November 23rd, 2008

Today in History

1996:
The Republic of Angola officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Angola.

1991:
Queen frontman Freddie Mercury publicly announces that he has AIDS. Freddie dies peacefully the next day.

1984:
Boston College Quarterback Doug Flutie throws a game-winning 48-yard Hail Mary pass to Gerard Phelan to defeat the University of Miami Hurricanes 45-41. It is one of the most famous plays in American college football history.

1943:
The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

1869:
In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched -- one of the last clippers ever to be built, and the only one still surviving to this day.