Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople
1639 - Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus (November 24 in the Julian calendar, or 4 December in the Gregorian calendar)
1642 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen’s Land (later renamed Tasmania)
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain - Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg
1904 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare)
1922 - Popular author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver
1932 - In Washington, DC, the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens
1941 - World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French
1969 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon
1971 - During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a man calling himself Dan Cooper (commonly remembered as D. B. Cooper) parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked with US$200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again)
1976 - The Band gives its last public performance; Martin Scorsese is on hand to film it (see: The Last Waltz)
1998 - America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion

Births
1713 - Junipero Serra, founder of California missions (d. 1784)
1784 - Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States (d. 1850)
1787 - Franz Xaver Gruber, organist and composer (d. 1863)
1849 - Frances Hodgson Burnett, author (d. 1924)
1853 - Bat Masterson, gunslinger, policeman, sports reporter (d. 1921)
1859 - Cass Gilbert, architect, designer of U.S. Supreme Court Building (d. 1934)
1864 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter (d. 1901)
1868 - Scott Joplin, musician (d. 1917)
1925 - William F. Buckley Jr., writer, political commentator
1941 - Pete Best, drummer
1947 - Dwight Schultz, actor (The A-Team, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
1957 - Denise Crosby, actress (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Deaths
1541 - Margaret Tudor
1916 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor of Maxim Gun (b. 1840)
1922 - Robert Erskine Childers, author, Irish nationalist (executed)
1991 - Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen)