GMT 11/22//2017 Thanksgiving Eve

1718 Blackbeard is killed off North Carolina’s Outer Banks during a bloody battle with a British navy force sent from Virginia

1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible.

1980 Eighteen Communist Party secretaries in 49 provinces are ousted from Poland.

1982 President Ronald Reagan calls for defense-pact deployment of the MX missile.

1986 Justice Department finds memo in Lt. Col. Oliver North's office on the transfer of $12 million to Contras of Nicaragua from Iranian arms sale.

1988 First prototype of B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber unveiled for public viewing.

1989 Lebanese President Rene Moawad killed when a bomb explodes near his motorcade in West Beirut.

1990 Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher confirms the end of her premiership by withdrawing from the leadership election of the Conservative Party.

1995 The first feature-length film created entirely with computer generated imagery - Toy Story - premiers.

2004 The Orange Revolution, protesting a primary election believed to have been rigged, begins in the Ukraine. On Dec 26 Ukraine's Supreme Court orders a revote..

2005 Angela Merkel becomes the first woman ever to be Chancellor of Germany; the former research scientist had previously been the first secretary-general of the Christian Democratic Union.

2008 Hamas and Israel begin a cease-fire following eight days of violence and 150 deaths.


Born on November 22


1890 Charles de Gaulle, French general in exile during World War II and president of France from 1958 to 1969.