaries.
In 1928, Walt Disney’s first sound-synchronized animated cartoon, “Steamboat Willie,” starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York.
In 1936, Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
In 1958, the cargo freighter SS Carl D. Bradley sank during a storm in Lake Michigan, claiming 33 of the 35 people on board.
In 1966, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside of Lent.
In 1969, financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 81.
In 1978, U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, D-Calif., and four other people were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by more than 900 cult members.
In 1987, the congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore “ultimate responsibility” for wrongdoing by his aides.
In 1999, 12 people were killed when a bonfire under construction at Texas A&M University collapsed. A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spared him the death penalty. American author and composer Paul Bowles, best known for “The Sheltering Sky” and other novels set in North Africa, died in Morocco at age 88.
In 2004, Former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted of killing four black girls in the racially motivated bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church in 1963, died in prison at age 74. Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales. (Scotland had already outlawed hunting.)
In 2008, Detroit’s Big Three automakers pleaded with Congress for a $25 billion lifeline, warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse.
Associated Press
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