TODAY IN HISTORY

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Today is Friday, Nov. 13, the 318th day of 2020. There are 48 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 13, 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

On this date:

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, Jean-Baptiste Leroy: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

In 1956, the Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

In 1971, the U.S. space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars.

In 1974, Karen Silkwood, a 28-year-old technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Oklahoma, died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.

In 1985, some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a volcanic mudslide buried the city.

In 2000, lawyers for George W. Bush failed to win a court order barring manual recounts of ballots in Florida. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced she would end the recounting at 5 p.m. Eastern time the next day — prompting an immediate appeal by lawyers for Al Gore.

In 2001, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the White House, where they pledged to slash Cold War-era nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.

In 2014, Clayton Kershaw became the first pitcher to win the National League MVP award since Bob Gibson in 1968; Los Angeles Angels’ outfielder Mike Trout was a unanimous pick for the AL MVP.

In 2016, President-elect Donald Trump named Republican Party chief Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff and conservative media executive Stephen Bannon as his top presidential strategist.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Joe Mantegna is 73. Actor Tracy Scoggins is 67. Actor Chris Noth is 66. Actor-comedian Whoopi Goldberg is 65. Former NFL quarterback and College Football Hall of Famer Vinny Testaverde is 57. Comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is 53. Actor Gerard Butler is 51. Former NBA All-Star Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) is 41. Actor Monique Coleman is 40.

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