Today in History: USS Enterprise commissioned

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2025. There are 36 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 25, 1961, the USS Enterprise was commissioned; it was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and remains the longest naval vessel ever built, at 1,123 feet.

Also on this date:

In 1783, following the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the last remaining British troops in the United States were evacuated from New York City.

In 1963, the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral procession through Washington, D.C. An estimated 1 million people lined the somber procession route.

In 1986, 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.

In 1999, Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by two sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle that eventually saw him repatriated to his father in Cuba.

In 2001, as the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif that erupted while he was interviewing detainees, becoming the first American combat casualty of the conflict.

In 2016, Fidel Castro, who led his rebels to a victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half-century of authoritarian rule in Cuba, died at age 90.