Today in History, November 24, 1991: Rock star Freddie Mercury of Queen died

Today is Nov. 24. On this date:

1859

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 which came to be known as “Black Codes” aimed at limiting the rights of newly freed blacks; other states of the former Confederacy soon followed.

1917

Nine members of the Milwaukee police department and two civilians were killed when a bomb exploded inside a police station. The package was brought to the station after it was discovered outside a church; anarchists were suspected, but the culprits were never caught.

1944

During World War II, U.S. bombers based on Saipan attacked Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese capital by land-based planes.

1947

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

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.

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 dollars 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.”

1985

The hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner parked on the ground in Malta ended violently as Egyptian commandos stormed the plane. Fifty-eight people died in the raid, in addition to two others killed by the hijackers.

1987

The United States and the Soviet Union agreed on terms to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles. (The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev the following month.)

1991

Rock singer Freddie Mercury of Queen died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.

1992

A China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 crashed in southern China, killing all 141 people on board.

2000

The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House, agreeing to consider George W. Bush’s appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida.

2017

Militants attacked a crowded mosque in Egypt with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest-ever attack by Islamic extremists in the country.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Today in History, November 24, 1991: Rock star Freddie Mercury of Queen died