November 25th Major News Events

1947 New Zealand -- Gains Effective Legislative Independence

1947 : New Zealand ratifies the "Statute of Westminster 1931" which provides Effective Legislative Independence from Britain. Australia had ratified the act in 1942. The act allows the countries to be fully independent as self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth but only in the voluntary and symmetric sharing of the institution of the monarchy

1947 U.S.A. -- "Hollywood Ten and the Red Scare"

The Hollywood Ten consisting of Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo are cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to give testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities on the 24th November because of their alleged membership in or sympathy toward the American Communist Party. They are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios and can not work.

1950 U.S.A. -- Heavy Snowfall

Several feet of snow fell on a single day in many of the northeastern States today and combined with hurricane force winds in excess of 100 MPH caused millions of dollars in property damage and kills 160 people.

1952 England -- The Mousetrap

1952 : The Whodunit The Mousetrap written by Agatha Christie opens in London at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End. It will go on to be the longest running play in history with 20,000 performances in London's West End, It is still running today having moved to a St Martins Theatre in 1974 .

1960 Scotland -- Loch Ness Monster

1960 : Scottish Parliament met in order to protect the alleged existence of the Loch Ness Monster. It was reported that a group of young English men were planning on dropping homemade bombs into the water in order to send the Loch Ness creature to the surface. This would result in the capture of the beast for further study. J.R. Johnstone, the Chief constable of the County of Inverness supported scientific study of this mysterious creature. However he did not support bombing it in the process-if it did exist.

More about the Loch Ness monster

1963 Greece -- Military Coup

A military coup supported by the army, navy and air force has deposed the government led by President George Papadopoulos. The coup was a bloodless affair and is supported by most ordinary Greeks as Papadopoulos was generally hated by the general population due to the repression and brutality of his regime.

1973 U.S.A. -- Energy Crisis

1973 : House speaker Carl Albert criticized President Richard Nixon very harshly. Albert believed that Nixon was deceiving the American people and not telling them about the real cause and severity of the energy crisis. Moreover, Albert did not think that Nixon was advocated adequate enough energy conservation measures.

1980 U.S.A. -- Sugar Ray Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard regains welterweight championship when he defeats Roberto Duran in the eighth round .

1983 Luxembourg -- Soccer Hooliganism

British soccer fans continue their poor behavior which has made them the worst "fans" in soccer as they go on a rampage in Luxembourg after a European Championship match.

1983 Syria -- PLO

An agreement was made by members of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) to evacuate forces from Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. This announcement came from both Saudi Arabia and Syria. There was no immediate confirmation made by the PLO, however.

1985 Malta -- Egyptian Combat Unit Storms EgyptAir Flight 648

1985 : Terrorists belonging to the Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist Organization hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 shortly after takeoff from Athens on the 23rd. The pilot is forced to land the aircraft at Luqa Airport in Malta. After some negotiation some of the passengers were allowed off but as the terrorists became more desperate they began shooting passengers one every 15 minutes. As the situation deteriated an Egyptian Combat Unit is bought in and on the 25th they attack the aircraft with explosives and stormed the aircraft. The commando raid ended in disaster leaving 56 (out of the remaining 88) passengers, two crew members, and one terrorist dead.

1986 U.S.A. -- Iran-Contra affair

1986 : President Reagan tells the press that the national security adviser ( Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter ) and a member of the admiral's staff ( Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North ) had left their posts because he had not been fully informed of the details of the Iran-Contra affair and that $30 million intended to pay for American arms had been secretly diverted to rebel forces in Nicaragua. President Reagan has asked for a complete factual record with respect to the implementation of his policy toward Iran.

1987 Philippines -- Supertyphoon Nina

1987 : Supertyphoon Nina the strongest typhoon ( category 5 )to strike the Philippines in 20 years with wind gusts in excess of 200 mph and one of the worst storm surges ever to strike the Philippines. The storm surge submerged 14 fishing villages on the Philippine coast burying under water 35,000 homes and buildings, the death toll from that surge alone left over 500 dead with the total toll for the typhoon estimated at over 1,000.

1992 Czechoslovakia -- Country To Split

Because of growing nationalist tensions in the country over economic differences the Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into two countries the Czech Republic and Slovakia from January 1st, 1993.

