Highlight in History

On Nov. 29, 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.

On this date

In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.

In 1910, British explorer Robert F. Scott’s ship Terra Nova set sail from New Zealand, carrying Scott’s expedition on its ultimately futile — as well as fatal — race to reach the South Pole first.

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

In 1929, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinney made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.

In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank.

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

In 1986, actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82.

In 1991, 17 people were killed in a 164-vehicle pileup during a dust storm on Interstate 5 near Coalinga, Calif. Actor Ralph Bellamy died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 87.

Ten years ago

George Harrison, the “quiet Beatle,” died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58. “A Separate Peace” author John Knowles died in Florida at age 75. The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution extending the world body’s humanitarian program in Iraq and setting the stage for an overhaul of U.N. sanctions against Baghdad the following year.

Five years ago

The first of two high-profile meetings in Jordan between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was abruptly postponed amid conflicting explanations. (Bush met al-Maliki the next day.) Still losing money after job and factory cuts, Ford Motor Co. said 38,000 workers, almost half of its hourly production force, had accepted buyouts or early retirement offers.

One year ago

An Afghan border policeman killed six American servicemen during a training mission in a remote area near the Pakistani border. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , admitted for the first time that a computer worm had affected centrifuges in Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Climate negotiators began a two-week conference in Cancun. Former New York congressman Stephen J. Solarz, 70, died in Washington, D.C.