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• Today is Thursday, Nov. 21, the 325th day of 2013. There are 40 days left in the year.
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• Today's Highlight in History:
• On Nov. 21, 1973, President Richard Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt (buh-ZAHRDT'), revealed the existence of an 18-1/2-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.
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• On this date:
• In 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1861, Judah Benjamin, who had been acting Confederate Secretary of War, was formally named to the post.
• In 1920, the Irish Republican Army killed 12 British intelligence officers and two auxiliary policemen in the Dublin area; British forces responded by raiding a soccer match, killing 14 civilians.
• In 1922, Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.
• In 1931, the Universal horror film "Frankenstein," starring Boris Karloff as the monster and Colin Clive as his creator, was first released.
• In 1934, the Cole Porter musical "Anything Goes," starring Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney, opened on Broadway.
• In 1942, the Alaska Highway was formally opened.
• In 1969, the Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, 55-45, the first such rejection since 1930.
• In 1974, bombs exploded at a pair of pubs in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people. (Six suspects were convicted of the attack, but the convictions of the so-called "Birmingham Six" were overturned in 1991.)
• In 1980, 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.
• In 1991, the U.N. Security Council chose Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt to be Secretary-General.
• In 1995, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 5,000 mark for the first time, rising 40.46 points to end the day at 5,023.55.

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