On This Day:
Sunday December 1, 2013 This is the 335th day of the year, with 30 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: Old Faithful Old Faithful is the most famous geyser in the world, but not the highest or most regular. Located in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Old Faithful reaches heights of 106 to 184 feet. Eruption intervals range from 65 to 92 minutes with 91 minutes being the average, and each eruption lasts from 90 seconds to 5 minutes. Old Faithful erupts 15 times per day and spews out between 3,700 and 8,400 gallons of hot water. It was named in 1879 by members of the Washburn Expedition for the regularity of its eruptions. The Steamboat Geyser is the tallest geyser in the world and is also located in Yellowstone National Park. It can reach a height of over 300 feet, but its eruptions are rare and unpredictable.
Holidays United Nations: World AIDS Day.
Feast day of St. Edmund Campion, St. Agericus or Airy, St. Eligius or Elroy, St. Alexander Briant, St. Anasanus, St. Tudwal, and St. Ralph Sherwin.
Central African Republic: anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic (1958).
Romania: National Day.
Portugal: Independence Day.
Events 1640 - Portugal regained its independence, driving out the Spaniards.
1824 - The presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a deadlock developed among John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. John Quincy Adams was declared the winner.
1842 - Midshipman Philip Spencer, son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer, was hanged for mutiny from the yardarm of the USS Somers, the first Navy officer executed for mutiny.
1880 - A telephone was first installed in the White House.
1891 - James Naismith, a physical education teacher at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, created the indoor sport of basketball.
1913 - In Pittsburgh, the first drive-in automobile service station opened for business. It was operated by the Gulf Refining Company.
1918 - Iceland became an independent state from Denmark, though still remained under the king of Denmark.
1919 - American-born Lady Nancy Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament. She became MP for the Sutton division of Plymouth.
1922 - Skywriting was introduced when a pilot flew over New York City and spelled out "hello."
1934 - Sergei M. Kirov, political rival of Josef Stalin, was assassinated in Leningrad, beginning Stalin's purge in which he eliminated his opponents in the Communist Party, the government, the armed forces, and the intelligentsia.
1939 - The movie "Gone With the Wind" premiered in New York City.
1942 - Gas rationing went into effect in the United States, as a result of World War II.
1953 - The first issue of "Playboy" magazine was published by Hugh Hefner; it featured Marilyn Monroe as the centerfold.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, defied the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus. Ms. Parks was arrested, setting off a yearlong boycott of the buses by blacks.
1957 - The New York City Ballet debuted "Agon," a collaboration of composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer George Balanchine.
1959 - Twelve countries, including the United States, signed a treaty setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.
1965 - An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland.
1969 - The United States held its first draft lottery since World War II.
1970 - Divorce became legal in Italy, in certain cases.
1978 - President Jimmy Carter put more than 56 million acres of Alaska into the national park system.
1989 - Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Rome, ending 70 years of hostility between the Vatican and the USSR.
1990 - The island of Britain was connected to the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age when a rail tunnel was completed between them.
1991 - Ukrainians voted for independence from the Soviet Union.
1994 - U.S. Congress passed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty.
1999 - An international team of scientists announced it had virtually mapped a human chromosome.
2000 - Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of ruling-party domination.
2004 - Tom Brokaw signed off "NBC Nightly News" for the last time as principal anchor.
Births 1761 - Marie Tussaud, Anglo-French modeler in wax.
1935 - Woody Allen (Allen Stewart Konigsberg), American film actor, writer, director.
1935 - Lou Rawls, American soul, jazz, and blues singer.
1940 - Richard Pryor, American comedian, actor, and writer.
Deaths 1987 - James Baldwin, American novelist and playwright.
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