and British officials accused two Libyan agents in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in which 270 people died.
In 1993, in a referendum, residents of Puerto Rico voted in favor of continuing their U.S. commonwealth status.
In 1994, the 31-mile Chunnel Tunnel under the English Channel opened to passenger traffic between England and France.
In 2002, Iraq told the United Nations it accepted -- without condition or special requests -- the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the return of weapons inspectors to Baghdad.
In 2003, an Alabama jury ordered Exxon Mobil to pay the state $11.8 billion in damages relating to gas royalties for offshore drilling projects. The jury also awarded compensatory damages of $63.6 million.
In 2005, private U.S. donations to victims of Hurricane Katrina were reported to be near the $2.7 billion mark in 11 weeks, close to the record $2.8 billion said to have gone to Sept. 11, 2001, charities.
Also in 2005, North Korea reportedly proposed a five-step plan to give up its nuclear weapons program but officials said the plan appeared to depend on certain aid demands.
In 2006, all of the hostages seized from the Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad were reported released in a series of police raids.
Also in 2006, a German chemist went on trial in Mannheim, Germany, on charges of denying the World War II Holocaust killed millions of Jews and others in Auschwitz gas chambers. Germar Rudolf called the Holocaust "a giant fraud." Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.
In 2007, former football star O.J. Simpson faced trial for allegedly robbing two memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. A judge ruled there was adequate evidence for trial on a dozen counts, including kidnapping.
Also in 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a military spending bill that authorized $50 billion of the $200 billion sought by U.S. President George Bush for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and proposed dates for troop withdrawal.
A thought for the day: Russian author Boris Pasternak wrote, "Life itself, the phenomenon of life, the gift of life, is so breathtakingly serious."
Today is Saturday, Nov. 15, the 320th day of 2008 with 46 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 British statesman William Pitt ("the elder") in 1708; British astronomer William Herschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus, in 1738; Nobel Prize-winning physiologist August Krogh of Denmark in 1874; artist Georgia O'Keeffe in 1887; jurist Felix Frankfurter in 1882; diplomat W. Averell Harriman and World War II German Gen. Erwin Rommel, both in 1891; Annunzio Mantovani, orchestra leader, in 1905; U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay in 1906; TV personality and retired Judge Joseph Wapner in 1919 (age 89); actor Edward Asner in 1929 (age 79); pop singer Petula Clark in 1932 (age 76); actors Yaphet Kotto in 1937 (age 71) and Sam Waterston in 1940 (age 68); conductor Daniel Barenboim in 1942 (age 66); actress Beverly D'Angelo in 1951 (age 57); and "Tonight Show" band leader Kevin Eubanks in 1957 (age 51).
On this date in history:
In 1864, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman began his Civil War march from Atlanta to the sea.
In 1920, the first assembly of the League of Nations was called to order in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 1943, Heinrich Himmler ordered Gypsies be placed in Nazi concentration camps.
In 1960, Hollywood king Clark Gable, best remembered as Rhett Butler in "Gone With The Wind," died of a heart attack at the age of 59.
In 1969, 250,000 people demonstrated in Washington against the Vietnam War.
In 1984, 5-week-old Baby Fae died after her body rejected the baboon heart she had lived with for 20 days at California's Loma Linda University Medical Center.
In 1987, 27 people were killed when a Continental Airlines DC-9 jet crashed in a snowstorm during takeoff from Denver.
In 1989, tornadoes struck six Southern states, killing 17 people and injuring 463, causing at least $100 million in damage in Huntsville, Ala.
In 1990, members of the so-called Keating Five -- Sens. Alan Cranston, D-Calif.; Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.; John Glenn, D-Ohio; John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Donald Riegle, D-Mich. -- were accused of influence peddling on behalf of savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating.
In 2001, U.S. commandos were on the ground in southern Afghanistan in the search for al-Qaida leaders and more than 250 U.S. and British special force troops landed north of Kabul.
In 2002, the White House and the FBI backed off from a warning that al-Qaida was plotting "spectacular" attacks against the United States after critics latched onto it to show progress in the war on terror was faltering.
In 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell submitted his resignation.
Also in 2004, facing the possibility of U.N. sanctions, Iran announced it would suspend its uranium enrichment program.
In 2005, the official death toll from Hurricane Katrina stood at 972 with more bodies found as Louisiana residents returned home more than a month after the search for victims officially ended.
In 2006, a minor tsunami created by an 8.1 earthquake off northern Japan struck Crescent City on the northern California coast, damaging docks and boats. No injuries were reported. A small tsunami also hit Japan's northern and eastern coasts.
In 2007, Cyclone Sidr, with winds of more than 150 miles an hour, slammed into the southwestern Bangladesh coast, killing a reported more than 3,400 people. Authorities said tens of thousands were injured and 1 million people were homeless.
Also in 2007, most of the shots fired by the private U.S. security firm Blackwater killing 17 civilians in Baghdad Sept. 16 were unwarranted, a preliminary FBI report said.
A thought for the day: Nobel Prize-winning poet George Seferis said, "We have many monsters to destroy."
Today is Sunday, Nov. 16, the 321st day of 2008 with 45 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 Tiberius, emperor of Rome, in 42 B.C.; composer W.C. Handy, known as the "Father of the Blues," in 1873; Broadway director and playwright George S. Kaufman in 1889; jazz guitarist and bandleader Eddie Condon in 1905; actors Burgess Meredith in 1909, Marg Helgenberger in 1958 (age 50) and Lisa Bonet in 1967 (age 41); and Olympic figure skater Oksana Baiul in 1977 (age 31).
On this date in history:
In 1892, the University of Chicago, a founding member of the Big 10 Conference, won its first football game, beating Illinois, 10-4.
In 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state admitted to the union.
In 1933, the United States established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
In 1984, the space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth with the first two satellites ever plucked from space.
In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter were shot to death at their residence in San Salvador. Three years later, in 1991, U.S. House of Representatives Democrats reported that Salvadoran Defense Minister Gen. Rene Ponce had planned the killings.
In 1989, seven children were killed when a tornado struck an elementary school near Newburgh, N.Y.
In 1990, the Soviet Union indicated its approval of the use of military force to oust Iraq from Kuwait.
In 1997, 85 percent of voters in Hungary cast ballots in favor of joining NATO.
In 2001, a letter containing anthrax was found at the Capitol in Washington, addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Also in 2001, U.S. officials said a bomb had killed Muhammad Atef, one of Osama bin Laden's oldest and closest strategists who was believed to have helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks.
In 2003, powerful explosions rocked Baghdad, while electric power went out in broad sections of the city as U.S. troops attacked suspected insurgent hideouts.
In 2004, Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped Iraqi CARE director, was believed to have been killed after al-Jazeera television received a video of a woman's slaying. The act drew widespread condemnation from world leaders.
In 2005, a secret White House document is said to confirm reports that oil company executives met with White House officials when the Bush administration was fashioning its 2001 energy policy.
In 2006, a U.S. Army specialist became the first of five suspects to plead guilty in the rape of a young Iraqi teenager and the killing of her and her family.
Also in 2006, Turkey severed military ties with France over a century-old dispute involving the deaths of some 1.2 million Armenians.
In 2007, in its last of four reports on climate change, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned global warming of 1-3 degrees would lead to a rise in sea levels that would swallow up island nations, decimate one-quarter or more of the world's species, cause famine in Africa and spark increasingly violent hurricanes.
A thought for the day: it was Henry Kissinger who said, "History knows no resting places and no plateaus."
