On This Day in History - November 12th - Almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 12, the 316th day of 2023 with 49 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include women's suffrage activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1815; Baha'u'llah, born Mirza Husayn Ali, founder-prophet of the Baha'i faith, in 1817; sculptor August Rodin in 1840; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in 1908; Princess Grace of Monaco, former American movie star Grace Kelly, in 1929; cult leader Charles Manson in 1934; actor/playwright Wallace Shawn in 1943 (age 80); sportscaster Al Michaels in 1944 (age 79); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Booker T. Jones in 1944 (age 79); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Neil Young in 1945 (age 78); actor Megan Mullally in 1958 (age 65); Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci in 1961 (age 62); writer Naomi Wolf in 1962 (age 61); former baseball slugger Sammy Sosa in 1968 (age 55); Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in 1970 (age 53); actor Tamala Jones in 1974 (age 49); actor Ashley Williams in 1978 (age 45); actor Cote de Pablo in 1979 (age 44); actor Ryan Gosling in 1980 (age 43); actor Anne Hathaway in 1982 (age 41); rapper Omarion, born Omari Ishmael Grandberry, in 1984 (age 39); actor Raffey Cassidy in 2001 (age 22).

On this date in history:

In 1892, the first professional football game was played in Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Athletic Association defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, 4-0. Touchdowns at the time were worth 4 points.

In 1893, the Durand Line which marks the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was agreed to by Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat in British India, and the Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.

In 1927, Joseph Stalin consolidated power in the Soviet Union following the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Communist Party.

In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt pressed the Presidential Gold Key to officially open the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

In 1941, the German army's drive to take Moscow was halted on the city's outskirts in World War II.

In 1948, a war crimes tribunal in Japan sentenced former premier Hideki Tojo and six other World War II Japanese leaders to death by hanging. Tojo survived a suicide attempt three years earlier days after Japan had surrendered.

In 1954, after processing more than 12 million immigrants, the immigration station at Ellis Island closed its doors for the last time.

In 1980, the Voyager 1 spacecraft passed Saturn and sent back stunning pictures.

In 1982, former KGB chief Yuri Andropov succeeded the late Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

In 1990, Akihito was installed as the 125th emperor of Japan.

In 1997, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Eyad Ismoil were convicted of involvement in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. They were sentenced to life in prison. Four others had been convicted in 1994 and also received life sentences.

In 2001, an American Airlines Airbus A300 crashed shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport in New York, killing 265 people, including five on the ground.

In 2011, Silvio Berlusconi, longest serving Italian prime minister since Benito Mussolini, announced his resignation after the lower house of Parliament passed economic policies demanded by the European Union.

In 2017, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake near the Iran-Iraq border left more than 600 people dead.

In 2022, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt in the Nevada Senate race, allowing Democrats to retain control of the chamber.

A thought for the day: "Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail." -- English writer Mary Astell