This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
November 29 is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 32 days remaining until the end of the year.
On this day in 1963, one week after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, President Lyndon Johnson establishes a special commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination.
After 10 months of gathering evidence and questioning witnesses in public hearings, the Warren Commission report was released, concluding that there was no conspiracy, either domestic or international, in the assassination and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, acted alone. The presidential commission also found that Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who murdered Oswald on live national television, had no prior contact with Oswald.
According to the report, the bullets that killed President Kennedy and injured Texas Governor John Connally were fired by Oswald in three shots from a rifle pointed out of a sixth-floor window in the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald’s life, including his visit to the Soviet Union, was described in detail, but the report made no attempt to analyze his motives.
561 – King Chlothar I dies at Compiègne. The Merovingian Dynasty is continued by his four sons – Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I – who divide the Frankish Kingdom.
800 – Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III.
1394 – The Korean king Yi Seong-gye, founder of the Joseon Dynasty, moved the capital from Kaesong to Hanyang, today known as Seoul.
1777 – San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.
1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea in order to claim insurance.
1807 – The Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops.
1830 – November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia’s rule in Poland begins.
1847 – The Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour.
1847 – Whitman Massacre: Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others are killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, causing the Cayuse War.
1850 – The treaty, Punctation of Olmutz, signed in Olomouc means diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to Austrian Empire, which took over the leadership of German Confederation.
1864 – Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre – Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants inside Colorado Territory.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Spring Hill – Confederate advance into Tennessee misses opportunity to crush Union army. Gen. Hood angered, leads to Battle of Franklin.
1872 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
1881 – The city of Spokan Falls (today Spokane, Washington) is officially incorporated as a city.
1890 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.
1890 – At West Point, New York, the United States Naval Academy defeats the United States Military Academy 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game.
1910 – The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest E. Sirrine.
1913 – Federation Internationale d’Escrime, the international organizing body of competitive fencing is founded in Paris, France.
1915 – Fire destroys most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California.
1922 – Howard Carter opens the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the public.
1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.
1943 – The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war ordering of the country.
1944 – The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
1944 – Albania is liberated by the Albanian partisans.
1945 – The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.
1947 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine (The Partition Plan).
1950 – Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.
1952 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico.
1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1965 – Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite Alouette 2.
1967 – Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
1972 – Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) releases Pong (the first commercially successful video game) in Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.
1983 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.
1987 – Korean Air Flight 858 explodes over the Thai-Burmese border, killing 155.
1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing “use all necessary means to uphold and implement” United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 “to restore international peace and security” if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.
2007 – The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to The Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.
2007 – A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs off the northern coast of Martinique. This affected the Eastern Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico and as far south as Trinidad.
2009 – Maurice Clemmons shoots and kills four police officers inside a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington.
2013 – LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 crashes in Namibia, killing 33 people.
* Christian Feast day:
o Saturnin
* Liberation Day or Dita e Çlirimit (Albania)
* Republic Day (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
* William Tubman’s Birthday (Liberia)
* International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (United Nations)
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