Today in History: November 20, Elizabeth marries Philip

Today in History

Today is Sunday, Nov. 20, the 324th day of 2022. There are 41 days left in the year.

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. A group of American Indian activists began a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.

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 (al-HAM’-bruh), California. (Spector’s first trial ended with a hung jury in 2007; he was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. He died in January 2021.)

In 2015, Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was released from prison after 30 years behind bars for spying for Israel. (After five years of parole, Pollard moved to Israel in December 2020.)

In 2020, Georgia’s Republican governor and its top elections official certified results showing Democrat Joe Biden won the state’s presidential vote over President Donald Trump; the margin was less than 0.5%, allowing the Trump campaign to ask for a recount. A recount of the presidential election in Wisconsin’s two most heavily Democratic counties began with the Trump campaign seeking unsuccessfully to discard tens of thousands of absentee ballots.

Ten years ago: 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.) “Elmo” puppeteer Kevin Clash resigned from “Sesame Street” amid allegations of sexually abusing underage boys, which Clash denied. Jack Taylor, a guard for the Grinnell College basketball team, shattered the NCAA scoring record with a 138-point performance as the Division III school beat Faith Baptist Bible, 179-104.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump announced that he was designating North Korea, which he called a “murderous regime,” as a state sponsor of terror. 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.

One year ago: Police and witnesses said about 80 people, some wearing ski masks and wielding crowbars, ransacked a high-end department store in the San Francisco Bay Area, assaulting employees and stealing merchandise before fleeing in cars waiting outside. Tens of thousands of protesters, many from far-right groups, marched through Vienna after the Austrian government announced a nationwide lockdown to contain skyrocketing coronavirus infections; demonstrations against virus restrictions also took place in Switzerland, Croatia, Italy and Northern Ireland.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Estelle Parsons is 95. Comedian Dick Smothers is 84. President Joe Biden is 80. Singer Norman Greenbaum is 80. Actor Veronica Hamel is 79. Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is 76. Singer Joe Walsh is 75. Actor Richard Masur is 74. Opera singer Barbara Hendricks is 74. Former national security adviser John Bolton is 74. Actor Bo Derek is 66. Former NFL player Mark Gastineau is 66. Reggae musician Jimmy Brown (UB40) is 65. Actor Sean Young is 63. Pianist Jim Brickman is 61. Actor Ming-Na is 59. Actor Ned Vaughn is 58. Rapper Mike D (The Beastie Boys) is 57. Rapper Sen Dog (Cypress Hill) is 57. Actor Callie Thorne is 53. Actor Sabrina Lloyd is 52. Actor Joel McHale is 51. Actor Marisa Ryan is 48. Country singer Dierks (duhkrs) Bentley is 47. Actor Joshua Gomez is 47. Actor Laura Harris is 46. Olympic gold medal gymnast Dominique Dawes is 46. Country singer Josh Turner is 45. Actor Nadine Velazquez (veh-LAHZ’-kehz) is 44. Actor Jacob Pitts is 43. Actor Andrea Riseborough is 41. Actor Jeremy Jordan is 38. Actor Dan Byrd is 37. Actor Ashley Fink is 36. Rock musician Jared Followill (Kings of Leon) is 36. Actor Jaina Lee Ortiz is 36. Actor Cody Linley is 33. Pop musician Michael Clifford (5 Seconds to Summer) is 27.