CNN Interactive - Almanac - November 18, 1998

The Republican Governors Association holds its 1998 annual conference in New Orleans
House Republicans are scheduled to meet in Washington to choose leadership for the 106th Congress, including a replacement for outgoing Speaker Newt Gingrich.

On Thursday, November 19, a preliminary hearing is rescheduled in Laramie, Wyoming, for Aaron James McKinney, charged in the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.
On Friday, November 20, the target launch of the Zarya Control Module, the first component of the International Space Station, is scheduled in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
On Saturday, November 21, The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival is scheduled to take place in Chicago.
On Sunday, November 22, ambassadors and representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority are scheduled to convene at a special symposium on the Mideast peace process. The U.S. State Department's Middle East coordinator is also scheduled to speak.
On Monday, November 23, the OPEC meeting convenes in Vienna, Austria.

NEWSLINK:		NOTABLE:
Take a virtual tour of over 30 museums here.		Author Margaret Atwood is 59. Baseball player Dante Bichette is 35. Actress Linda Evans is 56. Actress Andrea Marcovici is 50. Football player Warren Moon is 42. Actor Kevin Nealon is 45. Actress Elizabeth Perkins is 37. Actress Katey Sagal is 42. Sen. Ted Stevens is 75. Actress Brenda Vaccaro is 59.

In 1189, William II, the last Norman king of Sicily, died and was succeeded by Tancred the Bastard.
In 1477, William Caxton produced the first printed book in the English language, "The Dictes and Sayengis of the Phylosophers."
In 1860, the Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski was born. Noted for his interpretations of Schubert and Chopin, he became prime minister of Poland in 1919 and president in 1940.
In 1883, the United States adopted standard time.
In 1903, Panama and the United States signed a treaty on the proposed Panama Canal.
In 1905, Prince Charles of Denmark was elected first king of Norway after the restoration of its independence. He took the old Norse name of Haakon VII.
In 1918, the Belgian army reoccupied Brussels after four years of German occupation.
In 1935, economic sanctions imposed on Italy by the League of Nations for its invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) took effect.
In 1936, Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito Mussolini both recognized Gen. Francisco Franco's provisional government in Spain.
In 1945, the communist-led Fatherland Front won the Bulgarian general election after opposition parties abstained.
In 1978, the Rev. Jim Jones led 914 followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink. Cult members who refused to swallow the liquid were shot.
In 1991, British peace envoy Terry Waite and U.S. academic Thomas Sutherland were released by the Islamic Jihad after five years of captivity.
In 1993, black and white leaders in South Africa approved the new democracy constitution that gave blacks the vote and ended white minority rule.
In 1995, the Vatican said the Roman Catholic ban on the ordination of women as priests was a definitive, infallible and unquestionable part of the church's doctrine.