Nov. 21
1920: On “Bloody Sunday,” the Irish Republican Army killed 14 suspected British intelligence officers in the Dublin area; British forces responded by raiding a soccer match, killing 14 civilians.
1980: An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to the CBS prime-time soap opera “Dallas” to find out “who shot J.R.” (The shooter turned out to be J.R. Ewing’s sister-in-law, Kristin Shepard.)
Nov. 22
1718: English pirate Edward Teach — better known as “Blackbeard” — was killed during a battle off what is now North Carolina.
1935: A flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, California, carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
1963: John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas; Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.
1986: 20-year-old Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight boxing champion in history.
Nov. 23
1971: The People’s Republic of China was seated in the United Nations Security Council.
1980: An estimated 2,500-3,000 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.
1984: Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie completed one of the most famous passes in college football history, connecting with Gerald Phelan for a 48-yard touchdown with no time left on the clock as Boston College defeated the Miami Hurricanes 47-45.
Nov. 24
1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
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.
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.
1991: Queen singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.
Nov. 25
1783: The British evacuated New York during the Revolutionary War.
1914: Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California.
1986: The Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.
1999: Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle.
2016: Fidel Castro died at age 90.
Nov. 26
1825: The first college social fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Society, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, New York.
1950: China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea.
Nov. 27
1901: The U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.
1924: Macy’s first Thanksgiving Day parade — billed as a “Christmas Parade” — took place in New York.
1978: San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.
