Today in History: Saturday, November 24, 2012

On Nov. 24, 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

1784 Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, was born in Orange County, Va.

1871 The National Rifle Association was incorporated.

1947 A group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the "Hollywood 10" was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry.

1950 The musical "Guys and Dolls" opened on Broadway.

1963 Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

1969 Apollo 12 returned to Earth after the second manned mission to the moon.

1971 Hijacker D.B. Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom. His fate remains unknown.

1987 The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles in the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.

1989 Czechoslovakia's hard-line party leadership resigned after more than a week of protests against its policies.

1991 Rock singer Freddie Mercury of Queen died at age 45 of pneumonia brought on by AIDS.

2010 A jury in Austin convicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, on charges he'd illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. (DeLay is appealing a three-year prison sentence.)