Today is Sunday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2009. There are 32 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On Nov. 29, 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.

On this date

In 1530, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, one-time adviser to England’s King Henry VIII, died.

In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.

In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera “Turandot.” (It was finished by Franco Alfano.)

In 1929, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinney made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.

In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank.

In 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, Calif., at age 43.

In 1986, actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82.

In 1989, in response to a growing pro-democracy movement in Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run Parliament ended the party’s 40-year monopoly on power.

In 2001, George Harrison, the “quiet Beatle,” died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.

Ten years ago

Protestant and Catholic adversaries formed an extraordinary Northern Ireland government designed to bring together every branch of opinion within the bitterly divided society. Game-show host Gene Rayburn died in Gloucester, Mass., at age 81.

Five years ago

President George W. Bush picked Carlos Gutierrez, the chief executive officer of cereal giant Kellogg Co., to be commerce secretary. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a gay-marriage law in Massachusetts. An Army helicopter crashed near Waco, Texas, killing seven soldiers. John Drew Barrymore, the sometimes troubled heir to an acting dynasty and absent father of actress Drew Barrymore, died in Los Angeles at age 72.

One year ago

Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel, ending a 60-hour rampage through India’s financial capital by suspected Pakistani-based militants that killed 166 people. Architect Joern Utzon, who designed the iconic Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, died at age 90.

Today’s Birthdays

Hall of Fame sportscaster Vin Scully is 82. Former French President Jacques Chirac is 77. Blues singer-musician John Mayall is 76. Actress Diane Ladd is 74. Composer-musician Chuck Mangione is 69. Country singer Jody Miller is 68. Pop singer-musician Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals) is 67. Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee is 63. Comedian Garry Shandling is 60. Actor Jeff Fahey is 57. Movie director Joel Coen is 55. Actor-comedian-game-show- host Howie Mandel is 54. Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano is 52. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is 50. Actress Cathy Moriarty is 49. Actress Kim Delaney is 48. Actor Tom Sizemore is 48. Actor Andrew McCarthy is 47. Actor Don Cheadle is 45. Actor-producer Neill Barry is 44. Musician Wallis Buchanan is 44. Pop singer Jonathan Knight (New Kids on the Block) is 41. Rock musician Martin Carr (Boo Radleys) is 41. Actress Jennifer Elise Cox is 40. Actor Larry Joe Campbell is 39. Rock musician Frank Delgado (Deftones) is 39. Actress Gena Lee Nolin is 38. Actor Brian Baumgartner is 37. Actress Anna Faris is 33. Actor Julian Ovenden is 33. Rapper The Game is 30. Rock musician Ringo Garza is 28. Actor Lucas Black is 27.

Thought for Today

“The tragedy of love is in- difference.”

— W. Somerset Maugham,

English author-dramatist (1874-1965)