Nov. 27
1895: Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel signed a will allocating most of his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes, honoring achievements in peace, physics, chemistry, literature and physiology or medicine.
1934: Bank robber Lester Joseph Gillis — better known as George “Baby Face” Nelson — was killed in a shootout with FBI agents in Barrington, Illinois.
1978: San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk, a leading gay rights advocate, were shot and killed inside City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White.
Nov. 28
1520: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after navigating the strait that now bears his name.
1925: The Grand Ole Opry — then known as the WSM Barn Dance — debuted on Nashville’s WSM radio. It endures as the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history.
2001: Enron Corp., once the world’s largest energy trader, collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion takeover deal.
Nov. 29
1864: A Colorado militia carried out an unprovoked assault on a Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment, killing an estimated 230 people in what became known as the Sand Creek Massacre.
1929: Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinney completed the first airplane flight over the South Pole.
2001: Former Beatle George Harrison died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.
Nov. 30
1782: The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris to end the Revolutionary War; the Treaty of Paris was completed in September 1783.
1936: London’s Crystal Palace exhibition hall was destroyed by a massive fire.
1993: President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Bill, requiring a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks for prospective buyers.
Dec. 1
1824: The presidential election was thrown to the U.S. House of Representatives after no candidate won more than 50% of the electoral vote.
1955: Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
1969: The U.S. government conducted its first draft lottery for military service since World War II.
Dec. 2
1804: Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France in a ceremony at Notre-Dame de Paris.
1823: President James Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine, warning European nations against further colonial expansion in the Western Hemisphere and asserting separate spheres of influence.
1859: Militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry, an event that further inflamed tensions leading up to the Civil War.
1942: Scientists led by Enrico Fermi achieved the first artificially created self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago.
Dec. 3
1947: Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway.
1967: A surgical team led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky.
1979: Eleven people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum ahead of a concert by The Who.
