November 25th

Today's Highlight in History:
On November 25th, 1963, the body of President Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. (Pictured right: Caroline, Jacqueline and John Kennedy, Jr.)

On this date:
In 1758, in the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh.

In 1783, the British evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.

In 1835, American industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland.

In 1920, radio station WTAW of College Station, Texas, broadcast the first play-by-play description of a football game, between the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

In 1957, President Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke.

In 1973, Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

In 1974, former UN Secretary-General U Thant died in New York at age 65.

In 1980, Sugar Ray Leonard regained the World Boxing Council welterweight championship when Roberto Duran abruptly quit in the eighth round at the Louisiana Superdome.

In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1987, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, died in office at age 65.

Ten years ago: Poland held its first popular presidential election. (Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, who received a plurality of votes, won a runoff the following month.)

Five years ago: In his weekly radio address, President Clinton appealed to America's values and interests as he pleaded for support for the Bosnia peace agreement. Serbs in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo took to the streets by the thousands to protest the peace plan, vowing to fight to the death.

One year ago: Five-year-old Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida. Elian was one of three survivors from a boat carrying 14 Cubans that had sunk two days earlier in the Atlantic Ocean; his rescue set off an international custody battle between relatives in Miami and Elian's father in Cuba.

"Youth condemns; maturity condones."

-- Amy Lowell, American poet, critic (1874-1925).