Today is Saturday, Nov. 12, the 316th day of 2022. There are 49 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 12, 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
On this date:
In 1920, baseball got its first “czar” as Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected commissioner of the American and National Leagues.
In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., giving the green light to traffic.
In 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies ended up winning a major victory over Japanese forces.)
In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
In 1970, the Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan; it’s believed that as many as a half million people were killed.
In 1975, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retired because of failing health, ending a record 36-year term.
In 1996, a Saudi Boeing 747 jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a Kazak Ilyushin (il-YOO’-shin)-76 cargo plane, killing 349 people.
In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 headed to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.
In 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a broad coalition of top government and industry officials, rejected President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud, saying that the election was “the most secure in American history.”
Today’s Birthdays: Singer Brian Hyland is 79. Rock musician Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MGs) is 78. Sportscaster Al Michaels is 78. Singer-songwriter Neil Young is 77. Actor Megan Mullally is 64. Olympic gold medal gymnast Nadia Comaneci is 61. Retired MLB All-Star Sammy Sosa is 54. Figure skater Tonya Harding is 52. Singer Tevin Campbell is 46. Actor Ryan Gosling is 42. Actor Anne Hathaway is 40. NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook is 34.
