Today in History for Nov. 24, 2014

1996's 'In Cold Blood'

Nov. 24, 1540 – The DeSoto Expedition visited the ancient Indian town of Cabusto (Zabusta), located probably on the west bank of the Black Warrior River at St. Stephens Bluff in Greene County, Ala.

Nov. 24, 1841 – Arthur P. Bagby of Claiborne, Ala. was elected to succeed Clement C. Clay, who had resigned, in the U.S. Senate. Bagby would serve in the senate until June 16, 1848, when he resigned.

Nov. 24, 1863 – During the Battle of Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant captured Lookout Mountain southwest of Chattanooga and began to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg. The Confederates abandoned the mountain by late afternoon.

Nov. 24, 1863 – George Anderson of the Conecuh Guards was killed at the Battle of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn. William Hodges of the Conecuh Guards (wounded at Gaines’s Farm) was taken prisoner at Lookout Mountain and died near Washington, Ga. in 1865.

Nov. 24, 1863 – During the Battle of Lookout Mountain, Noah Dallas Peacock (Lewis Lavon Peacock’s older brother) was shot in the left leg, just below the knee, during an engagement at Knoxville while serving with Co. F, 15th Alabama Infantry, Army of Tennessee. He was apparently sent to recuperate at Campbell’s Station, but was captured by the Union there on Dec. 8.

Nov. 24, 1869 - By joint resolution of the legislature, Alabama ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment guaranteed the right to vote to blacks, including former slaves.

Nov. 24, 1874 - George Smith Houston, a Democrat, was inaugurated governor, signaling the end of Reconstruction in Alabama. In addition to defeating the incumbent Republican governor, Democrats won control of the state legislature, leading them to claim "redemption" for Alabamians from the rule of "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags." It would be more than 100 years before another Republican would be elected governor of Alabama.

Nov. 24, 1878 – John Lemuel Bowden was born at Claiborne, Ala. and he would become Monroe County Sheriff in 1923.

Nov. 24, 1893 - Mathew Anderson, who established the Anderson Stage Stop on the Old Federal Road along the Conecuh-Monroe county line, passed away.

Nov. 24, 1906 – A 13-6 victory by the Massillon Tigers over their rivals, the Canton Bulldogs, for the "Ohio League" Championship, led to accusations that the championship series was fixed and resulted in the first major scandal in professional football.

Nov. 24, 1914 – W.H. Snowden, a prominent citizen of Brooklyn, Ala., passed away.

Nov. 24, 1938 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Depew “Pete” Meredith, who had been The Courant’s advertising manager since that August, was leaving to become the editor and business manager of The Brundidge Sentinel, effective Dec. 1.

1947 - John Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl" was published for the first time.

Nov. 24, 1963 – In the first live, televised murder, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was murdered on national television two days after the Kennedy assassination, by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police department headquarters.

Nov. 24, 1971 – During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker who became known as Dan “D.B.” Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient Boeing 727 plane in the airspace between Portland, Oregon and Seattle and extorted $200,000 in ransom and then parachuted from the plane to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an ongoing FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history.

Nov. 24, 1996 – “In Cold Blood,” a two-part TV miniseries based on Truman Capote’s book, “In Cold Blood,” originally aired on CBS. The second episode aired on Nov. 26, 1996.

Nov. 24, 1996 - Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions set an NFL record when he recorded his eighth straight 1,000-yard season.

Nov. 24, 2012 – Major League Baseball’s James Franklin “Jimmy” Stewart passed away at the age of 73 in Tampa, Fla. Born in Opelika, Ala. on June 11, 1939, Stewart graduated from Lafayette High School in 1957 and went on to play for the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, the Cincinnati Reds and the Houston Astros.