On this date in history:

In 1799, the first North American meteor shower on record took place. Early American astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass said, "The whole heaven appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets."

In 1892, the first professional football game was played in Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Athletic Association defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, 4-0. (Touchdowns at the time were worth 4 points.)

In 1941, the German army's drive to take Moscow was halted on the city's outskirts in World War II.

In 1948, a war crimes tribunal in Japan sentenced former premier Hideki Tojo and six other World War II Japanese leaders to death by hanging.

In 1980, the Voyager 1 spacecraft passed Saturn and sent back stunning pictures.

In 1981, the shuttle Columbia became the first spacecraft launched twice from Earth.

In 1982, former KGB chief Yuri Andropov succeeded the late Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

Also in 1982, Polish authorities freed Solidarity founder Lech Walesa after 11 months of imprisonment.

In 1990, Akihito was crowned the 125th emperor of Japan.

In 1991, about 50 people were killed when Indonesian troops opened fire on protesters in the province of Timor Leste.

In 1992, Volker Keith Meinhold became the first openly gay person on active duty in the U.S. military when, armed with a court order, he reported to work at Moffett Naval Air Station in Mountain View, Calif., for reinstatement as a chief petty officer.

In 1993, pop star Michael Jackson, hounded by allegations that he had molested a teenage boy, canceled the rest of his worldwide "Dangerous" tour, citing an addiction to painkillers.

In 1997, Ramzi Ahmed and Eyad Ismoil were convicted of involvement in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Four other men had been convicted in 1994.

In 2001, an American Airlines Airbus crashed shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport in New York. More than 260 people died in the crash.

In 2002, a tape surfaced from suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in which he warned U.S. allies to be ready for the consequences of supporting Washington against his al-Qaida network.

In 2003, actor Art Carney, who won fame and Emmy Awards as sewer worker Ed Norton on the "Honeymooners" TV show in the 1950s and an Oscar in 1974 for "Harry and Tonto," died at age 85.

In 2004, the Palestinian people gave their leader Yasser Arafat an emotional, chaotic farewell, disrupting official burial plans in Ramallah on the West Bank.

In 2005, al-Qaida reportedly named Queen Elizabeth II of England "one of the severest enemies of Islam," said to be justification for July bombings in London.

In 2007, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco opened a criminal investigation into a shipping accident that dumped 58,000 gallons of oil into the bay after a fog-bound bridge collision.

Also in 2007, police in Jokela, Finland, said they believed a teenager who killed eight high school classmates may have had Internet contact with a Philadelphia youth who was arrested for planning a similar attack.

A thought for the day: women's suffrage activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal."

Today is Thursday, Nov. 13, the 318th day of 2008 with 48 to follow.

The moon is full. The morning stars are Saturn and Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include St. Augustine of Hippo, a theologian, in 354; King Edward III of England in 1312; Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1850; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1856; actor Richard Mulligan in 1932; TV producer/director Garry Marshall in 1934 (age 74); and actors Dack Rambo in 1941; Joe Mantegna in 1947 (age 61), Whoopi Goldberg in 1955 (age 53), Chris Noth in 1954 (age 54) and Tracy Scoggins in 1953 (age 55).

On this date in history:

In 1927, the Holland Tunnel was opened under the Hudson River, linking New York City and New Jersey.

In 1933, the first recorded "sit-down" strike in the United States was staged by workers at the Hormel Packing Company in Austin, Minn.

In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case from Montgomery, Ala., that segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional.

In 1967, Carl Stokes became the first black U.S. mayor when he was elected in Cleveland.

In 1974, Yasser Arafat told the U.N. General Assembly that the goal of the Palestine Liberation Organization was to establish an independent state of Palestine.

In 1982, the Vietnam War Memorial was dedicated in Washington.

In 1985, a volcano erupted in Colombia, killing 25,000 people. It was the third-deadliest volcano disaster in history.

In 1992, a group of Peruvian military officers tried unsuccessfully to assassinate President Alberto Fujimori and overthrow the government.

In 1993, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Farooq Leghari was chosen president.

In 1997, Iraq expelled the U.S. members of the U.N. team that had been sent to verify Iraq's compliance with U.N. directives.

In 2001, U.S. President George Bush and Russian leader Putin agreed to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons by about two-thirds.

In 2004, one day after Yasser Arafat's burial, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei called for the continuation of peace talks with Israel.

Also in 2004, an Iraqi national security adviser said up to 1,000 insurgents were killed in the six-day battle for Fallujah.

In 2006, as many as 150 people were reported kidnapped from Iraq's Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad by about 80 gunmen in security services uniforms.

Also in 2006, nearly two dozen people were killed and thousands more displaced in massive flooding in northern Kenya.

In 2007, criticizing the U.S. Congress for what he saw as failure to honor a pledge of fiscal responsibility, U.S. President George Bush likened lawmakers to "a teenager with a new credit card."

A thought for the day: U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur said, "In war there is no substitute for victory."

Today is Friday, Nov. 14, the 319th day of 2008 with 47 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, in 1765; French Impressionist painter Claude Monet, in 1840; Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru in 1889; Mamie Doud Eisenhower, wife of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, in 1896; U.S. composer Aaron Copland in 1900; singers Morton Downey in 1901 and Johnny Desmond in 1920; actor/singer Dick Powell in 1904; U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., in 1908; actress Veronica Lake in 1919; former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1922 (age 86); actors Brian Keith in 1921 and McLean Stevenson in 1927; astronaut Edward White, killed in the 1967 Apollo I launch pad fire, in 1930; King Hussein of Jordan in 1935; Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, in 1948 (age 60); New Age singer/songwriter Yanni in 1954 (age 54); and actress Laura San Giacomo in 1962 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1666, the first blood transfusion took place in London. Blood from one dog was transfused into another.

In 1832, the first horse-drawn streetcar made its appearance in New York City.

In 1889, newspaper reporter Nellie Bly set off to break the fictional record of voyaging around the world in 80 days set by Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg. She made the trip in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds.

In 1926, the NBC radio network made its debut.

In 1940, German planes bombed Coventry, England, destroying or damaging 69,000 buildings.

In 1972, for the first time in its 76-year history, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 1,000.

In 1984, former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to court in New York with a $50 million libel suit against Time magazine. He lost after a two-month trial.

In 1986, the White House acknowledged the CIA role in secretly shipping weapons to Iran.

In 1988, the PLO proclaimed an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, endorsing a renunciation of terrorism and an implicit recognition of Israel.

In 1990, a gunman in Dunedin, New Zealand, killed 11 neighbors, then was killed by police in the nation's worst mass slaying at that time. A 12th victim died later.

In 1991, U.S.