Today’s highlights

On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.

On this date

1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

1865: Mississippi became the first Southern state to enact laws that came to be known as “Black Codes” aimed at limiting the rights of newly freed Blacks; other states of the former Confederacy soon followed.

1947: A group of writers, producers and directors, who would become known as the “Hollywood Ten,” was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry.

1971: A hijacker calling himself “Dan Cooper” (but who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper”) parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom; his fate remains unknown.

1974: The bone fragments of a 3.2 million-year-old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nicknamed “Lucy.”

2012: Fire raced through a garment factory in Bangladesh that supplied major retailers in the West, killing 112 people; an official said many of the victims were trapped because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits.

Today’s birthdays

Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson is 86. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is 84. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rudy Tomjanovich is 76.