Today in History

Today in History Today is Thursday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2021. There are 36 days left in the year. Today is Thanksgiving. Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 25, 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels. On this date: In 1783, the British evacuated New York during the Revolutionary War. In 1835, American industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. In 1947, movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the ‘œHollywood Ten’� who’d been cited for contempt of Congress the day before. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke. In 1961, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, was commissioned. In 1963, the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery; his widow, Jacqueline, lighted an ‘œeternal flame’� at the gravesite. In 1987, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, died in office at age 65. In 1999, Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle. In 2001, as the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny ‘œMike’� Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America’s first combat casualty of the conflict. In 2002, President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head. In 2009, Toyota said it would replace the gas pedals on 4 million vehicles in the United States because the pedals could get stuck in the floor mats and cause sudden acceleration. In 2014, President Barack Obama sharply rebuked protesters for racially charged violence in Ferguson, Missouri, saying there was no excuse for burning buildings, torching cars and destroying other property in response to the police shooting death of Michael Brown. Ten years ago: The U.S. increased pressure on Egypt’s military rulers to hand over power to civilian leaders, and the generals turned to Kamal el-Ganzouri, a Mubarak-era politician to head a new government in a move that failed to satisfy more than 100,000 protesters jamming Tahrir Square. Five years ago: Fidel Castro, who led his rebels to victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half-century of rule in Cuba, died at age 90. One year ago: Phoning in to an event held by Pennsylvania Republicans to investigate unproven allegations of voter fraud, President Donald Trump again made baseless claims that he had won the election against Joe Biden; Trump said, ‘œThis election has to be turned around.’� Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts. Millions of Americans took to the skies and the highways ahead of Thanksgiving, disregarding increasingly dire warnings to stay home and limit holiday gatherings to members of their own household. Former Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona died of a heart attack at the age of 60, two weeks after being released from an Argentine hospital following brain surgery.