On This Day November 28

1981
Bear Bryant: The football legend scores his 315th victory, making him the winningest college football coach ever.

1942
Fire at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston kills 491 people, the second deadliest fire in U.S. history.

1929
Most points scored by a single player in pro football game, Ernie Nevers for the Chicago Cardinals scores 40 points against the Chicago Bears.

1922
First U.S. skywriting: Royal Air Force Capt. Cyril Turner writes "Hello, U.S.A. Call Vanderbilt 7200" 10,000 feet above Times Square in New York City. The half-mile-high letters generated 47,000 calls in 2½ hours.

1919
First woman elected to the British Parliament: American-born Viscountess Lady Astor is elected to the House of Commons.

1895
First U.S. automobile race: It ran from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois and won by Charles and Frank Duryea with an average speed of 7 mph.

1785
The State of Franklin: The U.S. state is denied its legitimacy by Congress, and the territory is returned to the Cherokee Indians. It had been created in 1784 when East Tennessee declared itself an independent state.

1967
Anna Nicole Smith (Vickie Lynn Hogan), American actress, model, Playmate of the Year (1993). At age 26, she married 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall.

1959
Judd Nelson, American actor. Film: The Breakfast Club (1985), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and New Jack City (1991).

1939
Gary Troxel, American singer, with the high school group The Fleetwoods. Music: Come Softly to Me (1959, #1) and Mr. Blue (1959, #1).

1936
Gary Hart (Gary Warren Hartpence), American politician, U.S. senator (D-Colorado). His bid for the 1988 Presidency was cut short by a photograph of 29-year-old model Donna Rice sitting on his lap. In 2000, he revealed that he is the political thriller writer John Blackthorn, whose books include Sins of the Fathers and I, Che Guevara.

1929
Berry Gordy Jr., American songwriter, record producer, founder of Motown Records (1959), which was the first all-black record company.

1866 d. 1924
Henry Bacon, American architect. He designed the Lincoln Memorial (1922).

1837 d. 1920
John Wesley Hyatt, American inventor of celluloid. He is also noted for his work in roller bearings, water purification, billiard balls, bowling balls, and checkers.

1632 d. 1687
Jean-Baptiste Lully (Giovanni Battista Lulli), Italian-born French composer. While conducting a Te Deum in honor of King Louis XIV's recent recovery from illness, he struck his toe with the staff he was using to keep beat. The wound turned gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the gangrene spread resulting in his death several months later.

1993 b. 1915
Garry Moore (Thomas Garrison Morfit), American entertainer. TV: The Garry Moore Show, I've Got A Secret (host), and To Tell the Truth (host).

1960 b. circa 1891
Max Pruss, German aviator, captain of the Hindenburg when it crashed in 1937.

1954 b. 1901
Enrico Fermi, Italian-born American physicist, one of the pioneers of the nuclear age. He led the team which performed the first controlled nuclear chain reaction (1942).

1949 b. ????
Simon of HMS Amethyst, the first cat to be awarded the Dicken Medal (the equivalent of the Victoria Cross for animals). See full story.

1945 b. 1879
Dwight Filley Davis, American politician, tennis player, U.S. Secretary of War (1925-29), awarded (1923) the Distinguished Service Cross, national tennis doubles champion (1899-1901), and founded (1900) the Davis Cup.

1939 b. 1861
James Naismith, American gym instructor. He invented basketball while an instructor for the YMCA (1891). A few years later basketball was banned by the YMCA, which claimed not enough people could play at one time.

1859 b. 1783
Washington Irving, American author. Writings: Rip Van Winkle (1819) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1819). He also wrote under the names Diedrich Knickerbocker, Geoffrey Corson, Anthony Evergreen, and Jonathan Oldstyle.

November 28

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