Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 20, the 325th day of 2024. There are 41 days left in the year. Today in history On Nov. 20, 1910, Francisco Madero led a revolt against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, marking the beginning of the decade-long Mexican Revolution. Also on this date 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.) 1947, Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey. In 1969, Native American activists began an occupation of Alcatraz Island that would last 19 months before they were forcibly removed by federal authorities. In 1982, the University of California, Berkeley, football team defeated Stanford University by scoring a touchdown on a lateral-filled kickoff return on the last play of the game, despite the Stanford marching band entering the field of play, thinking Stanford had already won. In college football lore, the bizarre finish is often referred to simply as "The Play." In 1992, fire seriously damaged Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, 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.) Today's Birthdays Actor Estelle Parsons is 97. Author Don DeLillo is 88. Comedian Dick Smothers is 86. President Joe Biden is 82. Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is 78. Musician Joe Walsh is 77. Former national security adviser John Bolton is 76. Actor Bo Derek is 68. Actor Ming-Na Wen is 61. Rapper Michael "Mike D" Diamond (Beastie Boys) is 59. Actor-comedian Joel McHale is 53. Country singer Dierks Bentley is 49. Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Dominique Dawes is 48. Rapper Future is 41.