November 24

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November 24 is the 328th day (329th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 37 days remaining.

Events

1639 - Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.
1642 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
1859 - British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sold out its initial print run).
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain - Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.
1904 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
1922 - Popular author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.
1932 - In Washington, DC, the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
1941 - World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
1944 - World War II: Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.
1947 - Red Scare: After refusing to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10.
1951 - The Broadway play Gigi opens staring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character (the play ran for six months and lead to Hepburn's film debut in Roman Holiday).
1958 - Mali becomes independent.
1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination: Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is mortally shot by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television.
1963 - Vietnam War: Newly sworn in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically.
1969 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.
1971 - During a severe thunderstorm over Washington, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked with US$200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again).
1976 - The Band gives its last public performance; Martin Scorsese is on hand to film it.
1992 - In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.
1993 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of murdering 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention").
1996 - Rusty Wallace wins the Suzuka NASCAR Thunder 100 racing event at Suzuka Circuitland in Suzuka City (this was the first NASCAR competition held in Japan).
1997 - Following a 554.26 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoke the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading (this was a very controversial move and prompted a quick change in the rule; trading stops will only occur when the DJIA drops at least 10 or 20 percent).
1998 - America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.