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UPI Almanac for Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014

Byrd and crew fly over South Pole, key U.N. votes on Israel, Palestinians ... on this date in history.

By United Press International
U.S. scientists run under the payload of a research balloon rising at the South Pole in January 2013. Scientists launched balloons in a NASA-Dartmouth College mission called BARREL (Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses) to study belts of radiation particles that surround Earth. NASA/UPI/File.
1 of 9 | U.S. scientists run under the payload of a research balloon rising at the South Pole in January 2013. Scientists launched balloons in a NASA-Dartmouth College mission called BARREL (Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses) to study belts of radiation particles that surround Earth. NASA/UPI/File. | License Photo

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Today is Saturday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2014 with 32 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn. Evening stars are Mars, Neptune, Uranus and Venus.

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include Austrian physicist Christian Doppler in 1803; author Louisa May Alcott in 1832; Chinese Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi in 1835; English electrical engineer John Fleming, who devised the vacuum diode that marked the birth of electronics, in 1849; film choreographer Busby Berkeley in 1895; Irish novelist C.S. Lewis in 1898; sports broadcasting legend Vin Scully in 1927 (age 87); former French President Jacques Chirac in 1932 (age 82); British blues musician John Mayall in 1933 (age 81); actor Diane Ladd in 1932 (age 82); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Denny Doherty and musician/composerMusician/composer Chuck Mangione (age 74), both in 1940; comedians Garry Shandling in 1949 (age 65) and Howie Mandel in 1955 (age 59); filmmaker Joel Coen in 1954 (age 60); Janet Napolitano, former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, in 1957 (age 57); Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 1959 (age 55); actors Cathy Moriarty in 1960 (age 54), Kim Delaney and Tom Sizemore, both in 1961 (age 53), Andrew McCarthy in 1962 (age 52) and Don Cheadle in 1964 (age 50); and record-setting relief pitcher Mariano Rivera in 1969 (age 45).

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On this date in history:

In 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrated a hand-cranked phonograph that recorded sound on grooved metal cylinders. Edison shouted verses of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into the machine, which played back his voice.

In 1890, the first Army-Navy football game was played. Navy won 24-0.

In 1929, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard Byrd and three crewmen became the first people to fly over the South Pole.

In 1947, despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine and the creation of the independent Jewish state of Israel.

In 1963, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson appointed the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John Kennedy.

In 1986, movie icon Cary Grant died of a stroke at the age of 82.

In 1989, Romanian Olympic gymnastic hero Nadia Comaneci fled to Hungary. (She eventually reached the United States.)

In 1990, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing "all necessary means," including military force, against Iraq if it didn't withdraw from Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991.

In 1991, a dust storm in Coalinga, Calif., triggered a massive pileup by more than 250 vehicles on Interstate 5, killing 15 people and injuring more than 100.

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In 1994, voters in Norway rejected a proposal to join the European Union.

In 2001, George Harrison, lead guitarist of the Beatles, died of cancer. He was 58.

In 2012, the United Nations voted 138-9, with 31 abstentions, to give Palestinians non-member observer status.

In 2013, a Mozambique Airlines plane crashed in a remote area of the country, killing all 33 aboard, and a police helicopter struck the roof of a crowded pub in Glasgow, Scotland. The crash killed at least eight people, including all aboard the chopper. Thirty people were injured.


A thought for the day: "The longer the title, the less important the job." -- George McGovern

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