Today in History: Monday, November 19, 2012
On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. (At right is the only known photograph of Lincoln, circled, at Gettysburg.)
1831 James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, was born in Orange, Ohio.
1917 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was born in Allahabad.
1919 The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles.
1942 Russian forces launched a winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front during World War II.
1959 Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel.
1969 Apollo 12 astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
1985 President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began a summit in Geneva.
1990 The pop duo Milli Vanilli was stripped of its Grammy Award after it was revealed that neither performer sang on the group's records.
1998 Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr laid out his evidence against President Bill Clinton during a daylong appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.
2001 President George W. Bush signed legislation to put airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll.
2001 Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the first baseball player to win four Most Valuable Player awards.
2006 The Wii, the Nintendo Co.'s game console, first went on sale.
2007 Amazon.com Inc. introduced the Kindle, an electronic book-reading device.