On Nov. 18, 1820, U.S. Navy Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the continent of Antarctica.
In 1882 Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain was born in Paris.
In 1883 the United States and Canada adopted a unified system of Standard Time zones.
In 1886 Chester Arthur, the 21st president, died in New York; he was 56.
In 1899 conductor Eugene Ormandy was born in Budapest, Hungary.
In 1901 pioneering opinion researcher George Gallup was born in Jefferson, Iowa.
In 1903 the United States and Panama signed a treaty granting the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal.
In 1909 composer Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah, Ga.
In 1922 novelist Marcel Proust died in Paris; he was 51.
In 1928 the first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York.
In 1936 Germany and Italy recognized Gen. Francisco Franco’s government in Spain.
In 1966 Roman Catholic leaders in the United States ended the church rule against eating meat on Fridays.
In 1968 actor Owen Wilson was born in Dallas.
In 1969 financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of a U.S. president and two senators, died in Hyannis Port, Mass.; he was 81.
In 1976 Spain’s parliament approved legislation to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
In 1978 U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and four other people were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 912 of the cult’s members.
In 1987 the congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore “ultimate responsibility” for wrongdoing by his aides.
In 1991 Shiite Muslim kidnappers released two hostages, Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and educator Thomas Sutherland.
In 1993 American Airlines flight attendants went on strike; they ended their job action four days later. Also in 1993 representatives of 21 South African political parties approved a new constitution.
In 1996 one-time CIA station chief Harold Nicholson was charged with selling top secrets to the Russians for more than $120,000. (Nicholson later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to 231/2 years in prison; he was spared a life sentence for cooperating with investigators.)
In 1998 House Republicans endorsed U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana to be their next speaker, succeeding Newt Gingrich. (Livingston later resigned from the House before he could take over the speakership after admitting to marital infidelities.)
In 1999 12 people were killed when a bonfire under construction at Texas A&M University collapsed.
In 2001 Phillips Petroleum Co. and Conoco Inc. announced they were merging in a deal that created the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company.
In 2002 UN arms inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year hiatus, calling on Saddam Hussein’s government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction. Also in 2002, Academy Award-winning actor James Coburn, who was known for his tough-guy roles, died in Beverly Hills, Calif.; he was 74.
In 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guaranteed gay couples the right to marry.
In 2004 Bill Clinton’s presidential library opened in Little Rock, Ark.; in attendance were President George W. Bush, former President George H.W. Bush and former President Jimmy Carter. Also in 2004 former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry, who was convicted of killing four black girls in a racially motivated bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church in 1963, died in prison; he was 74. Also in 2004 Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales.
In 2005 the Republican-controlled House spurned a call for an immediate pullout of troops from Iraq in a 403-3 vote hastily arranged by the GOP that Democrats denounced as politically motivated. Also in 2005, eight months after Robert Blake was acquitted at a criminal trial of murdering his wife, a civil jury decided the actor was behind the slaying, and ordered him to pay Bonny Lee Bakley’s children $30 million.
In 2007 a methane blast ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing 101 miners.
