HISTORY TODAY: November 29, 2017

1972

Atari announces the release of Pong,
the first commercially successful video game.

1760		Major Roger Rogers takes possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain.
1787		Louis XVI promulgates an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
1812		The last elements of Napoleon Bonaparte‘s Grand Armee retreat across the Berezina River in Russia.
1863		The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ends with a Confederate withdrawal.
1864		Colonel John M. Chivington’s 3rd Colorado Volunteers massacre Black Kettles’ camp of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek, Colo.
1903		An Inquiry into the U.S. Postal Service demonstrates the government has lost millions in fraud.
1923		An international commission headed by American banker Charles Dawes is set up to investigate the German economy.
1929		Commander Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the South Pole.
1931		The Spanish government seizes large estates for land redistribution.
1939		Soviet planes bomb an airfield at Helsinki, Finland.
1948		The Metropolitan Opera is televised for the first time as the season opens with “Othello.”
1948		The popular children’s television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premieres.
1949		The United States announces it will conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
1961		NASA launches a chimpanzee named Enos into Earth orbit.
1962		Algeria bans the Communist Party.
1963		President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Chief Justice Earl Warren head of a commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1967		US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
1972		Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
2007		Armed forces of the Philippines besiege The Peninsula Manila in response to a mutiny led by Senator Antonio Trillanes.
Born on November 29
1803		Christian Doppler, best known for his explanation of perceived frequency variation of sound and light waves, known as the Doppler effect.
1832		Louisa May Alcott, novelist (Little Women).
1895		Busby Berkeley, director (42nd Street).
1898		C.S. Lewis, Christian writer.
1900		Mildred Elizabeth Sisk, aka Axis Sally, Nazi propagandist.
1908		Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and Civil Rights leader.
1911		Konrad Fuchs, German atomic physicist.
1918		Madeleine L’Engle, writer (A Wrinkle in Time).
1919		Joe Weider, Canadian-American bodybuilder and magazine publisher; co-founded the International Federation of Body Building & Fitness and Muscle & Fitness magazine.
1921		Dagmar (Virginia Ruth Egnor) actress, model, television personality (Dagmar’s Canteen, Broadway Open House).
1932		Jacques Chirac, politician; President of France (1995–2007).
1933		John Mayall, singer, songwriter, musician; founder of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers band.
1940		Chuck Mangione, jazz musician, composer (“Feels So Good”).
1942		Ann Dunham, mother of Barack Obama, 44th President of the US; she was an  anthropologist specializing in economic anthropology and rural development.
1955		Howard “Howie” Mandel, Canadian comedian, actor (St. Elsewhere), TV host (Deal or No Deal game show), voice actor (Bobby’s World); judge on America’s Got Talent TV show.
1957		Janet Napolitano, politician, lawyer; first woman to serve as US Secretary of Homeland Security (2009-2013).
1973		Sarah Jones, Tony and Obie award-winning playwright, actress, poet (Bridge & Tunnel).