This Day in History

On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.

Also on this date:

In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

In 1865, Mississippi became the first Southern state to enact laws that came to be known as "Black Codes" aimed at limiting the rights of newly freed Blacks; other states of the former Confederacy soon followed.

In 1947, a group of writers, producers and directors, who would become known as the "Hollywood Ten," was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged communist influence in the movie industry.

In 1971, a hijacker calling himself "Dan Cooper" (but who became popularly known as "D.B. Cooper") parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom; his fate remains unknown.

In 1974, the bone fragments of a 3.2 million-year-old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nicknamed "Lucy."

In 1991, Queen singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.

In 2012, fire raced through a garment factory in Bangladesh that supplied major retailers in the West, killing 112 people; an official said many of the victims were trapped because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits.

In 2014, it was announced that a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, had decided against indicting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown; the decision enraged protesters who set fire to buildings and cars and looted businesses in the area where Brown had been fatally shot.

In 2017, a terrorist attack on a mosque in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed at least 235 people. The attack was ascribed by authorities to a local Islamic State affiliate.

In 2021, three white men were convicted of murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the Black man who was running through a Georgia subdivision in February 2020 when they chased and shot him.

In 2023, Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering Black man George Floyd, was stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured at a federal prison in Arizona. He was subsequently transferred to another prison.

Today's Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson is 87. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue (TAG'-lee-uh-boo) is 85. Rock drummer Pete Best is 84. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 83. Basketball Hall of Famer and former Detroit mayor Dave Bing is 82. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rudy Tomjanovich is 77. Filmmaker Emir Kusturica is 71. Actor Conleth Hill is 61. Actor Danielle Nicolet is 52. Author Arundhati Roy is 64. Actor Colin Hanks is 48. Actor Katherine Heigl (HY'-guhl) is 47. Actor Sarah Hyland is 35.