1995 Germany -- Nato Troops

Ground troops stationed in Germany were preparing the way for their trip to Bosnia and surrounding locations. For instance, the 29th Area Support Group was in the process of setting up an intermediate supply base for combat troops. This support group was meant to be the main resource for the U.S. 1st Army Division and additional NATO units.

1998 Turkey -- Government Collapses

The government of Turkey collapses after losing a no confidence motion in the Turkish assembly over corruption allegations involving Turkish Mafia connections .

2000 Azerbaijan -- Baku earthquake

2000 : An earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale strikes Baku the capital of Azerbaijan, the number of deaths was below 30 but much of the city was without phone lines and electricity.

2001 Afghanistan -- Osama Bin Laden

It was reported that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in the Jalalabad (eastern Afghanistan) area. At least one source also revealed that Bin Laden had allegedly been traveling around by horseback during the night hours.

2002 U.S.A. -- Identity Theft

One of the largest identity theft operations run had managed by this date to steal from 30,000 people. Only three men were known to be in on this particular ring at this time. One of the suspects had allegedly sold passwords to stolen credit reports. These credit reports were obtained by an employee of an online credit report service.

2002 U.S.A. -- UNAids Report

The United Nation UNAids report has estimated 40 million people are now living with HIV/Aids with an estimated 3.1m Aids-related deaths last year.

Breakdown Of rough numbers of Aids/ HIV by area

Sub-Saharan Africa 29.4 million

South America 1.5 million

Eastern Europe 1.2 million

China 1.2 million

North America 1 million

Asia 3/4 million

North Africa and the Middle East 1/2 million

Western Europe 1/2 million

Australia 1/10 million

2005 Poland -- Warsaw Pact

2005 : Radek Sikorski the Polish Minister of National Defence makes its military archives for Warsaw Pact military plans from the 1980's in the case of war with the West publicly available through the Institute of National Remembrance. The plans consisted of a swift land offensive (using nuclear weapons if necessary) with the objective to secure Western Europe in 7 days.

2006 Bahrain -- Bahrain Elections

Bahrain held its parliamentary elections for the 40-seat lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, as well as for its municipal elections. There was a 72% turnout in the first round of polling. Shi'ite and Sunni Islamists dominated the poll and did well in the first round of voting. The women candidates of the 2006 election were reported to have received numerous threats from the other Islamic parties.

2008 United States -- Federal Reserve announces stimulus

The Federal Reserve is to inject another $800bn (£526.8bn) into the US economy in a further effort to stabilise the financial system. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says that the stimulus package is aimed at making more lending available to consumers. About $600bn will be used to buy up mortgage-backed securities, while $200bn is being targeted at unfreezing the consumer credit market.

2009 Venezuela -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Hugo Chavez

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in Venezuela on the third leg of South American tour to boost his countries ties to the area. He will be signing business and industrial accords with the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez, who has said he wants to develop nuclear energy, has backed Iran's right to a nuclear programme. The Iranian leader had arrived from Bolivia where he and President Evo Morales had already stressed the right of all nations to run a peaceful nuclear programme.

2009 World -- Wikileaks publishes 9/11 pager messages

2009 : The unfolding story of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is being given to the public with more than 500,000 intercepted pager messages (many from US officials) published online in the order in which they were sent. The messages will begin at 8am GMT, and continue for 24 hours until all of the messages are distrubuted. Wikileaks will be including pager messages that were sent on the day by officials in the Pentagon, the New York police and witnesses to the collapse of the twin towers.

2011 Mexico -- Twenty-Six Bodies Found in Cars in Guadalajara

Police discovered twenty-six bodies of men who had been killed by drug gangs in Guadalajara, Mexico. The killings were a sign of an escalation of violence between drug gangs in the city. The find came about a week after seventeen burned bodies were found in cars in Sinaloa.

2012 Saudi Arabia -- British Actress Dies

2012 : Dinah Sheridan, a British actress who had been in such movies as The Railway Children and Genevieve as well as many television shows, died at the age of ninety-two.

2013 Australia -- Australian Family Sets Christmas Lights Record

Guinness World Records stated that the Richards family in Canberra, Australia set the world record for having the most Christmas lights with over 500,000 lights around their home.