November 21st

Today's Highlight in History:
On November 21st, 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the US Constitution.

On this date:
In 1877, inventor Thomas A. Edison announced the invention of his phonograph.

In 1899, Vice President Garret A. Hobart, serving under President McKinley, died in Paterson, New Jersey, at age 55.

In 1922, Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the US Senate.

In 1942, the Alaska highway across Canada was formally opened.

In 1964, New York's Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened.

In 1969, the Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, the first such rejection since 1930.

In 1973, President Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18.5-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.

In 1979, a mob attacked the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing two Americans.

In 1980, eighty-seven people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1980, an estimated 83 million TV viewers tuned in to the CBS prime-time soap opera "Dallas" to find out "who shot J.R." (It turned out to be Kristin Shephard, played by Mary Crosby.)

Ten years ago: President Bush arrived in Saudi Arabia, where he conferred with Saudi King Fahd and Kuwait's exiled emir. Junk-bond financier Michael R. Milken, who had pleaded guilty to six felony counts, was sentenced by a federal judge in New York to ten years in prison (Milken served two).

Five years ago: Balkan leaders meeting in Dayton, Ohio, initialed a peace plan to end three and a-half years of ethnic fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. France detonated a fourth underground nuclear blast at its test site in the South Pacific. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the five-thousand mark for the first time.

One year ago: President Clinton, speaking at a conference in Florence, Italy, called on prosperous nations to spread global wealth by helping poor countries with Internet hookups, cell phones, debt relief and small loans. China completed its first unmanned test of a spacecraft meant to carry astronauts. Quentin Crisp, the eccentric writer, performer and raconteur best-known for his autobiography "The Naked Civil Servant," died in Manchester, England, at age 90.

"A concept is stronger than a fact."

-- Charlotte P. Gilman, American lecturer and author (1860-1935).