Unix Timestamp: 1101254400
Wednesday, November 24. 2004, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Ireland unveils a 15 billion euro austerity package to secure a bailout from the financial crisis. //news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/ireland-unveils-15blneuro-austerity-plan-to-secure-bailout-20101124-187l9.html ("Sydney Morning Herald")

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares a state of emergency in the entire Maguindanao province in southern Philippines following the bloodiest election-related massacre in Philippine history which left at least 40 people dead, including a local politician and about a dozen journalists. //www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/24/09/maguindanao-massacre-toll-rises-39 (ABS-CBN News)

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's annual summit ends in Lima, Peru, amid an ongoing economic crisis with a declaration of commitment with free markets and an openness of the economy, refrainment from raising trade barriers in goods and services over the next 12 months, the regulation and supervision of financial systems, and the ensuring of corporate social responsibility.

Bangladesh's Electoral Commission reschedules the date for the general election from December 18 to December 29. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7745188.stm (BBC News)

The 2008 Santa Catarina floods in Santa Catarina, Brazil, kill 126 and force the evacuation of over 78,000 people.

Greenland holds a referendum for increased autonomy from Denmark. The vote is over 75% in favour.

A car bomb in St. Petersburg, Russia, kills three people and injures one.

Flooding in the Southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina causes at least 45 deaths and forces the evacuation of 20,000 people. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7745133.stm (BBC News)

Political crisis in Thailand: Protesters from the People\'s Alliance for Democracy party storm into Suvarnabhumi Airport and block flights from taking off. More protesters seize control of Don Mueang Airport the following day.

2007 UK child benefit data scandal: HM Revenue and Customs confirms that a further six data discs have gone missing in transit between its offices in Preston and London. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7111056.stm (BBC)

A fire in a student hostel at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba University kills 32 and injures about 150 people, all foreign students. The fire services blame an electrical fault. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3232090.stm

HIV-positive muppet Kami is appointed UN mascot for juvenile AIDS victims. //story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storycid=553ncid=751e=9u=/ap/20031124/ap_wo_en_he/un_gen_un_aids_puppet

Australian schoolboy Daniel Morcombe disappears from a bus stop on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the country's highest profile mysteries.

Boeingchairman and CEOPhil Condit resigns unexpectedly. He is replaced by Lewis Platt as non-executive chairman and Harry Stonecipher as president and CEO.

The High Court in Glasgow imposes a minimum sentence of 27 years for Al Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Pro-democracy groups gain in the Hong Kong District Council elections, as the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong loses 21 of its previous 83 elected seats. DAB chairman Tsang Yok-sing offers to resign. //www.nytimes.com/2003/11/24/international/asia/24HONG.html?ex=1070254800en=e51df8e3b9b09716ei=5062partner=GOOGLE

Parliamentary elections are held in Russia.

A suicide bombing on a commuter train in southern Russia kills 44 people. President Vladimir Putin condemns the attack as a bid to destabilize the country 2 days before parliamentary elections.

The use of hand-held cell phones while driving is made illegal in the United Kingdom.

The High Court in Glasgow rules that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted in 1999 of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, must serve a minimum of 27 years before being considered for parole. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3233156.stm

The eighteenth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting opens in Abuja, Nigeria.

Radical Muslim cleric Sheik Nasser al-Fahd denounces suicide bombings, declaring on Saudi TV that blowing oneself up in such operations is not martyrdom it is suicide. Some consider this a response to pressure from the Saudi government to recant previous statements.//www.washtimes.com/world/20031123-111636-4783r.htm

A former ANC intelligence operative appears in a South African Court on Monday in connection with an alleged plot to oust or kill President Thabo Mbeki. //allafrica.com/stories/200311250399.html//www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24016

Following a week of demonstrations demanding free elections and other reforms, General Secretary Miloš Jakeš and other leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia resign. Jakeš is replaced by Karel Urbánek.

The popular American cult television comedy Mystery Science Theater 3000 makes its debut on KTMA.

Lynda Mann, 15, is found raped and strangled in the village of Narborough, England (Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988).

At least 3,840 are killed in a Richter scale magnitude 7.3 earthquake of Van and Muradiye in Turkey.

A skeleton from the hominid species Australopithecus afarensis is discovered and named Lucy.

Apollo program: The "Apollo 12" spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.

4 men hijackPan Am Flight 281 from JFK International Airport, New York to Havana, Cuba.

The Beatles begin recording sessions for their landmark Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board.

Congoleselieutenant generalMobutu ousts Joseph Kasavubu and declares himself president.

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz takes office as President of Mexico.

Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 space probe from Cape Kennedy toward Mars to take television pictures of that planet in July 1965.

28 November - France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker in Algeria

Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam (after some debate, they agree on a 2-phase bombing plan).

Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Stanleyville, but a number of hostages die in the fighting, among them Evangelical Covenant Church missionary Dr. Paul Carlson.

Vietnam War: United States National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor, agree to recommend a plan for a 2-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam, to President Lyndon B. Johnson.

