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Local

Nov. 20, 2010: Albert Lea Township Fire Department had an open house to celebrate the acquisition of new equipment. The fire department received two federal assistance to firefighters grants totaling $200,000.

Nov. 21, 1980: A former Northwood resident, Diane Kay Pangburn, was one of 83 victims of a fire that burned through the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

Nov. 18, 1970: Stuart F. Spicker, director of the division of philosophy and social sciences at Lea College, published a book, “The Philosophy of the Body.” The book was a collection of readings that rejected Cartesian Dualism. The idea that mind and matter should be thought of as completely separate from each other had long-ruled Western philosophy and psychology.

Nov. 18, 1960: Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters were in Albert Lea to take on the Packer Cagers. The Globetrotters were in their 24th season with a record of 3,421 victories against 245 defeats. The Packers fell to the Trotters 43-32.

 

National

2017: Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken became the first member of Congress to be caught up in a wave of allegations of sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior, after a Los Angeles radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing her and groping her during a 2006 USO tour. (Franken eventually resigned from the Senate.)

Charles Manson, the hippie cult leader behind the gruesome murders of actor Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles in 1969, died in a California hospital at the age of 83 after nearly a half-century in prison.

2015: World leaders vowed a vigorous response to the Islamic State group’s terror rampage in Paris as they opened a two-day meeting in Turkey, with President Barack Obama calling the violence an “attack on the civilized world” and Russian President Vladimir Putin urging “global efforts” to confront the threat.

2007: Baseball player Barry Bonds was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, charged with lying when he told a federal grand jury that he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs. (Bonds was later convicted on the obstruction of justice count; the conviction was overturned in 2015.)

2006: Democrats embraced Nancy Pelosi as the first female House speaker in history, but then selected Steny Hoyer as majority leader against her wishes.

2003: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-to-3 that the state constitution guaranteed gay couples the right to marry.

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, 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.)

Nov. 20, 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.

1991: Former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards won a landslide victory in his bid to return to office, defeating State Rep. David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader.

1987: The congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore “ultimate responsibility” for wrongdoing by his aides.

1982: An agreement was announced in the 57th day of a strike by National Football League players.

Nov. 18, 1978: U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., and four others were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by more than 900 cult members.

1973: President Richard Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in Orlando, Florida: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

1969: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon.

A quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War.

1966: The flight of Gemini 12, the final mission of the Gemini program, ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic after spending four days in orbit.

1942: The naval Battle of Guadalcanal ended during World War II with a decisive U.S. victory over Japanese forces.

Nov. 19, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.