Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 20, 1947, Britain’s future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey.
On this date:
In 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
In 1945, 22 former Nazi officials went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. (Almost a year later, the International Military Tribune sentenced 12 of the defendants to death; seven received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life; three were acquitted.)
In 1952, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower announced his selection of John Foster Dulles to be his secretary of state.
In 1967, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Clock at the Commerce Department ticked past 200 million.
In 1969, the Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phaseout.
In 1985, the first version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, was officially released.
In 1992, fire seriously damaged Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1998, forty-six states embraced a $206 billion settlement with cigarette makers over health costs for treating sick smokers.
In 2000, lawyers for Al Gore and George W. Bush battled before the Florida Supreme Court over whether the presidential election recount should be allowed to continue.
In 2003, Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, California. (Jackson was later acquitted at trial.) Record producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the shooting death of an actor, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, California. (Spector’s first trial ended with a hung jury in 2007; he was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009.)
In 2012, former boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho was shot while sitting in a car in his hometown of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. (Camacho died four days later after doctors removed him from life support.)
In 2015, Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was released from prison after 30 years behind bars for spying for Israel.
In 2017, CBS News suspended Charlie Rose, and PBS stopped distribution of his nightly interview show, after a Washington Post report carried accusations of sexual misconduct from eight women.
In 2018, President Donald Trump declared that he would not further punish Saudi Arabia for the murder of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi (jah-MAHL’ khahr-SHOHK’-jee), dismissing reports from U.S. intelligence agencies that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman must have at least known about the plot to kill the writer.
In 2022, a 22-year-old gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing at least five people and leaving 18 injured before he was subdued by patrons.