World Food Program (WFP) formed as a temporary UN program.

The professional basketball player Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia 76ers gets 55 rebounds in an NBA game versus the Boston Celtics.

The Broadway play "Gigi" opens, starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn as the lead character.

A phenomenal winter storm ravages the northeastern United States, brings 30 to 50 inches of snow, temperatures below zero, and kills 323 people.

The ski resort in Squaw Valley, California officially opens.

In Venezuela, president Rómulo Gallegos is ousted by a military junta.

Red Scare: The U.S. House of Representatives votes 346 – 17 to approve citations of Contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10, after the ten men refuse to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of communist influences in the movie business. (The ten men are blacklisted by the Hollywoodmovie studios on the following day.)

The silent film "Hussar of the Dead" is released in Santiago de Chile.

Popular author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 9 members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history until the September 11 attacks in 2001.

William J. Simmons revives the Civil War era Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Benito Mussolini is expelled from the Italian Socialist Party.

The first successful caterpillar track is made (it later revolutionizes construction vehicles and land warfare).

American Civil War ndash Battle of Lookout Mountain: Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.

The French Navy's "La Gloire" (Glory), the first ocean-going ironclad warship in history, is launched.

British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes "The Origin of Species", a book which argues that species gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sells out its initial print run).

The last major Prussian field force, under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, surrenders to the French near Lübeck. Frederick William III has by this time fled to Russia.

In Spain, the "Cedula of Population" is signed, stating that anyone who will swear fealty to Spain and is of the Roman Catholic faith is welcome to populate Trinidad and Tobago.

Little Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, damaged in an earthquake.

Joseph Haydn writes his Symphony No. 13.

Bayes' theorem is first announced.

The seat of colonial administration in the Viceroyalty of Brazil is moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.

December 2 ndash The Great Storm of 1703, an Atlantic hurricane, ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing nearly 8,000, mostly at sea.

The rebellion of Cossacks in the Ukraine is crushed.

Phosphorus is discovered by Hennig Brand.

First French settlers arrive in modern-day Senegal.

Blaise Pascal's "Pensées" is posthumously published.

The rebellion of Stenka Razin begins.

Louis XIV of France authorises work to commence on the construction of "Les Invalides".

Henry Morgan captures Panama.

Niani, capital of the Mali Empire, is sacked by the Bambara of the emerging Segou Empire.

England gains formal possession of Jamaica.

English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell bans Anglicans.

Battle of Tuttlingen: France is defeated by forces of the Holy Roman Empire.

Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).

Sakoku (closed country policy) starts in Japan (approximate date).

Fort St George, the first settlement of British India, is founded at Madras. Roberts, J: History of the World.. Penguin, 1994.

The Barbados House of Assembly meets for the first time.

The first printing press in North America is started in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Casiquiare canal, a river forming a natural canal between the Amazon River and Orinoco River basins, is first encountered by Europeans.

Treaty of Zuhab between Ottoman (Turkish) Empire and Safavid Persia. Modern Turkey-Iran and Iraq-Iran border lines.

RussianCossacks advance over the Urals to the Pacific, to Okhotsk.

Jules Mazarin enters the service of Richelieu.

Montreal is first settled.

Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.

Battle of Solway Moss: An English army invades Scotland and defeats a Scottish army.

A series of seven customs offices and barriers are installed along the Grand Canal of China, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty ruler Emperor Yongle.

Joan besieged La Charité.

Fire destroys Turku.

Transit of Venus ndash the last not to be part of a pair. Possibly observed by Aztec astronomers.

Isabella of Jerusalem marries Conrad of Montferrat at Acre, making him "de jure" king.

In Myanmar, Anawrahta's lineage regains control with the assistance of Sri Lanka. Pagan has been in anarchy. The new regime reforms Burmese Buddhism on Sri Lankan Theravada models.

Anti-Jewish riots break out in England.

The feudal era of Japan begins.

A monastic settlement is founded in Hshire, England, which later becomes Winchester Cathedral.

Pope Theodore I succeeds Pope John IV as the 73rd pope.

The Rock of Cashel is built in Ireland.

The Council of Saragossa is held Spanish and Aquitanian bishops condemn the teachings of Priscillianism.

The Visigothic chieftain Fritigern dies after ravaging the Balkans his rival Athanaric becomes king of the entire Gothic nation.

The annexation of western provinces by Chandragupta II give him control over commerce with Europe and Egypt.

A cathedral is built in Trier (Germany).

Invasion of the Vandals: Gratian is forced to cede Upper Pannonia to them.

Theodosius I makes his "adventus", or formal entry, into Constantinople.

Tyconius writes a commentary on the Bible's Book of Revelation.

Queen Mavia defeat with her Saracen forces the Roman army in southern Syria.

Important works on mathematics and astronomy are written in Sanskrit.

Ambrose introduces popular music into church services.

Easter Island, in the south Pacific Ocean, has been occupied by Neolithicseafarers under Hotu Matua (supreme chief) who about this time begin the fortify the island.