Today is Monday, November 12th, the 316th day of the year. There are 49 days until the end of the year.
On this day:
In 1920, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed the first Commissioner of Baseball.
In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union.
In 1931, Maple Leaf Gardens opened in Toronto, Canada.
In 1936, the Oakland Bay Bridge opened.
In 1942, the World War Two naval battle of Guadalcanal began. The Americans went on to win a major victory over the Japanese forces.
In 1954, Ellis Island closed after processing more than 20-million immigrants since it opened in New York Harbor in 1892.
In 1971, President Nixon announced the withdrawal of 45-thousand U.S. troops from Vietnam.
In 1984, Madonna released her breakthrough album "Like A Virgin."
In 1994, Olympic Hall-of-Famer Wilma Rudolph died at the age of 54. She won three sprinting gold medals at the 1960 Olympic Games.
In 1996, Jonathan Schmitz was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Scott Amedure. The admittedly gay Amedure was killed several days after announcing on "The Jenny Jones Show," that he had a crush on Schmitz.
In 2001, an American Airlines Airbus en route from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Dominican Republic crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 265 people.
In 2001, actress Carrie Donovan, best known as the spectacled fashion editor in commercials for Old Navy, died on this date at the age of 73.
In 2004, in one of the most closely-watched trials of the year, a California jury found philandering husband Scott Peterson guilty of double murder in the deaths of his pregnant wife Laci Peterson and their unborn child. Laci Peterson disappeared just prior to Christmas in 2002. Her corpse and that of her child washed up on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay four months later.
In 2011, pop star Justin Timberlake made good on his date promise to Corporal Kelsey De Santis by attending a Marine Corps ball in Richmond, Virginia. De Santis had invited Timberlake to the event in a YouTube video earlier in the year.
In 2013, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat named One World Trade Center the tallest building in the United States, replacing Chicago's Willis Tower.
In 2014, The Philae [[ FEE-lay ]] space probe landed on Comet 67P. It was the first soft landing on a comet.
In 2015, the only person ever brought to trial for the 1978 Lufthansa [[ Loof-TAHN-zah ]] heist at JFK Airport that inspired the movie "Goodfellas" was found not guilty. A New York jury found 80-year old Vincent Asaro was not the mastermind behind the six-million-dollar armed jewelry holdup. He faced life in prison if convicted.
In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Captain Florent Groberg for his for heroism in Afghanistan in 2012. Groberg is credited with saving the lives of fellow troops by tackling a suicide bomber, where he was badly injured. He became the tenth living recipient to be awarded the nation's highest military award.
In 2016, Sting became the first performer to take the stage at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris a year after ISIS terrorists killed nearly 100 people inside.