November 29, 1981 (Sunday)
- Shortly after noon, a car bomb exploded outside of a school in the Azbakiyah section of Damascus killed more than 200 people, many of them children. The blast tore away the fronts of nearby buildings. The death toll, initially measured at 64, rose as additional bodies were unearthed from the rubble. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood claimed responsibility for the attack.
- In the Honduras, voting took place for the first time in 17 years for a civilian President, in the first election in a decade. Dr. Roberto Suazo Cordova was the winner, defeating Ricardo Zuniga Agustinis.
- Born: Tom Hurndall, British photographer and murder victim, in London (killed 2004)
- Died: American film actress Natalie Wood, 43, drowned in the ocean near Santa Catalina Island in California after slipping from a dinghy.
- Died: T.H. Marshall, 88, British sociologist; and Dudley Glass, Australian composer, 82, after being hit by a bus in Lambeth, London.
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Famous quotes containing the word november:
“During my administration the most unpleasant and perhaps most dramatic negotiations in which we participated were with the various leaders of Iran after the seizure of American hostages in November 1979. The Algerians were finally chosen as the only intermediaries who were considered trustworthy both by me and the Ayatollah Khomeini. After many aborted efforts, final success was achieved during my last few hours in the White House.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)