Way back when: Today in history
BY GENE CURTIS
Friday, November 30, 2012
11/30/12 at 2:53 AM
1954 - Asteroid hits house
Elizabeth Hodges was treated for bruises and shock after a meteorite crashed through the roof of her house in Sylacauga, Ala., where she was lying on a sofa when she heard a loud explosion. She said the rock that weighed 8 1/2-pounds crashed through her roof a few seconds later. Mrs. Hodges said she ran outside where she saw some kind of boiling smoke about a mile above, a similar description as that provided by others in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
1994 - Achille Lauro sinks
The once luxurious Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, best known for its hijacking in 1985 by Palestinian terrorists, sank into the Indian Ocean two days after it caught fire off the coast of Somalia. The ship's 979 passengers and crew members were rescued by 10 vessels, including freighters and U.S. warships, after they boarded lifeboats and inflatable rafts. Two elderly passengers died as a result of the fire and an accident during the launching of the lifeboats. The Achille Lauro was once a gleaming blue-and-white luxury liner. But it was best known for the 1985 hijacking by Palestinian terrorists, who killed an elderly Jewish American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, and dumped his body overboard in his wheelchair.
1998 - Deutsche to buy Bankers
The Deutsche Bank AG announced that it would acquire Bankers Trust Corp. for $10.1 billion, creating the world's largest financial institution in terms of assets that would total more than $800 billion. A few days later, Deutsche announced that it also was buying the Belgian subsidiary of France's Credit Lyonnais for $590 million.
2010 - Gay ban repealed
President Barack Obama urged the Senate to repeal the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" law that banned openly gay men and women from serving in the military services. The Senate voted 65-31 on Dec. 18 to repeal the law, with eight Republicans siding with 55 Democrats and two independents in favor of repeal. Oklahoma Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, both Republicans, voted against the bill. "No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie," Obama said when he signed the bill on Dec. 22.
Associated Images:
The Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro burns in the Indian Ocean two days before it sank. AP file
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