Today’s highlight

On Nov. 15, 1864, late in the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman began their “March to the Sea” from Atlanta.

On this date

1777: The Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation.

1806: Explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop now known as Pikes Peak in Colorado.

1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1966: The flight of Gemini 12, the final mission of the Gemini program, ended successfully.

1969: A quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War.

2012: The Justice Department announced that BP had agreed to plead guilty to a raft of charges in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and pay a record $4.5 billion, including nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines.

2019: Roger Stone, a longtime friend and ally of President Donald Trump, was convicted of all seven counts in a federal indictment accusing him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation of whether Trump coordinated with Russia during the 2016 campaign.

Today’s birthdays

Singer Petula Clark is 92. Actor Sam Waterston is 84. Classical conductor Daniel Barenboim is 82. Pop singer Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad is 79. Fashion designer Jimmy Choo is 76. Actor Beverly D’Angelo is 73. Actor Shailene Woodley is 33.