On Nov. 22, 1718, English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was killed in 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 1906 the SOS signal for ships in distress was adopted by an international convention in Berlin.
In 1909 Helen Hayes made her New York stage debut in “Old Dutch” at the Herald Square Theater.
In 1928 Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” made its debut in Paris.
In 1935 the flying boat China Clipper left San Francisco on the first official trans-Pacific airmail flight.
In 1943 President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures to defeat Japan in World War II. Also in 1943 lyricist Lorenz Hart died in New York at the age of 48.
In 1963 British author C.S. Lewis died at age 65.
In 1965 the musical “Man of La Mancha” opened in New York.
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 1974 the United Nations General Assembly granted observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Also in 1974 President Gerald Ford arrived in Vladivostok for talks with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
In 1975 Juan Carlos de Borbon was proclaimed king of Spain.
In 1980 actress Mae West died in her Hollywood home 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 flight attendants at American Airlines called off their 4-day-old strike after President Clinton helped broker an agreement to submit the dispute to binding arbitration.
