Today is Saturday, Nov. 28, the 332nd day of 2009. There are 33 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Nov. 28, 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s notoriously difficult Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 had its world premiere in New York, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony and Rachmaninoff himself at the piano.
ON THIS DATE
In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.
In 1859, American author Washington Irving died in present-day Tarrytown, N.Y., at age 76.
In 1919, American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.
In 1942, nearly 500 people died in a fire that destroyed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran, Iran, during World War II.
In 1958, Chad, Gabon and Middle Congo became autonomous republics within the French community.
In 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course to Mars.
In 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
In 1987, a South African Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean with the loss of all 159 people aboard.
In 1999, Hsing-Hsing, the popular giant panda that arrived in America in 1972 as a symbol of U.S.-China detente, was euthanized at Washington, D.C.’s National Zoo at age 28 because of his deteriorating health.
In 2001, Enron Corp. collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion deal to take it over.
In 2004, Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for slaughtering members of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul, where dozens of bodies had been found.
Associated Press
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