Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Nov. 24, the 328th day of 2013. There are 37 days left in the year.

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On this date in:

1784: Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, is born in Orange County, Virginia.

1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes “On the Origin of Species,” which explains his theory of evolution.

1863: The Civil War battle for Lookout Mountain begins in Tennessee; Union forces succeed in taking the mountain from the Confederates.

1941: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Edwards v. California, unanimously strikes down a California law prohibiting people from bringing impoverished nonresidents into the state.

1944: During World War II, U.S. bombers based on Saipan attack Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese capital by land-based planes.

1947: A group of writers, producers and directors that becomes known as the “Hollywood Ten” is cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry.

1950: The musical “Guys and Dolls,” based on the writings of Damon Runyon and featuring songs by Frank Loesser, opens on Broadway.

1963: Jack Ruby shoots and mortally wounds Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.

1971: Hijacker “D.B. Cooper” parachutes from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom — his fate remains unknown.

1982: Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan government economist and father of the president, is killed in an automobile accident in Nairobi; he was 46.

1987: The United States and the Soviet Union agree on terms to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles.

1991: Rock singer Freddie Mercury dies in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.

2000: The U.S. Supreme Court steps into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House, agreeing to consider George W. Bush’s appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida.

2003: A jury in Virginia Beach, Va., sentences John Allen Muhammad to death for the Washington-area sniper shootings.

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1988: General Motors and UAW officials are comparing employee death rates from cancer and other possibly work-related illnesses in individual departments.

The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District is going to spend $28 million on the first phase of an update to its system, pared down from $40 million.

Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro asks the Youngstown Board of Education to reconsider its earlier refusal to grant him a leave of absence.

1973: Larry Cook, Nancy Leone, Dale LaRue and Cindy Kingstown win leadership awards by the Mahoning County 4-H that are sponsored by the Readers Digest Foundation.

Coach Don Bucci’s Mooney Cardinals defeat Warren Western Reserve’s Raiders, 14-3, before 30,000 fans at the Akron Rubber Bowl to win the state AAA championship.

Federal Street between Phelps Street and Central Square is closed permanently to motor vehicles as construction continues on Youngstown’s $1.6 million Downtown Mall.

1963: James Dodds, 35, an East Palestine coal operator, his mother and her sister are killed in a single-engine plane crash near Cherry Creek, N.Y. Also dead are Ester Dodds, 55, of New Galilee, Pa., and Bernice Wagner, 57, of Dunkirk, N.Y.

Downtown Youngstown stores and area schools will be closed on Monday, Nov. 25, for the funeral of President John F. Kennedy.

Gov. James A. Rhodes proclaims a day of mourning in Ohio dedicated to the memory of President Kennedy.

1938: Christmas Seals are on sale in Youngstown with the 1938 theme, “Protect Your Home from Tuberculosis.”

Icy pavements leave a wake of auto accidents as the fall’s first real snow blankets the Youngstown district.

Harry Bishop, 35, of West Austintown, a mechanic in the county engineer’s office, suffers severe bruising of his legs when a 2,500 pound grader he was working on moves when he accidentally crossed the ignition wires.