On Nov. 22, 1718, English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was killed during a battle off the North Carolina coast (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
In 1819 Mary Ann Evans, who wrote under the pen name of George Eliot, was born in England.
In 1890 French President Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France.
In 1906 the SOS signal for ships in distress was adopted by an international convention in Berlin.
In 1935 the flying boat China Clipper left San Francisco on the first official trans-Pacific airmail flight.
In 1962 the Soviet Union announced an end of the combat-readiness alert imposed at the start of the Cuban missile crisis.
In 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president. Also in 1963 British author C.S. Lewis died at age 65 and British novelist-critic Aldous Huxley died at 69.
In 1971 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that arbitrary discrimination against women was unconstitional.
In 1972 President Richard Nixon lifted a 22-year ban on American travel to mainland China.
In 1973 Saudi Arabia threatened to cut oil production by 80 percent if the United States, Europe or Japan tried to counter the Arab oil embargo.
In 1975 Juan Carlos de Borbon was proclaimed king of Spain.
In 1977 the supersonic Concorde jet began service to New York from London and Paris.
In 1979 13 freed hostages returned to the United States from Iran, but 52 other Americans remained captive.
In 1980 actress Mae West died in her Hollywood residence at age 87.
In 1989 Lebanese President Rene Moawad was assassinated less than three weeks after taking office when a bomb exploded next to his motorcade in West Beirut.
In 1993 Mexico’s Senate overwhelmingly approved the North American Free Trade Agreement. Also in 1993, striking flight attendants at American Airlines called off their 4-day-old job action after President Clinton helped broker an agreement to submit the dispute to binding arbitration.
