The Week in History for Nov. 27-Dec. 3

Nov. 27

1962: The first Boeing 727 was rolled out at the company's Renton Plant.

1973: The Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who'd resigned.

1978: San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.

2002: President George W. Bush appointed former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead an investigation into why the government had failed to foil the Sept. 11 attacks. (The following month, Kissinger stepped down, citing controversy over potential conflicts of interest with his business clients.)

2012: A 158-acre tract of farm land in Brown County was sold for a record $13,000 per acre.

Nov. 28

1905: Sinn Fein was founded in Dublin.

1942: Nearly 500 people died in a fire that destroyed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston.

1961: President John F. Kennedy dedicated the original permanent headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va.

1967: There was no jackrabbit hunting season in Brown County and 16 other South Dakota counties because the rabbit population had dwindled considerably in those areas.

2007: A day after an international Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., President George W. Bush told Israeli and Palestinian leaders he was personally committed to their mission of peace.

Nov. 29

1864: A Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.

1924: Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera ''Turandot.'' (It was finished by Franco Alfano.)

1972: The coin-operated video arcade game Pong, created by Atari, made its debut at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, Calif.

1981: Actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, Calif., at age 43.

2001: George Harrison, the ''quiet Beatle,'' died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.

Nov. 30

1835: Samuel Langhorne Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — was born in Florida, Mo.

1954: Ann Elizabeth Hodges of Oak Grove, Ala., was slightly injured when an 8-pound chunk of meteorite crashed through the roof of her house, hit a radio cabinet, and then hit her as she lay napping on a couch.

1982: The Michael Jackson album ''Thriller'' was released by Epic Records.

2011: Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia dismantled Occupy Wall Street encampments in both cities.

2018: President George Herbert Walker Bush died aged 94 years, 171 days, making him the longest-lived president in U.S. history.

Dec. 1

1862: President Abraham Lincoln sent his Second Annual Message to Congress, which was read aloud by the Secretary of the Senate. In it, Lincoln called for the abolition of slavery, saying that "in giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free,"

1969: The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.

1971: There were two new ski areas ready for use in South Dakota: Deer Mountain 3 miles southwest of Lead/Deadwood featured a 6,000-foot slope; Great Bear Ski Valley near Sioux Falls featured four ski lifts and six ski runs with 250-foot drops.

1971: Ingrid Reuer was the new Miss Presentation College. She was to represent the school in the upcoming Snow Queen contest.

2004: South Dakota native Tom Brokaw signed off for the last time as anchor of the "NBC Nightly News."

2014: A South Dakota legislative audit committee said former state official Richard Benda's actions were the sole cause of the investment-for-visa program scandal that has spawned state and federal investigations. The state Government Operations and Audit Committee's report blamed Benda alone for the controversy surrounding the EB-5 visa program, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in “misdirected” funds. South Dakota was one of the pioneers in EB-5 financing that recruits wealthy immigrant investors for projects in exchange for green cards.

Dec. 2

1927: Ford Motor Co. unveiled its Model A automobile that replaced its Model T.

1942: An artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.

1954: The Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., for conduct that ''tends to bring the Senate into disrepute.''

1970: The newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors. Its first director was William D. Ruckelshaus.

1996: U.S. Senate Democrats nominated South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle to be their leader for a second term. Sen. Tim Johnson was selected to serve on three Senate committees: banking, agriculture and natural resources.

Dec. 3

1947: The Tennessee Williams play ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' opened on Broadway.

1967: Surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who lived 18 days with the new heart.

1968: Clark Title hosted an open house to show off its new building at 104 S. Lincoln St. in Aberdeen.

1992: The first telephone text message was sent by British engineer Neil Papworth, who transmitted the greeting ''Merry Christmas'' from his work computer in Newbury, Berkshire, to Vodafone executive Richard Jarvis' mobile phone.

1996: Details Ltd., a women's clothing store at 319 S. Main St. in Aberdeen, began a complete liquidation sale.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: The Week in History for Nov. 27-Dec. 3