November 28 ...

In 1520 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name. In 1919 American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament. In 1925 the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville's famed home of country music, made its radio debut on station WSM. In 1942 nearly 500 people died in a fire that destroyed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston. In 1943 President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II. In 1958 the African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community. In 1964 the United States launched the space probe Mariner IV on a course to Mars. In 1975 President Ford nominated Federal Judge John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by William O. Douglas. In 1979 an Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard. In 1985 the Irish Senate approved the Anglo-Irish accord concerning Northern Ireland. In 1990 Margaret Thatcher formally resigned as prime minister of Britain during an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, who conferred the premiership on John Major.