Today in History: Nov. 24

Today is Sunday, Nov. 24, the 329th day of 2024. There are 37 days left in the year.

Today 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 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.

Today’s Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson is 86. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is 84. Rock drummer Pete Best is 83. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 82. Basketball Hall of Famer Dave Bing is 81. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rudy Tomjanovich is 76. Filmmaker Emir Kusturica is 70. Author Arundhati Roy is 63. Actor Colin Hanks is 47. Actor Katherine Heigl is 46. Actor Sarah Hyland is 34.