Born On This Day:

• Baruch Spinoza, 1632
• Father Junipero Serra, 1713
• Laurence Sterne, 1713
• Zachary Taylor, 1784
• Lilli Lehmann, 1848
• Bat Masterson, 1853
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864
• Scott Joplin, 1868
• Dale Carnegie, 1888
• Cathleen Nesbitt, 1889
• Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, 1897
• Dick Powell, 1904
• Teddy Wilson, 1912
• Garson Kanin, 1912
• Geraldine Fitzgerald, 1914
• Howard Duff, 1917
• John V. Lindsay, 1921
• William F. Buckley, 1925
• Marvin Kitman, 1929
• Marlin Fitzwater, 1942
• Billy Connolly, 1942

Died On This Day:

• Queen Isabella Castile & Leon, 1504
• John Knox, 1572
• Georges Clemenceau, 1929
• Lee Harvey Oswald shot, 1963
• George Raft, 1980
• Dodie Smith, 1990
• Freddie Mercury AIDS, 1991
• Warren Spahn, 2003
• Arthur Hailey, 2004
• Pat Morita, 2005

Today's Events:

• 1621 - Pilgrims begin celebrating 3 day Thanksgiving; 6 women cook for 56 settlers & 91 Indian guests.
• 1639 - The transit of Venus first observed by Jeremiah Harrocks.
• 1642 - Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania, naming it Van Diemen's Land after Dutch governor.
• 1793 - The republican calendar adopted in France.
• 1859 - Darwin publishes 'Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection;' 1,250 first run sold out.
• 1871 - National Rifle Association (NRA) incorporated.
• 1874 - Patent for barbed wire received by inventor Joseph Farwell Glidden of De Kalb, Ill.
• 1950 - 'Guys and Dolls' starts 1,200 performance run in N.Y.
• 1963 - World's first televised murder-Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald.
• 1971 - D.B. Cooper skyjacks Northwest Airlines plane and parachutes out over Washington with $200,000.
• 1997 - New British Library opens at St. Pancras, eight years late.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Chrysogonus
• Colman of Cloyne
• Flora and Mary
• John of the Cross

Holiday:

• National holiday in Zaire

Non-Specific Holiday:

• THANKSGIVING DAY (U.S.) last Thursday of November.
• TUNG CHICH, Feast of the Winter Solstice in China (sometime during the eleventh moon on the shortest day of the year)
• DIVALI (India) five day autumn festival.
• BHRATRI DWITYA, Hindu Festival of Brothers
• TUNG CHICH, Feast of the Winter Solstice in China (sometime during the eleventh moon on the shortest day of the year)
• ADVENT SUNDAY, Sunday nearest to feast of Saint Andrew (Nov. 30) whether before or after.
• HANUKKA also spelled CHANUKAH (Jewish Feast of Lights), eight day holiday beginning on 25th of lunar month Kislev.
• TSAO CHÜN, Festival of the Kitchen God in China (23rd day of the twelfth moon (or 24th in Kwantung)
• CH'U HSI, Night of the Thirtieth (29th day of the twelfth moon)
• ELEPHANT ROUNDUP AT SURIN, THAILAND celebrated third Sunday in November
• ON-MATSURI, Yamato region harvest festival in Nara, Japan
• CHICHIBU NO YO-MATSURI, Kabuki and fireworks in Japan