Today in History: November 19, Lincoln speaks at Gettysburg

Today in History Today is Saturday, Nov. 19, the 323rd day of 2022. There are 42 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. On this date: In 1831, the 20th president of the United States, James Garfield, was born in Orange Township, Ohio. In 1919, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles (vehr-SY’) by a vote of 55 in favor, 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. In 1942, during World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front. In 1959, Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel. In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon. In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva. In 1997, Iowa seamstress Bobbi McCaughey (mihk-KOY’) gave birth to the world’s first set of surviving septuplets, four boys and three girls. In 2004, in one of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history, Ron Artest (now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest) and Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers charged into the stands and fought with Detroit Pistons fans, forcing officials to end the Pacers’ 97-82 win with 45.9 seconds left. In 2007, in Pakistan, a Supreme Court hand-picked by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (pur-VEHZ’ moo-SHAH’-ruhv) dismissed legal challenges to his continued rule. In 2010, President Barack Obama, attending a NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, won an agreement to build a missile shield over Europe, a victory that risked further aggravating Russia. In 2020, Georgia’s top elections official released results of a hand tally of ballots that affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow lead over President Donald Trump in the state. With the coronavirus surging out of control, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pleaded with Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving and not to spend the holiday with people from outside their household. Ten years ago: President Barack Obama became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Myanmar, where he promised more American help if the Asian nation kept building its new democracy. Former U.S. Sen. Warren B. Rudman died at 82; the New Hampshire Republican co-authored a ground-breaking budget balancing law. Five years ago: Charles Manson, the hippie cult leader behind the gruesome murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles in 1969, died in a California hospital at the age of 83 after nearly a half-century in prison. State media and a monitoring group in Syria reported that pro-government forces had defeated the Islamic State group in its last major stronghold in the country. Longtime country music star Mel Tillis died in Florida at the age of 85. Actor and singer Della Reese died at 86 in her Los Angeles area home. One year ago: Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges in the shooting deaths of two men and the wounding of a third during a night of protests over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020. The Denver suburb of Aurora agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after suburban Denver police stopped him on the street and put him in a neck hold.