November 25th

Football player Michael Vick pleaded guilty to a Virginia dogfighting charge and received a three-year suspended sentence.

Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire to end a five-month Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the firing of rockets by Palestinian militants into the Jewish state.

The Senate gave final congressional approval to Medicare legislation combining a new prescription drug benefit with measures to control costs before the baby boom generation reaches retirement age.

President George W. Bush signed into law the Department of Homeland Security and named Tom Ridge as head.

Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida.

Jiang Zemin became the first Chinese head of state to visit Japan since World War II.

Chicago Mayor Harold Washington died after suffering a heart attack in his City Hall office.

The Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

World's greatest robbery. 26 million pounds (sterling) worth of gold, diamonds and cash stolen from Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport, England

Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

Assassination of the Mirabal Sisters. The 3 Dominican sisters, Patria, Minerva, Antonia Mirabal, were activists that were opposed to the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. On this day, they were brutally killed and their deaths staged to look like accidents. In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly declared November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap opens at London’s West End. The longest running show in history, the play began as a radio play called Three Blind Mice. It is based on the death of Dennis O'Neill, who died while in foster care.

“Storm of the century” hits eastern US. Also known as the Appalachian Storm, the storm reached blizzard conditions and dumped nearly 60 inches of snow in the Appalachian area. It brought unseasonal temperatures to the region and caused widespread damage to property. About 150 people were thought to have been killed as a result of it.

Movie studio executives agreed to blacklist the Hollywood 10, who were jailed a day earlier for contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Nazi Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. The treaty was directed towards the Soviet Union and stipulated that in case of Soviet aggression towards either country, the other would consider it as an act of aggression towards it as well. The pact was later signed by other countries including Italy, Romania, Spain, and Turkey.

Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio was born in Martinez, Calif.

Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.

The slaves who seized the Amistad in 1839 were freed by the Supreme Court. They had been defended by former president John Quincy Adams.

Cyclone slams south eastern India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying city of Coringa. Storm waves sweep inland, destroying 20,000 ships and killing an estimated 300,000 people.

The British evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States, during the Revolutionary War.

The British captured Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) in the French and Indian Wars.

Battle of Montgisard: Baldwin IV of Jerusalem defeats Saladin and a larger Ayyubid force.