NOVEMBER 29th

On this date in:
1890	The first Army-Navy football game was played, with Navy winning 24-0 at West Point, N.Y.
1924	Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels.
1929	Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd radioed that he'd made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.
1952	President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower kept his campaign promise to visit Korea to assess the ongoing conflict.
1961	Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited Earth twice before returning.
1963	President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1967	Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank.
1981	Actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident at age 43.
1986	Actor Cary Grant died at age 82.
1989	In response to a growing pro-democracy movement in Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run parliament ended the party's 40-year monopoly on power.
1990	The U.N. Security Council voted 12-2 to authorize military action if Iraq did not withdraw its troops from Kuwait and release all foreign hostages by Jan. 15, 1991.
1996	A U.N. court sentenced Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic to 10 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 1,200 Muslims - the first international war crimes sentence since World War II.
1999	Protestant and Catholic adversaries formed a Northern Ireland government.
2001	Rock musician George Harrison of the Beatles died at age 58 following a battle with cancer.

Article of the day

U.N. votes for partition of Palestine

Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state.

The modern conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine dates back to the 1910s, when both groups laid claim to the British-controlled territory. The Jews were Zionists, recent emigrants from Europe and Russia who came to the ancient homeland of the Jews to establish a Jewish national state. The native Palestinian Arabs sought to stem Jewish immigration and set up a secular Palestinian state.

Beginning in 1929, Arabs and Jews openly fought in Palestine, and Britain attempted to limit Jewish immigration as a means of appeasing the Arabs. As a result of the Holocaust in Europe, many Jews illegally entered Palestine during World War II. Radical Jewish groups employed terrorism against British forces in Palestine, which they thought had betrayed the Zionist cause. At the end of World War II, in 1945, the United States took up the Zionist cause. Britain, unable to find a practical solution, referred the problem to the United Nations, which on November 29, 1947, voted to partition Palestine.

The Jews were to possess more than half of Palestine, though they made up less than half of Palestine's population. The Palestinian Arabs, aided by volunteers from other countries, fought the Zionist forces, but the Jews secured full control of their U.N.-allocated share of Palestine and also some Arab territory. On May 14, 1948, Britain withdrew with the expiration of its mandate, and the State of Israel was proclaimed by Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion. The next day, forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded.

The Israelis, though less well equipped, managed to fight off the Arabs and then seize key territories, such as Galilee, the Palestinian coast, and a strip of territory connecting the coastal region to the western section of Jerusalem. In 1949, U.N.-brokered cease-fires left the State of Israel in permanent control of those conquered areas. The departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from Israel during the war left the country with a substantial Jewish majority.

Today Birthdays

Don Cheadle turns 44 years old today.

AP Photo/Matt Sayles Actor Don Cheadle ("Hotel Rwanda") turns 44 years old today.

81 Vin Scully Sportscaster 76 Jacques Chirac Former president of France 75 John Mayall Blues singer, musician 73 Diane Ladd Actress 68 Chuck Mangione Musician, composer 67 Jody Miller Country singer 64 Felix Cavaliere Pop singer, musician (The Rascals) 62 Suzy Chaffee Skier 59 Garry Shandling Actor, comedian ("The Larry Sanders Show") 54 Joel Coen Director ("Fargo") 56 Jeff Fahey Actor 53 Howie Mandel Comedian, game show host ("Deal or No Deal") 51 Janet Napolitano Governor of Arizona 48 Cathy Moriarty Actress 47 Kim Delaney Actress ("NYPD Blue") 47 Tom Sizemore Actor 46 Andrew McCarthy Actor 43 Neill Barry Actor, producer 43 Wallis Buchanan Musician (Jamiroquai) 40 Martin Carr Rock musician (Boo Radleys) 40 Jonathan Knight Singer (New Kids on the Block) 39 Mariano Rivera New York Yankees pitcher 38 Larry Joe Campbell Actor ("According to Jim") 37 Gena Lee Nolin Actress 36 Brian Baumgartner Actor ("The Office") 32 Anna Faris Actress 32 Julian Ovenden Actor 29 The Game Rapper 27 Ringo Garza Rock musician (Los Lonely Boys) 26 Lucas Black Actor